One of the tasks that you should regularly undertake is to uninstall software from your computer. Software, especially those that you do not use and that your Internet browser put into your computer, can accumulate on your hard drive and slow down your computer. Surfing the Internet without ample protection will also let malicious code enter your system. You would need to clean your hard drive of unused software every so often to prevent this from happening.

Some people make the mistake of deleting folders from Windows Explorer in an attempt to uninstall software from their computers. This is not the right way to do it because it does not really get rid of the software. Moreover, it might accidentally delete files that the software you have deleted shares with other software, thus hampering the way these other software work.

There are many ways to uninstall software properly, and here is how to do it with the Windows Vista operating system.

Removing Software You Installed

As you use your computer, you would be installing software by yourself, software that you use for work, games that you play, applications for easier communication or file sharing with others online, and other such software. Eventually, you would stop using them when you get tired of them or when they have served their purpose.

You would need to uninstall software that you do not use anymore. To do this, you should go to your computer's Control Panel and open the Programs folder. Click on the name of the software you do not use anymore and then click uninstall.

Removing Browser-Installed Software and Malware
Not all the programs you would find in your computer are applications that have installed by yourself. When you browse the Internet, the websites you visit sometimes install cookies and other tidbits of code in the computer. If the computer is not protected, malicious software may also find their way into your system, causing your computer to breakdown - or worse, steal data from your computer.

To remove software you did not install by yourself, you would need to use Disk Cleanup. You can type "Disk Cleanup" on the search panel of your Windows Start menu, the small circle carrying the Windows logo on the lower left-hand corner of your screen. Find this application by accessing the Administrative Tools folder under the System and Maintenance menu in your Control Panel. Another option would be to download a third-party disk cleaner like CCCleaner.

To remove malware, you can use Windows Defender to scan computer. Also scan computer using protective software that can download for free, such as Spybot Search and Destroy. Also you need to do a deep scan of your registry to fish out malware hiding in there. To do that, you would need a registry cleaner, which you can also download for free.

After uninstall software from your computer, remember to defragment your hard drive. This will close all the gaps created by removing data from your hard drive and keep computer running faster and more smoothly.