But getting rid of those programs is another matter because they make all kinds of changes to the files that run the system. Cleaning those out can be tricky. The brute-force method is to simply delete the program files and the folder that contains them from the hard drive. That's a bad solution because the program may have stashed files in other places. These orphans can muck up a system.
Some programs come with an uninstall wizard.
To find the uninstall wizard for a particular program, click Start and then Programs. The menu that comes up might contain the uninstall program, and if it's on the menu, run it from there. Be sure to close any open programs before you run uninstall software. If that doesn't work, put the program CD-ROM disk in the correct drive. On the main menu there might be an uninstall option.