How to Clean Your Registry After Uninstalling

Important: Read warning at the end of this post.


PCWorld's "Clean Up What a Messy Uninstall Leaves Behind" article is, in my opinion, one of the best PC tweak articles ever written. I have used the procedure several times for years now, tidying up my PC's registry after each and every uninstall. (There are of course, registry cleaners, but they are designed to function within safe limits, often leaving alone bits of registry entries that uninstalls leave behind.) The information contained in the article has saved me several times when restoring my PC from a registry backup was impossible (forgetting to do a registry backup before the installation, etc).

A caveat though: (read: WARNING!!!!) Messing with the registry is no light task; deleting the wrong values could render your computer inoperative. While I have done so for several years now, it's plain impossible to guarantee that one PC procedure that worked for one will always work for others without hitches. DO THE PROCEDURE AT YOUR OWN RISK. IT IS NOT MINE AND I WILL NOT GIVE TECH SUPPORT NOR WILL CLAIM ANY RESPONSIBILITY IF SOMETHING ADVERSE WILL HAPPEN TO YOUR COMPUTER.