MyUninstaller - alternative to Add or Remove Programs

Filed under: Utilities, Windows, Productivity, Microsoft, Freeware

MyUninstaller - alternative to Add or Remove Programs

by Jason Clarke Aug 5th 2007

Arguably one of the most frustrating parts of Windows is the Add or Remove Programs control panel applet. If you have even a modest amount of software installed on your computer, it can be infuriatingly slow to launch, and lacks even the most basic usability features like being able to select a field, type a letter, and jump to the first entry that begins with that letter. You know, like how Windows Explorer and pretty much every other Windows application works? Yeah.

While there are some historical reasons for the general suckiness of Add/Remove Programs, really the best thing to do is find an alternative. That's where MyUninstaller by NirSoft comes in.

MyUninstaller provides its own view of uninstallable programs, and gives some additional information about them. Startup time can still be a bit slow on a system that has a lot of software on it, but navigating within the program is so much more pleasant than trying to use Add or Remove Programs that you'll never want to go back. MyUninstaller consists of a standalone executable, so you can stick it on a memory stick and use it on all of the computers that you end up having to maintain for friends and family.

Tags: Add or Remove Programs, AddOrRemovePrograms, MyUninstaller, NirSoft, Old New Thing, OldNewThing, Raymond Chen, RaymondChen

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

ahoier said 7:05PM on 8-05-2007

Between Lifehacker and Download Squad, I can completely say "No" to Microsoft's way of working Windows....other than running the OS itself of course....

What would be awesome though, is getting rid of the Control Panel icon for "Windows" Add/Remove Programs, and replace it with MyUninstaller (or really, any other uninstaller app..I think I've seen others reviewed on LH/DS...)

Marc Savoy said 8:19PM on 8-05-2007

I've been using MyUninstaller for about six months and definitely recommend it as an excellent product for the ease/convenience and never fail perfomance uninstalling/removing programs without a hassle.

It's a far superior product to the Windows uninstaller, providing many more features and program information. Not to mention not having to deal ever again with Microsoft's incredibly irritating habit of not telling you what program you have as the default but to merely say "the program I'm using now". That has always annoyed me to no end.

michael said 1:54PM on 8-06-2007

CCleaner does this and more......

Ian Smith said 5:24PM on 8-06-2007

I used MyUninstaller to pull some of the pre-installed bloatware off of my Dell laptop. Worked very well and much faster than the traditional approach.

Bruno Padinha said 6:37AM on 8-07-2007

Safarp (http://wistinga.online.fr/safarp/) seems to launch in a breeze regardless of how much apps you have.

philip millard said 5:34PM on 8-22-2007

I am running XP Home, and have a problem.
When istart the add/remove programs facility, I get a message saying "wait while the list populates". Unfortunately it never does.
Does any wizard have the answer to this please.

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