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Journal GeckoFood's Journal: [geek] How to trash your Vista registry 10

Journal by GeckoFood

I work quite a bit with different security suites for Windows. On my current laptop which runs Vista, I started with Panda, moved to McAfee, tried a different version of McAfee, switched to BitDefender, Trend, BitDefender, PCTools, BitDefender, McAfee, and finally (this week) AVG. In all cases I did a full uninstall before installing the next package.

Before loading up AVG, I unloaded McAfee and rebooted.

Windows Security Center reports that BitDefender is up and running. Huh? I did a full uninstall before, and I had it removed before McAfee was installed. I looked under \Program Files and there's no evidence it was ever there. Fine - I opened up the registry editor and removed every mention of all things BitDefender, and rebooted.

He's dead, Jim. It's so dead that it crashes almost as soon as grub tries to start Vista, and the pretty sequence of hex codes is mystifying. This is the first time I have EVER hosed up my system with the registry editor, and I use it almost monthly for the purpose of cleaning out junk left behind after installs. Glad I made recovery DVDs.

A restore later and BitDefender is still showing up as installed and up to date, even though the program is not present on the hard drive (anymore).

This discussion was created by GeckoFood (585211) for no Foes, but now has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

[geek] How to trash your Vista registry More

[geek] How to trash your Vista registry

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  • been there, done that.

    In another case, without all the pain of system issues - Total Uninstall [martau.com] did get rid of some stuff that nothing else would.

    AV stuff is just nasty - it may have even been BitDefender that gave me all the grief this summer. Don't remember for sure as it was not my machine.

    • Actually, this is the first bit of issue I have had with BitDefender. I suspect I need to run a *proper* registry cleaner to get everything wiped out.

      To be sure, I like BitDefender and still run it on the other machine in the house. I will likely run it again. But it apparently isn't nice about cleaning up after itself.

  • Sorry to hear about kiloing the registry. I've only used AVG and MacAfee, so I know nothing about BitDefender, but it sounds nasty.

    On a side note, i made some bread recently and was thiking about you. I made Farmhouse French Bread from the Wooden Spoon Cookbook which turned out pretty darn good. I might be making some again soon. How's things?

    • Sorry to hear about kiloing the registry. I've only used AVG and MacAfee, so I know nothing about BitDefender, but it sounds nasty.

      BitDefender isn't bad, really. It just apparently does not know how to properly clean up after itself.

      On a side note, i made some bread recently and was thiking about you. I made Farmhouse French Bread from the Wooden Spoon Cookbook which turned out pretty darn good. I might be making some again soon.

      Another good loaf from that same book is Cut Vienna Loaf, which is a type I ha

  • 1) Don't screw with the registry in ways you don't fully understand.
    2) Don't install anti-virus and other such categories of poorly-programmed, poorly-tested crapware.

    • 1) Don't screw with the registry in ways you don't fully understand.

      The registry is something I do understand and I have (obviously) no problem getting in there and cleaning up. I think in this case there was some key that was necessary but not related to my AV program, yet still popped in the search. Not misunderstanding but more along the lines of being unobservant. *shrug* No worries, that's what registry cleaners are for anyway.

      2) Don't install anti-virus and other such categories of poorly-programmed,

      • I said "fully understand". There are for example COM registrations in the registry where multiple parts link to other parts, and it's very easy even for a COM developer to mess up manually trying to set or reset a configuration. As someone who created installs for a while and worked on an organization's installer package before that, you haven't the foggiest how to safely clean up after a POS app fails it, because you don't know what configuration the installer did.

        And I would include things that don't unin

        • I said "fully understand". There are for example COM registrations in the registry where multiple parts link to other parts, and it's very easy even for a COM developer to mess up manually trying to set or reset a configuration. As someone who created installs for a while and worked on an organization's installer package before that, you haven't the foggiest how to safely clean up after a POS app fails it, because you don't know what configuration the installer did.

          Ah. Good point.

          The bottom line is don't ru

          • Non- fly-by-night companies generally have QA staff, so even if a developer left some stuff in the registry, if QA tested an uninstall (and say then a reinstall) with no visible adverse effects, then there prolly are no visible adverse effects, and any harmless leftovers in the registry are prolly just that as well.

            On OEM junkware, you have an unassailable point. I try to order things that come with little (like my Samsumg netbook) to no (like my Dell workstation) third-party trialware and other junk. I'd r

  • Why did you have to install and uninstall all of those AV / security packages?

    -MT.

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