New unknown Program

kirashi · September 24, 2017

@Cyborgnerd while it certainly could be malware, I'll bet you a box of TimBits that it's just Windows 10 being typical Windows 10 claiming that the uninstall.exe program in the directory of the program you just installed is a new program on your PC that you might want to run. This happens all the time to me because Windows 10 doesn't seem to understand the difference between the actual program you just installed and the uninstaller for it. Probably because Microsoft believes app developers should be using their complicated UWP platform to release apps. le sigh

GoodBytes · September 25, 2017

Most programs that you install includes an "uninstaller' quick link in the Start Menu. The reason for this has to do back with Windows 95, where the concept of a panel where you can uninstall programs was new, and many people didn't know about it. So program makers started to put Uninstallers in a folder where you have the program in the Start Menu.

Today, just about everyone can figure out or knows where to uninstall a program under Windows, even back in Windows 98 days, but especially easy since XP with the Control Panel shottcut being on the Start Menu, and Vista with the introduced the search box, where if you search for "Uninstall", you'll get the panel to uninstall programs.

But.. sadly, VERY few developers bothers updating their installers. Many still uses the same code to make the installers since Windows 9x days. Very sad. But no complaints, so they don't bother. So NOW, when you install a bunch of programs on your PC, your start menu is filled with "Uninstall", especially when you search for "Uninstall", you get a mass amount of them, and no one tells you it is for which program, because they all assume that the "Uninstall" option is viewed in the folder in the start menu that the installer created to put the program.

Its a f*** mess. So, now, what you should do, like everyone else does:

Go to: C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs and C:\Users\<Account Name>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs
Go to each program folder, copy the shortcut of the program, go up the folder (so back to the Start Menu folder, where you were just a second ago before you enter the folder of the program), paste it. Once done, you can delete the folder program.

Do this for every program you installed. You can leave Windows stuff in folders if you want. Yes, it is a pain, but no one complains to devs, so nothing is done, especially that "We won't trash your start menu with this new version!" isn't exactly a selling feature, to have business department push them to invest 10 min of a developer time to have him or her fix this outdated setup.