Windows Vista A Registry Problem(?)

[Taffycat]

Perhaps this will not be considered to be a problem, as such, but I would appreciate the opinion(s) of those who are wiser than moi...

As mentioned in another thread, I downloaded Speccy last night. But this time, I was puzzled by an entry for "Kaspersky" which it shows as being my AV, when in reality, I am using MSE. It has been my AV for about a year now.

I uninstalled Kaspersky at that time, but evidently, bits are still lurking in the Registry. (I know, because I did a simple search from the Vista start menu, and Kaspersky is listed, several times, with the little Registry icon beside it.)

It does not show up when I run CCleaner - so what would be your verdict please? Should I venture into Registry territory and delete Kaspersky entries? Or is that too dodgy?

Thank you for looking.

 

[Ian]

If you're not having any problems, I wouldn't dabble in the registry manually. It's unlikely you'll cause any harm if you're careful, but it's doing no damage being there .

What you could do is try the Kaspersky removal tool, that may clean up some of the entries for you:

http://support.kaspersky.com/faq/?qid=208279463

Worth a shot anyway

 

[Taffycat]

Oh thank you Ian, that sounds like a good idea I shall give it a go right now.

 

[Silverhazesurfer]

You can do a search for Kaspersky in the registry and remove entries that you find. That usually removes any reference. I have rarely come across an issue after doing this. Googleupdate is an example. Tinkering in the registry has stopped it from running and causing issues in my, and others', computers without consequence to existing installations.

Just be sure to take a backup of the registry if you plan to do this. That way, if you mess it up, you can reinstall and be back to where you were.

 

[muckshifter]

I have yet, in 25years, gosh, I am old, to find an uninstaller that actually will uninstall ALL reminiscent of the program it is supposed to. The 'bits' left over in most cases will cause no 'problems' as the registry contains thousands, yep, thousands of entries. Having said that, DOS was easy, you just deleted the correct directory and removed the start menu reference.

The clean-up / removal tools, like that supplied by Adobe can prove invaluable, no software should come without one

It just goes to show you, however, how valuable (tung in cheek) these so called registry cleaners are.

Bottome line, there should be no adverse effect in leaving the registry well alone.

 

[Taffycat]

Thank you again Ian, Silverhazesurfer and Mucks

I gave the Kaspersky removal tool a try, but a Windows message kept popping up, telling me that KAV had encountered a problem so Windows would close it! I think it might be because the app failed to "see" the "leftovers."

I did take a look in the Registry (woops! Mucks has just fainted ) Even made a backup of it....... then promptly chickened-out. Somehow, me poking about in there, just seemed so wrong!

Also... I was finding so many bits and bobs which I thought had been deleted/uninstalled many moons ago... which have clearly been left behind on other occasions.

So, rather than risk a complete mess-up, I think maybe I will make a tactical withdrawal.

But thank you all again, I appreciate all your help.

 

[muckshifter]

woops! Mucks has just fainted

Naw, no reason.

I had a "customer" come very regularly to my workshop, to repair his PC, I had to reinstall Windows every time ... turned out he was deleting entries in the registry because he didn't "need" them.

Unless you are trying to eradicate a particular nastie, there is no reason for anybody to "play" with the registry.

 

[floppybootstomp]

If I may comment, first of all, I'll say if you're wary leave the registry alone.

But for many years, certainly over ten years, I've deleted unwanted entries in the registry with no problems whatsoever.

I use regedit, do a search from the registry's drop down menu, then delete all those entries that have a positive identification as the product I want to remove all traces of. Sometimes the search will show an entry that doesn't have a positive ID so I just leave that alone.

I do remember one instance, when I uninstalled Call Of Duty One, where I had to delete a registry entry in order to be able to reinstall the game, that was a bit naughty of them. But in all other cases I just wanted to get shot of all the detritus that apps left behind, sometimes for reasons similar to the one Taffycat has encountered.

Anyhow, I'm not advocating you all get trigger happy in the registry like myself but just thought I'd let you know about my own experience of such things.