I am cleaning up a Windows 8 computer and have a program which cannot be uninstalled from the control panel Add/Remove programs section.
Is there a way to easily find the locations of the programs listed in the Add/Remove programs section of the Windows control panel so that I can access them from the command prompt?
Update:
@ElectricRouge pointed out that you could use the below to show locations for some applications below:
Go to control panel --> Right click on the Control panel grid header --> Select More --> and check the location option.
but this does not show the locations for many programs which just show up with blank origins.
Best Answer
You can get some clues as to where an application lives, by looking at where it's uninstaller is located.
Windows stores the list of uninstaller locations in the registry. You can use Regedit to go to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall.That registry key contains a whole lot of sub-keys with GUID names (big long strings of seemingly random letters and numbers). Use Regedit's search function and set it to look for the name of your program as it appears in the "programs and features" list of installed programs. (Un-tick keys and values and just leave data ticked).
Once you find the right sub-key, you'll see a bunch of values for your program. One of them will be called "UninstallString" and may point to the executable or DLL that is used to uninstall the software (or might pass a file location as a parameter to MSIexec or RunDLL). Depending on where the application's uninstaller lives, that information might give you the clue you need to find the rest of the application.
There are other bits of information in the registry that can help you too - See more info from Microsoft at https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa372105(v=vs.85).aspx
Typically programs that don't list an install location will have installed themselves in a number of places around your disk though, so it's best to use the uninstaller if you can.