Iobit Uninstaller - be warned!

My laptop came out of sleep to inform me that Thunderbird needed restarting to complete an update, to 31.6 I believe. At the same time Iobit Uninstaller 4.2 popped up to tell me that TBird 31.5 had leftovers and did I want to clean them? I said yes and Iobit went on to remove every last trace of Thunderbird from my system! :mad

This could have caused hours of work had I not only yesterday created an image of my 8.1, so all I have to do is restore it, closely followed by complete removal of Iobit. It's bad enough having to be constantly on guard against its attempts to sneak Advanced System Care onto your system without having a problem like this. Anyway I've said it before and this time it's final - NO MORE IOBIT SOFTWARE ON MY COMPUTERS.

What do the regulars recommend as a replacement uninstaller please? Prefer free but might pay for something that's worth it, i.e. can bin Iobit permanently

 

IObit, has never been installed on any of my systems. There was heated debate here, IIRC in regards to MBAM. I'm not going to get into that. REVO paid/free Ok with you my friend.

Cheers..

 

Earthling

Don't get me wrong but what let you believe you need an additional uninstaller? Most of third party software comes with its own uninstaller and if you can't figure out how to remove an installed program just use the built-in of your Windows Control Panel. Certainly there is no better program to do that job.

Regards
GermanOne

 

It would have to be paid as free doesn't remove 64 bit software, but I'd like to hear what Eldon has to suggest as I seem to remember him enthusing about an uninstaller not so long ago.

@GermanOne - I've never really thought about the D-I-Y approach. Perhaps I should. Doing it via Control Panel does leave files and reg entries behind, harmless admittedly, but a bit untidy to my mind. I will try CPL followed by CCleaner - see how well that does the job, and starting with Iobit!

 

Correct. And you already know that it is risky to remove too many of supposed harmless leftovers

Maybe something I should warn you. Never(!) use the registry cleaning feature. (Especially if you leave out the backup option.) Unused entries do neither slow down your computer nor do they influence the access time to the registry values. They might waste some bytes of your hard drive. But that's nothing compared with the permanent instability of your system that you may cause by deleting entries that are still in use. (CCleaner and similar software achieved notoriety for causing those problems in the registry.)

Regards
GermanOne

 

There is a FREE uninstaller I use on the two 64 bit netbooks when Revo can't see a program.
Advanced Uninstaller Pro
http://www.advanceduninstaller.com/versions/

I run v10 something
http://dottech.org/29507/free-innovative-solutions-advanced-uninstaller-pro/

 

I think that is excessively cautious. I must have been using CCleaner, including its registry cleaner, for at least 10 years and believe that it only finds reg entries which have become orphaned for whatever reason. It has never caused me any problem at all though I do understand where you are coming from with this and that there is no performance or significant space gain from running it. It's just me getting highly irritated when I find registry entries which once belonged to some piece of software I dumped years ago.

@plodr - thanks, I'll take a look. Actually I'm really disappointed at what Iobit did, as up to then I have found it the most effective uninstaller I've used and I'll no doubt miss it. But I can't risk it doing to other software what it did to my TBird.

 

I also use the CCleaner registry cleaner and CCEnhancer. That being said Eric over at tweakhound.com says to avoid it. I do respect his opinion so try to carefully check what entries it wants to remove.
https://tweakhound.com/2013/10/22/tweaking-windows-8-1/20/
Use Revo uninstaller advance mode also and am even more cautious about what is says to remove.

 

Guys I'm not here to keep you from using uninstallers or CCleaner.
All I can tell you is that I already destroyed my registry using CCleaner years ago (I have to admit that I didn't have much computer experiences at that time and I surely didn't know what I did) and a second time some other software didn't run properly anymore. Since I never used it again and (out of my experiences) Windows run well without any cleanup of that kind.
I'm just telling you that registry manipulations could be harmful. The Microsoft people are telling you the same and --I don't know for what reason but-- also chaslang repeated several times not to use the registry cleaner (READ & RUN ME FIRST, Step 5) over in the Malware Removal forum.

