Revo Uninstaller
Description
Windows’ built-in Add or Remove Programs uninstalls software by running an uninstaller program — whatever the developer included — for the program. The trouble with that approach is that the uninstallers are written by the developers themselves, and the uninstallers vary enormously in thoroughness. Some delete all files and registry entries cleanly. Many leave behind folders in Program Files, leftover keys scattered through the registry, and remnants in AppData, which accumulates over time without the user being aware of it’s there. Revo Uninstaller fills that gap by running the program’s own uninstaller, and then scanning for everything it left behind, offering to remove the leftovers before declaring the uninstallation complete.
VS Revo Group created Revo Uninstaller and has been doing so since 2008 and built a free version with the core uninstall and cleanup workflow and a Pro tier with enhanced scanning modes, multi-level undo, forced uninstaller for programs without working uninstallers as well as batch uninstall capabilities.
KEY FEATURES
Leftovers Scanner
After the original uninstaller runs and finishes, Revo Uninstaller scans the Windows registry and the file system for entries related to the program that was just uninstalled. The scan searches registry hives for keys with the program name, installation path, and publisher information and searches common file locations — Program Files, AppData, ProgramData, and temporary directories — for leftover folders and files. Results are shown in a list with check boxes, allowing the user to view each list item, and then select which ones to remove. The scan picks up the types of leftover information that incomplete uninstallers are prone to missing: user profile information stored in AppData, registry run keys, and shell extension entries, and installer cache files.
Scanning Modes
Revo Uninstaller Pro has three levels of scanning depth. Safe mode scans only the most widely used registry locations and file paths and will complete within a short amount of time, and will cover the majority of the standard leftovers. Moderate mode searches in more registry locations and more file system paths. Advanced mode does a full scan of the entire registry as well as all user directories, which takes longer, but will pick up entries missed by the less thorough scan. The free version offers one scanning depth which covers the common leftovers without the full Advanced mode depth.
Forced Uninstall
Some programs lose their working uninstaller — the installer is corrupted, partially uninstalled by another process, or was never properly installed in the first place — leaving no standard removal path. Forced Uninstall works around these cases by taking as input a program name, folder path, or registry key and searching for all files and registry entries associated with the program without using an executable uninstaller. The results of the scan show the same review interface as a standard uninstallation with selective removal of the remnants found.
All Programs List
The programs list includes all installed programs found on the system, and includes the name, publisher, installation date, size, and version. Sorting by installation date reveals recently installed software; sorting by size helps to identify large software. The list is based on more than one detection source — Windows Installer database, registry run keys and detected program folders — this covers applications that do not register themselves in Windows’ standard programs list.
Batch Uninstall
Revo Uninstaller Pro allows to select several programs from the list and put them in the queue to uninstall them one after another. Each program’s original uninstaller is executed sequentially then Revo’s leftovers scan is run and programs are cleared one after the other without the user having to initiate each uninstallation individually. Batch uninstall is useful when cleaning up a system of accumulated trial software, uninstalling a set of related applications simultaneously, or preparing a machine for a clean reconfiguration.
Hunter Mode
Hunter Mode adds a targeting crosshair on top of the desktop. Dragging the crosshair over any visible application window, taskbar button, or desktop shortcut and releasing the mouse button identifies the program it is associated with and displays options to uninstall it, stop its process, disable it from starting, or delete it — without visiting the programs list first.
Startup Manager
The Startup Manager displays all programs set to run when Windows is booted in all of the standard startup locations: registry Run keys, Startup folder, scheduled tasks, and browser extensions. Each entry indicates the name of the program, the publisher, and where it is located when it is started. Items enable/disable/delete from startup directly in the manager, and disabling is reversible — Revo saves disabled items separately so that they can be re-enabled without having to reinstall the program or manually re-create the startup entry.
Junk Files Cleaner
A separate cleaning module is provided for scanning for temporary files, Windows error reports, thumbnail caches, browser caches and other categories of junk files in common system locations, with results presented for selective or bulk deletion.
