Ask Leo! by Leo A. Notenboom

How do I uninstall software that doesn't provide a way to uninstall?

Search First! Then browse: Categories | Full Archive | By Date | Newsletter

Home » Windows » Windows Configuration

Comments

Read the article that everyone's commenting on.
RSS feed Subscribe to the RSS Feed for comments on this article.

Comment Page:  1  |  2 

Hi Leo,
Does this work for programs that need to be uninstalled then re-installed? Wont the registry and other remnants you refer to cause problems on a re-install?

There's no real way to answer that, as it totally depends on the software itself. Some may be affected, some may not. By definition the software is already ill-behaved by not providing an uninstall. Best advice I can give is to try and hope for the best.
- Leo
16-Oct-2008

Posted by: Roger Williams at October 16, 2008 2:42 AM

1) I uninstalled Eprompter, but the popup materializes on my screen when I turn my machine on. How do I get rid of it?
2) How do I delete from Google Chrome, a site/image that I only used once and want to remove from the start page?

Posted by: Dr. J. at October 18, 2008 9:51 AM

Hi Leo...re: un-installing programs...a process I've found and use on my machine works wonderfully well...after uninstalling, whether it be thru Control Panel A&R, or manual deletion, I will run Search, using the program name in the appropriate area...Search seems to turn up all of the residual garbage still remaining after yoou've done your uninstall...now you can just highlight and 'Delete' right from the list that shows up in Search...frequently the "can't delete, etc" message appears, but this can be overcome by altering the sequence of your file deletion process...works for me.

Posted by: Richard Berman at October 21, 2008 1:57 PM

RE: "I uninstalled Eprompter, but the popup materializes...." Go here->
http://209.85.173.104/search?q=cache:slsnpNwMgJ8J:www.eprompter.com/faqs.htm+Eprompter+uninstall&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us

Posted by: Dennis at October 21, 2008 3:56 PM

I have used Revo Uninstaller with great success

Posted by: Ian Mack at October 21, 2008 4:54 PM

Hi Leo,

Re: Uninstalling Programs - In some cases people have had success in simply reinstalling the offending program. I did this once, just installed over the existing program. A check of the Control Panel's Add/Remove Programs then showed the offending program and I was able to uninstall it.

Posted by: Norm at October 21, 2008 9:23 PM

Leo and everyone,

Here's something to watch out for if you have installed an old program on Vista and that program does not have an uninstall option.

Some old programs used to store user data along with the executable files in C:\Program Files\my_program. Vista will not allow that, but creates a virtual folder to fool the program into where it is storing files. Browsing file locations using the program showed folders and files that were invisible in Explorer. I finally found them, but only with an advanced search of non-indexed locations.

The files were in C:\Users\my account\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files\my_program There are over 30MB of files there that would have not been deleted.

So, if you are on Vista and manually delete a program, check that VirtualStore location. In fact, I have now found many orphans from programs that did have uninstall options, but didn't properly clean up after themselves.

Posted by: Bosque Bill at October 22, 2008 10:40 AM

Even if the program is not listed in the Control Panel, and does not offer a menu option to uninstall, look in the program folder and you may find a file called "unwise.exe" or perhaps even "uninstall.exe". Double-click on it to initiate the uninstall routine.

Posted by: Alan Masterman at October 23, 2008 12:36 AM

The "Windows Installer CleanUp Utility", which can be downloaded from Microsoft or software hosting sites, can also be of help sometimes with uninstall problems.

Posted by: Bernard Winchester at October 23, 2008 3:19 AM

This is what i do and works every time.
Works in both XP & Vista.

Delete registry keys...
Star-Run-type in regedit-go to edit-find-next-
type in-*program*-find next-right click-delete any key that
says-*Program*-keep clicking find next and deleting.
When all is gone you will get a popup
That says finished searching.
I have used this time and time again
with great success.

Posted by: fastfreddie1959 at October 24, 2008 7:47 AM
Comment Page:  1  |  2 
Read the article that everyone's commenting on.
RSS feed Subscribe to the RSS Feed for comments on this article.
Post a Comment

Question? Ask Leo!