It is a bad idea to remove program files in that way. It won't change what is in the registrhy but, in the current example, what if there is a registry entry that makes the screen-reader think there are voices available that aren't. You might move to a SAPI 5 voice in a list showing voices that no longer exist and the screen-reader might freeze. At times, you might remove files and, on startup, you might get an error message about one thing or another not being found. There are times when its better just to leave things alone.

Gene
-----Original Message----- From: Steve Matzura
Sent: Friday, July 24, 2020 12:22 PM
To: main@TechTalk.groups.io
Subject: Re: [TechTalk] need help uninstalling a program

Since folder and Registry entries don't know or care that each other
exist, removing the folders will just clear up space on your system disk
and probably remove some shortcuts. If you have any shortcuts remaining
on the Windows Desktop or Start menu, they of course will fail when
executed, so they, too, should be removed, if for no other reason than
to keep you from tripping over them on your way to other things.


If the removed program had file asociations, they will still be in
effect, so if you were to press ENTER (double-click) on one, Windows
will attempt to launch the program asociated with that filetype,
resulting in the obvious error that the program can't be found any more.


The above tasks are what uninstallers do--clean all this up for
you--files, shortcuts (which are also files), Registry entries, the
works. The good thing is, because processors and memory are fast and
cheap, big fat Registries with lots of things in them that one doesn't
need are no real hindrance to system performance. True, they take up
space in memory and take longer to load from disk when the system boots,
but we're talking about a few kilobytes here and there, and a handful of
milliseconds in startup time--totally negligible amounts of time and
space in the grand scheem of things. So, while it's mesy to jut delete
directories, it'll surely get that program off your computer.


On 7/24/2020 1:02 PM, Troy Burnham wrote:

Hi Gene,

I was thinking the same thing, it's not causing any problems so I figured if the advice I was given didn't seem like a good idea I'd just give up. Somebody not on the list even told me to just delete everything associated with the program by removing the folders but I was afraid that that might mess up the registry so I didn't do it.

Troy



On 7/23/2020 10:37 PM, Gene wrote:

There may be, but is the program causing any problem or does it just sit there and do nothing? Sometimes, its better to just leave things alone. We don't know if this program is well designed or if it uninstalls properly in general. Sometimes, a poorly designed program takes something with it when you uninstall it that you need.

Gene
-----Original Message----- From: Troy Burnham
Sent: Thursday, July 23, 2020 7:37 PM
To: main@TechTalk.groups.io
Subject: [TechTalk] need help uninstalling a program

Hi all,

I have a program that I want to uninstall from my computer, it's the
multiextra program I was asking about recently, but when I try to
install it I get this error message:
Windows cannot find 'c:\ProgramData\MultiExtra\unins000.exe'. Make sure
you typed the name correctly and then try again. It then gives me an
okay button but when I hit that the dialogue closes. Is there a
different way to uninstall this?

Thanks.

Troy