Subject:
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Re: OS Stability concerns (from/was RE: Vision Command)
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.robotics
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Date:
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Tue, 13 May 2003 03:32:48 GMT
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Viewed:
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873 times
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In lugnet.robotics, Maggie Cambron writes:
> Erm, this "deleting" files instead of "uninstalling" them... suppose a person
> were to do this... is there an easy way to undo the, uh, deletion? Of course,
> I'm asking this hypothetically! :-)
It usually depends on the software. The problem is that when you
delete the files the computer doesn't realize that the software isn't still
installed. Some software will not allow you to reinstall unless the
previous copy has been completely uninstalled (and my boss even found a
naval warfare game that has an uninstall bug where it leaves a key trace of
itself in the registry, thus preventing you from ever reinstalling the
software once you've removed it). The only good quicky solution is to
restore the files from your trashcan, but that only works if you haven't
emptied the trash since you deleted the files. Another possible quicky
solution is to try uninstalling anyways (Start: Settings: Control Panel:
Add/Remove Programs: pick the title in question and remove it). Sometimes
it works, other times your computer will complain that it can't find stuff
and will abort the uninstall process. If this is the case, and you can't
reinstall the software, the only solution that I know of is to find out what
registry keys apply to that software and remove them, but this is [giant
flashing neon letters]_VERY_DANGEROUS_[/giant flashing neon letters] if you
don't know what you're doing. You could conceivably screw up your computer
to the point where you have to flush everything and reinstall your OS from
scratch, losing everything that was stored on the same hard-drive. And if
you mess your computer up by hacking the registry, don't expect anyone to
honor any relevent warrantees on your computer. On the plus side, if you do
manage to remove all of the relevent registry keys, your computer no longer
thinks the software is installed, and if you really want to remove all
traces of it, you can then reinstall it, and then uninstall it.
And all of that's from mostly-practical experience. My laptop once
crashed while installing some USB networking drivers, and the result was
that I couldn't install it until it was fully uninstalled, and I couldn't
uninstall what wasn't there to begin with.
Another problem that you might have is that some files might be shared
with other software, and the uninstall feature is supposed to make note of
whether those files are still needed or not, so simply deleting them might
cause other related programs to malfunction.
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Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: OS Stability concerns (from/was RE: Vision Command)
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| (...) That's funny. The registry is just bits on the drive. I'd suggest regedit32 and simply delete the appropriate data in the relevant hives. If that doesn't work then go for a sector editor. Venimus, Vidimus, Delevimus. -- ___...___ We are all (...) (21 years ago, 13-May-03, to lugnet.robotics)
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