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 is 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 \<ApplicationName>]
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \Software \<ApplicationName>]
[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

Aaron Stebner discribes another method in his Aaron Stebner's WebLog

Also worth to check :

 http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314481

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/Q247501

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/Q247515

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/Q290301

Add Remove Program Cleaner 2 :This program allows you to clean up the Add/Remove programs list in the control panel. It should only be used to remove entries that are broken and cannot be removed by running the uninstall program.

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Add-Remove-Program-Cleaner |Sys Req:Windows NT/2000/XP/2003 Server/Vista | Freeware | 940KB

 
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