14 DAY TRIAL // How bloated is your registry because of applications you need only once and then uninstall them? If this is a regular practice, then your registry must have a huge amount of errors, obsolete data, invalid entries; to make it short, it is crawling with junk files.
If you no longer see the software's installation folder in Program Files that does not necessarily mean that there is absolutely no trace of it in the computer. It would be nice if the uninstaller of a software did a good job and deleted all the entries left by the application. As it is not always the case, your registry will accumulate invalid entries and obsolete files and all these will contribute to weakening your system in some cases up to the point of crashing.
The solution in this case is uninstalling the application with something more powerful than the habitual Add/Remove Programs in Windows. There is no need to thoroughly search for a good uninstaller, as almost all of them fulfill the basic needs of a user, mainly uninstall a certain software. However, an uninstaller should be judged by its capabilities of eliminating all the files pertaining to the uninstalled program, both from Program Files folder and from the registry.
Cleanse Uninstaller is a $12.95 solution for cleaning the track of the programs you want to throw out of your computer. The full featured trial version is available for testing for one month. There are no nag screens all along the testing, except that when launching the application you will have to wait a few seconds.
The interface is nice and simple, displaying from the start all the softwares installed on your system. Loading them does not take long and everything you have installed on your computer will be displayed in an un-resizable application window.
All the options available in the application can be accessed from the top part of the window occupied by the toolbar. There isn't much to choose from but this kind of software is not supposed to be clogged up with all sort of complex alternatives. The deal is very simple in this case as all you need is a function that runs the uninstaller of the discarded software and an option to force the application into leaving your computer (in case it is resistant to the usual means).
Cleanse Uninstaller however comes with another option dedicated to managing your startup items. The button is located in the top right corner of the window ("Startup"). Having another startup manager besides the Windows proprietary one is always beneficial as more often than not, the former will behave better than Microsoft's own and with less hassle.
The tool in Cleanse Uninstaller fulfills the basic functions of a startup manager and does not provide any advanced options. This means that all you can do is delete the entries, disable or enable them. The sum of information available here includes the full path of the startup process location and the type of entry in the registry.
But regarding the uninstall activity of the software not all things have been said. The process has several steps to complete and the built-in wizard will definitely make it easier for you. The three steps that need to be completed include running the application's own uninstaller and the operation will behave exactly as if you did it from Add/Remove Programs (in XP) or Programs and Features (in Vista). The second stage is cleaning up the registry of left behind entries. And the final step involves scanning the drives for left over files.
When it comes to cleaning the registry, Cleanse Uninstaller will show you the registry elements about to be deleted. I suggest you to take a good look at those elements there for not having to deal with an aftermath. Generally, running the application's uninstaller, everything goes fine but when appealing to a brute force elimination of the program, a whole lot more than what should be included is selected.
During our testing, we tried this with three different softwares. Every time I followed the regular path and commanded Cleanse Uninstaller to run the application's uninstaller, all went fine. But when it came to force uninstall a lot of registry entries belonging to other applications were selected. Had I not paid attention to the selected elements, I would have dealt with a much bigger problem.
To give you an example, upon forcing the uninstall of a FLV player, Cleanse Uninstaller selected components belonging to Adobe Viewer and installer, Windows shell entries, web browser files etc. The left over files were absolutely OK and only when detecting the registry items were a problem for the software. Luckily, there is the "Unselect All" option that makes de-selecting the registry items easier.
The info panel at the bottom of the main application window is supposed to give you details about the selected entry in the list. You will not benefit from this kind of information for all the entries in the list and only those that are more known will come with the desired info (publisher of the software, update info, help link, install date and estimated size). But you can edit these details by yourself in order to keep a good tab on them.
The Good
Cleanse Uninstaller is very easy to handle and will perform the much needed uninstall. Equipped with a startup manager, the application allows you to handle the processes starting up with Windows.
The Bad
Apart from the fact that the program does not display all the installed applications (Windows hotfixes and updates are unavailable), when appealing to force uninstall you should really take a close look at the registry items about to be deleted.
No window of the application is resizable. For the main screen, there is not an acute need for this, but for taking a good look at the registry items to be eliminated I think this "feature" would come in very handy.
The Truth
Cleanse Uninstaller comes at a low price and sometimes it is too thorough in cleaning the registry. If you pay attention to all the messages displayed by the software and act accordingly, everything should go fine.
Here are some snapshots of the application in action:
