a clean uninstall (registry keys to remove)

[PFSchaffner]

Having installed and uninstalled TP 4 and 6 several times (and once TP7) in a vain effort to make different versions play well together -- never, I might add, in the default install folder--, I am left with a registry full enough of conflicting TextPad stuff that no version will now work corectly. I can no longer associate file types with textpad, tp no longer appears on the list of installed apps or in the right-click context menu, and when it runs, it comes with a warning that it may be running in a way that requires admin privileges. (Windows 7/64.) I imagine this is because none of the uninstalls were true clean uninstalls -- they all left something behind, which I will need to clean out manually. At which point I can install one version and leave it at that.

*My question is: does anyone have a list of registry keys and values that need to be removed in order to do a total, clean uninstall? Especially, any keys that do not actually contain the searchable word "textpad". (My only experience with this sort of thing is manually removing McAfee, which required the manual removal of about 300 keys...; hoping TP is simpler than that!)

(My second question, which I'll save for another post, is whether there actually is a practical way to run multiple versions of TP simultaneously.)

pfs (Daily TP user for 18 years.)

[bbadmin]

These are the registry entries I am aware of:

Explorer's context menu:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\TextPad
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\CLSID\<class GUID>

where <class GUID> is:

• TextPad 7: {8A791F0C-C63C-4EC5-B97F-FBCE74EDBC54}
• TextPad 5 & 6: {ABECE8A0-FF84-4efb-82AE-9B3181CE097D}
• TextPad 4: {2F25CF20-C569-11D1-B94C-00608CB45480}

Predefined associations:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\OpenWithList\TextPad.exe
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Applications\TextPad.exe
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.htm\OpenWithList\TextPad.exe
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.html\OpenWithList\TextPad.exe
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.txt\OpenWithList\TextPad.exe
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.tws
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\TextPad.tws
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\TextPad.dde

For each manually associated file extension .EXT:

It's safest to use Explorer to reassign the association to notepad.exe, but these are the entries:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.EXT\OpenWithList
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\TextPad.EXT

Entries for configuration:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Helios
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Wow6432Node\Helios
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Helios
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Helios
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\TextPad.exe

Keith MacDonald
Helios Software Solutions

[PFSchaffner]

Many thanks! pfs