Section 5.11. Uninstalling Software

5.11. Uninstalling Software

When you've had enough of a certain program, and want to reclaim the disk space it occupies, don't just delete its folder. The typical application installer tosses its software components like birdseed all over your hard drive; therefore, only some of it is actually in the program's folder.

Instead, ditch software you no longer need using the Add or Remove Programs program described above. Click the Change or Remove Programs button at the top left, and then proceed as shown in Figure 5-9.

Figure 5-9. To vaporize a program, click its name to reveal its gray, highlighted panel, as shown here, and then click the Remove button. You can use the "Sort by" drop-down menu to sort the list by Frequency of Use or Date Last Used. (Note, though, that Windows doesn't keep perfect track of all types of programs, especially those that run in the background, so these statistics are likely to be unreliable.)

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Warning: If you do the Add or Remove Programs thing, sooner or later you'll get this scary message that one of the deleted program's files is also needed by other programs, and asking if you want to delete it. Don't. Leaving it behind does no harm, but deleting it may cripple one of your other applications.

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