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

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Terry:
There is an older but it is a freeware version (2.35) of Total Uninstall http://freeware4u.com/modules/mydownloads/singlefile.php?lid=234 which I personally used in VM to track the changes to the system made by malware.

moerl:
I use Total Uninstall 3.61 and Your Uninstaller! Pro 2006 in tandem. They work great when used together, although over time, my "fear" of Total Uninstall's power has grown. It just seems like it catches a ton of things I'd rather it didn't catch, and I have not yet learned just how to teach it what I would like it to monitor and what I would like it to skip. In its preferences, TU does allow for such discrimination by letting the user alter scanning and comparing modes, but I never really understood how those exclusion mechanisms work. For example, that's the difference between the "exclude" fields in the scanning portion of the program... and the comparison portion? I meant, for a long time, to make a post about this on Martau's forums, but never remembered to do so. Perhaps I will sometime soon.

I've been with both applications for quite a while now and remember how terribly excited I was after the release of Total Uninstall 3. I was even in email contact with Martau himself, suggesting, among other things, that he put a forum on the site because a program as powerful and as complex as TU surely warrants one. And he went and did it and put a forum on the site. Great stuff! He is a very talented developer and updates to TU have been fairly frequent. You never get a sense that TU has become abandonware in any way. It's great to know there is a solid community and a great developer behind a product you use. Now it's up to me to make use of the community :)

As for Your Uninstaller!, the story is similar, minus the email exchange, and, well, minus the relatively frequent updates. Your Uninstaller! is updated next to never. But the latest version of it works very well and I've grown to trust it. I usually follow up uninstallations that I suspect may have left behind a mess by running JV16 Powertools' registry cleaner, just to be sure. It works great when combined with the other mentioned tools. As I have said, I recently have not used TU too much. I'd like to learn more about it before I use it to uninstall software again. This is not to say that TU has ever caused problems with my system, which really it never has. It's just that I'd like to learn a little bit more about just how it works before I want to let it rip away at my data again :)

My latest golden find, through Lifehacker, as always, was Altiris' Software Virutalization Solution. That's revolutionary in terms of software testing. I'm still in love with it and am now wondering if I could run just about everything virtualized! Just imagine.. nothing you install and use even affects your system file or registry structure in any way.. that's pretty amazing. Of course you need to set it up so you can save files and setting generated by that software.. but aside from that, it's a beautiful concept. And no, I'm not realistically considering this.. but it sure is tempting :)

superboyac:
Here's my review for Total Uninstall done last year.  It's not the greatest review, not very detailed at all.  In fact, I'm quite ashamed of it now.  Enjoy!

Software Reviewed: Total Uninstall
Version:
Source: http://www.martau.com
Review Code: PTREVAUG05

INSTALLATION
The installation was painless, as is expected for any
decent program.  It gives you the option to change the
installation directory, and whether to place icons on
the desktop and start menu (simple, but some programs
don't offer this).

INITIAL REVIEW
The interface of the program is very clean, and it
seems like a lightweight program in that it starts
quickly.  The options are very customizable and not
overwhelming to the experienced user.  It is obvious
that this program is not meant for the casual Windows
user.  In other words, this is a power user tool.
Despite the clean interface, a quick glance through
the options shows that you really have to know what's
going on in a computer to be able to use this program
effectively.  For example,  you can customize
directories for the saved logs and snapshots, you can
use wildcards to detect monitored applications, and
you can even create different profiles for different
levels of monitoring.  These are all poweruser
features, and your typical Windows user would have no
idea what these things are for.

That being said, a novice user, even if he never
fiddled with the options or knew what they meant,
would not have that difficult a problem using the
program.  The default settings work flawlessly; all a
user has to remember is to use the program to install
or uninstall software rather than just double-clicking
the install file and going.  Of course, a regular
Windows user would have no motivation for this kind of
software.

Total Uninstall can begin to monitor programs in a
variety of ways, which is always nice (flexibility is
the key to poweruser software).  It can either detect
a setup file using keywords (setup, install, etc.), or
the user has to install the program through Total
Install's wizard.  Another option is the ability to
use shell integration to right-click on a setup file
and run Total Install from there.  It seems to have
all the bases covered.

Now for the real purpose of the
program...Uninstalling.  Uninstalling seems to be a
breeze with Total Uninstall.  But it's not like it was
so hard to uninstall software with Windows' Add/Remove
default utility.  The benefit of Total Uninstall is
that it shows you exactly what it is doing, and
because it live-monitors, it can essentially do a much
complete uninstallation than the Windows method.
With Total Uninstall, it shows an extremely complete
list of changes made before and after each
installation and uninstallation.  These changes are
both for the file system on your computer AND the
registry.

