FDISR & Total Uninstall

My original intention was to install and uninstall each legitimate software with "Total Uninstall v3.61" (TU) and never use "Add/Remove Programs" of Windows again.
This worked very good for all my softwares, including installing FDISR.
But uninstalling FDISR with TU was a disaster and lasted way too long. I had to stop TU abnormally.

So my next procedure for uninstalling softwares will be :
1. Uninstall any software with "Add/Remove Programs" first
2. Then uninstall the software again with TU to remove possible leftovers.
3. Run my registry cleaner to remove possible leftovers in registry.

 

Hi Erik,

Just wonder, did you ever try Your uninstaller 2006 (http://www.ursoftware.com/)? Personnally, I use it and I like it...

It is easy to use, for example, if you want to uninstall FDISR, just drag the icon of FDISR over the icon of Your uninstaller (it is a basket) and then Your uninstaller will ask you what you wanna do. Choose Uninstall that software and the first step that Your uninstaller will do is see if the software have and add/remove function if so Your uninstaller will first use that, the second step is that he will look for leftover in the registry and ask you what you wanna do with them... So it does what you wanna do in 1) and 2) and I will still recommend after that to do part 3) wich is to run a registry cleaner just to be sure to clean up everything...

Anyway, if ever you try Your Uninstaller 2006, just keep us informed on how you find it!

Best regards,
Atomas31

 

Atomas31,
Well, I already bought "Total Uninstall", because I needed this software from the beginning. So it's a bit too late. I'm not going to buy another one.
"Total Uninstall" isn't that bad, but uninstalling FD-ISR was my first problem with it.

Of course "Your Uninstaller 2006" seems to work with the uninstaller of the software itself, which is also used by "Add/Remove Programs" of Windows and that is an advantage, certainly for FD-ISR, which has an uninstaller that offers the choice for a complete uninstall or an uninstall without removing the snapshots.
I didn't know about "Your Uninstaller 2006" when I was looking for an uninstaller. So it's too late.
But that is common for all softwares. I still need to buy other softwares, so "Your Uninstaller 2006" isn't a priority for me anymore.
Next time better.

 

Hi, I will never try to install and uninstall a recovery programme by an uninstaller. The reason is obvious. In the said case FDISR seems dominat over total uninstall and u are trying to do the reverse. Just my thinking. I am not using FDISR so can,t eb sure.
I have RollbackRx and here I can say its install or uninstall through another programme( except its own installer or uninstaller) will be a total no for me.
Thanks.

 

I agree with you, but you can't blame me for trying FD-ISR.
"Your Uninstaller 2006" would have done a much better job with FD-ISR, than Total Uninstall.

 

Because it takes a different approach than total uninstall. It uses FDISR,s own uninstaller that is the way to go with FDISR. After the main programme is uninstalled by this proper way then the trash is easy to be removed by any means.
I have very little experience with total uninstall but i think for most other type of softwares it would be nice.

 

What worries my about "Your Uninstaller 2006" is the fact that it uses the software uninstaller and we all know what that means : most softwares have a bad uninstaller and "Total Uninstall" does in most cases an excellent job, better than the software uninstaller.

All depends on what "Your Uninstaller 2006" does AFTER running the software uninstaller and for that, I have to use "Your Uninstaller 2006" in practice.

 

After running the software uninstaller "Your Uninstaller 2006" scan for files and registries keys left over by the software uninstaller...

 

OK. Mr. Atomas, that sounds really good. In that case you have a better uninstaller than ME.

 

I have thought to go in a similar way. Just downloaded and installed last free version of total uninstall few days back. But there is one problem, many programmes are upgraded off and on, like firefox upgrades its version automatically, so does avast if u choose to do so with a click, and many others might be doing the same. In this case u can't involve total uninstall as the process goes on directly when u are online. So the only way is to download the whole new version and to do a clean install via total uninstall but again here u can loose ur previous settings that is a bigger problem.
So I will say I will like to have an uninstaller that sits in my tray and whenever there is an installation it will jump to take over the job. Ashampoo uninstaller does this job. I used its trial about a year ago for short period but I am not sure how good it is. Also there is issue of adding another start up entry in the windows and another background process running and eating the resources( even very little amount though it might be).
Any thought by other users here

 

Hi, folks. i have tried Total Uninstall some time ago. If I remember correctly, TU uses snapshot technology; taking first sanpshot prior to install and taking second one right after install completion. By comparion between these two snapshots, it is then able to delete the changes between. FD-ISR also uses perhaps similar snapshot tech(i am not quite sure). Two birds with similar feather flock together, some sort of clashes is bound to occur. This is why does problem evolve when using TU to delete FD-ISR. Of course, this is just my thinking; awaiting Experts to validate it! Regards.

 

aigle,
I can't have that problem, losing my settings with Firefox and Thunderbird, because I moved all that to another partition.
In case of other softwares it could be problem to lose my settings.
I don't really have experience with this.
EDIT:
Many recent softwares keep their settings in the hidden folder "Application Data" and an upgrade doesn't touch that folder.

 

But u will losse it if u use total uninstall for clean install. Am I right?

