Best Free Program Un-installer
This group of programs has two sub classes: Windows uninstaller replacements and application uninstallers.
The Windows Add/Remove Programs applet in the control panel constantly annoys users with its limitations. MyUninstaller is a more capable product than the Windows version. It gives you much more information about each installed program including product name, company, version, uninstall string, installation folder, and Windows Registry details. It also allows you to delete orphaned and obsolete entries from the list, as well as the ability to save a list of all installed applications into a text file or HTML. My favorite feature is the ability to sort programs by the date installed which is great for quickly uninstalling programs you are just trying out. As no installation is required, it can be run from a CD or USB drive which makes it an excellent addition to your diagnostic toolkit.
An alternative that offers similar functionality is Safarp. It's great strength is its speed - it loads in a flash. Safarp can be be run as a stand alone program or installed and integrated into the Control Panel.
Windows Installer CleanUp Utility from Microsoft supplements rather than replaces the applet. It cleans up dead entries in the Windows Add/Remove programs panel and tidies up the corresponding Windows uninstaller registry entries.
None of these programs can of course, remove leftover registry entries, DLLs and files that belong to defunct programs. To do this you need an application uninstaller i.e. a program that monitors the original install so that it can work out exactly what changes are made during installation.
My top selection in this group is ZSoft Uninstaller. Like all programs in this class, you need to tell ZSoft Uninstaller to monitor an installation before you do the install otherwise the uninstaller doesn't know what has changed. ZSoft Uninstaller does this by taking a file and registry snapshot both before and after the install and then does a comparison to find what's changed.
A good second choice is Total Uninstall 2, the last free version of the commercial product Total Uninstall 2 which is still available from some download sites. It doesn't offer the impressive features of the latest commercial version but is quite capable if a little slow compared to ZSoft.
A third possibility is Revo, an uninstaller that works rather differently. It can uninstall a program without the need to monitor its installation. It works by automatically doing what an experienced user would do manually. It removes all the program's files, autostart entries and removes all obvious registry entries. This process can never be better than an inspired guess, but it's sure better than nothing.
I ran some tests by getting Revo to uninstall a product whose installation I had monitored using ZSoft Uninstaller, a before and after uninstaller. Revo did a fine job, though not quite as good as a skilled user would do manually. There were still some remains left over, notably files stored in the user/local settings folder. That said, the leftover files did no harm other than take up disk space, and they certainly would not interfere with the normal operation of the PC.
When you ask Revo to uninstall a program, it first looks for the product's uninstall program and will run that program if it is found. Only if the search fails will it try to remove files and registry entries itself. Revo can also act as a before and after uninstaller, but frankly this is not its forte. The freeware utility ZSoft Uninstaller is a better choice for this. I was very impressed by Revo. It is the only freeware product I know of that will make a decent job of cleaning up a failed install. It's not perfect in its un-installation, but it does a fine job in the circumstances and offers a lifeline to average users. Next time you encounter a failed uninstall, remember Revo.
The before and after approach used by these products is not foolproof as other files may change in your system during the install which are unrelated to the installation. If you then uninstall these changes will also be reversed with possible harmful consequences. It's not likely but possible. That's why I recommend using this kind of uninstaller only when the uninstaller provided with the program fails. There's no point risking problems when you don't have to.
MyUninstaller
Website: http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/myuninst.html
Download link: http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/myuninst.zip
Author: NirSoft
Current version: 1.37
Version date: December 21, 2007
License: Freeware
Download File size: 44KB
Operating Systems Supported: 95/98/Me/NT/2000/XP/2003 Server/Vista
Additional Software Required: None
No Portable Version Available:
Non-English languages supported: Most languages available
Safarp
Website: http://wistinga.online.fr/safarp/
Download link: http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/wistinga/safarp-0.5.exe?download
Author: Wistinga Projects (http://wistinga.online.fr/safarp/)
Current version: .5
Version date: August 8, 2005
License: Freeware
Download File size: 132KB
Operating Systems Supported: Windows 2000 and later versions (Windows XP, Windows Server 2003)
Additional Software Required: None
64 Bit Capable: No
Portable Version Available: No
Additional Software Required: None
Non-English languages supported: None
Windows Installer CleanUp Utility
Website: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=290301
Download link: http://download.microsoft.com/download/e/9/d/e9d80355-7ab4-45b8-80e8-983a48d5e1bd/msicuu2.exe
Author: Microsoft
Current version: 5.6
Version date: May 7, 2007
License: Freeware
Download File size: 352KB
Operating Systems Supported: 95/98/Me/NT/2000/XP/2003 Server/Vista
Additional Software Required: None
64 Bit Capable: Yes
Portable Version Available: No
Additional Software Required: None
Non-English languages supported: None
ZSoft Uninstaller
Website: http://www.zsoft.dk/index/software_details/4
Download link: http://www.zsoft.dk/download.php?appid=4
Author: ZSoft
Current version: 2.4.1
Version date: Oct 6, 2007
License: Freeware
Download File size: 897KB
Operating Systems Supported: XP/95/98/ME, 2000, Vista
Additional Software Required: None
64 Bit Capable: No
Portable Version Available: No
Additional Software Required: None
Non-English languages supported: Danish, Dutch, English, French, Portuguese, German, Hungarian, Italian, Russian, Spanish & Valencian.
