4 replies to this topic

[mrdee]

Hello,

I am having a problem uninstalling a program, when I try it via Control Panel (I use Windows 7 Ultimate, by the way) it tells me "INSTALL.LOG cannot be found" and when I try to use the program's own uninstaller I get exactly the same message.

Yet, in the latter case, when I am in the folder containing the program, the "INSTALL.LOG" file is staring me in the face, and it is not an empty file.

The other thing that bothers and surprises me is that it is a legitimate program, nothing cracked, patched or illegal about it.
The other thing is that I have another program, made by the same company, and I have the same issue with it, coincidence or what?

Is there anyone who recognises these symptoms, and, evenbetter, knows a cure for it?

Or would it be all right to just delete the appropriate folder(s) and then clean up my registry to get rid of the traces of the program(s)?

Any expert advice will be gratefully accepted as this issue is driving me mad.

Thank you in advance.

[Eza]

Several options can be noticed.

1. The uninstall file seems to be corrupt. Install the program again. This renews the uninstall file. It is possible the program uninstalls when installed in a proper way the second time.

2. Make a backup of the precious files on the computer and install Windows 7 again. This cleans the complete hard disk. This removes the file that doesn't want to be removed too.

3. The deletion of the folder with the program in it and running a register cleaner is an option. The risk is that other files and parts of the register get affected by the rough deletion of the program.

4. Look on google for a special program to uninstall the program. Some programs have the issue, that it is hard to remove them. For such programs seperate uninstall and cleaning programs are available on the internet.

Edited by Eza, 03 July 2011 - 11:55 PM.

[anwiii]

yea, i was going to suggest option #1 that eza suggested. it would be my first thought. try that and see what happens. if it doesn't work, then we can try to think of something else. it a secret what program you are trying to uninstall? i would do some research and also see if there was other people having the same problem.

[Eza]

Some time ago mahesh2k suggested Revo Uninstaller. According to mahesh2k Revo Uninstaller works fine. It seems to remove all programs thinkable.

http://www.revouninstaller.com/

The website of Revo Uninstaller tells about the Pro version:

Quote

Revo Uninstaller Pro helps you to uninstall software and remove unwanted programs installed on your computer easily! Even if you have problems uninstalling and cannot uninstall them from "Windows Add or Remove Programs" control panel applet.

The Free Trial version might have almost the same uninstalling power.

Edited by Eza, 06 July 2011 - 12:25 PM.

[Baniboy]

And if nothing above works (well, I suggest you don't try to reinstall Windows again before doing this), remove the program from the windows registry. CCleaner has an option where it removes a program from registry if you don't want to manually go through it.
Then go on and delete the software folder. Launch the registry editor and go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software, then delete the whole program folder if it's still there.
Next, navigate to c:\WINDOWS\Prefetch and delete the file with a .pf extension that contains the name of the program in question.
If on windows 7, go to the USERS\<username>\Appdata\Roaming and delete the folder with the programs name on it.