Software uninstaller comparison: CCleaner vs. IObit vs. jv16 vs. Revo Uninstaller

jv16

Today we are releasing the results of our software uninstallation benchmark report where we tested how CCleaner, IObit Uninstaller, jv16 PowerTools and Revo Uninstaller Pro perform in uninstalling software from Windows.

The report is available here: https://jv16powertools.com/windows-uninstaller-product-comparison/

And the screen recording with us doing the actual test is also published, it is here: https://youtu.be/VdB4AEzoCCs

Any thoughts on this test? Any other product you would want to see tested?

Disclaimer: The testing was performed on 8th of April 2021, using the latest versions of each product available at the time. The test was performed by staff here at Macecraft Software, who are the developer of jv16 PowerTools. This constitutes a conflict of interest and therefore one should take this into account when reading this benchmark report. We urge everyone to perform similar testing to verify which product provides the best software uninstallation results. Between each test, the test applications (Audacity, IrfanView, PowerISO, Photoscape, Steam and Winzip) were all reinstalled and the system restarted. It’s worth noting that it is possible that first tested product(s) may have received an unfair advantage as the system was not fully restored between the tests. The products were tested in this order: Revo Uninstaller Pro, IObit Uninstaller, CCleaner and lastly jv16 PowerTools. For future testing, using an image to fully restore the original state of the testing system between tests should be considered to further improve the accuracy of the testing. The main purpose of this test is to show how you can test these products yourself. Don’t believe everything you read online. Test yourself.

newmangroup

You should include Reg Organizer by Chemtable. For a long-time, I've found this to be the "best", most extensive uninstaller. And I have thought that jv16 has been a close second. If I could get your ver .1133 to work you might be able to prove me wrong. https://bit.ly/3x0ABLt

Best,

Richard

pcbugfixer

G'day Folks,

That the CCleaner uninstaller works better is a fore drawn conclusion and having used it I agree that it is the best uninstaller with the exception of the remnants that jv16 uninstaller leaves behind, how are they removed, was not clear or clearly defined in the video ?

Regards

pcbugfixer

jv16

newmangroup wrote

You should include Reg Organizer by Chemtable. For a long-time, I've found this to be the "best", most extensive uninstaller. And I have thought that jv16 has been a close second. If I could get your ver .1133 to work you might be able to prove me wrong. https://bit.ly/3x0ABLt

Thank you for your feedback! I did not know that Reg Organizer was a software uninstaller product, but if that is the case, we should include that to future testing for sure!

jv16

pcbugfixer wrote

G'day Folks,

That the CCleaner uninstaller works better is a fore drawn conclusion and having used it I agree that it is the best uninstaller with the exception of the remnants that jv16 uninstaller leaves behind, how are they removed, was not clear or clearly defined in the video

In this testing, CCleaner provided the worst cleaning performance, even with it giving the advantage of its registry cleaning and system cleaning modules being used it still left most items behind.

Not sure if I understand your question about the remnants, could you rephrase that?

doctor9fan

I don’t notice that scan for leftovers is being run when using Revo Uninstaller just that the PC is restarted immediately after running the specific programs’ removal tools & then showing JV 16 uninstaller. This is most likely why there’s still leftovers.

thebede

Have you compared "wise uninstaller". This is a program I have often used. Would be interested to know how it stacks up against power tools.

jv16

Doctor9fan wrote

I don’t notice that scan for leftovers is being run when using Revo Uninstaller just that the PC is restarted immediately after running the specific programs’ removal tools & then showing JV 16 uninstaller. This is most likely why there’s still leftovers.

Revo Uninstaller Pro was used using its default settings. If there is some special leftovers scan, how does one run it?

All the uninstallers were run the same way: they were used to uninstall the apps, when they were completed, the system was restarted. Is there something wrong with this method?

jv16

TheBede wrote

Have you compared "wise uninstaller". This is a program I have often used. Would be interested to know how it stacks up against power tools.

That is a good idea, thank you!

doctor9fan

jv16 wrote

Doctor9fan wrote

I don’t notice that scan for leftovers is being run when using Revo Uninstaller just that the PC is restarted immediately after running the specific programs’ removal tools & then showing JV 16 uninstaller. This is most likely why there’s still leftovers.

Revo Uninstaller Pro was used using its default settings. If there is some special leftovers scan, how does one run it?

All the uninstallers were run the same way: they were used to uninstall the apps, when they were completed, the system was restarted. Is there something wrong with this method?

