Does anyone know why in the start menu , I have tons of programs, alot of them dont have an uninstall shortcut

Question

in the start menu folders, and dont show up on the add/remove programs list. What is the best way to get rid of them? I used mcafee quickclean (It used to have an option to remove all programs associated with a shortcut) which has an uninstaller but the new version doesnt work right for me and I cannot find the old version i used to use. It is getting really annoying and I am running out of space on my laptop.

I just said the programs don't show up in add/remove programs for the person not reading the whole question.

Answer 1

Go to start>Settings > control panel> add/remove software

Have fun and uninstall anything that is installed on your computer.

Answer 2

Well you can't completely clean up a program without the uninstall program. Like registry entries and such would be left around, but usually the programs mostly use up space in a folder under C:\Program Files. My suggestion if you are going to do this kind of manual clean up would be like this.
Find the folder that the program uses under C:\Program Files and rename from something like C:\Program Files\The Program to C:\Program Files\The Program Save. Then reboot the machine and make sure you get no errors and such. If you get errors you can rename the folder back. If this works with no problems go in and delete that folder.

To clean up the shortcuts on the Start Menu, just browse to them and right click on them and select delete.

Also if you don't know what the program is and can't figure it out by the name you can use the shortcut for the program to figure it out. Browse to the shortcut, right click on it, and select Properties. On the shortcut tab it will tell what program it starts, including the folder it is in, the "Target:" line.

Answer 3

Those are not programs, but only just shortcuts which someone place there or were put there from programs that you downloaded off the internet.
I add shortcuts there all the time to make programs easier to find.
Right click on start button
Select explore
choose start menu
then delete or add any shortcuts you would like.
This is a great place to set up files listed here on your computer.
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Answer 4

For Windows XP

Begin by first clicking on the Start Button.

Then click on the Control Panel icon located in the right column of the Start Menu.

Now click on the Taskbar and Start Menu icon to display its Menu Properties Window.

If your Start Menu is set to the Classic View, then begin by clicking on the Start Button.

Then click on Settings, then click on the Taskbar and Start Menu icon to display its Properties.

Now, click on the Start Menu Tab at the top of the screen.

Then Click on the Customize button at the bottom right hand side of the screen.

Now click on the Clear button located on the right hand center of the screen.

Notice how the Clear button shades grey denoting that your documents menu is now cleared.

This will also clear all recently accessed documents, programs and web sites.

Now click the OK button at the bottom of the screen to close the Start Menu Window.

Then click the OK button at the bottom of the screen to close the Taskbar Properties Window.

Then Reboot your computer for the changes to take full effect.

Note: If you only want to remove some of the document pointers for Windows XP, you can do so by using My Computer or the Windows Explorer. Simply browse to and open the C:\Documents and Settings\Your User Name\Recent folder and select and delete any shortcuts you wish to remove. And "Your User Name" as depicted above will be whatever name you assigned to yourself for Windows XP.

Answer 5

usually, an uninstall could delete any computer shortcuts it created. attempt logging out and returned in. If that doesn't artwork, attempt dragging the shortcut to the recycle bin. according to risk you're accidentally telling abode windows to run this methodology, which, of direction, isn't there any further. desire a sort of facilitates.

Answer 6

are you sure there isn't a setting in your firewall that will let you choose which to allow and which not to allow? Sometimes referred to as a blacklist and whitelist. Also a menu to view and evaluate which programs run at startup and which don't. Otherwise system mechanic pro has all those features and more. I've seen this product in walmart stores quite reasonably priced,from there you can update to most recent protections offered,you also get anti virus,firewall,systemguard,drive scrubber , popup blocker and much more. It is an excellent software program. Comes in Pro6 or Pro7.

Answer 7

Some only appear in the Control Panel / Add/Remove Programs applet.

EDIT: If they don't appear, then only dedicated Uninstaller can get rid of them. Norton Cleansweep can do it, though I don't think they sell it any more.

Answer 8

search in the file you installed it and do it manually,erase everything if it doesnt let you,try one by one till it dies and then it will let you or dl an unistaller or in the same file that i told you there will me an un istall wizard