That having said I fear you have to blame me that this thread became a little off topic (sorry Earthling :-o). Actually you asked for a recommendation for an alternative uninstaller software ...

 

Hey Earthling, I use Revo free or Geek Uninstaller, then I run Search Everything to find leftover files and delete them, the I go into the old Regedit and remove the registry key, although that really is a personal preference, not a necessity.

 

Earthling...

The only free uninstaller I have managed to find a way to live with is Comodo Programs Manager. I have to use version 1.2 to avoid Geek Buddy, which is bad, but, worse, 1.2 has a rogue process called cpmpopulatedbtool.exe. This was designed to send info to Comodo on a regular basis, but it became too expensive, so they pulled the plug on the server. That left the process to repeatedly use 100% of the processor while it tries to phone home. If it weren't for being able to kill the process with Process Lasso (or a firewall I guess would work), I wouldn't be using an uninstaller I don't think.

Sum...I hated Iobit's distracting interruptions and who knows what else, Advanced Uninstaller Pro I thought was poorly designed and dangerous, and Revo only works on 32 bit. I also tried Wise Uninstaller and a handfull of others before settling on CPM. Actually, in spite of the hassles up front, it works very well and has truly competent features. Best one is that it prompts for a choice before removing a shared key...

 

Hi Earthling,
The secret to a good uninstaller is to install a program with the uninstaller. And then use the uninstaller to uninstall the program. I have been using Ashampoo Uninstaller since 2008. To the best of my knowledge, it's perfect.*

I recently got Revo Uninstaller Pro for free. It was a giveaway thanks to Digiarty Software and VS Revo Group. I have yet to test it the way I tested Ashampoo Uninstaller. Revo Uninstaller Pro is currently available at a 30% discount (Easter special offer).

http://www.revouninstaller.com/revo_uninstaller_buy_purchase_order_main.html

*Disclaimer:
How I tested Ashampoo Uninstaller is NOT a suggestion or recommendation. I used Ashampoo Uninstaller to install a 45 day trial program. After 44 days I uninstalled the program using Ashampoo Uninstaller, and then re-installed it. The program was again a 45 day trial.

CCleaner's uninstaller uses the built-in uninstaller of the program being uninstalled. It's no different to uninstalling a program the regular way. As for it's registry cleaner, it's probably the safest there is simply because it will find maybe 20% of the invalid registry entries.

FYI I used Revo Uninstaller Pro to uninstall Revo Uninstaller Free... it found 8 orphaned folders, files, & registry keys & values!

I know you don't want unused junk on your PC - I'm the same. I used Eusing Free Registry Cleaner for a number of years. It showed the location of every nonexistent file/folder for which there was a registry entry. Very safe but, NO registry cleaner will speed up a PC.

 

Hey guys, thanks for all the inputs! I like the sound of Ashampoo but when I think about it pretty well all the software I need is already installed and not by using Ashampoo, so it's uninstaller doesn't have the means do its job. And with four systems to think about it would be a bit pricey too. Same considerations would apply to Revo Pro. I'll probably go down that road next time I'm setting up a new machine.

@NickT - I'm pretty sure I'm going to start using Revo free again. Don't have a great deal of 64 bit software but should I need to uninstall any I'll just have to do it the hard way, like you

@ AtlBo - TBH CPM sounds like a load of trouble I can live without, but thanks for all the info.

@ plodr - I'll get Advanced Uninstaller too - I don't mind having multiple tools. Thanks.

At the end of the day, and with regular images available to fall back on just in case, I'll probably keep Iobit too but not respond to any popups of the sort I had with Thunderbird.

 

Instead of keeping the installed version of Iobit Uninstaller, how about using the |MG| IObit Uninstaller Portable version? The only time it runs is when you launch it. That way, it won't be popping up out of the blue.

 

I have to agree. Despite all the dire warnings, I have run CCleaner's registry cleaner (and others as well) for many years, on many computers, without a problem. Just like most things in life, use common sense and know what you're doing and there's little risk.