Date: 01/15/07 (Computer Geeks)    Keywords: spyware, google

hey guys,

There are a few programs that I see in the Add/Remove Programs window that I cannot remove. They are not all sneaky spyware. One of them is a game I had deleted from the Program Files without officially uninstalling. So, when I tried uninstalling it now, it gave me two kinds of warnings: 1) cannot find the installation log 2)no change after uninstaller is finished. When I reboot and look into the Add/Remove, the program is still there. However, a Google Desktop Search showed me there are no folders associated with these programs anywhere on the computer.

I'm not an expert on operating systems but starting with these symptoms I figured that this is a problem with the system registry. A phantom DLL is haunting my computer, and to eradicate this phantom I must find the associated DLL files and delete them. But, as I said I'm not an expert--and without Scooby Doo on my side I can't go ghost hunting--so there can be something I'm overlooking.

btw, I Googled this before coming here and didn't find a good suggestion other than using HijackThis to stamp out the adware-like apps, which is not very useful to me. What are your thoughts on this? Has it happened to any of you?

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/computergeeks/1022777.html