Unable to uninstall programs (Not the same as others)

[Guest]

Hello,

My laptop came with Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium (32 bit)
preinstalled. Following Microsoft's suggestion, I created an extra account to
be the Administrators account, and switched my personal account to a standard
account for added security. When I installed programs in this manner, the
icons only ever showed up on the Administrator's desktop, and so I had to go
through and move them to my own as none ever showed up in "All Users" (or
public). That along with other "Access Denied" issues I was having prompted
me to change my personal account back to a Admin account, and that being the
case, I removed the other one I created, because I saw no reason to have 2
admin accounts on a computer that only I use...

Problem is that when I removed that account, all the neccessary uninstall
information that was associated with those specific programs was removed as
well... and now I can't remove those programs! I NEED to remove some of those
programs as they are causing issues on here... If someone doesn't help me
out, then I will have to reinstall Windows Vista from scratch, losing all the
stuff I've done in the last several months... not something I want to do!

If anyone has any ideas that could help, I would greatly appreciate it!
Thanks in advance

 

[Ronnie Vernon MVP]

Jason

Hello,

My laptop came with Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium (32 bit)
preinstalled. Following Microsoft's suggestion, I created an extra account
to
be the Administrators account, and switched my personal account to a
standard
account for added security. When I installed programs in this manner, the
icons only ever showed up on the Administrator's desktop, and so I had to
go
through and move them to my own as none ever showed up in "All Users" (or
public).

When you were installing all of these programs, did you actually log in with
the extra administrator account you created and then install the programs?

That along with other "Access Denied" issues I was having prompted
me to change my personal account back to a Admin account, and that being
the
case, I removed the other one I created, because I saw no reason to have 2
admin accounts on a computer that only I use...

Problem is that when I removed that account, all the neccessary uninstall
information that was associated with those specific programs was removed
as
well... and now I can't remove those programs! I NEED to remove some of
those
programs as they are causing issues on here... If someone doesn't help me
out, then I will have to reinstall Windows Vista from scratch, losing all
the
stuff I've done in the last several months... not something I want to do!

If you were logging in with that administrator account when you installed
these programs and then deleted that account, I'm afraid you won't be able
to recover these uninstall settings.

Some modern software programs have a "uninstall" or "Remove" option in the
installation setup. You might try starting the installation for these
programs you are having problems with and checking the options.

 

[Guest]

I never ran any of these installations from within the administrator account
itself, no. I ran them from my account, and simply entered my admin password
when prompted for Admin approval. The programs ran as my admin account, and
therefor everything that I installed that way ended up in that account, and
not in my personal one. The only time I ever actually logged into the admin
account was to get the icons, and (in some cases) the actual installation
files that only showed up on that desktop. I never logged into that account
to run anything at all.

I've tried running setups for some of these programs, and either they don't
work because they need the missing information, or the installation simply
crashes without a message.

Who came up with the bright idea of programs not installing into a universal
place like this anyway??? I think this is one of the worst ideas MS came up
with. All programs should be installed into a central place, no matter which
account installs them. I shouldn't have to worry about whether a specific
admin account installed something before I go deleeting the account... All in
all... i've learned something here...

Having accounts like that may increase system security, but it's obviously
not a good idea! Now I have to reinstall Windows Vista... and when I do, I
will not add another account as admin, and I will not turn off UAC (Something
else I had a major problem with that I've since fixed on my own)