Hello PCHF,

I am having trouble uninstalling a program called Instant Photo Album by Pinnacle. I bought the thing out of a bargain bin (I know, I know) mainly because it came with a 10 pack of CD-RW. I thought, what the heck, might as well try the software.

Anyhoo, the thing hung up during the installation, and never installed correctly.

At first, there wasn't even an uninstaller, so I installed the thing again. It now shows an uninstaller, but it doesn't work. Add/Remove goes through the motions, asks for a restart, but the thing is still there. And not the whole thing either, can't even launch the program.

I noticed Jelly Bean is recommending a program called REVO, so I downloaded it, but I am a little paranoid to use it.

Any eye-deers?

TIA, cb

Revo uninstaller is an excellent utility. if you have it, try using it to uninstall the offending program and let us know if it successfully removes it for you. be sure to check what registry entries you are deleting when it runs - it may be wise to create a backup just in case.

Thanks Pgh,
When you say check what registry entries I'm deleting, what exactly do you mean? Also, just so I'm clear, you do mean create a backup of the registry, correct?

cb

during the uninstall process, revo will also remove any leftover registry entries it finds associated with that particular program. it won't do this automatically however, you will have the option to tick which ones you want to delete and leave out any you don't.

in most cases you should be ok to just remove them all, but backing up the registry before hand is always the smart thing to do. Revo automatically backs up what it removes to a sub folder in the program directory, but i believe this is only when you remove an entry from add/remove, not registry keys and other files.

just in case you're not sure, go to start > run > type 'regedit' > click file..export..and save it somewhere safe. then if you ever need to restore it in an event of an [unlikely] problem, simply right-click the .reg file and select 'merge' - click yes.

Thanks again Pgh, I'll do it and report back.

Look forward to your reply

Well, I backed up the registry (thanks for the how-to tip), and ran Revo Uninstaller.

The default mode in Revo is called "moderate", I wimped out a little and opted for the next mode down, called "safe". It removed the target program from the add/remove list, however, it did not remove the program files, or remove it from the Start/All Programs list.

I went ahead and manually deleted the Pinnacle program file folder, and the All Programs entry. I don't have any other Pinnacle software (that I know of), so hopefully that won't be problematic. If so, the folder is still in the recycle bin.

My question now is, should I leave it as is, or should I reinstall the program, and uninstall it again using a more thorough mode of the Revo Uninstaller?

cb