Might check and see if the out-of-date programs have an "uninstall" feature that came with the original program. If not you can try and check with the company that the software came. There may even be something on their website or in a forum related to the product.
Blair
I do know that if you remove a program and do not use the add/remove feature it will leave it on the program listing and I myself have not found a way to get rid of it.
But leave it to one of the others in the group to teach us how to do that.
Welcome to the group - happy you are here with us.
Debbie
Very simply, if the files are not present there is nothing to remove. This will not impact your computer. Some of us use Registry Cleaners which remove orphaned entries in the Add/Remove list. One program that cleans the registry and other extraneous garbage like temp files is FREE--CCleaner which can be downloaded from various sources like Download.com--highly rated.
Caveat: I don't use it because there is too much stuff for a novice to deal with. I use a dedicated Registry Cleaner called Registry Mechanic--it's safe but not free.
Sid
