WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.320 If you're anything like me, at some point you've noticed that your hard drive has gotten 00:00:04.320 --> 00:00:10.080 uncomfortably full and you've decided to remedy the issue by uninstalling some unwanted programs. 00:00:10.080 --> 00:00:14.320 I mean, when's the last time you played Yardwork Simulator 2004 anyway? 00:00:14.320 --> 00:00:18.480 But after you run the uninstall utility, you notice that the program you removed has left 00:00:18.480 --> 00:00:25.600 behind tons of residual files and registry entries. What's up with that? I mean, how hard is it for a 00:00:25.600 --> 00:00:31.520 program to just restore your computer to exactly the state it was in before? We're going to answer 00:00:31.520 --> 00:00:36.960 that question today on TechWiki, and we'd like to give a big thank you to our friends at Microsoft 00:00:36.960 --> 00:00:42.320 for providing us with some of the insight we're about to share. Now the programs that uninstall, 00:00:42.320 --> 00:00:47.200 whatever it is you want to remove, are usually written by the same developer that wrote the 00:00:47.200 --> 00:00:52.880 actual program. And this means that there can be a lot of variance in how good of a job these 00:00:52.960 --> 00:00:58.400 uninstallers do, and what the developer thinks will be most beneficial to the user experience. 00:00:58.400 --> 00:01:03.760 For example, a developer might intentionally decide to leave behind files that store custom 00:01:03.760 --> 00:01:08.720 user data and settings, since it's quite common for a user to uninstall a program 00:01:08.720 --> 00:01:13.760 only to reinstall it again later. This method makes it so they don't need to set up the software 00:01:13.760 --> 00:01:20.640 again. Okay, fair enough, I guess. But this is far from the only reason. Other times, a program 00:01:20.640 --> 00:01:26.160 will need certain files called redistributables to run properly. So if you've ever seen an installer 00:01:26.160 --> 00:01:31.280 asking to put an additional piece of software such as visual C++ runtime on your computer, 00:01:31.840 --> 00:01:38.640 well, that's what that is. Now these can often get used by subsequent programs that you install. 00:01:38.640 --> 00:01:44.560 So if the uninstaller were to remove those files, it could potentially break another program at the 00:01:44.560 --> 00:01:48.880 same time. If you're a little bit older, you might remember that this was quite common back in the 00:01:48.880 --> 00:01:54.320 day when games also installed DirectX at the same time. There's also the matter of how Windows 00:01:54.320 --> 00:01:59.680 handles software installations on multi-user systems. Windows often keeps track of settings 00:01:59.680 --> 00:02:06.640 and data on a per user basis. So if just one user wants to uninstall the program, it wouldn't be a 00:02:06.640 --> 00:02:11.920 great idea to remove all traces of it because the other users would lose their settings and 00:02:11.920 --> 00:02:17.600 possibly saved information. This might not be a big deal if nobody else uses your PC or if anyone 00:02:17.600 --> 00:02:24.000 else who uses it doesn't need the same programs, but it can be a giant pain if a local network at 00:02:24.000 --> 00:02:30.560 a larger organization uses what are called roaming profiles, where one user can access the same files 00:02:30.560 --> 00:02:36.800 and settings from any computer on the network. In this case, uninstalling a program on one local 00:02:36.800 --> 00:02:42.320 machine could completely mess up that user's experience network-wide if they want to keep 00:02:42.320 --> 00:02:48.320 using that same program. Then, of course, there's the ever-enigmatic Windows registry, which programs 00:02:48.320 --> 00:02:53.040 are eager to write to when you're installing them, but always seem to leave traces behind 00:02:53.040 --> 00:02:58.720 after you've removed them. Well, as it turns out, some uninstallers leave this alone because they 00:02:58.720 --> 00:03:03.600 just don't want to go poking around in the registry any more than they absolutely have to, 00:03:03.600 --> 00:03:08.080 because screwing up a setting in there can really mess up the rest of your computer. This approach 00:03:08.080 --> 00:03:13.600 is somewhat justified by the fact that leaving unneeded registry entries generally won't actually 00:03:13.600 --> 00:03:19.760 screw anything up. Finally, to put it bluntly, part of the problem stems from sheer laziness 00:03:19.760 --> 00:03:24.400 on the part of some developers. The good news, though, is that having a few stray files or 00:03:24.400 --> 00:03:30.320 registry entries typically won't hurt anything or slow down your system, and most leftover files 00:03:30.320 --> 00:03:36.240 only take up a minuscule amount of disk base, at least by modern standards. Of course, some programs 00:03:36.240 --> 00:03:40.880 can leave remnants that take up an inordinate amount of room on your drive, but you should also 00:03:40.880 --> 00:03:46.720 be wary of scare tactics from registry cleaning utilities that claim that this clutter can somehow 00:03:46.720 --> 00:03:52.000 slow down or even damage your PC. So if I were you, I'd only worry about remnants left over from an 00:03:52.000 --> 00:03:56.880 uninstall if they're taking up tons of space for some reason, or if you have something to hide. 00:03:57.440 --> 00:04:02.960 I mean, come on, we've all been there, right? So thanks for watching, guys! Like, dislike, 00:04:02.960 --> 00:04:07.920 check out our other videos, leave a comment if you have a suggestion for a future fast as possible, 00:04:07.920 --> 00:04:12.480 and don't forget to subscribe, because if you forget to subscribe, you're gonna start forgetting 00:04:12.480 --> 00:04:17.200 everything. It's just the tip of the iceberg. You're gonna forget to eat, and then you'll die! 00:04:19.200 --> 00:04:20.800 See? I told you it would happen!