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Performing a Clean Uninstall

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SOLIDWORKS: Performing a Clean Uninstall

On the rare occasion that you need to fully remove SOLIDWORKS, you will want to carefully and precisely follow the procedure detailed in this document. This need is considered “rare” because in most situations, SOLIDWORKS Installation Manager can complete upgrades cleanly. This procedure will be useful for anyone wishing to manually scrub a machine for repurposing, or for corrupt installs not resolved with a repair, therefore requiring a complete re-install of the software and all related components.

(Please note that a complete system reformat will accomplish the same goal and may be faster, but will affect ALL installed programs, not just SOLIDWORKS).

Access Programs and Features through Windows Control Panel

Select the SOLIDWORKS application that you wish to remove and choose Uninstall. When the Installation Manager launches, you will see a Windows reboot message. Select OK to Continue the installation.

 

(Note: If the application you wish to uninstall does not show up in Programs and Features, see the end of this document).

Access Programs and Features through Windows Control Panel

Choose Product

Choose which SOLIDWORKS products to uninstall by checking the correlating box. Next to Advanced Options towards the bottom of the Installation Manager window, choose CHANGE.

Choose which solidworks product to uninstall

Select Items to Uninstall

Under Advance Options, choose to remove: Program Files and Folders, Registry Entries, Data and File Folders, and Download Files and Folders. Select back to Summary.

Select items to uninstall

Review Summary

Review Summary

Reboot if Necessary

When you continue the uninstall process, you will be prompted that a reboot may be necessary. Click Yes to Continue.

Reboot if necessary

Complete Uninstall

SOLIDWORKS Installation Manager will alert you when the uninstall process is complete. Click OK.

 

(Note: If the uninstall process does not complete successfully, see the end of this document).

Complete Uninstall

Remove any Registry Locations that Remain

Next, we will want to manually go through and remove (or rename and delete later) any registry locations that remain. To access Windows Registry Editor, begin typing ‘regedit’ in the Windows search on your task bar. Choose to Run as administrator.

 

How to perform a clean solidworks uninstall

 

 

Note: Prior to making any changes to the registry, it is a good idea to create and save a backup. Go to File – Export in the Registry Editor. Save your backup*.reg file so that you can easily find it if necessary.

 

 

Export Registry Files

Delete Entries

Navigate to and Delete (or rename to *_old and delete later) the following registry entries if they exist:

 

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\SolidWorks
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Dassault Systemes\Composer
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\eDrawings
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\srac
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\SolidWorks
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Dassault Systemes\Composer
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\eDrawings
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Srac
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\SolidWorks
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Dassault Systemes\Composer

Remove File Locations

Next, we will want to manually remove any file locations that remain. Navigate to and Delete the following file folders if they exist:

 

C:\Program Files\SOLIDWORKS Corp
C:\Program Files (x86)\SOLIDWORKS Corp
C:\Program Files (x86)\SOLIDWORKS PDM
C:\ProgramData\SOLIDWORKS
C:\ProgramData\SOLIDWORKS Electrical
C:\SOLIDWORKS Data
C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Local\SolidWorks
C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Roaming\SOLIDWORKS

 

***If you are scrubbing your computer to repurpose, restart your PC now. The SOLIDWORKS clean uninstall process is complete***

Uninstall Prerequisite Components

If you are planning to reinstall SOLIDWORKS and you suspect that is some corruption of pre-reqs may be causing you some issues or instability, you will want to uninstall all prerequisite components as well. They are as follows:

 

 

 

  • Bonjour

 

Bonjour

 

 

 

  • All Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributables (this will likely be multiple versions, as old as 2005)

 

Microsoft Visual C++
 

 

 

 

  • All Microsoft VSTA (Visual Studio Tools for Applications)

 

All Microsoft VSTA (Visual Studio Tools for Applications)

Restart Computer

Once all prerequisite programs have been successfully removed, restart your computer.

Begin Clean Installation

You are now ready to begin your clean SOLIDWORKS installation. For assistance with installing, see SOLIDWORKS Technical Guides under SUPPORT at MLC-CAD.com

EXCEPTIONS YOU MAY ENCOUNTER

If the SolidWorks application you wish to uninstall does not show up in the list of installed Programs, or if the uninstall process fails through the installation manager, you will want to use this Windows troubleshooting tool to individually remove each program until they are all gone:

 

Fix problems that block programs from being installed or removed (microsoft.com)

In some cases, the process may seem to hang. If you are uncertain that the FixIt Tool is still running, be sure to check your task manager. The process may take as long as overnight to run completely and successfully. If the process does hang indefinitely or is Not Responding, kill the process after a couple of hours and launch the tool again. The application was likely successfully removed. Alternatively, if it was not, and the Microsoft tool that is designed to fix uninstall issues fails, it often means that an OS reformat is required.

We hope you found this article clear and helpful. If you have feedback or want to request for more information, let us know!

MLC CAD Systems
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byAnne Barrett
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