Uninstall program

  • Thread starter Thread starter Ray
  • Start date Start date
R

Ray

For some reasons, some of programs cannot be uninstalled using Add/Remove
Programs Applet or its uninstaller. Can someone recommend a utility program
to accomplish this job.

Thanks,

Ray
 
Ray said:
For some reasons, some of programs cannot be uninstalled using
Add/Remove Programs Applet or its uninstaller. Can someone recommend
a utility program to accomplish this job.

Thanks,

Ray
Click to expand...


I'm using this one...with success.
Regards

Products -> Total Uninstall
Total Uninstall 2.34

Total Uninstall can help you to monitor any changes that were made to your
system during installation of a new software product.
It allow you to perform a complete uninstall without having to rely on the
supplied uninstall program which may leave files or changes behind.

To use it, you simply launch the installation program from the Total
Uninstall interface and select the system areas to be monitored. The program
will then create a snapshot of your system before it installs the new
software and an additional snapshot after install completes. It then
compares the two snapshots and displays all changes in a graphical tree
view, marking all values and/or files that have been added or changed. Total
Uninstall will save these changes and if you decide to uninstall the
application, it will reverse the changes to the previous state.

Total Uninstall is freeware

Available in the following languages: Brazilian-Portuguese, Catalan,
ChineseBig5, Czech, Dutch, English, French, Galician, German, Greek,
Italian, Korean, Polish, Romanian, Russian, Spanish. If you want to
translate the Total Uninstall in your language please let me know. The
language should not appear in the above list.

OS: Win95 OSR2, Win98, WinMe, WinNT, Win2000, WinXP.

http://www.geocities.com/ggmartau/tu.html
 
Won said:
I'm using this one...with success.
Regards

Products -> Total Uninstall
Total Uninstall 2.34
Click to expand...

Except it won't be worth squat for OP since he didn't monitor the install
with it.

--
dadiOH
_____________________________

dadiOH's dandies v3.0...
....a help file of info about MP3s, recording from
LP/cassette and tips & tricks on this and that.
Get it at http://mysite.verizon.net/xico
____________________________
 
Ray said:
For some reasons, some of programs cannot be uninstalled using
Add/Remove Programs Applet or its uninstaller. Can someone
recommend a utility program to accomplish this job.
Click to expand...

Why not?

About all you can do is delete it and clean up the registry.

--
dadiOH
_____________________________

dadiOH's dandies v3.0...
....a help file of info about MP3s, recording from
LP/cassette and tips & tricks on this and that.
Get it at http://mysite.verizon.net/xico
____________________________
 
dadiOH said:
Except it won't be worth squat for OP since he didn't monitor the
install with it.
Click to expand...

Not guaranteed, but many times an uninstall can be successful by deleting
the obvious files, and then reinstalling through Total Uninstall ... and
then uninstalling through the program.
 
Normally, the error message says the uninstall link is broken and I have no
idea how to find all entries in registry. Any idea to dig it out? I have a
couple of programs to try it on.

Ray
 
Ray said:
Normally, the error message says the uninstall link is broken and I
have no idea how to find all entries in registry. Any idea to dig it
out? I have a couple of programs to try it on.

Ray
Click to expand...

Well, I had a bitch of an install like that once, and simply re-installed
with Total Uninstall then uninstalled it and it worked like a champ. Bestest
program there is. Email me if you need to.
 
Any,

I have learnt that if I cannot uninstall a program, it should be ok that I
reinstall it and uninstall it. I tried it successfully in the past.
Unfortunately, I do not have the original program anymore so I cannot try
it. I have downloaded the Total Uninstall for use of future install
program.

Ray
 
Ray said:
Normally, the error message says the uninstall link is broken and I have no
idea how to find all entries in registry. Any idea to dig it out?
Click to expand...

There are a number of program to let you view that information. Here is
one of them:

Program Uninstallation Information (PUI)
http://support.it-mate.co.uk/index.asp?mode=Products&p=pui
http://support.it-mate.co.uk/downloads/pui.zip (53k)

There are others that will let you edit the strings from their interface.
I'm skipping listing respective homepages for the moment, saving myself
the Google lookups, unless I see that it is called for. Edit the string
would be in order to keep the program entries under the CPL Add/Remove
thingy, after you've resolved the paths to point to the right locations.

OTOH, if you just want to get rid of target programs altogether, then
getting at the paths via something like PUI should be adequate.

For instance, in my reg I find this:

"D:\apps\msft\msie\W2K\expinst.exe" /EU ieexinst.inf

If that represented something whose uninstall was broken, then I'd check
on the paths to all the mentioned files (in the example, the two files are
expinst.exe and ieexinst.inf), then fix the string to match my locations
on disk. Then, drop the whole string on my RUN... box from the startmenu,
to execute that uninstall routine.
 
It occurs to me to add an additional note. Often the best starting point
is to look directly in the program's own folder. Many times the uninstall
exe, plus uninstall data file when exist -- they are not scattered around,
and they do not require a complex command for execute.

So start by going to the program's own folder, and look for any executable
with name similar to "uninstall.exe," "remove.exe," etc. Launch it, and see
if that kicks in the uninstall routine.

Then only for where that fails, do you need to get access to the more
complex script commands, and look for files being pointed to in various,
scattered locations on your disk. (As discussed in my previous post.)

Note that success in this area will get you nothing more than execution
of an uninstaller routine. Track record for those, collectively, it is,
to put it mildly, unimpressive.

If you want be able to truly and fully remove programs that you install,
then you need to take the habit of logging their installation + their
first launch by use of a third-party program. Adopt, for example, the
one recommended in this thread: Total Uninstall.
 
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