Software Uninstall Regulation

[lucasno1]

Hi,

I was just wondering if there are any regulations for software
development companies having to allow you to uninstall their
programs.

We use a design program to produce our products, we are about to
upgrade to a new version of their software but in testing we have
found that we are unable to uninstall it. After contacting the
company they say that it is not possible to uninstall so we are stuck
with a program that takes up over 500MB.

Unfortunately it is specialised software and there aren't any real
alternatives.

Apart from the fact that this is terrible implementation of their
program, I would think that there is some regulation that should say
legitimate software developers are not allowed to do this.

I know some versions Norton AV can be a bit of a nightmare to remove
but it can be done.

Any thoughts?

 

[Maincat]

Hi,

I was just wondering if there are any regulations for software
development companies having to allow you to uninstall their
programs.

We use a design program to produce our products, we are about to
upgrade to a new version of their software but in testing we have
found that we are unable to uninstall it. After contacting the
company they say that it is not possible to uninstall so we are stuck
with a program that takes up over 500MB.

Unfortunately it is specialised software and there aren't any real
alternatives.

Apart from the fact that this is terrible implementation of their
program, I would think that there is some regulation that should say
legitimate software developers are not allowed to do this.

I know some versions Norton AV can be a bit of a nightmare to remove
but it can be done.

Any thoughts?

The only regulation I know of is the market. Did you install this on a
specific test machine - if so, wipe it and restore from an image if you have
one.

If you must - absolutely must - upgrade then do. For me, a company that
doesn't provide such basic functionality doesn't deserve any more of my
money.

 

[Malke]

lucasno1 wrote:

(snip multipost)

Asked and answered in the other newsgroup to which you posted. Please
don't multipost; it makes more work for everyone and will get you *less*
help, not more. See this for why:

http://www.blakjak.demon.co.uk/mul_crss.htm

If you have forgotten where you posted or can't find your post, use
Google Groups Advanced Search and search for your name.


Malke

 

[Tim Slattery]

Hi,

I was just wondering if there are any regulations for software
development companies having to allow you to uninstall their
programs.

We use a design program to produce our products, we are about to
upgrade to a new version of their software but in testing we have
found that we are unable to uninstall it. After contacting the
company they say that it is not possible to uninstall so we are stuck
with a program that takes up over 500MB.

Yuck!

There's no law governing this. Programs that play nice with Windows
are supposed to make an entry in the Add/Remove list pointing to their
uninstall routine. But there's no way to force that on anybody.

Microsoft itself has broken this rule. There's no way to remove the
noxious WGA Notifications software.

It's a nasty thing to do, but the only recourse you have is to not buy
the software.

 

[John John]

Something like Martau's Total Uninstall might be a solution in a case
like this.

John