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Bought the Compaq

S

Sarah82

Junior Member
I would just like to thank you guys so much for your comments. They were very helpful.
I made the plunge and bought the compaq machine - it's fast, sleek & powerful.

The only question I have now is about existing programs that come preloaded with the machine which I don't want.
As you have probably gathered, I am not a computer buff.
So what I am wondering is....would it be possible to just "ADD/REMOVE" or "Uninstall" a program and not worry about any junk left behind?
There are certain trial versions on there (Like Nortons & MS OFFICE) which I want to get rid of because I have the full versions to install.

I am afraid to wipe out my hard drive because I don't know enough about how to do that and whether or not I will encounter any problems.
So will I be okay in just uninstalling? Will any crap be left over in the registry from the programs I do uninstall or remove via the control panel? Will some fragments still be lurking and taking up memory?

Thanks again. You guys are great.
 
You should be able to remove most programs from the Add/Remove Programs window. If you find that this does not work to your satisfaction, I would recommend a clean install. Keep in mind if you do a clean install, you will have to reinstall drivers for your laptop as well. It's not an impossible process though, and I'm sure if you had any questions, we could always help. By the way, not to go OT or anything, but is that a quote from Robert Ressler in you sig. Sounds very familiar to me.

Edit: Good choice on the Compaq by the way. That is a very nice laptop.
 
Argh, sorry for the double post. I'm new to these forums.

Add/Remove has usually been "ok" to my satisfaction, but I always find people saying that they wiped the HD clean....and was wondering what advantage there is to that. Why is it necessary?

How would I get rid of registry values for certain programs? What would I use to find the values & how would i know which are SAFE to delete?

btw Away: The quote is by Friedrich Nietzsche =)

Thanks again everyone.
 
I always say a clean install is safer than playing in the registry. The advantage of a clean install is you have control of what is on your machine and it removes everything you don't want. All you have to do for a clean install is to restart your computer with the Windows disc in it and follow the prompts. It will ask you about deleting your partition which you will want to do. Also, it gives you the options to do a quick format and a standard. Do the standard. It takes a while, but the results are well worth it. After Windows is installed, you will need to reinstall the drivers for your necessary components. Sounds more complicated than it is. Anyway, I hope this helps. As for the quote: Ressler wrote a book called "Whoever Fights Monsters" and I believe he quotes Nietzsche. That is where I remember it from. Thanks.
 
Contrary to Away's opinion, there is no harm in a registry scrub. I have done it for years using Norton System Works after uninstalling software. It only scrubs those elements not connected to anything.

One can always do a clean install - so that is always the court of last resort. Before doing that and trying to restore over 50 programs and countless functional customizations (usually a 2-3 day job), try the scrub first with Norton WinDoctor.

And, for the future, I suggest cloning a duplicate drive and put it away. Then the next time that happens, swap drives and you'll be good to go minus unwanted residual changes. That's a much faster way of doing a "clean install."
 
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