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.
Delicious
Digg
Technorati
Revo Uninstaller 1.7
If you compare Revo Uninstaller 1.7
against the Paid versions of Total Uninstall and Your Uninstaller! PRO,
you will realize that Revo Uninstaller 1.7 is the BEST Free Uninstaller!!!
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!!
All older comments have been moved to our forums. Please check there for some earlier discussion about this topic.
IMPORTANT:
Note about uninstalling Phrase Express with Revo Uninstaller!
I keep meaning to post this, and Gizmo's "9 Must-haves" ebook reminded me...
This is just an FYI for users of Revo Uninstaller to USE CATION if they ever uninstall Phrase Express. I've used Revo for years and had NEVER had a problem with it uninstalling the wrong thing--and I trial LOTS of software! This means multiple MBs of leftover junk that Revo has saved me from! I decided to check out Phrase Express, then quickly uninstalled it. I don't remember what options I chose when installing it, but apparently I had associated it with every single file type on my Vista PC. Upon uninstalling, I had Revo set to "Moderate Uninstall" mode and blindly clicked-through, having Revosget rid of the associated registry items and other leftovers. In retrospect, this was a pretty dumb thing to do with an automation program like PhrExp, but then hindsight is 20-20 :o). My system was critically wacked. Any icon that I clicked on took me to the "There is no associated application for this file type, do you want to choose one from the list" error dialog. I had made system backups with FixIt Utilities, but couldn't access them... Couldn't access the Control Panel, My Computer, or anything... I decided to manually reset the file associations. The fist thing I happened to go to was a .TXT file. I associated it with EditPad Lite, but then every single thing I attempted to open would automatically (and unsuccessfully) attempt to open into EditPad Lite!!! Argh. If I was knowledgeable enough, I mightn't been able to restart into command line-mode, then install the FixIt Utilities back up from there (??). As it turned out, I decided this was a good opportunity to REINSTALL Windows--which I did, thus losing all my settings and docs. Anyhow, I guess this post can be summed up with "use Phrase Express's built-in uninstaller." I thought you guys (and gals) would get a kick out of my no-brainer horror story though :o) I'll cross post this on the Uninstaller page and the Phrase Express page.
-Steve
Hi
so if I install Z soft now... then it wont be able to uninstall softwares that I have installed before installing z soft?
Not necessarily. ZSoft works best when scanning prior to installation of a new program. However, it also works after you've installed a program. From their website:
Soft Uninstaller can be used as a Add/Remove applet replacement, but not only that, it can also:
* Analyze an installation so it can be completely uninstalled (also supports reboots of the computer as the process is split into two: Before and after the installation)
So, it functions as a Add/Remove applet without prior analyzation.
this is my favourite site.........kuldeep singh
Some contributions should come from you for every body's benefit
Install watch PRO is a good program for watching programs install. It detects when a EXE file is loaded into memory and prompts you to take a snap shot of your registry files before the program installs on your computer. Here is a short listing from their site at http://www.epsilonsquared.com/
Greatly improved memory performance during post install analysis
Export to TEXT option
Reformatted Kit Option dialog for better readability
Ability to turn on and off "Setup Detect" mode
Printing customizations (colors and fonts)
Installation Relocation
Fixed several bugs in the search algorithm which would prevent some files being found as a match
Specify how long to wait when the setup program stops early during a wizard mode install
"Check for updates" feature
Yes great program, although it's quite old it's still the best for installation monitoring !!!
Post new comment