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Tracking Changes to a Windows System?

Posted by Cliff on from the following-your-registry dept.

The Watcher asks: "I was at my parents house over the weekend trying to remove various adware/spyware/annoying software, things like Kazaa, Bonzi Buddy, etc.. During this I thought it would be helpful to know things like exactly what files/folders were created/modified and what registry entries were created/modified by an installer program so that I would not have to rely on the supplied uninstaller that only removes a selected subset of what was installed. So what are some preferred utilities out there that work well for this purpose?"

2 of 86 comments (clear)

  1. installwatch pro by beernutz · · Score: 5, Informative

    Free sotftware, and does a nice job.

    installwatch pro

    It will even make an install program for you with the changes!

    --
    (stolen from DaBum) I am dyslexia of borg - your ass will be laminated.
  2. Sysinternals' RegMon and FileMon by Tech+Observer · · Score: 5, Informative

    Both these utilities from SysInternals allow you to log realtime entries to a file. turn them on when you install something and you have a log of everything the installation program touched.
    RegMon
    This monitoring tool lets you see all Registry activity in real-time. It works on all versions of WinNT/2K, Windows 9x/Me and Windows 64-bit.
    FileMon:
    This monitoring tool lets you see all file system activity in real-time. It works on all versions of WinNT/2K/XP, Windows 9x/Me, Windows XP 64-bit Edition, and Linux.