Manually Delete a Leftover Registry Key After Uninstalling a Software
Template:StubYou recently uninstalled a software from your computer and later after running a Registry Cleaner program found out that there were some traces of it left behind on your computer. This article assumes you already have run a Registry Cleaner, as an example on CCleaner.com software. Like in this example some registry keys can not be removed automatically. In this case you have to find this registry key on your hard drive and remove it manually.This article shows how to find a registry key on your computer for the manual deletion. This article assumes that you have the Special Permissions on your computer to be able to complete a deletion process. .
Steps
- Open in RegEdit
- It will take you to the window that shows all your registry keys (see image) Caution: it may already highlight a key for you on the list, but be careful - it may not at all match your "seeked for" key,
- Carefully find a matching registry key on the list,
- Click RIGHT mouse button on the found matching key and click Delete. It will ask you a question if you want to delete this key with the subkeys, answer Yes,
- Deleting a registry key requires the Special Permissions of you as an Administrator. If you obtained these Special Permissions it will delete a registry key manually and end the process.
Tips
- How to change your computer settings to obtain those Special Permissions requires a whole new article,
- Before deleting a registry key double check if this registry key EXACTLY matches the one you are looking for.
- Make a backup of the registry or key before making changes or deleting. If you delete a registry key and its the wrong one, unless you can restore from a backup its gone forever.
