Tired of the automatically installed programs in windows? or programs that you installed that do not list in the control panel now? They run in the background affect a huge part of your memory which results in slowing down your machine. And cause your productivity as well as waste a lot of your time generally.
But we can uninstall the unwanted programs from the Control Panel simply, right?
No! Not all of the installed programs that run on your PC are listed in the Control Panel. Some programs run in the background, affecting your PC but they are never listed in the Control Panel. But truly there are various ways to locate these programs and uninstall them.
This post is the Complete Guide about “ How to uninstall a program not listed in program and features “ Below are the most efficient ways to “uninstall a program that is not on the program list”. So let’s go and explore.
1: Look for the uninstallation file in the specific program directory
Usually, many of the installed programs are located in this directory C:\Program Files. In this folder, you will find a file named uninstall.exe. This normally contains the uninstaller code or script. When you try to locate and uninstall a program from the control panel, Windows finds and executes the same file to uninstall a program.
If you did not find the software in the Control Panel. Try to find the folder where the program is installed and then locate the Uninstall.exe file. That will help you uninstall the program from which it belongs.
2: Install Revo Uninstaller Pro.
This is a simple and useful tool to locate and uninstall a program if you don’t find it in the Control Panel. You should keep in mind that when you use this software to locate and uninstall a program then there are two different methods to do it.
Firstly you can just uninstall a particular software by using the usual uninstallation in the Revo Installer.
On the other hand, if you are trying to uninstall a program that is not listed in the control panel then you can use the “Force Uninstall” method to find and uninstall a program easily.
3: Uninstall a program using Windows 10 Setting.
The programs can also be uninstalled by utilizing Windows 10 settings.
- Click on Start Menu and open Settings
- Navigate to Apps
- Now click on the Apps & Features.
- Look for the unwanted apps that need to be uninstalled
- You will find three dots vertically, click on it and you should select Uninstall here.
Done, this is also a useful method that I have tried often.
4: Use Windows Registry Editor to install unwanted apps & programs
Press Windows Key + R. This will open the Run dialog. And the type “ Regedit “ and click on OK. Go to the following pathHKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > SOFTWARE > Microsoft > Windows > CurrentVersion > Uninstall . You will find a list of installed programs. Secondly, search for a string written as “UninstallsString” and double-click it. After double-click copies the data and go to the Run dialog again. And press OK when you have pasted the copied data. So the program will be deleted.
For this, you need to navigate to Run Dialog by pressing the “Windows + R” key.
- Once opened type “Regedit” in the provided text box of Run Dialog.
- Now locate the following Folder HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE_ > SOFTWEAR MICROSOFT >WINDOWS > CURRENT VERSION > UNINSTALL
- You will find a list of all of the installed programs on your PC
- Look for ” UninstallsString ” on the right-side panel and double click to select it.
- Copy all of the data and open the Run Dialogue again.
- Past the copied on the text box and click on OK
- This will uninstall the program completely
5: Bounce Tip
Sometimes the characters in the name of the application are greater than 32. So it will not probably be uninstalled, nor will it be listed in the Control Panel.
What to do when this happens?
Follow the below instructions.
- Go to the following directory
- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall
- Right-click on the registry key
- Now you need to rename it and use a name with less than 60 characters
- Double click on it and try to have a name with 32 character max.
- This will bring the program in the list of Control Panel and you can uninstall it then
So these were some of the useful methods that you can use to ” Uninstall any program that has not listed the control panel”. Truly there are many other methods too but these were some of my personal favorites that I would love to recommend to everyone having this issue.