Add/Remove Programs is not doing it's job

Whenever I go into the Add/Remove programs list and try to uninstall something, the program gets removed from the list, but it doesn't appear in the recycle bin (norton protected recycle bn if that means anything) and none of my hdd space gets cleared up. I've un-installed somewhere between 10-15 gigs worth of games without any result and I'm running out of space. Please help

 

This is a bit strange. Try uninstalling programs from within the branch for the program, in the start menu. If this doesn't work, then restart your PC, and try again. Hope this helps.

 

They shouldn't be in the recycle bin.

Check the program files directories of the games, if they're still there (they shouldn't be), right-click > |properties| the folder to see if they're still taking up space.

It may be the drive is improperly reporting the amount of free space. Try error-checking the drive:
Go to My Computer, right-click on the drive > properties, |tools|, Check Now...

 

Clear out the protected bin. Norton is probably holding those files until you say otherwise.

Norton does bad things sometimes...I'll blame it until proven otherwise.

 

Also try to do a disk cleanup. Maybe XP placed it into the compressed old files. It is good to try a system restart too.

 

Dumb question:

How do I do a disk cleanup???

 

Go to My Computer, Right click you HDD icon, Click Properties, Click Disk Cleanup. May take a minute for XP to read all the junk files. You can click all the check boxes that apply.

 

Always disable the norton unerase protection, because all it does is clog up hdd space. It will "save" anything you think you've deleted for like a month. It's completely stupid.

 

Another dumb question:

What do I do to turn off the un-erase protection?

 

Open up Norton... Go to Options, then Miscellaneous Options. There should be a section for Norton Protected Recycle Bin/Unerase Protection.

 

That's really odd, I don't see anything about the un-erase protection.

 

I'm running a slightly out of date version of Norton, so it might be in a different place on a newer one.

 

I also have Norton System Works installed on my computer, which integrates all of the other Norton stuff into its menu, so maybe that has something to do with this. **** this stupid norton crap, All I wanted was the virus scanner and the One Button Check-up and it worms its way into my recyle bin.

 

I hate Norton as well. I typically use AVG or Avast! on Windows.

As an aside, the "Add/Remove Programs" wizard is COMPLETELY dependent on the program that was installed. The program has to register itself with Add/Remove Programs, and has to provide an uninstaller executable, etc. Windows just makes a place to put those things, it doesn't actually manage anything about it. You have to trust the developer of the application to do a good job at actually removing the software, not miss anything, unset all their registry keys, etc. That's why it's a BAD idea to just install any software, only install what you actually want. Uninstallers often leave crap around the system that's hard to find and fix.