Programs and Features not populating completely

[cplindem]

Only ten programs are populating in the Programs and Features window. I know I have far more programs that are not showing up.

I have a partitioned hard drive with only Windows installed on C:. I had Vista on there, but recently did a clean install of Windows 8. I tried to start up iTunes, but it gave me an error message, saying I needed to reinstall. So I went to Programs and Features (to uninstall it) and discovered that most of my programs are not showing up there. I reinstalled iTunes and now it is showing up in Programs and Features. So it appears that my old programs (on other partitions) are not populating.

Why?

 

[MauveCloud]

That menu is for uninstalling programs, and it takes data from the registry. If you reinstall Windows, old programs won't show up there, and in many cases depend on other data being in the registry, which won't be there until you reinstall the programs.

 

[noidea_77]

Because by reinstalling win8, you destroyed the installation! Every program has some files in the programs folder, but there are also files written to the "shared component" and other folders in the c:/windows directory. And you may have heard about the registry. That is a file that contains all the information windows needs abot a program. That is used, when you display the Programs and Features. Becasue you deleted all this info by reinstalling windows, you dont see the programs there and there is no way to get it back. You will have to reinstall all the programs.

 

[cplindem]

Well that's annoying. How do I go about uninstalling any programs (if they don't come with an uninstaller)?

Thanks for the help.

 

[Brett928S2]

Well that's annoying. How do I go about uninstalling any programs (if they don't come with an uninstaller)?

Thanks for the help.

Hi

You DON'T, you just reinstall them from disc...

All the best Brett

 

[cplindem]

So...they're stuck on my hard drive forever?

 

[Brett928S2]

So...they're stuck on my hard drive forever?

Hi

Unless you go through every file, every folder manually yes....

All the best Brett

 

[cplindem]

can't I just delete the one containing folder (for the program in question)?
I know this doesn't remove it as completely as uninstalling, but it seems like the best option in my situation, right?

 

[danny2000]

What drive letter are the left-over files on?

 

[cplindem]

That depends on the program.
But a lot of them are on my E: drive

 

[danny2000]

Format that partition/drive letter after saving any documents, music, or pictures tha you created there.

 

[cplindem]

Oh....well, yeah...I could do that. But I don't want to lose it all.
okay then. Thanks.

 

[danny2000]

When you do a clean install, it wipes out everything including all registry entries to programs that you pointed to another drive letter.

The stuff that you have on E: is pretty-much useless at this juncture.

 

[cplindem]

How is it useless? I can still run most of the programs on E:

 

[danny2000]

then you didn't do a clean install, or B. you installed programs after you did the Windows 8 clean install.

 

[cplindem]

I did a clean install (of C: only). And I am currently running programs from E: that were installed a week ago. One example is a game. However, it was installed through Steam, which resides on E: as well. Maybe that's the difference?

I guess I'll just try to delete everything about a program when the time comes.

 

[neo_classical]

I did a clean install (of C: only). And I am currently running programs from E: that were installed a week ago. One example is a game. However, it was installed through Steam, which resides on E: as well. Maybe that's the difference?

I guess I'll just try to delete everything about a program when the time comes.

You're right, Steam installs things on the same drive as it. As for the other programs, I don't believe you'll be in trouble if you delete the folders of the programs one by one, or even in bulk.
As far as I understand, when Windows installs a program, the program creates lots of keys in the registry which Windows accesses. However, a fresh install will remove the registry.
Thus, although it's never advised to uninstall a program just by deleting the folder usually, in your case, you can.

 

[cplindem]

That makes sense.
Thanks all

 

[Adam Hirsch]

Well that's annoying. How do I go about uninstalling any programs (if they don't come with an uninstaller)?

Thanks for the help.

use revo uninstaller