What is the correct way to uninstall software on Windows?
Jan 1
I was using Ubuntu before I decided to switch to Windows 11, so I'm new to it. Recently I installed a VPN app, but later I decided that I don't want it, hence I clicked uninstall. All Windows did is execute uninstall.exe under the program file folder of that app, and that app basically removed itself.
Later on that day I found that the app wasn't removed completely, which was indicated by the DNS server keeping changing back to some weird IP address (which was part of the job of that VPN app, and I'm pretty sure of it).
So is there a proper way of uninstalling an APP on Windows 11 or is the only proper way to let the app uninstall itself?
I'm very concerned and frustrated because I realized that letting the APP uninstall itself could cause potential danger, for example malware could leave dangerous items behind intentionally. Also for a long period of time, there could be a substantial amount of apps that were uncleanly uninstalled that could build up heavy burden to the system (if there is a thousand apps not fully uninstalled, each one of them could leave some unwanted actions/processes which would eventually drain the system's resources across the year and the system would become very "slow").
Is my theory correct (if so, does this happen to other OSes as well, such as MacOS?); is there a way better/correct way for uninstallation?
1 answer
Accepted answer · original discussion
Jan 1
Microsoft has: Uninstall or remove apps and programs in Windows
It relies on the programmer, who built the app, to do what needs to be done. When the programmer is careless, then things are left behind.
Most of the time this only happens to log files created during installation, or uninstallation.
Some programs have bad un-installers, which do leave changes behind. There is not much you can do about that, besides only installing programs from respected/well known suppliers.
Or, you could use Windows Sandbox to test the program, and test the un-install process before doing that on your production system.
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Jan 2