installation logger/uninstall verifier
 

i know there's probably programs somewhere out there like this, but if there aren't, I always thought this was a cool idea.

a program that you can run just before installing something and it logs every file written to the hard-drive during that installation, it then would create a nifty little output file specifically labeled for the software you just installed. it would contain paths to all of the files.

the reason i think this is cool is because i often install things that tend to leave a footprint behind, for some reason the software creators felt the need to leave loads of junk behind such as registry keys/directories/files even after uninstalling the software.

now, when you uninstall something, you can double click the little file outputted by the original logger and it would verify that all of the files/dirs/regkeys were removed, if not it would prompt you what action to take and display the path to the file, to ensure you're not accidentally removing something shared by other programs.

so, good idea or bad idea?

i may even take this project up myself if i still deem it worthy after hearing criticism.

Sounds pretty useful. Though I have seen Installers output what file they install on your machine but goes pretty fast. I would definitely test it out for you if you would like.

Damn that is a pretty good idea, I'm always having to go back through my registry and hard drive trying to delete files that get left behind by uninstallers, only getting about half of them. I've never constantly checked a hard drive for new files before though, so I'm gona need to research that.

I might give it a go in Java or C#.

It's a great idea, but not new. See sysinternals for examples of a file monitor and a registry monitor.

I thought of this before and have found some utilities like this, but I should mention that most are not very well implemented. Hope you'll do a better job.

Sounds like a pretty good idea. 'course, there is the issue of shared .lib files or whatnot, but like you said, you can prompt for an action. Probably most package managers (e.g. on *nix systems) do something like this, though I don't think they handle removing dependencies upon uninstallation...