Number 195 - August 1999

Uninstalling Software Can Be a Serious Problem
by Lou Dolinar, NEWSDAY in June 3 TNT
Every now and again, I run into some geek wannabe who likes to boast of his software collection: Microsoft Word and Wordperfect, a couple of CAD programs, pirated games galore and 2,000 different utilities for everything from repacking his hard drive to interfacing his PC with a cigarette lighter.    If he's got all that stuff installed, his computer probably runs about as fast as my 20-year-old Osborne I and actually works for only about 15 minutes a week. The rest of the time, he's going to be troubleshooting the conflicts that all those programs set up within Windows.     Installing a new program can render one or more other programs inoperative. It can mess up Windows itself. And if you're sloppy about how you finally get rid of the program, it can leave its litter all over your disk.     This is all by way of introduction to the Add/Remove Programs item from the Control Panel.     When you install a program, you aren't just copying it. You're actually reconstituting a series of files from an individual "zip" file, sort of like making tomato soup from a packet of freeze-dried tomato powder and water. This, in turn, creates an installer program that copies these files to your hard disk. The installer proceeds merrily along and creates directories and subdirectories for the files, as well as a shortcut on your desktop and in the Start menu.     The installer also modifies a gigantic file known as "the Registry," which tells Windows where to look for and how to use all these pieces; throws a few more entries into system files like win.ini; and, probably, scatters in common directories a slew of stand-alone pieces of code shared by more than one program, which are called "DLLs."	If you tried to duplicate the procedure by hand, you probably couldn't. Nor can you possibly know or track what's been changed.     To solve all this, Windows has created a scheme that, much like a tape recorder, plays the details of a script for installing all this stuff. In theory, when you uninstall software, you play the tape backward and all the stuff is removed.     As a practical matter, the official Windows solution has never worked very well. Some vendors lived with the situation (actually, they decided you would live with the situation), while others opted to create custom solutions. You may start these up from the Control Panel, or they may want you to run them directly by double-clicking on an icon.     Just as many vendors aren't thrilled with Windows' installation scheme, neither do they use Windows' uninstall facilities. Rather, their custom installation programs in turn create custom uninstaller programs, usually hung off the header in the Start menu for that particular program. Instead of using the Add/Remove Programs item, you run these uninstallers directly.     There also are many moderately priced uninstaller programs. These work pretty well when you install one before you install a piece of software that you may want to eventually uninstall.     That's because they take a snapshot of your existing setup, then watch all future installations and record everything that happens, allowing them to reverse the procedure. They tend to work poorly when they haven't watched the program being installed.     Personally, I don't use this kind of software. I try to install as little software as possible on my production machine, and I uninstall anything I don't use regularly, including Windows components.
Number 195 - August 1999