Char Jackson wrote:
On Mon, 16 Apr 2012 11:45:45 -0500, Jackson wrote:

boatman312 wrote:
On 04/16/12 10:52 AM, Jackson wrote:
Hi,

My wife installed some crappy old software on my XP machine while I was
away and after she deleted it (because it wouldn't even run) I am now
getting three new hardware detection wizards whenever I power up the
machine. Plus the machine is also taking forever to shut down now.

Could anyone help me please? A registry edit maybe? It is really
annoying.

Thank you.
Have you tried System Restore to a previous date?
No. Can't. Someone turned off System Restore so there is no going back.

Any other ideas?

Thanks.

You say she deleted the "crappy" software, but you don't mention what
it was. Maybe someone has specific knowledge about that application.
If it's true that she deleted the software, I would reinstall it and
do a proper uninstallation. If for some reason that's not practical, I
would either check the Registry manually or via a tool such as
Autoruns to see what's being launched during startup. Even msconfig
might shed light. You didn't mention whether you've done any of that.


Yes, she uninstalled it thru Windows uninstaller. The software was an
old 16-bit version for a long defunct retail chain store.
My guess is that the software added drivers for a series of old dial-up
modems and the uninstaller left them upon deletion. Unfortunately I
can't trace them in the registry for certain to manually delete them.
I'm guessing they're under some generic Legacy PNP that I can't risk
deleting in error.