Author Topic: Looking for a good Uninstaller App (Read 16511 times)

moerl · « **on:** September 24, 2005, 12:46 PM »

Would anyone happen to be able to recommend a good uninstallation app as an alternative to Windoze's ADD/REMOVE applet? I've been using Your Uninstaller! 2004 for a while now and actually liked it quite a bit. What bugs me now is that they have not updated their product in over a year. Their website has not changed one bit in over a year. I did a search on Betanews.com and actually found that they have a beta of the 2005 version out now: http://fileforum.bet...er_2005/1031658821/1 - however, none of that is remarked or mentioned in any way on their website. It's a bit confusing..

I found this, http://fileforum.bet...staller/1090863253/1 and this: http://www.nirsoft.n.../utils/myuninst.html. Give me some opinions and shout out recommendations if you have any

Thanks

mouser · « **Reply #1 on:** September 24, 2005, 01:45 PM »

i'm curious to hear opinions as well.
the nirsoft one has been mentioned before and suits me well but all i use mine for is to sort by date of install.

one app that has gotten some very glowing recommendations that i *still* have yet to try but keep meaning to is "Total Uninstall" (or is it total uninstallER?)

i'm looking forward to reading any follow up replies here.

moerl · « **Reply #2 on:** September 24, 2005, 02:01 PM »

How the hell do I always fail to mention Total Uninstall? I'm a raving TU fan. I'm known at dslr.net to have a fanatic obsession with TU3 because I love it so much

. I used its older versions and jumped with joy when I found that Total Uninstall 3 was released. It's an excellent app, especially for power users. I highly, highly recommend it.
Now, I've never actually used TU3 as an uninstaller per se. What I do is.. I run the app's uninstaller, and THEN run TU3. It gives you an idea of just how bad the standard uninstallers are. TU takes a snapshot of your files and registry, (wickedly fast!), before installation, and when you're done installing and start and close the app once, (that's how I do it), you make the second snapshot. All of this is done very quickly and by use of a very good GUI. You get a shell command for the context menu as well that lets you right-click any setup file and then "monitor with TU". That means you don't even have to start TU when you need to install anything.. just use the context menu and it will guide you through the process on its own. It really is great. Maybe I should start using it as an uninstaller. I just figured it's probably better to run the actual uninstaller itself and then use TU to remove any monitored leftovers

mouser · « **Reply #3 on:** September 24, 2005, 02:18 PM »

i agree with your instinct - i'm not sure how TU3 does uninstalls, but it seems to me that every uninstaller should FIRST run the application's built in uninstaller, and then only do more when asked.

Carol Haynes · « **Reply #4 on:** September 24, 2005, 03:47 PM »

TU3 works on the basis that it snapshots file locations and the whole registry before and after (actually it can be used for any app that runs on your system - you decide when to take the before and after snapshots). Using it to uninstall then undoes all the file and registry changes.

This only really works if you haven't installed something since that changes the same file locations (eg. file associations).

The other thing I have found is that if other apps are running at the same time they will also make some registry changes and so the uninstall routine could have unwanted consequences.

One useful thing is that you can edit the unistall data set - so you can make just the changes YOU want.

I don't personally think any of these uninstall monitoring packages should be used in any automatic way. They are a useful aid ...

Another really useful thing they do is to show you what changes are made for time limited trial software ..... I leave it up to the imagination what potential this may have

mouser · « **Reply #5 on:** September 24, 2005, 04:46 PM »

i agree with carol -
i would NOT use one of these apps designed to remove all traces of an app as my normal way of uninstalling software!!

only as a manual aid to help you see any stuff left behind, and defintely you should be very careful letting such programs remove stuff unless you are sure you don't need. better to leave stuff there if you arent sure. it's like registry cleaners, they can do more harm than good if you aren't very careful, and only for people who know what they are doing.

i hate the add/remove control panel though and there is nothing wrong with using an alternative to that which does the same thing (ie runs the normal application uninstaller). the nirsoft one is good, and i've for a long time used the free Chris Uninstaller (couldn't find website). like i said before the only reason i use these is that they are faster and most importantly let me sort based on install date estimtes, which i find super useful and is missing from default add/remove control panel built into windows.

moerl · « **Reply #6 on:** September 24, 2005, 04:56 PM »

I got Nirsoft's MyUninstaller and it's not bad. It really is quite handy, a nice little freeware app. I still prefer Your Uninstaller! 2004 but have not installed it yet since my system reset. I'll keep it that way for a while now, I believe. MyUninstaller + TU3 = DreamTeam

clif_notes · « **Reply #7 on:** September 27, 2005, 01:22 AM »

I got Nirsoft's MyUninstaller and it's not bad. It really is quite handy, a nice little freeware app. I still prefer Your Uninstaller! 2004 but have not installed it yet since my system reset. I'll keep it that way for a while now, I believe. MyUninstaller + TU3 = DreamTeam
-Shangnyun (September 24, 2005, 04:56 PM)

You have good tastes. I prefer the freeware versions of Total Uninstall. They are located at the Last Freeware Version website.

