Remove InstallShield Update Manager?

The cannibalized hard drives that I currently am trying to talk into obeying my every whim, have InstallShield's update manager installed on them. I don't want it there, but I cant' for the life of my find an uninstaller. It does not show up in the Start menu, or in the Program menu, or for that matter in the Add/Remove Programs window. It is not listed in CClearner's uninstaller either. I did find it listed in the Startup section of CCleaner, and I have removed the two registry entires that made InstallShield start up on boot, so now it won't at least be running in the background every time I try to use this computer.

I have also managed to locate exactly where it is installed on partition E:\, but to manually delete the folders there (without uninstalling anything... probably not a good idea) was not possible since the main program file still was in use by someone or something.

How do I uninstall this thing? I don't want it there, and the FAQs on the manufacturers website don't even hint at the possibility of uninstalling anything.

I actually tempted to post this in the malware forum. It's installed against my will, and I cannot find a way to get rid of it. It fits the definition.

Edit:
I should probably add that I have tried uninstalling it in Safe Mode as well.

 

Mimsy, you probably already did this but got to ask. Is there an uninstall.exe, unwise.exe' or anything starting with 'un' and ending in .exe in the folder? If there is, that is the uninstaller.
Some apps are not installs and do not contain uninstallers. If there is no uninstaller, just delete it and run CCleaner or a reg cleaner (like RegSeeker) that has a 'find in registery' feature. Just type in the name of the app and it will find all instances of it.
I'm not sure if that will remove any.dll's related to that app though.
You may want to wait for more answers but that is how I would deal with it.

 

Nope, no un-anything at all, sadly.

I have tried to simply delete the whole folder, but when I do, I get an error message saying that issch.exe cannot be deleted because it's being used by an application. and instead of skipping only that file, all of them are skipped and not deleted. I tried it in safe mode, but no luck.

I vaguely remember applications that can kill whichever process is keeping that file from being deleted, but I can't remember the name of any of them though. I'll be happy to try one.

 

Scroll down to the second screen print...there is an uninstaller download http://consumer.installshield.com/kb.asp?id=Q111006

Not sure how successful it will be now though, being that you are partly uninstalled already.

 

Whatever the uninstaller did, it at least made it possible for me to delete that entire folder. So now I can run CClearner and get rid of all garbage and registry entires from it, and be without this pesky application for good.

Thanks!

 

Mims, I'm glad Lev got you straight. If you have a similar problem in the future, the message that you got, "xxxx.exe cannot be deleted because it's being used by an application." means that there is a process running. You can identify it through the task manager or with Process Explorer and end the task. It should then be deletable.

 

The following worked for me!
Access Systems restore as follows
Start/Program/Accessories/Systems tools/Systems Restore

With "restore my computer to an earlier date" checked, click "next".

The installation date of the "InstallShield" appeared. I restored to that date and I found I was then able to delete the "installShield" forlder from C/Program Files/Common Files/InstallShield.

 

Uninstall program found in C:\WINDOWS\IsUninst