how does uninstalling a software work? Why is it so quick, when installing takes longer?
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Writing in the disk is equivalent to writing in a book, while uninstalling a software or deleting a file is more like deleting an entry in an index. This is why it’s possible to “undelete” a file in certain cases.
Writing in the disk is equivalent to writing in a book, while uninstalling a software or deleting a file is more like deleting an entry in an index. This is why it’s possible to “undelete” a file in certain cases.
Writing in the disk is equivalent to writing in a book, while uninstalling a software or deleting a file is more like deleting an entry in an index. This is why it’s possible to “undelete” a file in certain cases.
Think of installing an application as putting a desk together. You have to unbox everything, make sure you have all the pieces, put it together per the instructions, then place it in your home and fill it with items you’d use with it. That takes time. When it’s time to get rid of the desk, you remove things from the drawer and take it outside. Way less time.
Installing software is similar. Installers are compressed, so it has to uncompress the files, make folders to hold everything and fill it with specific files, then make sure your computer knows where necessary files for the application are and what to file types it can open. When it comes time to delete the application, it’s just deleting the folders it created and removing references to the application that it set up during install. It’s not always far faster to uninstall than install, but this is a reason why it can be.
Think of installing an application as putting a desk together. You have to unbox everything, make sure you have all the pieces, put it together per the instructions, then place it in your home and fill it with items you’d use with it. That takes time. When it’s time to get rid of the desk, you remove things from the drawer and take it outside. Way less time.
Installing software is similar. Installers are compressed, so it has to uncompress the files, make folders to hold everything and fill it with specific files, then make sure your computer knows where necessary files for the application are and what to file types it can open. When it comes time to delete the application, it’s just deleting the folders it created and removing references to the application that it set up during install. It’s not always far faster to uninstall than install, but this is a reason why it can be.
Think of installing an application as putting a desk together. You have to unbox everything, make sure you have all the pieces, put it together per the instructions, then place it in your home and fill it with items you’d use with it. That takes time. When it’s time to get rid of the desk, you remove things from the drawer and take it outside. Way less time.
Installing software is similar. Installers are compressed, so it has to uncompress the files, make folders to hold everything and fill it with specific files, then make sure your computer knows where necessary files for the application are and what to file types it can open. When it comes time to delete the application, it’s just deleting the folders it created and removing references to the application that it set up during install. It’s not always far faster to uninstall than install, but this is a reason why it can be.
This relates to how it’s possible to recover deleted data. When you “delete” something you are removing the thing that tells the computer there is data there. All those 1s and 0s stay how they are, the data is still there. It remains there untill that specific spot is reused, at which point the 1s and 0s are changed to whatever is being written. It is impossible to move data on a computer. What you are really doing is copying it from the first place to the second, and flagging the original location as free.
This relates to how it’s possible to recover deleted data. When you “delete” something you are removing the thing that tells the computer there is data there. All those 1s and 0s stay how they are, the data is still there. It remains there untill that specific spot is reused, at which point the 1s and 0s are changed to whatever is being written. It is impossible to move data on a computer. What you are really doing is copying it from the first place to the second, and flagging the original location as free.
This relates to how it’s possible to recover deleted data. When you “delete” something you are removing the thing that tells the computer there is data there. All those 1s and 0s stay how they are, the data is still there. It remains there untill that specific spot is reused, at which point the 1s and 0s are changed to whatever is being written. It is impossible to move data on a computer. What you are really doing is copying it from the first place to the second, and flagging the original location as free.
basically, when you install something, you mark an area of disk space as being “file A”, then copy all of File A into that space. you also, as the same time, create a entry in the disks index that says “File A is at *this* location”. whenever it needs to find the file, it goes to check the index, then goes to that location to retrieve it.
when you delete the file, all the computer does is get rid of the index entry saying where it is. the physical data is still in the same location, but as far as the computer is concerned, that area is just “free space”. eventually, the area will get overwritten by some new file, but until then, it sits there.
you might have heard people say that “files are never really deleted”, or talk about recovering a file. this is what they mean. you can in theory go into the disk system and rebuild the index.
the only way to permanently remove a file so it cant be recovered is by repeatedly overwriting the disk space to remove any traces of the data. Theirs purpose built software used for this (the version i know is called “blancco”), but merely pressing “delete” just clears the registry and doesn’t remove the actual data.
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