After uninstall, what is purpose of CPM showing files/registry list?

Discontinued Products Help - CPM
1

After CPM finishes running the standard uninstaller, it shows a tree list of files and registry entries. I don’t see the point of showing this list since it isn’t readable. Entries are truncated, like “C:\Document and Settings\All Us…” and “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\software…Set”. What am I supposed to do with this list? It’s unreadable. There’s no way to see the full path to the file so I can tell which file will be removed or which registry key and data value(s) under it will get removed as a following cleanup action by CPM.

There is no export function to save this list into a text file that I can open to review the list of remnant files and registry entries that CPM proposes to remove. Hovering the mouse over the entry doesn’t show a balloon with the full path to the filename or registry entry. The list item is not clickable to display the properties of the file (same as right-clicking on the file and selecting Properties) or open regedit.exe to the registry entry so I can see its context and data items and their values.

This list is like having an unlabelled food can: you haven’t a clue what’s inside. This list could be a bunch of random garbled characters and would be as useless. Without providing real information to the user, CPM might as well as go ahead and make all those deletions since users won’t know what’s getting deleted and will likely, as a consequence, just go ahead and click the Continue button.

2

I have no problem seeing the complete paths of everything in Files and Directories and also Registry. Maybe you need to tell your OS specs and also the Display Resolution you are using.

3

Windows XP Pro SP-3 (in virtual machine; MS VirtualPC 2007)
Monitor: 1024x768

Comodo Programs Manager (CPM) version 1.3.2.30

I cannot drag the column edges to lengthen the column widths. If that were possible, I could then scroll to the right/left to see more. Or if a bubble popped up that was full length for the path/file when I hover the mouse over the entry then I could see where was the file and what file, or what was the registry key’s path. There’s no export function to let me put it into a text files that I could open. There’s no larger view of the list outside the right-side panel where the tree list is shown. Within the right-side info pane when selecting a program and where the tree list gets displayed, I cannot change the size of the columns to see more within any particular column.

It’s possible CPM is not a DPI-aware app which means what the dev see using the default 96 DPI won’t be what users at 120 DPI will see. Those users will see truncated text in some apps because of fixed positioning of objects. However, the paths (for files or registry keys) would still be too long with a smaller DPI (the default 96).

When you say you see the FULL path, are you saying that a path like "C:\Program Files\Comodo\Comodo Internet Security" (example path only) can actually be seen all at once? What happens if the path is longer than the width of your screen (considering there is also the screen real estate consumed by the window for CPM, left menu pane and leftside programs listing column)?

Attached are screen captures of what I see when using CPM to uninstall a program (MS TweakUI, in this case) which first runs the standard uninstall (using the program’s uninstaller) and then the tree list that follows. For this particular test, there was only 1 remnant registry entry listed in the tree list by CPM after it first ran the standard uninstaller. Notice the FULL path to the registry key is not displayed. It gets truncated with “…”. Even with CPM’s window maximized, the path is still too long. Even if I had a bigger monitor so the Windows screen was larger and CPM’s windows was bigger, paths can easily be longer than the screen width (for the portion of CPM’s window where the the tree is displayed).

CPM_selectprog.jpg: Picked a program (monitored by CPM). Right-pane show info.
CPM_tree.jpg: The tree shown in the default window size for CPM.
CPM_tree_maxwin.jpg: CPM showing tree with CPM window maximized.
CPM_tree_maxwin_leftpanereduced.jpg: CPM window maximized, drag center bar to reduce left pane size (increase right pane size for tree display).

I can click and highlight an entry in the tree. Right-clicking shows no context menu for me to get more info on the entry, like the full path. Double-clicking on an entry does nothing (rather than display a larger window with the info).

So how do YOU get to see the full path to a file or registry key (and its data item(s))?

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4

Figured out how to increased the space used to display the paths in the file and registry nodes in the tree. I didn’t try this before because I didn’t realize there were columns in the display. If I hover the mouse just to the right of the search box, the mouse changes to a double-arrow cursor to indicate that I can drag the column edge left or right. So after dragging it several times to the right to repeatedly increase the size of the first column (Path which also has the searchbox) then I can see the full path. Apparently when I tried this before, I didn’t get the mouse exactly aligned over the column separator to see that I could drag the column edge.

Alas, although I can increase the column width, sometimes there is no horizontal scrollbar. As I drag the Path column’s right edge to the right to increase its size, a scrollbar shows up so I can move back and forth; however, occasionally that scrollbar isn’t there. This might be a repaint problem with their window if it loses focus and then regains it, or maybe I was bouncing around inside CPM’s window but when I came back the scrollbar was gone.

While I can now figure out how to see the full path, it would be much handier if I could copy it into the clipboard so I could paste it in the Windows Explorer addressbar (just the path) so I could right-click and look at Properties → Version tab. If it’s a registry key, twould be nice to double-click on it to have CPM open regedit.exe with that key selected.

UPDATE

I figured out when the scrollbar disappears. With the mouse atop the scrollbar, drag it left and right but keep the mouse button pressed all the time. While moving left or right, move the mouse slightly off the scrollbar. That is, do as what happens often when moving the scrollbar by having the mouse move outside the screen region for where the scrollbar is painted. In normal apps, when you click and drag the scrollbar, moving the mouse out of the scrollbar’s region continues moving the scrollbar. Well, this also works for CPM’s scrollbar except the scrollbar with DISAPPEAR. Even after the scrollbar disappears, keep the mouse button pressed and you can still drag the now invisible scrollbar left and right. However, if you release the mouse button outside the scrollbar’s region while dragging it, the scrollbar remains hidden. Now you can no longer scroll left or right.

The workaround is to resize the Path column once again to make the scrollbar reappear.