bwll77...
When removing programs from the Add/Remove Programs utility,
the system commonly looks for an uninstall file called
'unwise.exe', which is located in the root directory for the
program you want to uninstall. This file is often associated
with an 'install.log' file which holds a record of the files
installed by the program and their location, as well as
registry entries, shortcut names and locations, etc.
If the logfile or the uninstall file are not located, you will
get a message such as you are receiving. Sometimes this occurs
because the 'install.log' is located in a temporary directory,
and has been deleted by one of those programs you're using to
trim down and speed up Windows.
You can try a manual uninstallation by doing the following
for each of the 3 programs you want to remove:
1) Find the shortcut for the program in the 'Start' menu.
2) Right-click on the shortcut and select 'properties'.
This will show you an address for the location of the
program file, and thus, its root directory. Make a note
of it.
3) If there is a shortcut for 'uninstall Kodak One Touch',
for example, right-click on that shortcut and see what the
address for that is. If it's something like 'C:\Program Files\
Kodak\One Touch\unwise.exe', then this is the same file that
'Add/Remove Programs' would use. You can try left-clicking on
that shortcut to uninstall the program, but you may end up
with the same error message as previously described, since
the install.log file is still missing.
4) Now for the bad news. If the above leads to the same error,
you are stuck with removing the program by hand. You *could*
go to the program's root directory, noted before, and manually
delete the entire directory with all the files. This will still
leave you with entries in the Windows registry which must also
either be removed by hand or with a utility such as comes with
Fix-It Utilities 4.0, called 'Registry Fixer', which goes
through your registry and safely removes entries which refer
to directories and programs which have been deleted.
Fix-It Utilities, formerly sold by OnTrack, is now owned and
sold, for $50, by VCom:
http://www.v-com.com/product/fi_ind.html
Another point to be aware of is that, in order to delete the
folder and files manually, as noted above, the program must
be shut down, and none of the files in use. Since you describe
a "drop-down" advertisement for Kodak when you boot Windows,
it is clear that the programs are being loaded automatically
when you boot Windows. These 'load on boot' programs are what
is slowing your system. It's not that they take up hard drive
resources, but that they take up RAM memory, of which you
have considerably less than harddrive space. To see how much
RAM you have, right-click on 'My Computer' on your desktop,
and select 'properties'. The resulting window should tell
you how much RAM you have. Also, the 'drop-down' advertisement
is called a 'splash screen' and is used to make you aware
that the program is loading. You can sometimes disable these
in the 'preferences' for that program.
Since you must prevent these 'autoload' programs from loading
in order to delete the program directories, you may as well
learn how to do that, since, if you prevent them from loading
with Windows, you may not need to delete the programs at all -
just keep them from using your resources by loading automatically.
You can usually see the icons for these 'autoloaded' programs
at the far-right of your taskbar, in the space near the clock.
You can mouseover them to see what programs they relate to,
and some of them you can right-click and choose 'Close' or
'Exit'. However, a simpler way is to prevent them from loading
at all.
To accomplish this, go to 'Start' --> 'Run', type in 'msconfig'
and hit the 'Enter' key. The tab furthest to the right will say
'Startup'. Select that, and you will have a list of all the
programs set to run at bootup. Look for any filenames or program
paths with 'Kodak' in them, and uncheck them. This should keep
them from loading with Windows, and speed up your computer.
Sometimes, however, the preference to load at startup, having
been set in the program itself, will rewrite the instruction to
the registry (which is what you're seeing in 'msconfig'). It is
sometimes necessary to go into the program itself and find the
setting in the 'preferences' that says 'load at startup' and
uncheck it there.
You should also take a close look at the other programs
loading at startup, and judiciously prevent ones from loading
which are of no use to you. This can take some expertise,
since it is not easy to know which ones are vital and which
are not. On mine, I could safely uncheck everything but
'printtray' and 'ZoneAlarm', my firewall. However I have
about 10 others loaded which I prefer to load.
Since you noted that you have "programs doing every thing
imaginable to speed up and protect my computer", these are
also likely to be loading at startup and competing for
system resources such as RAM. Again, rather than completely
uninstall these, you may just want to prevent them from
automatically loading at Windows startup, and activate
them manually from time to time to serve their purpose.
Some will need to autoload, such as your firewall, but
others can be manually activated when you want them, such
as a utility to clean up your temporary files.
Once you have prevented the programs from loading at bootup,
you can successfully delete their directories and files by
using Windows Explorer to locate the 'root directory' I
pointed out above. However, at this point, you may opt to
keep the programs to use as you see fit. Since they are not
loading with Windows, they will not slow down your computer.
5) Another, perhaps simpler, option to uninstall the programs,
is to reinstall them to the exact location in which they are
currently located. This should reinstate the install.log file,
and this will allow you to use the Add/Remove programs utility
to uninstall them. Make sure you reboot after reinstalling the
programs, before proceeding with uninstalling them.
As you can, perhaps, see, parts a) and b) of your question
are so interrelated that I needed to respond to both in the
same breath.
I realize that this is a lot of information to take in, so
please don't hesitate to ask for clarification of anything
that is remotely confusing. Computer repair/optimization
problems often require an extended dialog to reach the
ideal conclusion.
As for your Clarification, it *would* be courteous for someone
who has locked a question for an extended period to leave some
indication of what they concluded, however, truth be told, there
are times when a researcher may do their best to arrive at
something useful, and come up blank, or short. I would
personally be reluctant to post such an outcome if the
problem lay in my own limitations, and another researcher
might come along with the perfect answer in a half-hour's
worth of research, or from personal experience.
Please do not rate this answer until you are satisfied that
the answer cannot be improved upon by means of a dialog
established through the "Request for Clarification" process.
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