New Update Uninstalr Thread (changelogs and discussion)

[jv16]

Uninstalr 2.8 released. Uninstalr is a freeware Windows software uninstaller that supports uninstalling software in batch and it has one of the best support for silent (unattended) uninstallation.

Key changes in this version are:

1. New feature: Users can now choose to skip some analysis types, for example portable apps.
2. New feature: Uninstalr will now generate a log file after any uninstallation operation.
3. Greatly improved the speed and accuracy of detecting installed software. On average, the program now works 23% faster.

The full changelog is here: Uninstalr Features
Uninstalr comes in two different but equally delicious flavors: Portable and Setup. The Portable version is a single executable file you can run and then delete when you are done, or run it from a USB device and carry it with you.

The software is very lightweight of only about 6 MB in size and comes with 29 builtin languages, it supports Dark Mode and has a wide array of options to allow you to run it the way you want.
For screenshots, more information and the download, please see: Uninstalr

I’m the developer of Uninstalr. Feel free to ask me anything or let me know if there are any features that you would like to see added.

 

[Defenderfan]

Is it posibble to do a new benchmark with hibit 3.2.55 version?
Also what makes your unistaller so much more effcient thar the others?

 

[jv16]

Is it posibble to do a new benchmark with hibit 3.2.55 version?

The last benchmark that I did was with Hibit version 3.2.50 here Uninstalr and it performed pretty poorly. Is there any reason to believe build 55 would be any better?

Also what makes your unistaller so much more effcient thar the others?

I care about quality of my work and I'm obsessed with always improving.

 

[roger_m]

I just tried the new version.

If I uninstall 360 Secure Browser, it also wants to remove some files and registry keys belonging to 360 Total Security. Since there is seemingly no way to unselect items, I didn't let it go ahead and uninstall the various apps I had selected. I'll say it again, that I really do no like that every file and registry key that Uninstalr finds, is displayed before uninstalling. It really believe it would be much better to just show the leftovers which need to be removed, after everything has been uninstalled, like every other comparable uninstaller does. I just don't see the point of showing files and registry keys that will be deleted when the uninstallers are run, rather than just showing the remaining leftovers.

I tried to uninstall a number of apps, but after clicking on Yes, when asked it Uninstalr should be able to automatically restart, nothing happens. Nothing is uninstalled.

 

[Harputlu]

I just tried the new version.

If I uninstall 360 Secure Browser, it also wants to remove some files and registry keys belonging to 360 Total Security. Since there is seemingly no way to unselect items, I didn't let it go ahead and uninstall the various apps I had selected. I'll say it again, that I really do no like that every file and registry key that Uninstalr finds, is displayed before uninstalling. It really believe it would be much better to just show the leftovers which need to be removed, after everything has been uninstalled, like every other comparable uninstaller does. I just don't see the point of showing files and registry keys that will be deleted when the uninstallers are run, rather than just showing the remaining leftovers.

I tried to uninstall a number of apps, but after clicking on Yes, when asked it Uninstalr should be able to automatically restart, nothing happens. Nothing is uninstalled.

Since starting the uninstall program project, the main program (jw16 power tools) has not been updated. For 1 year it says update coming soon. The uninstall program is not successful. How many times have I tried, I would never use this when I have Revo uninstaller.

 

[jv16]

If I uninstall 360 Secure Browser, it also wants to remove some files and registry keys belonging to 360 Total Security. Since there is seemingly no way to unselect items, I didn't let it go ahead and uninstall the various apps I had selected.

You can edit the list. If you remove a path from the list, Uninstalr will not delete that path from your system. This should also be mentioned in the UI. Is it not?

I'll say it again, that I really do no like that every file and registry key that Uninstalr finds, is displayed before uninstalling. It really believe it would be much better to just show the leftovers which need to be removed, after everything has been uninstalled, like every other comparable uninstaller does. I just don't see the point of showing files and registry keys that will be deleted when the uninstallers are run, rather than just showing the remaining leftovers.

It would seem very dangerous to not show the user what data is about to be removed. And I think it's pretty terrible that many uninstallers simply delete things without any prior confirmation from the user. That's why Uninstalr shows what is about to be removed before anything is removed.

I tried to uninstall a number of apps, but after clicking on Yes, when asked it Uninstalr should be able to automatically restart, nothing happens. Nothing is uninstalled.

Could you tell me after which prompt exactly you clicked "Yes" and nothing happened? There are multiple warnings that the program can show, and I'm not quite sure which one you are referring to.

 

[jv16]

Since starting the uninstall program project, the main program (jw16 power tools) has not been updated. For 1 year it says update coming soon. The uninstall program is not successful. How many times have I tried, I would never use this when I have Revo uninstaller.

Where does it exactly say that "an update is coming soon"? And how have you exactly determined that Uninstalr is not successful? If you tell me why you prefer to use Revo Uninstaller over Uninstalr, I can see if I can improve Uninstalr to make it better.

 

[Harputlu]

Where does it exactly say that "an update is coming soon"? And how have you exactly determined that Uninstalr is not successful? If you tell me why you prefer to use Revo Uninstaller over Uninstalr, I can see if I can improve Uninstalr to make it better.

In the mails you sent periodically to lifetime license holders (I have 2 lifetime licenses) 6-7 months ago, you said that the new version was under development and that the removal program would be integrated into the new version.Also your uninstaller is slow, when we wanted to uninstall a program it also uninstalled different programs with the same name (avg internet security and avg tune up). I also don't like the fact that it scans every startup, It can scan when you want to uninstall the program.

 

[roger_m]

You can edit the list. If you remove a path from the list, it is not removed. This should also be mentioned in the UI. Is it not?

