How To Uninstall An Application That Has No Uninstall Program
How To Uninstall An Application That Has No Uninstall Program
If you want to uninstall an application that has no uninstall program and it is not listed in the Add/Remove applet of Control Panel (or that uninstall doesn’t work), then just delete the directory/files.
- Make a backup of the registry
- Shutdown the application, if it’s running (If WinNT+ check also for services)
- Search the registry for any references to the directory where the application resides, and remove them
- Search the registry for any references to the name of the application, and remove them
- Start Regedit and drill down to :
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER \Software \]
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \Software \]
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \Software \Microsoft \Windows \CurrentVersion \SharedDLLs]
- Rename the directory in which the application was installed in the first place
- Reboot and if everything goes well, then delete the renamed directory
Use Explorer to to remove the entries from the Start Menu in either
C:\Documents and Folders\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\ and/or
C:\Documents and Folders\(your username)\Start Menu\Programs\
If there is an entry in the Add/Remove list, start regedit go to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall
Locate the entry and delete it. If the app has a service, edit:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services
and scroll down till you locate it. Then delete it. If this app starts automatically and there is no entry in the StartUp folder(s), then use Regedt32 to edit:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\Windows
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Prasad R.Suvarna