Can't uninstall GK2

[DeadPoolX]

Okay, this is really pissing me off. All I want to do is uninstall the goddamn game (which I've tried through the control panel and using GK2's own uninstall exe within its directory) and it simply will not work.

So how do I do this or do I need to delete it and get rid of any extra registry entries?

For reference, I'm using Win7 Pro.

EDIT: Removed an unnecessary use of profanity, which I wrote because I was ticked off beyond measure.

[Collector]

This is with the installer from here?

[DeadPoolX]

Yes.

I've also noticed I can't uninstall GK1. I thought GK1 was originally a DOS game, so would it even need to be uninstalled?

What happens is I try to uninstall it, and despite going through the motions (i.e. visuals showing the process is occurring, etc), all of the files remain. Even worse, that window is frozen, with the cursor constantly showing the "spinning" icon, which is used to mean it's busy.

The only way out of that is to use Task Manager to close the window.

Speaking of Task Manager, a process appears called "unins000.exe *32" and can't be killed. It doesn't mean if I tell it to end the process or the process tree, it just remains there. The only way to "fix" that is to reboot.

This sort of problem has happened with one other game, called Saturday Morning RPG, which refused to uninstall. I couldn't even remove it through the command prompt. Eventually I just deleted it and used CCleaner to get rid of any remains in the registry.

Just to see if this problem is now ongoing, I uninstalled an entirely different game (it was from PopCap) from the control panel. That worked just like it was supposed to, so there was no freezing or not removing files when they should be removed.

[Collector]

The only thing in the registry is uninstall info. Is your AV causing it to hang? The uninstaller should be named uninst.exe. It does get copied from the installed folder to the temp folder to run from there so the installed folder can be deleted, but the copied uninstaller is named "Au_.exe". "unins000.exe" sounds like an Inno Setup uninstaller. Are you sure that this is not Endroz's GK installers (which are also linked to on the installer page)? They make far more registry entries. What is the name of the uninstaller in the game's folder?

[DeadPoolX]

I figured out what the issue was.

Apparently having "deepscreen" enabled on Avast Anti-Virus Pro was causing some issues with those uninstallers (oddly enough, only these two and presumably the uninstaller from SMRPG). Once I turned that off, GK1 and 2 uninstalled just fine.

For some reason or another, two entries still exist in Task Manager with the description of "third party installer." These two are: "GK1ForDOSBox.exe *32" and "uninst.exe *32".

I'll probably have to reboot (yet again...) to clear those up, but at least both games are uninstalled.

As for whose installer I used, I think I used yours, but it's entirely possible I used Endroz's. I put those two games on my laptop a long time ago, so my memory of the exact details are hazy, at best.

Anyway... if anyone else here has Avast Anti-Virus Pro, I'd strongly suggest turning off "deepscreen." I don't know if the free version has it or not, but if it does, switch it off.

[Collector]

Thanks for reporting. I was beginning to suspect that it might be your AV.

[envisge0ne]

Kinda off topic, but I thought this was a good place to vent my frustration towards trying to install Lavasoft's ad-aware. I had used it once a couple years ago and uninstalled it through the uninstaller. I decided a few days ago to install the latest version. It kept detecting that ad-aware was already installed on my computer and wouldn't let me continue to install it 'till I removed the old one. Of course there were no traces of the old version so I couldn't uninstall it, or proceed to install the new one.

So I went through a few steps to remedy this problem. I disabled my anti-virus. I looked through all my hard drives for any traces of the program. I installed a uninstaller that specifically looked through all system folders and the registry for any occurrences of ad-aware and removed any and all signs of it. Then I extracted the exe and msi files from the new ad-aware installer to see if there was a way to bypass it looking for older versions & just frickin' install the thing. Nothing worked! So I can't install ad-aware! Needless to say, I really have a bad opinion of the program.

[Collector]

Sometimes there can be traces left in the registry that are not obvious that they belong to a program, like an entry for some sub component that does not refer to the program that installed it. If you have access to another machine, you can use an install tracker to monitor what the installer does to track down all of the stray registry entries and system files, etc. that it writes. This is one of the main things that I use XP mode for -- to RE installers that don't work on modern windows.

That aside, I have not bothered with Ad-Aware in a long time. I usually install Spybot instead.