I don't want to bother with tracing every new installation, but I want to do it with media programs that tend to appropriate to themselves a lot of extension defaults and with programs that make huge numbers of additions to the registry and file system, such as a new AV I'm about to install. I am not inclined to use a tracing log for uninstalling just blindly. I have Revo Pro, and I used it to trace an installation. But I checked back, and all I've got is a ".ruel" file. I could not find any way of opening and reading that file. I didn't use it for uninstalling the program because I can't blindly trust it won't uninstall any of the wrong things. In this situation I am very concerned about not removing things on my system unrelated to the installation, so I would rather make selective manual use of an installation log rather than doing an automated uninstall that I'm not able to preview. I'm most interested in the registry changes, so I wouldn't disdain a program that looks only at them.
In my opinion. Comodo Programs Manager is the best for this. Rather than taking before and after snapshots to see what changes have been made to the system, when you install new software, it actually monitors and recrods every change the installer makes. It does this without slowing down your computer. By default, it automatically monitors just about every program you install. It does this silently in the background and you just get a brief notification when it has finished monitoring the install. You can right click on an installer in Explorer and there is an option to monitor the install, so you can be sure CPM will keep track of the install. I am running it on Windows 10 and every now and then, it stops working and has to be reinstalled. It's no ideal, because of that. But, in my experience, it is the best at what it does. This is the link to v2.0.0.3 Beta 1, which is the last version that Comodo released. Code: http://downloads.comodo.com/cpm/download/setups/CPM_SETUP_2.0.0.3_xp_vista_server2003_win7.exe It does not officially support Windows 8.x or 10, but I can provide details on how to get it running, if you need.
best way to trace is a sandbox or virtual environment. for regular users its very difficult to recognize important and non-important values. an installation tracer like Revo Uninstaller is also not easy, it can assist but it also can get worse. if some dare - create an image (i dont trust windows recovery sessions)
@conceptualclarity If you want know the list of changes after some events in system you can use System Explorer and its feature called "Snapshots" -more info you'll find here http://systemexplorer.net/onlinehelp.php?t=snapshots