It should be automatic, a user would double-click on the program, this runs its uninstaller then a user would choose ‘scan for leftovers’ & this would show any remaining registry entries & files/folders from the program. Then choose to delete all registry entries shown then it’ll show remaining files/folders where you’d do the same to choose to delete all entries.

jv16

Doctor9fan wrote

jv16 wrote

Doctor9fan wrote

I don’t notice that scan for leftovers is being run when using Revo Uninstaller just that the PC is restarted immediately after running the specific programs’ removal tools & then showing JV 16 uninstaller. This is most likely why there’s still leftovers.

Revo Uninstaller Pro was used using its default settings. If there is some special leftovers scan, how does one run it?

All the uninstallers were run the same way: they were used to uninstall the apps, when they were completed, the system was restarted. Is there something wrong with this method?

It should be automatic, a user would double-click on the program, this runs its uninstaller then a user would choose ‘scan for leftovers’ & this would show any remaining registry entries & files/folders from the program. Then choose to delete all registry entries shown then it’ll show remaining files/folders where you’d do the same to choose to delete all entries.

Revo Uninstaller Pro was used with its default "moderate" leftover scanning mode. You can see this done from here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdB4AEzoCCs&t=120s

If there are other cleaning features, they were not used, as they are not part of the default uninstallation routine offered by the software nor was it recommended by the software's UI.

doctor9fan

That’s the default, you can choose aggressive which finds more leftovers & this has never caused any problems for me when I run this.

There’s no further leftover scans available.

jv16

Doctor9fan wrote

That’s the default, you can choose aggressive which finds more leftovers & this has never caused any problems for me when I run this.

There’s no further leftover scans available.

Alright, thank you for clarification! I don't think it would be fair to use any extra aggressive settings with some products, as we don't really do any kind of safety testing in this style of test method. All we test is how many leftovers remain after the uninstallation. We might do a more in-depth testing in the future, though, and in such case we could also see if the other modes could give better results.

doctor9fan

I thought I’d try the JV16 Uninstaller but not impressed.

First it took almost 10 minutes to run the program scan, then it missed the program I wanted to uninstall - big fish games and it listed leftovers for a game which was still installed.

Revo on the other hand opens quickly & does show big fish games.

I ran the Uninstaller to see what happened & there’s no indication that it scanned for leftovers.

missing program1.jpg

leftover.jpg

jv16

Doctor9fan wrote

I thought I’d try the JV16 Uninstaller but not impressed.

First it took almost 10 minutes to run the program scan, then it missed the program I wanted to uninstall - big fish games and it listed leftovers for a game which was still installed.

Revo on the other hand opens quickly & does show big fish games.

I ran the Uninstaller to see what happened & there’s no indication that it scanned for leftovers.

Thank you for your feedback!

We are working on improving the speed but since jv16 PowerTools does an actual scan for installed software instead of just listing those apps that are registered to the system, like what Revo, IObit and CCleaner does, it's going to take a bit longer as your entire system is analyzed.

On average, the Software Uninstaller scan takes 37 seconds. This is the average from all our test systems.

Can you tell me the names of the "big fish" games that it does not list and we'll try to reproduce and fix the problem?

doctor9fan

It is/was the Big Fish games application which it doesn’t list. This is an app which lists all the Big Fish games & allow you to play them.

I don’t class 10 minutes to scan all programs very good. I have a 2TB SSD which is 1.10TB full. So it should be fast. In the time JV 16 takes to scan & list all the programs I can run Revo, uninstall a program & scan for leftovers & have around 9 minutes left to do other things.

jv16

Doctor9fan wrote

It is/was the Big Fish games application which it doesn’t list. This is an app which lists all the Big Fish games & allow you to play them.

I don’t class 10 minutes to scan all programs very good. I have a 2TB SSD which is 1.10TB full. So it should be fast. In the time JV 16 takes to scan & list all the programs I can run Revo, uninstall a program & scan for leftovers & have around 9 minutes left to do other things.

I agree, 10 minutes is too long for a scan. On average, it takes under one minute. It's not so much relating to computer speed, but to the amount of software installed. We will install a test system with the same software I can see from your screenshots and we will use that to improve the speed of the Software Uninstaller scan. These improvements will be included to the next released version. Thank you for reporting!

doctor9fan

I do have a lot of software - especially Big Fish games.

Even running the software uninstaller tool again took a similar time.

I hope the speed of scanning can be increased.

jv16

Doctor9fan wrote

I do have a lot of software - especially Big Fish games.

Even running the software uninstaller tool again took a similar time.

I hope the speed of scanning can be increased.

We have now prepared a testing system with a similar set of software and we are making good progress in making the Software Uninstaller scan faster. It will always going to be slower than products like CCleaner or IOBit or Revo, who only list the registered software from the \Uninstall registry key. It is trivially easy and takes almost no time. But we believe in rather providing our users high quality data, rather than fast, poor quality data.

doctor9fan

Thank you.