Standard procedure for uninstalling a program on Windows 7
The standard procedure for uninstall a program on Windows 7 it is of a disarming simplicity. All you have to do is click on the button Home (the flag icon located in the lower left corner of the screen) and select the item Control Panel give the menu to compare your schermo.
In the window that opens, click on the entry Uninstall a program located under the icon Programs (in the lower left corner) or, if icon view is enabled in the control panel, on the item Programs and features.
At this point, you should find yourself in front of the list of programs installed on your PC. You can choose to prepare the list in question based on various parameters, such as the installation date of the programs, their size (i.e. the space occupied on the disk) or the name of the company that produces them: to do this, click on arrow located at the top right next to the list icon and select the item Details from the menu that opens, then click on one of the columns in the list to arrange the software in order of Your name, Author, installation date (Installed on), Sizes o Version.
Once you have identified the program to uninstall, select it and click on the button Uninstall o Uninstall / Change which is at the top, then answer Yes at the Windows warning and proceed by following the instructions you see on the screen.
Unfortunately I can't be too specific in this step as each program has a different uninstall procedure. Generally, just always click on NEXT (o Next) and then on end (o Finish), but in some cases, such as antivirus, it is necessary to first respond to some warnings to confirm your intention to remove the product.
Official uninstall utilities
Some software that is deeply rooted in the operating system, such as antivirus, can be uninstalled via official removal tools that allow you to bypass any problems encountered during the standard uninstallation procedure from the control panel.
To find the removal tool dedicated to the program that you cannot remove via the control panel (or that, in any case, you are afraid it may leave unwanted traces on your PC after the standard uninstallation is complete), go to Google and search [program name] uninstall utility or [program name] removal tool. If the program you are looking for offers an official removal utility, you will surely find it in one of the first search results.
My command: download the removal tools only from the official websites and forums of the software to which they refer. On third-party sites, you may easily come across malicious software that is passed off as antivirus uninstallers or other popular programs.
Once you have downloaded a removal tool (whose weight, generally, is a few MB or even a few KB), all you have to do is start it and follow the instructions on the screen: generally it is a question of clicking on Yes and then NEXT and / or Remove.
If you are looking for more precise information on how to use the removal tools of the most popular antivirus currently in circulation, check out my tutorials on how to uninstall Norton, how to uninstall Avast, how to uninstall AVG, how to uninstall Avira and how to uninstall Kaspersky.
Advanced uninstallation of a program on Windows 7
Does a program you fear may leave numerous unwanted traces on your computer after its uninstallation has an official removal utility? The standard procedure for uninstalling a program fails and you don't know where to turn your head? Try to rely on Revo Uninstaller.
Revo Uninstaller is a free program (in its basic version), also available in portable edition (therefore it does not require installations to work), thanks to which it is possible uninstall the software from the PC in an advanced way, going to find all the "orphaned" files that they leave on the disk and the traces that remain after their uninstallation in the Windows registry.
To download the portable version of Revo Uninstaller, connect to the official website of the program and click on the button Free Portable located at the bottom of the table in the center of the page. Then open thezip archive that contains the program, extract the contents into any folder and run the executable RevoUPort.exe.
In the window that opens, click on the buttons Yes e OK, then go to the menu Options (by pressing the appropriate button at the top left) and translate the program interface into cittàn by selecting thecittàn from the drop-down menu for choosing the language and pressing the button OK.
At this point, all you have to do is select the application to uninstall and press the button Uninstall which is located at the top left, in order to start the creation of a restore point first and then the standard removal procedure of the latter (the one that would also start from the control panel).
Once the standard uninstallation procedure of the selected program has been completed (always clicking on Forward / Next or, in any case, following the instructions on the screen), put the check mark next to the item moderate and click on the button Scan, in order to scan the system to find the traces left by the program without risking to compromise the stability of the system with too "aggressive" analyzes.
Once the scan is complete, select the residual files found by Revo Uninstaller and click the buttons Delete e Yes to delete them. Then repeat the same procedure for the registry keys.
If you can't find the program you want to uninstall on the main Revo Uninstaller screen, click on the icon Viewfinder mode (top left), open the program to remove and move the Revo Uninstaller viewfinder to the window of the latter.
Please note: if, after removing a software with Revo Uninstaller, you notice the appearance of strange error messages or signs of system instability, restore Windows using the restore points, as I am about to explain.
Restore points
Would you like to uninstall a program (or a driver) that has led to Windows stability problems but, using the standard control panel procedure, you can't reach your goal? Don't panic: maybe you might be able to remove unwanted software and, at the same time, fix operating Windows stability issues using the Windows restore points.
If you have never heard of them, restore points are a Windows feature that allows, in a few clicks, to restore the system to a previous state: this means deleting all programs, drivers and updates installed after the date of restore point, while retaining all data and files on your computer.
By bringing your system to a date earlier than the day you installed the program (or driver) you now want to remove, you should then be able to fix all your problems and remove unwanted software in no time. All this, of course, provided that a restore point was created prior to installing the program that led to system instability (restore points are usually created automatically by Windows when installing new software, but can also be created manually).
To return Windows 7 to an earlier state, click the button Home (the flag icon located in the lower left corner of the screen), search restore point in the search field of the menu that appears on the screen and select the first search result: Restore settings and files from a restore point.
In the window that opens, choose whether to run the recovery recommended (so whether to use the most recent restore point among those available) or whether choose a different restore point and click on NEXT. At this point, if you've chosen to select a restore point other than the most recent one, click the name of the latter (by clicking on the button Look for interested programs you can see which programs will be removed using the selected restore point) and presses on NEXT e end to start the Windows recovery process. Otherwise, press directly on end to use the most recent restore point.
The system restore process may take several minutes. When finished, your computer will restart. If any of the steps aren't clear to you, check out my tutorial on how to create and use restore points on Windows 7.
Antimalware
Is the program you intend to uninstall from your PC an extension that suddenly appeared in the browser you use to browse the Internet? Are you trying hard to delete a promotional program that has installed itself "by itself" on your computer (presumably along with software you downloaded from the Internet) but can't? Then I believe you should use a antimalware.
The first antimalware I recommend you try is Malwarebytes AdwCleaner, which is completely free, is very fast and does not require installations to function. It specializes in the search for browser hijackers: those malicious software that install extensions in browsers and modify the behavior of the latter in order to redirect the user to sites full of advertising.
To download Malwarebytes AdwCleaner, connected to the official website of the program and click on the button Free download. Once the download is complete, start the executable adwcleaner_xx.exe e pigia prima sul pulsating Accept and then Scan now to initiate a system check. If the scan reveals that there are potential threats on your PC, accept quarantining them and restarting your PC.
If Malwarebytes AdwCleaner fails to get rid of unwanted software that is present on your computer, download Malwarebytes Anti-Malware, the most complete anti-malware from Malwarebytes (and, in general, one of the best anti-malware available on the market). It is also free in its basic version (which does not include the real-time protection module), but it requires installation and, being more complete than AdwCleaner, it takes longer to scan. I told you about it in depth in my dedicated tutorial.
How to uninstall a program on Windows 7
