Uninstalled Programs & Leftover Registry Items

Can items which are leftover in the registry after uninstalling a program still cause problems?

After months of problems, I finally had my BitDefender Internet Security 2008 working fairly well and loading reasonably fast at start up. Then I was advised to install DefenseWall and told there should be no problems running this with BDIS. Wrong!

So I uninstalled it. BDIS is working much better but not as good as it has been. I went to the registry and find there are lots of leftover keys for this DefenseWall in there. I'm assuming they must still be affecting things. Is it safe for me to carefully do a search of this program in the registry and delete these items?

Windows Vista Home Premium on a Dell XPS 410.

 

Have you tried to you as registry cleaner.if you haven't already have download and install ccleaner " http://www.majorgeeks.com/CCleaner_Slim_No_Yahoo_Toolbar_English_d4191.html " and use the registry scan to clean out the left overs.this is a safe program you should keep the back ups when prompted.Good luck.

 

Yes, I have used CCleaner and also Registry Mechanic. Neither one, apparently, removed these leftover items. I am so wishing now I would have used Revo Uninstaller to remove DefenseWall rather than removing it through Vista's Remove Programs. I think that would have scanned the registry after removal and removed more, if not all, of these items.

What about my question of using the find option in the registry and removing any items leftover from DefenseWall or SoftSphere Technologies?

 

Why don't you reinstall and use Revo this time.
I see you've posted in their forum, so maybe wait for them to respond.
Cheers..

 

i myself have windows xp and often search through my registry manually and remove left over data but be sure if you do this make sure you have a back up of your registry before you do.I also make use of another program called reg scrub vistaxp " http://www.majorgeeks.com/RegScrubVistaXP_d5946.html " maybe this will help.

 

Thanks for your help, both of you! I did post in the DefenseWall forum after I posted here so I guess we'll see what happens.