Per-user installs drop binaries under each profile. Removing them while logged in as Administrator might miss another family member’s copy. Switch users or load the profile before scanning.
All-users installs still leave shortcuts and startup entries per account. Check both HKCU and HKLM run keys when a tray app survives reboot.
Document who installed what and when; it prevents “mysterious” reappearances when another account runs the same installer overnight.
Per-user shells matter. Startup entries under HKCU\…\Run apply only to the logged-on profile, while HKLM applies to everyone. If Dad disables a tray tool but Junior’s profile still has the HKCU entry, the app “comes back” after Junior logs in—no malware required.
Shortcuts in Public\Desktop and ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs are visible to all users even when the binary lives in one person’s AppData. Remove the shortcut globally only after you confirm no other account still launches that program.
When cleaning another user’s profile, use “Switch user” instead of only using Run-as-administrator from your own session. Some installers write exclusively to the interactive user’s registry hive; remote admin tools can miss those writes if they never load that profile.
Education PCs and shared kiosks benefit from a simple change log taped inside IT’s ticket system: account name, software, install date, removal date. That discipline pairs well with Shared and family PCs guidance when non-administrators install trials.
If you delete another user’s data without consent—even accidentally—you may break offline files or OneDrive placeholders they rely on. When in doubt, move folders to a quarantine drive letter instead of Shift+Delete.
Roaming profiles and FSLogix masks add another layer. What you see in C:\Users may be a merged view; changes might not persist until the user logs off properly. Avoid destructive deletes while the profile is still attached.
Shared “family” Microsoft accounts on multiple PCs can reinstall Microsoft Store titles everywhere when one person removes them locally. Align removals with Store loops guidance and confirm which account owns the license.
Temporarily elevating a standard user to admin to uninstall software is a policy smell—prefer providing the vendor’s signed uninstaller hash to IT so they can deploy removal safely without handing out permanent admin rights.
After cleaning all profiles, reboot and log in once as each active user to rebuild icon caches; otherwise someone may report “missing apps” when only the shell cache was stale.