If a program is installed per machine (which most are) and multiple users use it, what should the uninstaller do? It could safely remove the user settings of the current account, but the current account might not be your account. While keeping leftovers in LocalMachine is laziness (as pointed out by the other answers), it is not possible to clean the CurrentUser part. Normally, the setup writes values into LocalMachine, and the running program only writes into CurrentUser (actually, unless the setup messes with the permissions, the running program cannot write into LocalMachine). The registry has multiple root nodes but only two interesting ones: LocalMachine and CurrentUser. First up, Lukas Rieger:īecause it is impossible. SuperUser contributors Lukas Rieger and Keltari have the answer for us.

Why are registry values usually “left behind” after normally uninstalling software? The Answer Why are the majority of Windows applications so intent on leaving tiny little traces of themselves in the registry? Does the fault lie with Windows or with the developers? SuperUser reader Mark Boulder wants to know why some registry values always remain after a normal software uninstall:Įxpanding on the SuperUser topic How do I remove residual traces of uninstalled software from the registry, why is it that every time I uninstall a program and then later look it up via RegEdit, it is still there?

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