Software removal on your PC used to be as easy as using the DEL command. Not today. Software is too complex to be removed with a simple command. That’s in part because software is stored in many places around the computer. Applications are not usually self-contained, and haven’t been for awhile.

Getting Rid Of Old Software

This simple fact gets complicated by another simple fact: some software doesn’t want to be removed. Think of a virus, for example. Virus programmers go out of their way to ensure that cleanup of a virus is as complicated as possible. Viruses are written into volatile and non-volatile memory, the registry, even the CMOS in some computers. Virus programmers are clever, so getting rid of a virus can be time-consuming. Missteps can render your computer non-working in a hurry.

Microsoft found this out last month when it released the now infamous MS10-015 as part of a regular Patch Tuesday update. The update, which contained a little polish for the company’s Malicious Software Removal Tool, had the unintended effect of locking up tens of thousands of computers. After investigating the lockup, Microsoft claimed that the only computers affected by the old BSOD following the update were those already infected with the Allureon virus. Microsoft withdrew the Malicious Software Removal Tool patch a couple of days after its release, but re-released it March 9.Microsoft also released a tool that will scan a target system prior to installing the patch. The scan will not clean up any detected viruses, but will indicate the presence of the virus known to cause the patch failure.

If you have automatic updates turned on, you’ve already encountered the problem. (Or not, if your computer was not infected by the Allureon virus.) The point of my story isn’t that automatic patching is bad. (It’s not.) The point is that even Microsoft doesn’t have an easy time of removing software –albeit malicious software.

That’s why I use and recommend Perfect Uninstaller for software removal. Perfect Uninstaller works perfectly every time to remove the software you want gone. While some software makes itself deliberately difficult to remove, most unremovable software is unremovable because it’s gotten damaged and is no longer visible by the Add/Remove Programs tool. It’s also possible that some components of a program get left behind when non-standard removal techniques are employed. Regardless of how your unremovable software got that way, Perfect Uninstaller will remove it every time!

Photo Credit: Michael “Mike” L. Baird, via Flickr