I missed the part where it says you can edit the data. I'm used to other uninstallers where there is a checkmark next to everything.
Other uninstallers scan for leftovers and then show what they want to remove, only after uninstalling everything, rather than doing a scan before removing anything. In doing so they only show the leftovers that were not removed.

The window titled Confirm, where is says "you are about to uninstall:"

 

[jv16]

In the mails you sent periodically to lifetime license holders (I have 2 lifetime licenses) 6-7 months ago, you said that the new version was under development and that the removal program would be integrated into the new version.

Indeed, that is the plan. But I don't believe I have said anything along the lines of "an update is coming soon", as you previously said.

Also your uninstaller is slow, when we wanted to uninstall a program it also uninstalled different programs with the same name (avg internet security and avg tune up). I also don't like the fact that it scans every startup, It can scan when you want to uninstall the program.

The scan speed is being improved on every version, for example, the just released version again should do its scan much faster than previously. A scan is needed in order to show all the installed applications. Other uninstallers don't do that, because they don't work very well, most of them simply display the same list of installed apps that is already available from Windows Settings. But if you want to make the scan even faster, you can adjust the scan depth from the app's Settings. With minimal scanning, the scan speed should be very fast.

 

[jv16]

I missed the part where it says you can edit the data. I'm used to other uninstallers where there is a checkmark next to everything.

Quite a few people have also missed that, so I plan on changing this part of the UI and display checkboxes instead. I think I might be able to do that for the next version already.

Other uninstallers scan for leftovers and then show what they want to remove, only after uninstalling everything, rather than doing a scan before removing anything. In doing so they only show the leftovers that were not removed.

If I can be frank, that's because they barely do anything. Most of the other uninstallers simply read the same Windows Installed Apps listing, then when you uninstall something, all they do is they run the app's own uninstaller and after that perform a basic scan for leftovers. That is trivially easy to do and offers a poor performance, which is probably why almost all other uninstallers perform almost exactly the same way if you compare them. (For reference, see this: Uninstaller benchmark: What is the best uninstaller for Windows? - Uninstalr Blog)

But this is not how Uninstalr works. First of all, it scans the entire system for installed apps, as well as portable apps and leftovers. This will take a bit of time, that's why the initial scan is slower. And if you choose to uninstall something, Uninstalr uses its own custom uninstallation engine to remove everything, and it also does run the app's own uninstaller and attempts to automate it so the uninstallation process works silently and without the user having to do anything.

This is a much more complicated way to uninstall software, but it offers benefits (such as the ability to do unattended batch uninstallation of many apps, something which no other uninstaller can do at the same level as Uninstalr can), and better uninstallation performance.

The window titled Confirm, where is says "you are about to uninstall:"

Would you happen to remember what you were trying to uninstall? If I can reproduce this issue, I can fix it.

 

[roger_m]

If I can be frank, that's because they barely do anything. Most of the other uninstallers simply read the same Windows Installed Apps listing, then when you uninstall something, all they do is they run the app's own uninstaller and after that perform a basic scan for leftovers. That is trivially easy to do and offers a poor performance, which is probably why almost all other uninstallers perform almost exactly the same way if you compare them. (For reference, see this: Uninstaller benchmark: What is the best uninstaller for Windows? - Uninstalr Blog)

It was just one app causing the issues. I just uninstalled a number of apps with no issue. While it took seemingly for ever, I'm happy to longer scan times if it means more leftovers are found. I will see if I can find which app it was tomorrow. After batch installing a number of apps, my Start Menu is no longer functioning. I don't know if the issue was called by the uninstaller of one of the apps, or if Uninstalr deleted something it shouldn't have.

I prefer the method other uninstallers use, because when you list every single file and registry key belonging to apps, you often end up with what can be a very large list to review. If you are only showing the remaining leftovers after uninstalling apps, you end up with a significantly smaller list.

 

[jv16]

It was just one app causing the issues. I just uninstalled a number of apps with no issue. While it took seemingly for ever, I'm happy to longer scan times if it means more leftovers are found. I will see if I can find which app it was tomorrow. After batch installing a number of apps, my Start Menu is no longer functioning. I don't know if the issue was called by the uninstaller of one of the apps, or if Uninstalr deleted something it shouldn't have.

Could you tell me the name of this one app? If I can reproduce the issue, I can fix it.

I prefer the method other uninstallers use, because when you list every single file and registry key belonging to apps, you often end up with what can be a very large list to review. If you are only showing the remaining leftovers after uninstalling apps, you end up with a significantly smaller list.

If you want to see a shorter list of paths, you can adjust the program's settings and tell the program to do less deep search. That will produce less paths to review, also potentially a less performant uninstallation but still probably better than any competition.

The path listing screen also includes a search feature in an attempt to make it easier to review the list.

 

[roger_m]

Could you tell me the name of this one app? If I can reproduce the issue, I can fix it.



If you want to see a shorter list of paths, you can adjust the program's settings and tell the program to do less deep search. That will produce less paths to review, also potentially a less performant uninstallation but still probably better than any competition.

The path listing screen also includes a search feature in an attempt to make it easier to review the list.

Yes, I'll try and work that out tomorrow.

I don't want to find less leftovers, but I think it would be nice to only see what is going to be deleted. This would also make it easier to check for potential false positives, as you only see what Uninstalr would want to delete. While I do understand that you want Uninstalr to be able to uninstall all the selected app and then delete any leftovers without needing any user input, I wouldn't mind having to review what gets deleted, after everything is uninstalled.

 

[jv16]

I rewrote the path listing UI component today and the new one now has checkboxes. It will still need some fine tuning, but the next version's path listing shall look a bit something like this: