A weakness of the default program uninstaller in Windows is that it cannot scan the system for leftovers. If you install and uninstall lots of programs, you end up with orphan files and Registry entries that take up space and may even cause other issues like organizational issues with empty folders on the system.

IObit Uninstaller has just been released in version 2. The portable software is comparable to Revo Uninstaller in functionality. Version 2 has received several new and improved features, including a new user interface, a new forced uninstall mode to find programs in a program search that are not in the standard program listing, multi-language support and better and more secure leftover scanning options.

The program opens incredibly fast on execution. The program listing is populated immediately. Each program is listed with its name, size and install date. All columns are sortable so that you can list the most recently installed programs or programs that take up the most space on the computer’s hard drive.

A right-click on an entry in the program listing opens a context menu with options to uninstall the program, remove the entry from the listing (handy if the program is already uninstalled but the listing remained as a leftover), to open the file folder or to search for the program online. The only search searches for the full program name and version on Google.

The uninstaller features a standard and advanced uninstallation mode. The difference is that the advanced uninstall runs a scan for leftovers after program uninstallation, while the standard uninstall won’t.

IObit Uninstaller creates a system restore point before the program can be uninstalled.

The scan searches on the hard drive and in the Registry for leftovers, and displays items found in list form on a new screen after the program uninstallation.

A batch uninstall option is available to uninstall multiple programs in rapid succession. You need to enable batch uninstall first. This adds check boxes to all program entries so that you can select multiple programs in the listing.

It is interesting to note that the uninstaller tries to uninstall all programs at once with the least amount of user interaction.

The left sidebar of the program window offers additional listings. This includes toolbars that are installed on the system, a listing that only includes software that has been recently installed, a listing for large programs, one for programs that are rarely used and a Windows updates listing. The functionality remains the same in all listings.

A click on Forced Uninstall opens another menu with options to add a full program path, a program’s exact name, or a program via drag and drop to the window to uninstall it even if it is not listed in the installed program listing.

IObit Uninstaller 2 is available for download at the IObit website. It is freeware and compatible with 32-bit and 64-bit editions of the Windows operating system.

How does it compare to Revo Uninstaller then? IObit Uninstaller 2.0 detects more installed programs than Revo Uninstaller (121 to 92 on my system) which can be at least partially attributed to missing Microsoft software entries in the Revo Uninstaller listing.

Both programs share the same functionality. Both create a system restore point before uninstallations, and both scan for leftovers on the system after uninstallation. Revo Uninstaller comes with additional tools, like an Autorun Manager which IObit Uninstaller does not offer. The latter on the other hand offers additional handy program listings, like the listing of rarely used programs.

What I like about IObit Uninstaller 2 is that it appears to be a bit easier to select the relevant leftovers for deletion.

While that is more of an aesthetic issue it is still something that could be problematic, for instance when trying to access media inserted into a drive (finding the right drive).

I never really bothered to look into the issue. Today’s article on Unlock For Us addressed the issue which made me address it here on Ghacks as well.

It is not possible to quickly distinguish physical and virtual optical drives in Windows Explorer, unless you have renamed drives to reflect that or by digging deeper into the configuration settings.

Uninstalling Virtual Drives

Here is how you remove virtual drives under Windows so that those drives do not longer appear under My Computer, Windows Explorer or other software that makes use of optical drives.

Open the Device Manager with Windows-p and the selection Device Manager from the sidebar menu. Locate DVD/CD-ROM drives in the listing and expand the selection.

It is sometimes possible to spot virtual drives right away, for instance if they have virtual in their name. At other times it is not that easy. If you know the brand and model of your built-in DVD, CD or Blu-Ray drive you can select the other drives easily to uninstall them. If you do not know those information, you could look at the drive type. A drive displaying SCSI for instance can be an indicator that it is a virtual drive, especially if your computer does not support that technology.

Right-click on the virtual drive and select either Disable or Uninstall from the menu. Disable will keep the device listed in the device manager but not on the system. Uninstallation on the other hand removes the driver from the system and thus the drive.

I suggest to disable drives if you are not sure if they are virtual or physical drives. Put a CD or DVD into your physical drive for identification purposes. Now disable the suspected virtual drive. Refresh Windows Explorer afterwards to see if you can still access the CD or DVD. If you can you have disabled the correct drive and can right-click it again to uninstall it.

Repeat the process for additional virtual drives if present until you have uninstalled all drives that you no longer use.

Software uninstallers such as Revo Uninstaller or IOBit Uninstaller perform a scan of the operating system after the uninstallation to catch those leftovers giving the user the choice to keep or delete them.

These uninstallers have another advantage over the standard Windows uninstallation Control Panel applet as they provide the user with additional information about the installed programs.

Uninstall A Program displays up to five information about each program: Name, Publisher, Installed On, Size and Version. It does not display information about the program path, date the program was last used on, installation source and multiple others that might be useful to the computer users.

uninstall a program control panel

Revo Uninstaller, one of the most popular uninstallation programs, displays those additional information which adds to the usability of the application.

Improving Uninstall A Program

Users who are stuck with – or have to use – the Uninstall A Program applet can extend the information that are displayed in the table. A right-click on the header row in the window displays a context menu with a more link as the last entry.

uninstall program options

The more link opens a new window in which the user can add or remove details from the program uninstallation window.

The details provided are extensive ranging from the program location on the local hard drive to contact information, installation source and readme or support information.

A click on a checkbox next to each detail will enable or disable the information in the software uninstallation window depending on its previous state.

uninstall program details

The same configuration window can be used to change the order of columns in Uninstall or change a program. The same effect is also available by dragging and dropping column headers directly in the main window.

Adding details to the software uninstallation control panel applet adds valuable information to that process. The installation location can for instance be important if multiple versions of the same program have been installed.

Not all details that are enabled provide information on every software entry on the other hand. Windows can retrieve some information like the last used date or installation location but developers are responsible for contact and support information for instance.

uninstall program

The image above shows a modified uninstallation applet in Windows that is displaying the software name, publisher, size and installation location.

The same mechanism applies to uninstalling updates in Windows as well. It is possible to add and remove information from the window in the same way.

uninstall windows update

It can for instance be helpful to add the location of each installed Windows Update to the list so that identification and manual processing becomes easier.

Do you have additional tips about the standard Windows software and update uninstallation applet? Let us know in the comments.

DLL Archive is able to clear this mess. The freeware scans and verifies all dll files on your system and adds them to a list of dlls that are most likely obsolete. Most likely means that there is of course a chance that this dll is still needed and for this purpose DLL Archive archives the dlls which means that they are moved from the system dirs to an archive dir (DLLArchive in the windows folder). You have to work with your computer as usual at this point, reboot it for instance and see if everything is still working as intended.

If you receive errors you should move the dll that is mentioned back to the system directory. I performed a scan and it found more than 450 dll files. I decided to archive them all and see what would happen. Well, nothing happened at all. I was able to reboot my computer, start my programs as usual without problems at all.

The size of the DLLArchive folder was 196 megabytes, this is huge if you ask me. I suggest you keep those files at least for a week and see if any error pops up at a later time. If not appears delete them or back them up before you do.