Uninstallers (a very short look at what I've tried!)

[m_s]

Right now, I'm a pretty dissatisfied TU user: I bought it a few months back, and have completely relied on it, never installing anything without TU since reformatting my machine a while back.  But a month or two ago, it just stopped working - I posted a query on the Martau.com forum, and I've had no luck getting the problem fixed, though Gavrila acknowledges that at least one other user has had the same problem - here's a link to my post: http://martau.com/fo...wtopic.php?p=549#549

Right now I'm not installing anything at all because I've come to rely on TU...  Well, actually, I've just started downloading Your Uninstaller! - that might be the first thing I've installed for a few weeks, when I swap it for TU!

[markan]

I think that other report would be me! I suspect that Gavrila is stumped over what is causing it. Would it be worth us comparing other software we have installed that might be causing it? I have one PC that runs TU3 and one that crashes as you describe. I would be happy to list software that is on the "problem" PC and not on the one that is working and see if you are using any of them.

Update: Gavrila has now sorted a fix out for the problem and TU3 is now running fine again (I believe m_s is sorted out as well).

[patteo]

If you want to avoid recording extraneous effects you need to run it with as few extra apps, processes and services running as possible.

-Carol Haynes (May 06, 2006, 04:48 PM)

TU wont remove the trial key in the registry, i tested a shareware program a while ago but didnt like it, so i uninstalled it with TU and when i tried it again recently, the program is expired.

TU doesnt remove everything.

-kimmchii (May 07, 2006, 11:10 PM)

Actually there's a "perfect solution to the above problems".
http://www.symantec....ery/ngb40/index.html

It's the only Symantec software I use. I started with it when it was with Roxio.

It's like a time machine that rolls back everything (and I mean 100% of changes) on your computer to a previous time. How far you can roll back depends on how much space you allocate to it. So if you are paranoid about the changes made trialing software on your PC, then Goback is the software you are looking for.

For me, it has enabled me to roll back many kinds of problems, such as the famous BSODs, unruly trial software, or even a poorly tested Windows Critical Update ( https://www.donation...52.msg22841#msg22841 ), and would have save grief for some whose system was trashed by a poorly tested virus signature update, recover data files that I accidentally overwritten (saved my life a couple of times) etc.

There have been a couple of times I had some problems with Goback over the years but they were few and far between.

Of course some have said that running it in the background consumes resources. In practice, I hardly notice any load and I have been using it for several years now even back in the days of slower processors.

I think IBM laptops have a similar roll back capability.

I have trialled TU once but never could convince myself that it could roll back software installations completely and only related to that particular software, since there are so many other processes in Windows that are running at the same time.

I might as well trial a software and if I think it's a no go, or windows update for that matter, I just Goback as if I never seen it in the first place. This, to me is the perfect software for the shareware junkie since we don't know what spaghetti changes they are making.

That way, I can keep my system stable for a long time.

[Carol Haynes]

Yes ... GoBack is great, I used it for a long time ... until something goes wrong and then you find you have a scrambled and unrecoverable hard disc. It happened to me (when it was still Roxio).

It also seems like a dead product as far as Symantec are concerned - it doesn't appear to have been updated since they bought it off Roxio.

Great while it works but you don't want to be caught when it gets itself in a knot.

[patteo]

Actually it was upgraded to version 4 I think sometime last year, after Symantec bought it.

One thing I must say, no matter which software you use, it is always wise to have a properly tested ghosted image (come to think of it, this is another other Symantec software I use) supplemented by other forms of incremental backups in between images, so that when the inevitable happens like a hardware failure or catastrophic software failure whatever the cause, you will still be smiling, somewhat thankful for the precaution you took.

In all these many years, I've never had a situation I could not recover from using Goback during  the couple of times there was a problem. There was once an "internal" error, but uninstalling and reinstalling Goback fixed it.

[m_s]

A postcard from Macland:

Installing and removing software on OS X is easier and cleaner than on a PC - you generally just drag the program into your Applications folder to install, and uninstalling just requires dragging the program out of your Applications folder and dumping it in the trashcan.  However, having only very recently moved to the Happy Isle of Macland, and having for years had a Windows registry bowing under the heavy weight of a long history of installed and removed programs, I've wondered if drag-uninstalling was removing everything.  And then I heard of Appzapper this weekend (in this discussion of the Top Ten Most Beautiful Mac Apps: http://www.phillryu....beautiful-os-x-apps/).  It's not only a pretty face, though it certainly is that: start it up and you get a dropbox by means of which you can uninstall any program by simply drag-n-dropping its icon onto the dropbox - Appzapper lists all the elements of the program scattered around your system, and then you just click Zap and it removes all traces of that program.  It's a brilliant, easy to use interface, and it's even quite fun to uninstall things, because the screen momentarily flashes and there's a little zapping sound.  Highly recommended for Mac users!

[urlwolf]

I use smarty uninstaller...
http://www.winnertweak.com/uninstaller/
it takes quite a while to remove all the stuff but it is very thorough. I like it better than the few others that I tried before.

[Dr-Leech]

I use Uninstall Tool: http://www.crystalidea.com/?action=show_page&name=utool
Really quick and useful. Portable and freeware. Enough for me.

Screens: http://www.crystalidea.com/files/utool_screens.php