Product Reviews

You probably realise if you're a seasoned Windows 95 user that just about every application installs messily, scattering files all over your hard disk. Some do remove themselves cleanly, but many, especially 16-bit applications, leave bits behind. Removing these programs cleanly is UnInstaller's forte.

Unlike a few years ago, UnInstaller is no longer alone in its market niche, with the most notable contender being Quarterdeck's CleanSweep (reviewed issue 31, p184). This version of the program is the first release from CyberMedia, who acquired version 4 (reviewed issue 31, p186) and rewrote it from the ground up. Hopefully, UnInstaller should now be even more effective at cleaning up your PC.

Like most current removal programs, UnInstaller monitors your installations, either when you tell it to or in the background, and then uses that installation log to remove the program later. For software that was installed before UnInstaller was, it falls back on a knowledge base of data about applications, or it performs an analysis of the program by looking at configuration files and Registry settings.

In addition to removing a program, UnInstaller can also archive them, removing them from the system to a compressed file, with the app's icon left in place. When the icon is clicked, UnInstaller's Restore option is opened so you can recall the application. This is ideal for rarely needed applications.

For reorganising a cluttered hard disk, UnInstaller can Move and Transport apps. The Move command shifts an application from one drive or folder on your machine to another, without re-installing. Transport ports an application to another system without removing the original installation. In both cases, any customisation of apps is preserved.

UnInstaller can also operate at

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file, rather than application, level and can identify old files, duplicate files and orphaned files and then delete them. Files located are colour coded according to how safe they are to delete. Some files are flagged as system-critical, some as important to applications, some can be deleted with caution and others are safe to delete. The manual, however, points out that files which are safe from a system stability point of view, may still contain data you view as critical.

A new feature of UnInstaller 4.5 is the inclusion of CyberMedia's Oil Change (see p192). Clicking the Update button in UnInstaller launches your Web connection and downloads any updates to UnInstaller. Sadly, even with version 4.5, I had problems with UnInstaller. The SmartLinks scan window is a fixed size, but long directory and file name combinations exceed the display size. More importantly the Install Monitor report screen is also fixed in size and non-scrollable. I couldn't read some of the entries for Registry keys created by a test installation of WinFax.

Every time UnInstaller is run, it scans its database of installed applications to check whether anything has changed. This SmartLink scan took a minimum of a couple of minutes on two machines tested, but 45 minutes on another machine with a similar spec. Querying this problem with CyberMedia's technical support didn't get many answers - it hadn't responded after a week. Going to the US technical support desk was much better, but at the time of writing, no explanation had been found.

In many ways, UnInstaller does exactly the same as Quarterdeck's CleanSweep, and just as well, although the interface is slightly less user friendly and has some problems. However, the differences between version 4 and 4.5 are negligible. The only noticeable change is the inclusion of Oil Change for automatic updates. CyberMedia claims 4.5 scans files 50 per cent faster than version 4, but I couldn't see much change.

UnInstaller is a very useful tool, not just for removing redundant files and completely cleaning removed apps, but also for the move, transport and archive facilities. It can also be a dangerous product if not used intelligently, so you're advised to use all of UnInstaller's safeguards when removing files. That said, it's a useful tool and recovered about 30Mb of disk space on a machine I'm very careful about installing to.