VERDICT
Total Uninstall does exactly what it says it does...it
completely uninstalls all the changes made to your
system by a software installation for any program that
it monitors.  Does it offer anything that the Windows'
Add/Remove programs doesn't.  Well...yes and no.  For
most people, the Windows default uninstaller is
enough.  But those of us that are fairly knowledgeable
about computers and software, and can be classified as
"powerusers", we know how the registry and file
systems can can overly cluttered with useless files
and entries after just a few months of installing and
uninstalling software.  For those of you that are
annoyed with this, Total Uninstall is the perfect
product for you.  However, be wary that if you really
want to be diligent about it, you should use it for
all software installations.  This means that you can't
just double-click and go anymore, but you have to go
through the whole Total Uninstall process of taking
pre and post-system snapshots.

But, it's not just the extreme powerusers who may
benefit.  I can see myself using Total Uninstall to
monitor some of my more "heavy-duty" software
installations like Microsoft Office or Norton
Utilities (not that I would ever use Norton!).  But I
wouldn't use it for just any piece of little
shareware.  I don't know if that defeats the overall
purpose of Total Uninstall; I don't think it does.

One interesting thought I had about Total Uninstall is
that it could potentially extend the life of your
current Windows installation.  We all know that as the
months go by, Windows tends to become more and more
sluggish.  Many people usually like to totally format
and reinstall Windows every so often.  Maybe if you
use Total Uninstall to monitor all software
installations, it can significantly reduce the
aging-Windows syndrome.  I can't say for sure now, but
maybe in a few months I can give an answer to that.

My ultimate recommendation is that Total Uninstall
does what it says, and it is better than the Windows
version, and it probably has good long-term benefits.
So I heartliy recommend it for those reasons alone.
Just remember that it requires more time and thought
than the mindless installing/uninstalling that most of
us are used to.

--- End quote ---


And here's another review done at the same time by someone else:
Software Reviewed: Total Uninstall
Version: 3.40
Source: http://www.martau.com
By: David Troesch <tun_review@...>
Review Code: PTREVAUG05
Reviewed 8/31/2005

Having been a previous user of Total uninstall 2.x (the previous freeware
version of this software) the first thing that struck me is that scanning is
FAST (a major Achilles heel of most install monitoring software). Version
2.34 of the software took at least 4 to 6 times longer (50 seconds to scan
beginning and end of an install). The new version averaged 10-15 seconds on
the same system (running in a Vmware session).

Interface
The old version was very wizard centric. Initial screen asked you what you
were doing: Install or uninstall/view results. Once you made that decision
it would take you to the next logical step. The new version is more of a
program, that you launch a wizard in to capture the install process. A new
left toolbar shows previously monitored installs ready for removal. When
highlighting each install snapshot you have summary and detailed information
about that particular (un)install. Installation and uninstallation are now
their own independent wizard. More information is displayed on the screen by
default than  with the previous version. Busier, but better for the more
advanced user. New graphics (buttons) and styles are used in several areas
of the programs. The detailed changes screen is still the old 2.34 interface
which was clear and easy to navigate/view.

New Additions
- "Scanning Profiles" which allow selecting options on how to clean up when
uninstalling apps
- Summary screen to show changes in the system during a monitored app
install
- Left Toolbar of Uninstall items
- More options For default views and limits on scanning.

The Good
- 3 to 5 times faster
- More options for control on scans
- Summary of changes per scan profile
- Export of scan profile option
- Prettier Icons
- Not a memory-resident monitoring uninstall program - no memory overhead
when program is not running
- Small program, only 1.3MB download which included the installer shell

The Bad
- Slightly more complicated interface for computer novices
- No optional list of default to ignore items after clean install. Ignore
RND reg key for windows random number generator key, prefetch directory for
windows etc. You should have an option to be able to enable "skip standard
items" for scan.
- No micro launcher app to prompt to monitor when "install.exe" or
"setup.exe" are run.

Summary
Looks like Gavrila put a lot of work into the new version which is deserving
of the new version number and a purchase ($29.00 for single license). Great
monitoring app to determine how software changes a system for
troubleshooting and software uninstallation.

--- End quote ---

SvenH:
Thank you for the reviews, superboyac.

When monitoring an installation with Total Uninstall, do I first have to close other applications, as member Darwin think about?

Carol Haynes:
Yes you do otherwise TU will also record any file/registry changes.

Also note that there are some things that these programs don't roll back - they record some file changes but can't undo them if files are replaced as tit doesn't keep a copy of the previous version of a file (read TU's readme file for details).

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