Trouble removing programs

jackthomas

Hi all
I have an IBM Thinkpad laptop with XP Home SP3. I'm trying to free up disk space on the hard drive, so I recently downloaded Treesize to determine what could be removed. I got rid of some stuff, but there are two things I can't remove. One is "MSN Gaming Zone", which I don't think I even knew I had; it's 8.4MB large and located in C:\Programs. I looked on the internet and it said to remove via the "Add/Remove Programs" method, but it doesn't show up in the list of programs. I also looked through the folders associated with this program(s) but couldn't find anything named uninstall. A long time ago I did remove various $Ntuninstall...$ files from the C:\Windows directory; I thought I was being careful but did I remove one I now need? What's the best way to proceed in this case?
The other thing I want remove is called "MSN", also in C:\Programs; it's 20.7MB large. It's basically the same situation as above.
Thanks for your help.

Vrythramax

moved to Computer Problems and Support

bloodrider

There's some software that helps you uninstall, like the one available on TuneUp Utilities.
You may try it, but if you did delete "$Ntuninstall...$" folders you probably wont get to uninstall that softwares, as "MSN Gaming Zone" and "MSN" are from Microsoft so their uninstall procedures should be stored at that kind of folders...
Delete them manually and clean the registry, it's the best you can do, that's if want to have all this work for only 30 MB...

aningbo

whats's wrong with u?

why do u need to bother about some freaking 30 MB files???? let it be where it belongs. whats ur HDD capacity... stay cool man. dont bother about it. its hardly the size of a a music video

albuferque

You can also use Advanced Uninstaller Pro.

http://www.innovative-sol.com/products.htm#uninstaller

grglaz

try using ccleaner,its freeware soft,if you cant see the program again use unlocker to delete the folder.

sanalskumar

Yes, Advanced uninstaller is a good one. You can try that...

the zephyrus

Is anything stopping you from deleting the folder to reclaim your disk space? It'll leave behind a certain amount of mess, but you'll get most of the space back.

Those two examples probably came with your particular Windows install, and they might not have put in anything for removing it.

SonLight

There is always a risk when you delete some files that may be used by the operating system. It seems likely you have created some problems with some previous deletions.

There are a number of cleanup/uninstall/registry programs you can try. There is some risk in doing so, but if you use a program with a good reputation you probably will do no further damage and might succeed in deleting some of the unwanted programs.

If you want to delete the files and folders you don't need, I would suggest you check the name of the program to be sure it is not a critical system file, in case you're not sure. I would also recommend backing them up temporarily at least, either to an external device or by making temporary copies before deleting the originals.

If you successfully delete the files and find that the system boots and runs normally for a few days, then you could delete the backup copies if you're not able to save them to an external device.

As always, there is some risk you will have to reinstall the OS and risk losing some user files, but the risk should be small if you proceed carefully.

jdelfire

try using revouninstaller.com

Anti spyware
Will Windows last forvever?
Uninstalling apps in WINE
Windows Vista - Official Thread
Hard Drive Partitions

Windows System Administrator's Tools
Veritas
The Perfect Audio Rips
Manually Removing PC Viruses
slow booting

NTFS or Fat32??
xp 3d desktop tools
Accident insurance claims
Future programs
How Spyware Works!!!