Opera 68 Uninstalled but still Opens

Pesala

I stopped using Opera some time ago, so uninstalled it, or so I thought, but on testing a link context menu in Opera 12.18, Opera 68 opened. I have this section in my Opera Menu *.ini file:

[Open In Menu]
Item, "Open in &Firefox"="Execute program, "C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe", "%u",,"Firefox""
Item, "Open in &IE"="Execute program, "iexplore", "%u",,"IE""
--- Open in Opera Versions ---
Item, "Open in &Opera"="Execute program, "C:\Opera\launcher.exe", "%u",,"Window Browser Icon""
Item, "Open in &Vivaldi"="Execute program, "O:\Vivaldi\Application\vivaldi.exe", "%l",,"Vivaldi""

So I looked in Windows Explorer and found Opera 68 was installed/saved in C:\Opera\

It does not show up in my list of installed applications.

Apps and Features.png

Pesala

@Gwen-Dragon As I said, I already found it, but my question is “Why is it there if I uninstalled Opera?”

Davy49

@Pesala , I would suggest that you might try a free program uninstaller, with those they not only delete the program but also any residual file's that were left behind in the registry. Here's the one that I use: http://www.wisecleaner.com/wise-program-uninstaller.html It's free and works well, just a suggestion.

Pesala

@Davy49 So I have to install another PuP to uninstall a PuP? I wonder if you see the irony of this?

It may be easier in the long run, but I want to see why Opera is doing this.

I reinstalled Opera, then uninstalled it again

I found a whole bunch of old folders for old Opera versions in C:\Program Files\ too.

I deleted the whole lot, and the C:\Opera folder has not so far reappeared, so problem solved.

Komposten

@Pesala said in Opera 68 Uninstalled but still Opens:

It does not show up in my list of installed applications.

Programs only show up there if they have an entry in the appropriate place of the registry. If you had 2 copies of Opera installed, then you'd probably only see one of them in Apps & Features (and removing that one would not reveal the second one). Or maybe the uninstaller failed to remove the files, but succeeded in removing the entry from the registry.

@Pesala said in Opera 68 Uninstalled but still Opens:

@Gwen-Dragon As I said, I already found it, but my question is “Why is it there if I uninstalled Opera?”

Did you have Opera installed to that location before you uninstalled it? If that's the case it was probably the uninstaller which failed to remove the files for some reason.
If you had 2 installs of Opera, you probably only uninstalled one (and the other doesn't show up in Apps & Features as per the above).

greybeard

If I remember correctly there should be an "Uninstall.exe" in the same folder as the Opera.exe.

Davy49

Hi,
Even though Pesala disagrees with my thinking on this subject, I've found that a good separate uninstaller does a more 'complete' job of totally removing piece's of file's that might have been left behind after just using a installed program uninstaller method. A computers registry is a very complicated thing, actually it the so-called heart & soul of a computer, so having a separate uninstaller that seeks out and finds those left behind bit's & piece's that were left behind works well...at least in my case it does. Of course everyone is different (except on the inside) so people have different idea's concerning certain thing's. Please Stay Safe !!
David

Pesala

@Davy49 I have seen no end of problems caused by various registry and disk clean-up tools. They are powerful tools, and if one takes the time to learn how to use them correctly they may improve system performance.

However, it is more likely that the very people who have problems with their PC are those who don't read the instructions carefully.

I could have, and did, solve the reported problem just by deleting the unwanted folders. I went one step further to see if I could find the cause of the problem, but could not reproduce the issue. I consider the problem solved. Some redundant entries in my Windows Registry don't worry me.

I take the same approach to Antivirus. I only use the built-in Windows Defender and Firewall, because third-party products often cause problems by sending unknown files to quarantine.

Catweazle

@Pesala , there are many problems that can cause erroneous, obsolete and redundant entries in the Windows registry (such as trying to run programs that are no longer in the system), apart from slowing down the system. I know this from my own experiences. It is therefore worth making a cleaning once in a while, for this I use Glary Utilities since years, which does it quite well and safely.
It can be cleaned by hand, but not all the entries are identifiable, since they only consist of a hex number associated with a program, so it is better to use a utility for this purpose.

Davy49

@Catweazle , Hi..I'm SO glad that you posted this, I also use the Glary Utilities software. I'm running the application on two windows 10 pro - 64 bit computer's, before installing it I read a LOT of review's about it. They were mainly all positive, however there were in fact some negative one's, they mainly focused on the location where the software gets developed. However at least as far as I'm concerned that didn't really matter that much to me, all I REALLY was concerned about was how well it functioned ! Also, I thought I'd share this site:
https://alternativeto.net , there you can compare different application's to the one that you are considering installing & receive factual information as well as valid review's by user's that are familiar with the software. This is just food for thought, just trying to help !
David

Catweazle

@Davy49 , In the past in its first versions, it is true that Glary had the reputation of being Bundleware, which required custom installation to avoid the installation of McAffee save search and similar garbage, which evidently financed a small growing company.But this has not been the case for a long time and Glary, in my opinion, is one of the best apps of this type, even better than the best known CCleaner.The downside is that it is not OpenSource, where there are certainly alternatives (Bleachbit), but none that can be compared in functionality and security, not remotely.

sgunhouse

If you install Opera standalone, it makes no changes to the registry - including to the installed software section. Hence, Add/Remove Software will not even know it is there. To actually remove it, just delete the entire folder. And of course remove the then-invalid entry from your menu.