SillyDog701

[Fulvio]

I never paid attention to the fact that there are versions in the Add/Remove, but only one on the hard drive. When I try to "uninstall" the older versions, wherever they may be, I am told to place a "Disk", whatever that is. So, I, still have three versions listed. I, never uninstalled the older version, and I let Opera do its thing.
Aside from these anomalies Opera works fine.
I am using 9.6.3, which is on my hard drive, but 9.5.2 and 9.6.2 are also listed in the Add/Remove.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.0.5) Gecko/2008120122 Firefox/3.0.5

[PaulD]

These entries are in the Registry at
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\ [product name]

Click on each one of interest, examine all the Values and Data. Verify that each Data path indicated is either dead or not of interest. Then delete the product sub-key.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.0.5) Gecko/2008120122 Firefox/3.0.5

[Fulvio]

Verify that each Data path indicated is either dead or not of interest.

How do I verify.
I am, rarely, if ever, work with the registry, because the first time that I did that, I messed it up. It was with the McAfee Anti Virus, which was leaving hundreds of keys after the uninstall from the add/remove. Only the reported presence of a Spyware led me to the Registry (it was a suspect rogue, so the AV was not choosing to remove it.
As for Opera, I had to open every folder with a bunch of letter and numbers in the Uninstall bunch, to find that I had a 9.63, and at least a separate 9.52 folder. Now what?
There is no Opera listed further down in the Products. All other programs show an uninstall string in each folder.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.1b2) Gecko/20081201 Firefox/3.1b2

[PaulD]

'Verify' = what you did - manually look for (using Explorer) each entity listed. If it doesn't exist, the entry is dead and moot.

Since 9.6.3 is what you DO want, and 9.5.2 and 9.6.2 are (allegedly) not viable, you are safe to delete any Registry entries that reference them.

In general, any entry in the Registry that references a non-existent folder or file on the hard disk - that entry is safe to remove. You can 'back up' in the subkeys to whatever point is a logical branch that affects only the item of interest. Frequently there are several subkeys that are associated, and which may be removed as a group.

Microsoft recommends that one do a Registry save before any operation. I've found that it is sufficient to save (Export) only the Key that is one level up from where you will be tampering. An Export saves the whole dependent tree starting with the named key or sub-key. (Caution: When looking at the exported file - it has a file extension of .reg - do NOT double-click it. Doing so will reload it into the Registry. Right-click; then use WordPad for readability.)

Sadly, some products, apparently Opera among them, don't use a nice 'English' label, only a hexadecimal key. You did a good job in finding what you did. Another tactic that works when locating these rascals is to do a Find using a word that you know should be contained; in your case, 'opera'. Then root around in the vicinity.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.0.5) Gecko/2008120122 Firefox/3.0.5

[Fulvio]

tactic that works when locating these rascals is to do a Find using a word that you know should be contained;

I did this, too, since Opera9.62 was, also, listed in the Add/Remove, but I found no reference to it. As you can see, I am not overly concerned. I will get around to do something, sometimes
Thanks Paul!

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.2a1pre) Gecko/20090126 Minefield/3.2a1pre

[leonidasjones]

Hi Fulvio,

Sorry to be so late in responding to this. Also, I should note that at this point in my computing career, I'm pretty much a Windows dabbler. If I were to trash the registry, I would have no great problem with reinstalling Windows and starting over, since I don't use it for actual work.

That being said, I do have Opera 9.63 installed on Windows, and I actually use it rather a lot. In my Add/Remove list, I see only 9.63. If I did see the earlier version, here is what I would do.

First, I would run the CCleaner registry tool to get rid of unneeded entries. I do that every time I unistall any program. That might just fix it there.

Second, if the rogue entries are still there, I would use the Sbybot Search and Destroy tool to clean up the Add/Remove entries. That should do it.

On the other hand, the safer course would be to uninstall Opera 9.63. See if that removes the other entries as well. If it does not, try the old Netscape trick of installing the older versions, then uninstalling them. Once you're done with that, you should be able to install 9.63 with a clean Add/Remove.

Lee

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X Mach-O; en-US; rv:1.8.1.19) Gecko/20081204 SeaMonkey/1.1.14 Mnenhy/0.7.6.0