I've also recently updated an old review of it in my current newsletter. Which is posted in the LivingRoom forum here and at my wiki. I've found lots of other uses for TUN, other than the obvious one it was designed for.

Have fun!

Clif

Carol Haynes · « **Reply #8 on:** September 27, 2005, 02:56 AM »

I've found lots of other uses for TUN, other than the obvious one it was designed for.
-clif_notes (September 27, 2005, 01:22 AM)

Now that is a tantalizing quote .... come on then you can't leave it there

Actually it is one thing I like about TUn - you can monitor anything that is running to see what files and registry entries it changes.

Only slight problem is that the monitored app has to be running on its own to get meaningful results.

What we could really do with is a monitor that is restricted to particular application, process or service ... do I feel an IDEA request coming on

moerl · « **Reply #9 on:** September 27, 2005, 09:56 AM »

Don't Filemon/Regmon from Sysinternals kind of do what you're suggesting?

cliff_notes, the free version and the latest shareware version of TU aren't even comparable. The author has put a ton of work into the later versions. There are worlds between the usability, speed & performance & ease of use between the old freeware version and the latest pay-TU. It's well worth paying for IMHO.

Thanks for your input everyone

clif_notes · « **Reply #10 on:** September 28, 2005, 08:43 PM »

I've found lots of other uses for TUN, other than the obvious one it was designed for.
-clif_notes (September 27, 2005, 01:22 AM)

Now that is a tantalizing quote .... come on then you can't leave it there
-CarolHaynes (September 27, 2005, 02:56 AM)

Full read of my review of TUN - freeware version, has tips for other uses for TUN

moerl · « **Reply #11 on:** September 29, 2005, 12:22 AM »

Awesome! Thank you, clif_notes

Carol Haynes · « **Reply #12 on:** September 29, 2005, 04:06 AM »

Great .... thanks. DLL Archiver looks like a good reference ...

Mentat · « **Reply #13 on:** August 11, 2006, 12:12 PM »

Hi everybody,

I don't search a total / ultimate / uninstaller / watcher software but don't like the "Add and Remove Programs" cause it's too slow and very basic.

I have used Safarp with a cool search function but now I use Uninstall Tool.

[attachtimg=1]

Features

* Great speed and small size, great quality
* Multilingual, cool and simple interface
* Portable - you can even run it from a usb flash drive
* Allows you to display hidden installed programs
* Display of a program's occupied size
* Allows you to find fast the desired program while typing known letters
* Enables to delete programs if their uninstaller fails
* Navigate to selected program's registry entry, installation folder and it's web site
* Saving (exporting to HTML) current installed software list
* Running "Windows Components" applet

You can display hidden entry but ...

Do you know a how-to or a software to hide a program from the official list of "Add and Remove Programs" and see in Uninstall Tool list ?

Thx you !

PS: You see Carol, I try to post

.

Carol Haynes · « **Reply #14 on:** August 11, 2006, 12:39 PM »

PS: You see Carol, I try to post .
-Mentat (August 11, 2006, 12:12 PM)

LOL - well done

After a quick play I like Uninstall Tool ... useful features.

mouser · « **Reply #15 on:** August 11, 2006, 01:08 PM »

one thing i always look for in such tools: can it sort by install date? if not, its dead to me

Carol Haynes · « **Reply #16 on:** August 11, 2006, 02:44 PM »

No - it doesn't mention dates - but it does nice things like open RegEdit and jump to the relevant part for each app or jump to the installation folder. You can also trawl through 'hidden' installs.

moerl · « **Reply #17 on:** August 11, 2006, 02:53 PM »

Uninstall Tool looks like a very good choice in the freeware category. I still like and use Your Uninstaller! Pro 2006.

thomthowolf · « **Reply #18 on:** August 11, 2006, 06:56 PM »

I am also a huge fan of your uninstaller. I just don't think that any software junkie can live with the windows applet, and too many program uninstallers are not "well mannered" enough to really clean up after themselves.
I also teach several technical courses to less than savvy users, which involves my having to install and reinstall the same software over and over. I really like having a clean slate every time.

urlwolf · « **Reply #19 on:** August 12, 2006, 05:07 AM »

Hmm, I don't know if I mentioned smarty uninstaller before? It works for me, although I haven't compared it with the rest...

http://www.winnertweak.com/uninstaller/

It takes a long time to do all the checkings but it seems pretty exhaustive. And to date it hasn't screwed my registry trying to clean it... so that's good.

PS: how do you attach screenshots? Do you have to upload them to a server first, then unclude an img link? I'm trying the "link inline img" options, but nothing shows in the preview...

urlwolf · « **Reply #20 on:** August 12, 2006, 05:07 AM »

Oh, it seems that the preview doesn't show images... but the actual post does...

thomthowolf · « **Reply #21 on:** August 12, 2006, 01:14 PM »

Oh, it seems that the preview doesn't show images... but the actual post does...
-urlwolf (August 12, 2006, 05:07 AM)

Thanks for discovering that before I did. Any day you learn something is not wasted.