In our computer, the components that are part of it are basic, in addition to the operating system that manages to make everything work. But we cannot ignore the programs that we install and use on a daily basis. But sometimes, when trying to uninstall a program in Windows , we can find some errors that prevent us, let’s see what we can do.
And is that the importance of all the software that we install on the computer is beyond doubt, but sometimes it can cause us problems. At first it is expected that the applications that we install in it come with an uninstaller . This is the one that really allows us to erase them when we no longer need them in the simplest way.
It is worth mentioning that the installation process usually copies its own uninstaller into the application’s installation folder. In turn, it is linked to other sections of the system to facilitate its execution and operation. But this is not always the case, unfortunately, as we can run into unexpected errors.
Common failures when uninstalling a program
There are several reasons why we can find these problems that we are commenting on, so we will try to solve them later. At the same time, the rationale for these can be varied, although there are some fairly common cases that have spread over time. Serve as an example that sometimes we cannot remove a program because it has not correctly registered its uninstaller.
This means that when trying to uninstall it in Windows , we cannot do it. To say that the most common system to carry out these tasks is from the Control Panel of the system, since it shows us the list of software that we have installed. But this is not always the case, which is already a problem in most cases.
Another common case is when we encounter a problem that informs us that we do not have access to its uninstallation. That is why it does not allow us to finish the deletion process. Something similar happens when we do not have sufficient permissions to carry out the uninstallation task.
Fix errors when uninstalling programs
As we mentioned, there are several failures that we can find in this regard when removing an application in Windows. In addition, this can lead to some secondary problems, for example related to space. By not being able to eliminate what we are no longer interested in, that space is still occupied, but wasted.
In the same way, we can find software compatibility errors. For example, if we are about to install another similar program, such as an antivirus , over another, for example. Be that as it may, below we will talk about some of the possible solutions that you can use to solve the situation. This way you can solve the errors when uninstalling programs in Windows.
You do not have access to the application
Sometimes User Account Control or UAC limits access to installed files and programs. This means that we cannot uninstall them from Windows and the error that says that we do not have access to uninstall is displayed. But we can use some solutions in this regard. The first thing we must do if we find ourselves in this case, is to enable an administrator account and use it to perform the uninstall operation. Likewise, if this does not work, we will have to make some changes in the Windows Registry. We open this using the Regedit command that we type in the Windows search box.
At that moment we have to look for the entry in the registry corresponding to the problematic program in question. For this we have to go to the following registry path:
Equipo/HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/Microsoft/Windows/Installer
Once the key of that program is found, within it it creates a new String value that we call DisableMSI . Then we open them and assign the value 0. Once we restart the computer, when trying to uninstall an application in Windows 10, we should not see the error message specified before.
The program is not in the Control Panel
As we mentioned before, there are different ways to uninstall a program in Windows. The usual thing is to do it using the Control Panel or from the uninstaller of the program in question. But it may be the case that the program entry is not in the Control Panel or the uninstaller is not available. Therefore we can always use the Windows Registry.
We access it as we saw before and we go to the following key:
Equipo/HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Uninstall
Here we find a good number of keys that represent the installed programs. These can contain long numbers or names. If they have names, they will be easy to identify, so their UninstallString field will point to their uninstall path.
If they have long numbers, we must click on each one of them until we find the program we want to uninstall. Once this is done, in the right pane we look for a string value called UninstallString, like the one mentioned before. We double click on it and in the dialog box that opens we copy its value. After that we open a Command Prompt window with the CMD command and paste the copied value and then press Enter.
You do not have permission to uninstall
Keep in mind that on a Windows computer, there are several users who can use the operating system simultaneously. Each one with their own account and their assigned permissions. Precisely for this reason, sometimes we can find that we do not have sufficient permissions to uninstall certain programs.
That is why, at this point, the best we can do is notify the person who has access to the system administrator account. That is the one that has all the permissions on all installed programs, and Windows functions. Therefore from it, under normal conditions it should already be possible to uninstall.
Uninstall does not complete
Another of the possible problems that we can find when eliminating a program is that it does not present us with any message, but the process does not end either. By this, what we mean is that the application presents us with its corresponding uninstaller, as is usual, and allows us to run it to remove that content from our Windows computer .
But the process itself is never complete, so we go back to where we started and the program continues where it was. That is why one of the most effective solutions that we can use here is through Microsoft‘s own program for these errors. Specifically, we refer to the Windows installation and uninstallation troubleshooter. This is a solution that we can download from this same link to run it and follow the steps indicated to uninstall a problematic program.