Total Uninstall 2
Website: http://www.freewarearena.com/html/Downloads/details/id=1867.html
Download link: http://www.freewarearena.com/html/Downloads/get=1867/mirror=4397.html
Author: Gavrila Martau
Current version: 2.35
Version date: Mar 26, 2006
License: Freeware
Download File size: 685KB
Operating Systems Supported: Win 98/NT/ME/2000/XP/2003
Additional Software Required: None
64 Bit Capable: No
Portable Version Available: No
Additional Software Required: None
Non-English languages supported: English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch, Greek, Polish, Norwegian, Japanese, Russian, Czech, Hungarian, Romanian, Korean, Serbian, Croatian, Slovak.
Revo Uninstaller
Website: http://www.revouninstaller.com/
Download link: http://www.revouninstaller.com/revosetup.exe
Author: VS Revo Group
Current version: 1.71
Version date: Jun 17, 2008
License: Freeware
Download File size: 1.52 MB
Operating Systems Supported: /2000/XP/2003 Server/Vista (32 bit only)
Additional Software Required: None
64 Bit Capable: No
Portable Version Available: Yes
Additional Software Required: None
Non-English languages supported: Albanian, Arabic, Portuguese, Bulgarian, Chinese, Chuvash, Croatian, Czech, Finnish, French, German, Hungarian, Persian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Dutch, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish, Ukrainian, Vietnamese
Other relevant information: None
This software category is maintained by volunteer editor Kendall Alexander.
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First, This article is 5 months old...
so be cautious until it updates....
Second, Revo Uninstaller is version 1.75
i know that cause i use that one...
So, someone needs to update this article....
good luck
I will be updating it soon. Thanks for the reminder.
Revo is Ok with a normal sucessful install. I had a unsucessful install with Adobe Reader 8.1.2 in Vista, Z-Soft would have worked - I think - if I had monitored it. But I didn't, and every time I tried changing it using exe in Adobe folder or stand-alone installer, Windows Installer give me an error saying it could not continue. Adobe created an utility to fix the problem, but when I loaded it it said no Adobe installation was found. Go figure. This is where Windows Installer Cleanup Utility 3 come in, fixing the error (but it was not able remove the program ?!?). That allowed me to use Revo Hunter Mode to uninstall program from the Adobe open window. With thorough scan selected, Revo removed more than 100 entries, but in the end, because lots of *.dlls where still registred and I couldn't simply remove them using Explorer (permissions stuff, also no take over allowed), I had to do registry search and delete with free Registrar, using Erunt for backup. That fixed that awfull problem, fortunatelly not too common.
try Your Uninstaller Pro..
That is not free.
Well, the best installation monitoring is RegShot; you'll be amazed how fast it is! It's much faster than Total Uninstall 2 or InstallWatch.
http://regshot.blog.googlepages.com/regshot ==> Original
http://www.czechcup.com/regshot/ ==> New enhanced Russian version
Note that it cannot be used as an uninstaller for an already installed (existing) application.
From their website:
Regshot is a small,free and open-source(GPL) registry compare utility that allows you to quickly take a snapshot of your registry and then compare it with a second one - done after doing system changes or installing a new software product. The changes report can be produced in text or HTML format and contains a list of all modifications that have taken place between snapshot1 and snapshot2. In addition, you can also specify folders (with sub filders) to be scanned for changes as well.
Thus, Regshot does not appear to truly fit into this category. It is not an uninstaller per se. Instead, it takes a before and after snapshot of the registry and then produces a text file (or html) that lists all the changes. It might be a good program, but it does not fit into this category.
This is a registry compare utility...
I could not get the Beta version of Microsoft Web Expression to uninstall after it had expired - no matter what I tried. Very frustrating!!
Revo Uninstaller took care of it completely. I had to reinstall a few components in MS Office but aside from that it did a great job!
Thanks Gizmo!!
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