add/remove program

[trishmac]

please help:cry2: Vista wouldn't accept my bluetooth dongle software, and actually crashed. I did a system restore, but I can't uninstall the usual way in add/remove program as the driver didn't fully install, and I just get a message saying that it's incompatible, and aborting the install, when I'm trying to uninstall it! Is there a way to manually remove this from the add/remove list so that I can take this thing back and get an xp one instead.
please help..I'm begging:hmm:

[sadgoat]

well im not sure if windows vista and xp work the same way, so i would try the second method first. to manual uninstall something on xp you would do this (it may work for vista as well):
Find the directory for the application and delete all the files in the directory. Delete the directory.

Open regedit and navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE and find the folder for the application. Delete the folder.

Open regedit and navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE and find the folder for the application. Delete the folder.

To remove the application entry from Add/Remove Programs (if present) open regedit and navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\Uninstall and find the folder for the application. Delete the folder.

Some applications have Services attached to them. If this is the case, navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Servic es, locate and delete the service.

In Windows Explorer, navigate to the individual user settings and delete program references. Common places to check would be:

C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs and delete relevant entries.
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Startup and delete relevant entries.
C:\Documents and Settings\%YourUserID%\Start Menu\Programs and delete relevant entries.
[Do this for each User ID listed]
C:\Documents and Settings\%YourUserID%\Start Menu\Programs\Startup and delete relevant entries.
[Do this for each User ID listed]

If no entries were found in the previous step and the application launches automatically, navigate to
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows
and delete the entry.

now the other thing you can do is get the windows installer utility which can be found here (along with microsofts occicial disclaimer)
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/290301

[trishmac]

thank you so much...some of that I'll have to figure out, but I'll give it a go, thanks for replying!! bye for now!

[trishmac]

i'm not pc savvy at all, so it may take me a while. I don't even know where to find regedit, or where doc and settings is located, but that will be my challenge for 2day - wish me luck ;)

just searched - they're not where they used to be in xp, can't find them on vista anywhere :(

[sadgoat]

hmmm give the windows uninstaller utility a try then

[sadgoat]

also, if you didnt find regedit. go to start, run, type in regedit