As I said before, opening a downloaded program zip file can leave you with a number of separate files that have to be kept together for the program to run properly. Very often, one of these files can be called Readme.txt and it's always a very good idea to do precisely that... read it. There's information in there that the program author wants you to check before installing the program.
Double clicking on that particular file will open it in either Notepad or whichever text editor you've set as the default for reading these text files. Quite often it will contain notes on how to remove the program if you ever choose to.
Unfortunately, I've never tripped over any decent freebie uninstaller software but it's not that essential... just be careful. Any small, simple program that consists merely of one .exe type file, or where you had to put two or three files in their own folder isn't really a problem. Deleting the folder and removing any shortcut you created to it is all there is to it. Anything that uses an installation utility will almost always set up an uninstall option as well.
This can show itself with the shortcut to the program on your Start Menu. More likely the program will be listed in the Add / Remove Programs section of the Control Panel. Don't be surprised if you find the folder and bits and pieces left on your hard drive after you've run the uninstall routine. This is quite usual and it's quite safe to delete the folder and it's contents.
Something else I mentioned last month was cleaning up after a session of installing new programs. What can be another black hole for odds and ends and "packaging" from downloads and installations is the Windows Temp. folder. I've seen systems where megaloads of junk have accumulated there.
It can become a chore to work your way down to this folder at regular intervals and dust it out so here's an extremely neat little utility that's far more convenient.
"Is your system running out of disk space? If so, it may be due to the large number of temporary files stored on your computer. Then let "TempFree" come to the rescue. This utility is designed to remove unwanted files from your Temporary Directory and reclaim lost space."
Go To Page: 1 2
| Here's the follow-up discussion on this article: | View all related messages |
For a complete listing of article comments, questions, and other discussions related to Brian Hughes's Free Computer Software topic, please visit the Discussions page.