 

ErikAlbert:

When I use total uninstall(I have the last freeware version) for beta testing, I uninstall apps first through microsoft's add/remove, then run total install to get rid of anything the unistaller left behind. This approach has worked very well for me, and I have never had a corrupted uninstall.

Alphalutra1

 

I never made a study of this. It's not really a priority for me, because I moved all my personal files, emails and address-books to my data partition [D:].
Whatever is still on my system partition [C:] is neglectable.
Losing settings is annoying, but never a disaster. I'm planning to make screenshots of the settings I changed anyway and put those in an installation file.

I can't say yes or no, each software is different and you need to know where it stores its data on your harddisk.
Total Uninstall is certainly a software that is able to remove data, that's all I can say.

 

YU is mainly a friendly GUI for Windows add/remove. When uninstalling a given program *X*, YU & add/remove use program *X*'s own uninstall routine. Thus, if program *X* lacks an uninstall routine, or has one that doesn't do a good job (as, for example, the inadequate uninstallers for certain antivirus programs), then YU & add/remove can't help much.

Total Uninstall monitors a program as that program is being installed, and makes a record of every change caused by installation of that program. Thus, TU can uninstall stuff that gets left behind by add/remove &/or the program's own uninstaller.

IMHO an uninstaller which doesn't monitor during a program's installation is not helpful. The monitoring uninstallers I know of are Total Uninstall, Ashampoo, & Zsoft. There may be others.

 

How good is Zsoft or I will say outof theses 3 which one is best?
Zsoft seems to be free. Is it?
Thanks.

 

Yes, Zsoft is free. I have Zsoft on my computer but haven't really tested it. It is rated very good (4 points out of 5) by 39 FileForum users (as of this date) HERE.

TU is rated 4.8 of 5 by 63 users (as of this date) at FileForum HERE.

I have used TU (the free version) for several years now. AFAIK, the differences between TU free & the paid version are largely cosmetic. The free version is available HERE.

 

Well, I'm going to work the same way. Member "Eldar" adviced me to do this also, but I didn't listen because that was a part of testing "Total Uninstall" : using "Total Uninstall" as a complete replacement for "Add/Remove Programs" and FDISR was my first problem. I learned it the hard way and this is the best way to remember not to do it anymore.
Frankly, I'm a little disappointed now in TU, but nothing is perfect.

 

Well it is a better approachand more careful way but again i will say FDISR is not a good software to check TU. However anyother software( not of this type) u can through on TU to see.

 

Thanks I have got it and will try it.
Thanks.

 

Hi Bellgamin,

As for Your uninstaller 2006, even if a software have an inadequate uninstaller or no uninstaller at all, it is not true that Your uninstaller can't help much since than Your uninstaller will still scan your files and registry to find every file and registry that belongs to the software you want to remove and ask you if you want to remove them...

As for monitoring program at installation what good is it for program already on your system before you install program like Total uninstall Personnally, I believe that both of this kind of program (monitoring program installation or not) are usefull but not necesserally for the same reasons...

By the way Erik, I don't think I have a better uninstaller than yours but simply a good one that like any other software ain't perfect ;-)

Best regards,
Atomas31

 

Hi Guys,

This may seem old fashioned but, why not run ERUNT & make a restore point before installing. Then if you cannot get rid of all the garbage, you can use one or the other. You can even have ERUNT make a backup each time you start your machine. The TU thing is/was intriguing, I spent time reading reviews of uninstallers (TU was not ranked very well, out of perhaps 50 uninstallers), sorry don't remember the link for the reviews. In the end I've settled on my old fashioned approach to uninstall.

Take Care
rico

 

In other words, YU is (1) a GUI for add/remove plus (2) YU is a registry cleaner.

(1) If an uninstaller is wanted, it's best to get a monitoring uninstaller rather than a GUI for add/remove..

(2) If a registry cleaner is wanted, IMHO it's best to obtain one of the highly regarded ones such as JVTools, RegSeekr, RegHealer, Ace Utilities, TuneUpUtilities, FixIt, etc.

A monitoring uninstaller isn't very helpful if it did not monitor a program during install. A non-monitoring uninstaller isn't very helpful ALL the time.

By the way, to get a somewhat more vivid picture of the changes made by installing a given program, you can monitor it with a freebie by the name of InstallWatch. InstallWatch is like a eunuch in a harem, but it does disclose some very interesting & detailed information.

As for my install routine (since nobody asked) here it is...
1) Take a Rollback snapshot.
2) Start TU to monitor the install.
3) Install the software.

If I quickly decide the program is not something I want, I do a Rollback. Poof! It's gone -- every last shard of it.

If I keep the program & later on decide to dump it, I do this...
1) Uninstall with add/remove
2) Restart (an essential step per Blackcat)
3) Uninstall with TU
4) Run Ace Utilities Registry Cleaner (see note below)
5) Run Ace Utilities Junk File Cleaner

NOTE: After doing steps 1 through 3 it is EXTREMELY rare that a registry cleaner will find a left-over registry item. If it does, it is usually something like a configuration item or option that was NOT recorded in the registry during install, but was later recorded in the registry during use of the program.

 

Why not just Rollback and reinstall.