uninstaller

[=?iso-8859-15?B?qUCurqSl?=]

I have regretably installed DropShark 2.5 (dropshark.com) and now I can't
uninstall it!!

I have tried PUI (http://support.it-mate.co.uk/?mode=Products&p=pui) but
it doesn't even detect that DropShark is on my system.

Any advice please?

Cheers,

Marty

 

[John Corliss]

I have regretably installed DropShark 2.5 (dropshark.com) and now I
can't uninstall it!!

I have tried PUI (http://support.it-mate.co.uk/?mode=Products&p=pui)
but it doesn't even detect that DropShark is on my system.

Any advice please?

Some programs simply don't provide a way to uninstall themselves. On the
other hand, if the uninstall info for the program has been corrupted
somehow, you can reinstall the program over itself and sometimes the
situation will be corrected. Otherwise...

1. Have you tried emailing them? The address is on that page at the bottom.

2. If they're unresponsive, your best bet is to simply delete the folder
and icons, then go carefully through your registry and remove references
to the program. You can use a cleaner program of some sort to do this,
but I prefer to do it manually.
After that, run Spybot and AdAware to make sure that you didn't get
any unpleasant hidden gifts installed by the program.

You should know that the only way to be able to completely remove a
program is to monitor it's installation. You can do this in the future
by using Total Uninstall v2.35 (the last "freeware" - actually
PROmotionware - version):

http://www.pricelesswarehome.org/2006/PL2006SYSTEMUTILITIES.php#0777-PW

I use it religiously since my last format and total reinstallation. I
now have 57 listings in that program. I can surgically remove any
program I've installed.

Manual uninstallation using that method isn't for the squemish and is
very labor intensive, but it beats the heck out of having no good
alternative as you've discovered.

--
Regards from John Corliss
I don't reply to trolls and other such idiots. No adware, cdware,
commercial software, crippleware, demoware, nagware, PROmotionware,
shareware, spyware, time-limited software, trialware, viruses or warez
please.

 

[Frank Bohan]

Try deleting all the files in DOS (In XP go to the folder(s) where the files
are, then click Start > Run > type "cmd" (without the quotes), then use the
del command to delete the files). This will probably leave entries in the
registry which you can find with:

RegSrch (Registry Search Tool) http://billsway.com/vbspage/

===

Frank Bohan
¶ It's as easy as 3.14159265358979323846264338327950288419716

 

[Doc]

You should know that the only way to be able to completely remove a
program is to monitor it's installation. You can do this in the future
by using Total Uninstall v2.35 (the last "freeware" - actually
PROmotionware - version):

http://www.pricelesswarehome.org/2006/PL2006SYSTEMUTILITIES.php#0777-PW

I use it religiously since my last format and total reinstallation. I
now have 57 listings in that program. I can surgically remove any
program I've installed.

Don't rely on it John. Read the fine manual, and you will find the Total
Uninstall recommends uninstalling in the reverse order to installing. For
example, if you wanted to remove the 2nd of your 57 installs, then you
really should uninstall number 57, then number 56, 55 etc, until you get
to number 2.

The reasoning is fairly obvious .... some changes made by the number 2
program will also be changed by other later installs. If you were to just
uninstall number 2 then maybe you corrupt other later installs.
Been there, done that.

Even after that thought, the Total Uninstall logs are still useful for
manual removals.

 

[John Corliss]

Don't rely on it John. Read the fine manual, and you will find the Total
Uninstall recommends uninstalling in the reverse order to installing. For
example, if you wanted to remove the 2nd of your 57 installs, then you
really should uninstall number 57, then number 56, 55 etc, until you get
to number 2.

The reasoning is fairly obvious .... some changes made by the number 2
program will also be changed by other later installs. If you were to just
uninstall number 2 then maybe you corrupt other later installs.
Been there, done that.

Even after that thought, the Total Uninstall logs are still useful for
manual removals.

Doc,

I perhaps should have been more clear that I don't usually use Total
Uninstall to remove a program (unless I do it right away) but rather use
the program for monitoring purposes mainly. As I said though,

I now have 57 listings in that program. I can surgically remove any program
I've installed.

Manual uninstallation using that method isn't for the squemish and is very
labor intensive, but it beats the heck out of having no good alternative as
you've discovered.

