[emory76]

The game Still Life has been on my computer for several months now due to the fact that I cannot uninstall it. I have tried looking on the game's web site for possible tech support help but there is none that I could see. The Microids' forum is not working and I did not see the tech support I needed on the Adventure Company website. So here I am . Anyway, the game is seriously taking up space on my computer and it is frustrating. I have even tried re-installing the game and taking it off but that does not work, it is still there. It will start the uninstalling process but then it just crashes every time. Do you have any suggestions?

[Jolaes]

Hi emory76 and welcome on board !
the more the merrier!
Your issue is not game-specific, it is an inherent fault/weak spot of the Windows
installer. I suggest you using Add-Remove Plus! or a similar utility to finish the
job.
The holy trinity: Add-Remove Plus!, Registry Medic and Registry Mechanic
combining forces give the best result.

you know, it is worth removing orphaned registry entries on regular basis to
keep that evil ever-bloating registry at bay

So what I usually do is run these proggies, then manually delete any leftovers
(game directory and sometimes a subdir under Documents and settings / User blah blah
which holds savegames)

Best of luck!

[Dobee]

I have exactly the same problem here....the uninstallation starts at 0% and the window showing the % shuts and it said it has finished its maintanance...but the game program is still there no matter if i do that from control panel or from the start menu or from the game folder......any other ways to do that except installing an uninstaller program???

[fov]

Have you tried using Add/Remove Programs in your Control Panel?

[Jolaes]

Hi Dobee,

I am afraid there is no point in looking for a specific solution. I build and sell
customized computers (often with many crispy games installed, as requested) as a part-time job; in my experience about 5-6 % of all new releases have severe installer issues and 60, I spell it out, S I X T Y percent leaves a terrible
mess even after uninstall - what's worse, some can SEEMINGLY be uninstalled fine but they leave secret entries/files, unwanted traces behind so that companies can track you down (for your gaming habits, to be targeted for advertisments or just for "easier" reinstall of the same game next time).

That is why I strongly recommend defending yourself against such policies and, of course, for better operation of your system.

PS. In many cases less harmful problems arise - such as this one you mentioned - where the maker of the installer package refers to disk locations and files names which are changed in the final, non-beta release of the game;
that's why you cannot uninstall the game unless YOU CORRECT the registry
and the uninstall logs manually. I say it is not your job; shame on the lazy
publisher

Just install 2 or 3 registry corrector proggies and believe me you'll do just fine

[fov]

Interesting. I just tried to uninstall it and got a message that a resource file was missing. (Same message when I tried removing it from the control panel.) So I popped in Disk 1 and double-clicked Setup.exe. That uninstalled it automatically.

[Jolaes]

...female intuition or sixth sense...
but an exception just strengthens the rule.

[Dobee]

i did try it with the add/remove thing in control panel..same

i also did put my CD1 in , but not like fov to double click on setup.exe though....same

i did install the demo and uninstall it earlier before installation of the full game..does it matter??

[Dobee]

i used the advanced uninstaller 2006 'forced removal', but the game folder and all those data folders are still there, do i just delete the folders manually? even the game short cut is still there too........

this is the first time i'm unable to uninstall a game properly.....creepy as the game is.......

[Jolaes]

Greetings Dobee,
I am glad that finally you are on the right path

Yes, what you have seen is not uncommon at all. You have to delete/purge the files manually if there are no logs/registry entries left. DON'T WORRY, if you do everything right your system will not be cluttered and clogged any way.

Steps for a proper manual purge:

1. run the pro uninstaller proggies and registry cleaners
2. delete any files that are still left. This concerns:

a) the directory you have installed the game into
b) check Program Files directory for additional components, like On-line gameplay extensions, Gamespy, misc. company ad rubbish etc.
c) also check Documents and Settings folder\Your name and \Admin
for game saves and settings leftovers
d) older titles and weird new ones scatter their files (ini and cfg stuff)
in your main Windows\WinNT directory, too - these are no big deal actually.

Good luck!

[Dobee]

as you can see, it seems nothing was unisntalled even after i used the adv uninstaller 2006......what's wrong here? do i just delete the whole game folder in the 'program files' ?

[Dale Baldwin]

There's certainly no harm in just deleting that folder, but shortcuts in the start menu/desktop will still remain, and also there may still be entries in the registry left behind.

[Jolaes]

I can only confirm that - simply delete the whole Adventure Company folder
if you have no more games from them.

You wonder why the game remained?

well, the program you mentioned, and ALL OTHERS of the type work the same way: they look for uninstall.isu, then the registry keys, then a probability search for log files with similar names. If nothing is found, you have no other choice but a manual purge. We gotta live with it
At least these uninstallers can remove them from the Add-Remove Program list.

[Dobee]

Already deleted the folder and the start menu/desktop......sometimes i find even you properly uninstall a program, there are left over registry....

side note: I used the registry optimizer in the adv uninstaller ..... but it seems my computer takes longer to start....

[Jolaes]

Fortunately it is not a big issue.

When the registry is compacted, some programs/processes which are set to run at startup CANNOT start and each of them waits for 20 seconds before they are kicked... But because XP drivers are not loaded one by one but simultaneously, these 20 seconds fortunately overlap and usually don't surmount to several minutes

You can check the "boot.ini" file in C: root directory, it should end like this:

/noexecute=optin /fastdetect

!!! This file is hidden, so if you don't see it, first you must go to Control Panel\Folder Options\Hidden Files and Folders and switch to "Show Hidden Files and Folders" and DISABLE
"Hide Protected Operating System Files" !!!

Also, you can tweak XP so that it won't use prefetch feature -> you will have more free memory. For this, you can use X-Setup. Start the "Classic" interface, go to System\File System\Windows Prefetching and disable both types. This also helps to overcome some difficulties with newer SafeDisk and StarForce protected games

All in all, I think it is better to sacrifice the "greased lightning" startup to have more available memory and a more responsive/compatible computer.