Uninstalled services still show?

I uninstalled both AdAware and a-squared ages ago, and wiped out their respective folders plus did a registry cleanup afterwards.

Oddly, if I go into Admin Services/Services, they're both still showing there, as disabled. If I look at their Properties, both point to the original folders which no longer exist. Can't find any (recognizable) trace of either left in the Registry, so presumably that's not where the Services list is getting the info.

Any ideas on how to house-clean them out of the Services list? Obviously (?) their appearance there is just sloppy rather than significant, but I wouldn't mind keeping things neater.

 

If it was actually a service, you can usually find it. Run Regedit and then look under:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE -> SYSTEM -> CurrentControlSet -> Services

If you find the service listed there, you can just delete it and that should take care of it.

There may also be copies in ControlSet001 or ControlSet002.

 

The RegEdit method did the trick just fine, thanks. (And deleting from the CurrentControlSet apparently also got anything in the other control sets at the same time.) I run JV-16 every weekend, and am mildly surprised that it didn't flag those as orphaned entries -- admittedly I do run it in normal mode rather than aggressive, which probably makes a difference.

One trick about the service's "real name" that neither of you (or that ElderGeek thing) thought to mention -- if you're not sure, clicking on a likely-looking candidate will usually show its display name somewhere in the right-side values, as a double-check.

Thanks again, and best.

 

Interesting...

Has anyone actually deleted the example, Help and Support Service, or, for that matter, any of the M$ services? That one used to annoy me alot by springing back to automatic, apparently in response to references within other applications. This doesn't seem to happen any more, but I still wonder if deleting it in the registry might not be a good idea.

Also, sort of along the same lines, in Device Manager when you select show hidden devices from the view menu a number of drivers appear, and often they are drivers from deleted programs. Would anything be gained from attempting to delete them? I guess what I mean is are these references to locations that no longer exist ever known to cause problems, or is it just a little confusing to see things listed that aren't really there?


-HandsOff

 

If these are references to non-existant drivers, they will appear as greyed-out. If they apperar normally then the driver files are still there and loaded.

 

Performed this tweak on my XP tower. Removed all the "washed out" items as indicated. Did not seem to help anything but neither did I experience any problems.

"When you install a device driver on a Windows XP machine, the operating system loads that driver each time the computer boots regardless of whether the device is present—unless you specifically uninstall the driver. This means that drivers from devices that you have long since removed from your system may be wasting valuable system resources.

Follow these steps to view and remove these unnecessary device drivers:

1. Press [Windows]+[Break] to bring up the System Properties dialog box.
2. Select the Advanced tab and click the Environment Variables button.
3. Click the New button below the System Variables panel.
4. In the New System Variable dialog box, type devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices in the Variable Name text box and 1 in the Variable Value text box.
5. Click OK to return to the System Properties dialog box and then click OK again.
6. Select the Hardware tab and click the Device Manager button.
7. In Device Manager, go to View | Show Hidden Devices.
8. Expand the various branches in the device tree and look for the washed out icons, which indicate unused device drivers.
9. To remove an unused device driver, right-click the icon and select Uninstall."

It can be surprising what is left behind after removal of some software.

 

I only complain why Microsoft didn't make this check more accessible as I always need to do some paddling through various windows and menus after each uninstall...

 

I found that I was doing this often enough that I made a HD.CMD file:

@echo off

set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1
start devmgmt.msc
pause
exit

 

lol. Thanks, good idea.

 

Just went through the Wifes` tower. After having to do a Google for a couple items. Even found software components may show up there. Example "Starforce protection". A form of anti-cracking\copying for a game or two she had uninstalled.

 

My current machine has it disabled and removed as well as some others. Tread very carefully though. The service you delete today you may need tomorrow.

 

ThunderZ

First, thanks for spending the time to explain the procedure, and I am going to write it down and save it...

I did follow the procedure, and (maybe this is good, maybe not) I did not find anything washed out. I do have some of the dreaded exclamation marks. I just replaced a fancy Microsoft ps2 keyboard with a bare bones logitech usb keyboard. Same with the mouse. They are both USB now, not PS2.

Here is my dilemma: I don't recognize what the active keyboard is. I suppose it must be correct for my current keyboard, "HID keyboard device" but didn't like the sound of "HID" as in hidden, so have been meaning to look it up. I have always been aggravated by the fact that the hardware profile does not explicitly name the hardware that the driver is for.

standard keyboard, Location 0! Aha! Location 0! Just as I suspected! Where the heck is Location 0

I normally will disable, but not uninstall drivers like this, because keyboards and mice come and go, and usually windows provides the drivers. Reasonable?

There is a third exclamation, and I need to post my question in the appropriate forum. I'm glad you reminded me to look at the device manager!

Back to non-plug and play drivers: I am almost sure that there are some obsolete ones there, but they are not "washed out". Ironically, some are software drivers, not hardware, aren't they? would they be detected by the procedure you described? If the test is the presence of the software, then not being washed out would be bad, not good. It comes down to this: Is there a easy way to tell what the non-plug and place driver was installed by, what it does, the location of the software, in the case of software drivers?

If I seem overly concerned it is because I have uninstalled some Norton products in the past...


-HandsOff

 

Sorry it took so long to get back to you. Tweaked mine till I broke it. Just got it back up, tweaked and protected to my liking.

First "HID" = Human Interface Device". Keyboard\mouse\game pad\etc.
When it comes to multiple instances of them it would be no problem to uninstall them all then restart windows. The right ones will be detected and reinstalled.

As far as hidden drivers, right you are, some may very well be software related. Some names are pretty obvious for others do a Google.

The exclamation marks generally mean the device needs a driver but one is not installed. Do you have anything not working?

Norton can be a real bear to flush from your system. Did you use their dedicated tool(s)?.

Again when doing things like this Google is your friend.

 

System Devices can show hidden drivers and services by checking them in view, then you can delete them as per your needs.