Half deleted Program

djflanagan

I tried using Jv16 to remove a program, scansoft PDF Professional 3.0 and it seemed to work but the Windows add/remove still lists it, but with no size or other data. To make matters even worse when I right click on other icons Windows tries to reload the d**n thing. I would greatly appreciate any insight into this problem if anyone has any. I tried searching for references in the registry and deleting them but the issue persists. Since the computer I am working on is a second hand one purchased by a family member, my familiarity with this program is minimal, but the program seems to have put links into just about every other program that can make a file and scansoft has pay for call by the minute user help. I would really like to avoid that.

jv16

How did you try to uninstall the program with PowerTools?

Did you use the Software Manager? If it leaves an entry to the Add/remove Software window you can remove it using the PT's Registry Manager.

djflanagan

I did finally fix the issue with system restore to undo the uninstall.

Fortunately I had a restore point only two days old so I didn't loose too much work. Yes I did uninstall it with powertools, which in retrospect was a mistake, the programs own "uninstaller" took nearly ten minute to undo the cancerous maze of program inserts that it had created. I know that some people think highly of scansoft's PDF programs, but I for one am not impressed, it is a messy and contorted mass of links, and inserts into just about every program that can create an output file. If I had a need for the function I would rather have a stand-alone file converter than this troublesome entity.

djflanagan

I realized my answer was incomplete. I did try to uninstall with PowerTools using the custom uninstall option. I hit find registry keys, selected all, then proceeded with the uninstall. The other registry keys I found referring to this program were in other programs, i.e. word processors.