I deleted relevant files for an installed utility for manual uninstall. Can I now delete registry entries ?

Question

I downloaded and installed "1-click answers" utility from answers.com on my win 98 machine. But installation was incomplete with message "required dll userenv.dll is missing". I contacted the answers.com and got the reply that the utility was for win xp. But I cannot uninstall the utility as I am getting the same error message "required dll userenv.dll is missing". I again contacted the answers.com and they asked me to manually remove all the relevent files, which I did. But now each time when windows starts I get error message "searching for answer.exe".

I think the registry still has entries for answer.exe. Should I delete those registry entries manually ? ( I mean all the entries not just the values). Will it cause damage to my system ?

Answer 1

Yes, you can search the registry and clear the entries for it, but be sure you have somewhat of an idea of what your doing, the chances of screwing up your system are slim unless you go on a delete binge, just do a registry search for answer.exe and delete those keys, pretty safe. and since you are on windows 98, you should back up your registry just in case.

For saving you with a 2 page answer on backing up the registry:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/322754

Answer 2

You should be able to delete them safely. I would just run a registry cleaner to do it. I use RegScrubXP.

Download RegScrubXP--http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=2048

Safely cleans junk out of the Windows 2000/XP system registry. All changes made to the registry are fully restorable to it's original condition. You can make an exclusion list of registry entries that RegScrubXP will not display as problems. You can sift through a list of file extensions, company names, run upon startup programs, Internet Explorer history, and uninstall programs to delete what you think is junk.