"Surgically" removing a program is a far cry from using Total Uninstall
to do the uninstallation.

--
Regards from John Corliss
I don't reply to trolls and other such idiots. No adware, cdware,
commercial software, crippleware, demoware, nagware, PROmotionware,
shareware, spyware, time-limited software, trialware, viruses or warez
please.

 

[Richard Steinfeld]

... Total
Uninstall recommends uninstalling in the reverse order to installing. For
example, if you wanted to remove the 2nd of your 57 installs, then you
really should uninstall number 57, then number 56, 55 etc, until you get
to number 2.

The reasoning is fairly obvious .... some changes made by the number 2
program will also be changed by other later installs. If you were to just
uninstall number 2 then maybe you corrupt other later installs.
Been there, done that.

Thanks, Doc, for putting words to something that I've been suspecting
and that's been gnawing at me for some time.

Commercial install tracker/uninstallers have been around for some time.
It's been an essential part of Norton Systemworks. I've been using a
similar feature in System Suite 4.0 (the last version made by OnTrack,
not V-Com). I've looked at Total Uninstaller and tried it out.

I've watched my Windows ME system degrade steadily during the past 4
years despite all efforts to maintain a tight system, including
emasculating all Microsoft's self-maintenance routines. Sadly, I have to
report my belief that the most effective way to ruin one's Windows is to
try out a lot of freeware. Of course, we can mess up our systems with
some nasty commercialware too (I'm thinking of octapusware like
Symantec's "Norton" stuff and the all-time software Death Stars: Real
Player and Quick Time).

Professional software people I'm in contact with seem to regard System
Mechanic (a commercial utility suite similar to Norton Systemworks and
System Suite) quite highly. I own two versions of SM, and I've noticed
that it includes an installation tracker, but not an uninstaller --
which we'd expect in this type of package. I've been thinking about this
"omission." With my long experience with the Norton uninstaller and the
System Suite uninstaller, I've come to the same conclusion as Doc: that
installations build on one another and make changes to previous changes.
The only way to truly undo the damage would be as Doc stated: sequential
uninstallations from the back forward. This, of course, could be mighty
tedious on a "loaded" system. And, yes, there can be no easy way to
remove all the junk from program #2 with impunity without going
backwards from the end.

I recently bought three "new" (used) computers. One came with XP and
Norton Antivirus -- a program from a publisher that I detest. I
attempted to rip it out: bad move. It messed up the following
installation of Iolo's System Mechanic, especially its bundled Kaspirsky
Antivirus, which reverted from a 1-year subscription to three months. It
turns out that Symantec's uninstallation routine for Norton AV is quite
intricate, and I'd have to follow that (this routine suggested by Iolo
support).

I ran this by my friend, who does desktop support for a living. His
advice to me was to wipe my hard disk and do a fresh Windows
installation: the whole enchilada. His point is that Windows can get so
messed up that there's no point in trying to fix it piece-by-piece; one
can spend one's entire life trying to maintain Windows. This is no joke.

This appears to be the prevailing logic among some professionals. For
example, one of the reviewers at PC Magazine once wrote that she wipes
her hard disk two or three times per year for this reason: the cost of
being a software tester.

My plan now is to use Total Uninstaller for the short-term fixes, and to
wipe and reinstall perhaps once per year. One method that I've tried
with some success is to do a messy uninstallation, remove all the
program's files, and then run a registry "fix" program, in order to then
pull out all the resulting unresloved registry links.

Sadly, for my own sanity and productivity, I doubt that I'll be testing
out much freeware any more, although I'll be using one computer as my
"test box," keeping the other two relatively pure for business and music
work.

I welcome your comments about my logic and plan.

Richard

 

[Roger Johansson]

Sadly, for my own sanity and productivity, I doubt that I'll be testing
out much freeware any more, although I'll be using one computer as my
"test box," keeping the other two relatively pure for business and music
work.

I welcome your comments about my logic and plan.

The operating system and the programs are just tools, what is really
important is the data. As long as your data are backed up it doesn't
matter much what happens to the programs and the operating system.

If you guys made a drive image copy of the C drive you wouldn't have to
worry so much about viruses and other problems. Just restore the fresh
and fast operating system to what it was before you got hit with a
virus, or before you tried out 200 new programs.

