What to do when you can’t Uninstall a Program
If a program failed during uninstall, it might have some bugs in uninstall process, or it might be a type of maleware, then you left with no choice but to manually remove their settings from the registry to uninstall that program properly.
To remove a program, you first want to uninstall it in the recommended way, which is using the program uninstaller itself, using the Windows Add or Remove Programs or using the installation disk of the program.
If you still can’t uninstall a program with these methods then follow these steps to manually remove program settings from your registry.
1. The first step is to backup your registry! You can use the Windows backup utility ntbackup.exe, or you can open the Registry Editor by clicking Run from the Start menu and typing regedit in the field and export all the registry hives to your backup folder. Learn more about How to Backup Registry.
2. Open the Registry Editor, search for all the keys and values that contain the application folder and remove them. This should be done for each application folder and sub folder. You should choose these keys and values carefully to avoid interfering with other programs. You can find folder names for your program in the following keys: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE, HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE and HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CURRENTCONTROLSET\SERVICES. Be careful when removing keys, which might be shared with other programs.
3. Search the registry for keys and values that contains the program’s name. Use any combination of the name you think about. There may be some other applications that use these keys and values as well, so do it carefully.
4. Go to the application folder and list all the dll and exe files in that folder, including sub folders. Remove all the keys from the registry that contains these dll and exe files. Remove only those keys that the path matches the program’s installation folder. Be careful also here.
5. Go to the Registry Editor expand the following key HKEY_ LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\MICRO SOFT\WINDOWS\CURRENTVERSION\UNINSTALL and remove your application’s key.
If you find it difficult for manually remove, and you can’t uninstall a program, or you just want to save your day, then you can also invest in registry cleaner software to remove the program’s settings from the registry. Learn more about Clean Computer Registry.
Registry cleaner software will scan and remove registry keys and values that were not properly removed.
Summary
If you can’t uninstall a program, then you can do it manually, or you can invest in a third-party tool to do it for you. You should uninstall a program manually only if you’re familiar with the Windows Registry, otherwise it is highly recommended that you use the registry cleaner software option.