How do I manually remove a program from the Add/Remove programs list?

Question

I'm trying to get rid of a program from the add/remove programs list that wouldn't go normally. I opened the registry HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall
to search for the key manually, I checked every key's display name, but the program isn't there, except for the keys that are almost empty like these:

There are plenty of keys like this, are they the remnants of previously uninstalled programs? Is it okay to remove those keys? Maybe my program is somewhere in those keys?

Answer 1

How are you searching the registry and what are you searching for? Normally a search for the program name, exe or program GUID will show what's there. Did you know the GUID before removing the program?

If you're questioning whether to remove a key I'd personally err on side of caution or at least take a backup of the key first in case you get unwanted side effects. If nothing is in the keys it's unlikely they are being used anyway, in which case I'd leave them.