If you find that two of those programs were really valuable you just
restore, install those two programs again, and make a new drive image
which you can return to, now including the two new programs. Et voila,
you have deleted 198 programs in a very clean way, they are all totally
gone. They were never even installed in that system you now can restore
to.

Partition Saving, freeware, very good:
http://damien.guibouret.free.fr/en/

 

[Doc]

Sadly, I have to report my belief that the most effective way to ruin
one's Windows is to try out a lot of freeware. Of course, we can mess
up our systems with some nasty commercialware too

My plan now is to use Total Uninstaller for the short-term fixes, and
to wipe and reinstall perhaps once per year.

I welcome your comments about my logic and plan.

Richard

Hi Richard. My Windows ME system is still running great after about 5
years use and a heck of a lot of freeware/shareware/payware trials. While
I have never had to re-install ME from scratch I am very careful to keep
it clean. Here is what I did...

I have partitioned my hard drives and my C:\ drive is basically just the
Windows ME OS. The size of all files and folders here is just 800Mb.
Every software install goes onto my E: partition. (For those pesky
installers that insist on installing to C:, I use a very nice software
called Application Mover (payware) by FunDuc Software to 'move' them to
E: and fix their registry entries to point to E

Five years ago, when I upgraded my original Win98 to ME I started from
scratch. I formatted C: and did a custom install of ME leaving out the
'fluff' that I don't need/use.
Ran Windows update and applied all patches and upgrades.
Installed 'must have' applications, on E: partition.
Saved an image of the C: drive. I use payware for this, PowerQuest Drive
Image (can be used from both Windows and DOS). With compression, this
image will easily fit onto a single CD.

Then I can try out any freeware etc and have a fully patched and upgraded
image to fall back on. Booting to DOS from a floppy, formatting C and
loading the saved image takes around 15 minutes to do.

When Microsoft release patches or upgrades I format C, re-load my latest
'good' image and run the patches or upgrades. If I have tried out and
found a useful software that I would like to keep, then I install it
straight after applying the patches/upgrades. After
patching/upgrading/adding new software I then save a new image of C:

So about once a month, following patch Tuesday, I format C, load my good
image, apply latest patches and upgrades, install any new found 'keeper
programs' (monitored with TUN just in case I need a reference list to
manually remove it at a later date), and save a new good image.

Any softwares that I have tried out but aren't going to keep are simply
deleted from my E: partition, no need to worry about uninstallers,
registry entries or any miscellaneous files added to C:. These were all
removed when I formatted and loaded the 'good' image of C.

It works for me, doesn't really take much time to do - maybe an hour per
month, and keeps my system really clean.

If anything screws up - like a trial software that 'misbehaves' or,
heaven forbid, MALWARE - then its a quick and easy format and reload the
latest image.

My computer has 2 hard drives C (80Gb, 1 year old) and the original drive
now demoted to D (3Gb, 7 years old). The C drive is partioned into C, E,
F, G, H partions.

C is 3Gb, same size as the D drive and used for OS only.
E is 10Gb, and is used for programs.
F is 21Gb, and is used for backups, images, installers of every software
I have ever tried (over 1000), all Windows updates ever issued for ME.
G is 36Gb, and is used for my work, automotive tecnical and repair info
for Toyota and GM products.
H is 10Gb, and is for data. Any app that lets me specify a data folder
has its data stored here, as well as My Documents, My Music etc, and
Outlook Express message store is on this partition

The D: drive is used for Temporary Internet Files and the Windows swap
file. As this drive is 7 years old I don't keep anything else on it.

 

[Roger Johansson]

I have partitioned my hard drives and my C:\ drive is basically just the
Windows ME OS. The size of all files and folders here is just 800Mb.

Saved an image of the C: drive. I use payware for this, PowerQuest Drive
Image (can be used from both Windows and DOS). With compression, this
image will easily fit onto a single CD.

I used Drive Image (payware) earlier, and had similar size
of my C: drive, 4 GB big, 1 GB occupied,
it took only 2 minutes to restore, so I think you have chosen
something wrong in DI if it takes 15 minutes to restore.

Maybe you save all sectors. You should only
save used sectors. Or you have a very slow computer.
Or a slow CD unit, maybe. Or DMA for your hd is off.
Or you use too much compression, the lowest level of compression is
a good compromise between speed and compression.
It compresses to approximately half the size.

