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Control panel

petlew
Pro
Posts: 7,416
Thanks: 110
Fixes: 2
Registered: ‎30-08-2007

Control panel

In Control Panel/ Programs and Features list I have a large number of Microsoft items such as:

Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Redistributable (with a different year date to each one some have x86 or x64 with them)

Microsoft Silverlight (I seem to remember reading somewhere that this is no longer advisable to retain)

Or

Visual Studio x64 Redistributable by AVG

I un-installed AVG in favour of Kaspersky quite a while ago.

My question is, can I safely un-install any or all of these items without causing problems, or should I just ignore them?

Experience; is something you gain, just after you needed it most.

When faced with two choices, simply toss a coin. It works not because it settles the question for you. But because in that brief moment while the coin is in the air. You suddenly know what you are hoping for.
5 REPLIES 5
ReedRichards
Seasoned Pro
Posts: 4,927
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Registered: ‎14-07-2009

Re: Control panel

Unless you list all the software on your computer, it's impossible to say if some piece of software that you want requires some piece of ancillary software that you are thinking about uninstalling.  The only way to find out is to uninstall it and see if that 'breaks' something else.  But I don't think that's very likely  

MKSlinky
Seasoned Pro
Posts: 866
Thanks: 239
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Registered: ‎26-01-2016

Re: Control panel

I notice I have quite a few of these entries also but it seems some of these get removed with future Microsoft updates when they are deemed no longer necessary. As I always tell other people, if you're unsure about whether you should uninstall something look it up on Google first. You're not the only person who's asked this question and so you'll likely find plenty of people who've already tried removal. See what they have to say. If in doubt leave them on your machine, I doubt they take up much room.

 

As for Silverlight.., well according to Microsoft it's not essential you have it installed and it certainly won't hurt if you do uninstall it. In fact my one and only experience of ever needing Silverlight myself was when I tried to view a movie preview on Amazon some years ago and a pop-up told me I needed to install it if I wanted to continue with the preview. I'm running Windows 10 now and Silverlight is not installed on my machine. As yet I've not been prompted by any sites to install it again.

Read the first post here:  https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-windows_programs/what-is-microsoft-silve...

 

This might also help

 

What is Silverlight?

 


Silverlight enables you to create a state-of-the-art application that has the following features:
  • It is a cross-browser, cross-platform technology. It runs in all popular Web browsers, including Microsoft Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, and Apple Safari, Google Chrome, and on Microsoft Windows and Apple Mac OS X.

  • It enables you to create Windows Phone applications. To learn more about creating Windows Phone applications with Silverlight, see Windows Phone Development.

  • It is supported by a small download that installs in seconds.

  • It streams video and audio. It scales video quality to everything from mobile devices to desktop browsers to 720p HDTV video modes.

  • It includes compelling graphics that users can manipulate—drag, turn, and zoom—directly in the browser.

  • It reads data and updates the display, but it doesn't interrupt the user by refreshing the whole page.

  • The application can run in the Web browser or you can configure it so users can run it on their computer (out-of-browser). In addition, you can use your knowledge of the Silverlight framework to create Windows Phone applications.

petlew
Pro
Posts: 7,416
Thanks: 110
Fixes: 2
Registered: ‎30-08-2007

Re: Control panel

Thank you, on balance I think I'll take the safe bet and leave them alone, as you say they hardly take up a lot of room. I'll consider Silverlight as I don't have any interest in the processes mentioned.

As an aside, I also have IOrbit uninstaller (free) which I find works very well, removing vestiges of unwanted software that the Windows uninstaller leaves behind. IObit also has the above listed, but also a very large number of Hotfix and Security Updates for Windows, mostly dating back to 2011. I'm going to guess these are best left alone as well?

I have both a Win 7 and Win 10 laptops (I hardly use the Win 10 except to keep it up to date in case the Win 7 breaks down) both have IObit installed, in the Win 7 it has a highly useful "Start Up" programme uninstallation option, but this is not offered in the Win 10 although the versions are the same. I can't find out if the paid for version has this, and I can't find the Start Up folder in Win 10, I've tried searching for it without success, so I guess Microsoft has given it a new name, just to make life easy.

Experience; is something you gain, just after you needed it most.

When faced with two choices, simply toss a coin. It works not because it settles the question for you. But because in that brief moment while the coin is in the air. You suddenly know what you are hoping for.
ReedRichards
Seasoned Pro
Posts: 4,927
Thanks: 145
Fixes: 25
Registered: ‎14-07-2009

Re: Control panel

You can use Disk Cleanup on Windows 7 to remove Windows updates that have become redundant; I posted about this some time ago.  Either right click and select Run As Administrator or run normally then select Clean up System Files.       

MKSlinky
Seasoned Pro
Posts: 866
Thanks: 239
Fixes: 3
Registered: ‎26-01-2016

Re: Control panel

@petlew

You're welcome!

Actually the advice given by @ReedRichards is the preferred method for uninstalling redundant windows updates. Windows will only remove those no longer required. You could try removing other older ones yourself using Windows Update but again it's always best to Google whether these can be removed. I use an uninstaller also (Revo Uninstaller) but I only use this for non-Microsoft products which are prone to leaving remnants behind.

The startup function in IOBit is unlikely to work in Windows 10 because Microsoft have changed the path for this folder which can now be found in the following two places:

 

  • Right click the Start Button and choose the 'Run' command

 

  • In the run dialogue box type 'shell:common startup' without the quotes (this is the All-Users startup folder)

or

  • In the run dialogue box type 'shell:startup' without the quotes (this is the Current-User startup folder)

Note:

As a useful side note you can add shortcuts to any program that you want to startup in these folders

 

Hope that helps Wink