The freeware "Partition Saving" is faster than DI, but you cannot see
inside the saved image and copy files out of it. No "explorer"
functions.

Norton Ghost (payware) is slow as DI but has the added feature that
you can see inside the saved image, and you can both copy out from
and into the image, you can handle it like a zip file.

This can be used for a little trick I used once when a file could not
be deleted.
I made an image of the disk with ghost, opened the image and deleted
the file, and then I restored the image. Problem solved, the file is
gone. Took me 6 minutes in total.

 

[John Corliss]

The operating system and the programs are just tools, what is really
important is the data. As long as your data are backed up it doesn't
matter much what happens to the programs and the operating system.

Roger, that's only true if, in the event of a catastrophic hard drive
failure, you don't mind reinstalling your system from scratch and then
having to tweak it back into where you like it.

If you guys made a drive image copy of the C drive you wouldn't have to
worry so much about viruses and other problems. Just restore the fresh
and fast operating system to what it was before you got hit with a
virus, or before you tried out 200 new programs.

Exactly!! This is what I want to do and why I started this thread. That
is to say, I basically want "RAID on demand."

If you find that two of those programs were really valuable you just
restore, install those two programs again, and make a new drive image
which you can return to, now including the two new programs. Et voila,
you have deleted 198 programs in a very clean way, they are all totally
gone. They were never even installed in that system you now can restore
to.

I still want to beat a spammer to death with a baseball bat.

--
Regards from John "just kidding" Corliss
I don't reply to trolls and other such idiots. No adware, cdware,
commercial software, crippleware, demoware, nagware, PROmotionware,
shareware, spyware, time-limited software, trialware, viruses or warez
please.

 

[Roger Johansson]

When Microsoft release patches or upgrades I format C, re-load my latest
'good' image and run the patches or upgrades. If I have tried out and
found a useful software that I would like to keep, then I install it
straight after applying the patches/upgrades. After
patching/upgrading/adding new software I then save a new image of C:

If you make a drive image of C: and keep its occupied sectors size down
to 1GB or less it takes less time to restore the C: drive than what it
takes for the average user to reboot his system. If somebody wants the
same clean system every time he starts the computer he can have a CD
which restores the C: drive every time he starts or reboots his system.


A small boot to dos section and the restore program and the image on
the CD.
Or the image can be placed on a hard disk instead, probably faster.

I always restore from disk images saved on a hd, after rebooting from a
boot floppy with DOS and the restore program on it. With Partsave you
can create a bat file which restores the image automatically. (you are
asked when you create an image if you want a restore bat file created
also)

(Partsave is short for the freeware prog "Partition Saving".)

It takes two minutes to restore, plus one minute to boot from the
restored fresh and quick system.

That would be one dangerous CD, by the way, must have one or two safety
checks that the user actually wants to wipe out his current
configuration on C: and replace it with the image. Maybe ask him if he
wants to save the current configuration first.
I have not used automatic restore but I assume all programs have
reasonable checks built in even when used in command line mode, for
automatic restoring.

Information written on the physical CD: Warning, this CD can/will
destroy your computer, only for use by experts.

The risk is much less if the disk image is placed on the hard disk,
then the restore CD/diskette will only work on a certain computer,
where a certain disk image is located in a certain path.

This opens up for more experimentation with a computer, you can set up
a windows version as you like it, make a disk image and save to CD or
hd.

Set up a linux version on C:, make an image of that system and save.

The image save programs can save any kind of operating system.
Or a hd full of texts. It just saves used sectors, no matter what's
written there.

You can have several systems to play with, all saved as images which
can be quickly restored. You can delete everything on C: , it happens
anyway every time you restore, so you can freely experiment with new
systems.

For more advanced experiments where all hard disks can be affected,
like installing a big linux system, it is safer to disconnect one of
the two physical hard disks, the one you have your data on. Nowadays it
is possible to use external hard disks, connected with a cable, usb or
something, which makes it easier to protect data and still have data
accessable in high speed mode.

Programs can be treated as valuable data too. I have many programs
which work from their own folder systems and do not need to be
installed. I save these programs with my data. These programs work on
any windows system.