Revo uninstaller question

[Amethyst]

Season's greetings, everyone!

I have a question about Revo uninstaller (free version). I'm not using it myself, but I was wondering if my Dad could use it to help with a problem that's been unsolvable for months now.

He has a custom built Windows 7 computer and lots of pictures. He used Picassa on his old computer and he really likes it. However, he has been unable to use Picassa on the Windows 7 computer, despite repeated attempts at installing and uninstalling and reinstalling Picassa. When he installs Picassa, his entire computer becomes unusable because Picassa does something to all the desktop icons as well as the Programs list. When he clicks on any of the desktop icons or anything in the Programs list, he gets an error message about it being an "invalid image". He can't even uninstall Picassa using the Picassa uninstall then. Fortunately he has been able to get to Windows 7's version of Add/Remove programs, so he has been able to uninstall it that way. With Picassa installed, the computer is crippled.

I have searched at length through Google's help forums. I see others have experienced this issue and this has been going on for nearly a year now. I have yet to see a satisfactory solution from Google staff, although one person actually reinstalled his operating system. Well, I don't think that is a reasonable answer.

I think there could be some corrupted Picassa file on his system somewhere and I thought Revo might find it and get rid of it. However, once we get Picassa on there, we won't be able to run anything else of course. My question is: if Revo is installed and run now, without Picassa being reinstalled, would Revo be able to find any elements of Picassa there and clean them up? Or does the program you're trying to uninstall already have to be installed before Revo can get rid of it?

(I'm remembering an issue I had a long time ago trying to run ZoneAlarm's cleanup tool, which crashed and left garbage in my root directory, but apparently their cleanup tool was only to be run if one actually still had ZA installed, which I didn't at that point. Other cleanup tools I've used are run AFTER the affected program is already uninstalled...)

Another thing I thought my Dad could try is reinstalling Picassa yet again and having him make sure to not select Picassa as his photo viewer. I see that others have tried this and it doesn't work, however.

[ShyWriter]

Season's greetings, everyone!

I have a question about Revo uninstaller (free version). I'm not using it myself, but I was wondering if my Dad could use it to help with a problem that's been unsolvable for months now.

He has a custom built Windows 7 computer and lots of pictures. He used Picassa on his old computer and he really likes it. However, he has been unable to use Picassa on the Windows 7 computer, despite repeated attempts at installing and uninstalling and reinstalling Picassa. When he installs Picassa, his entire computer becomes unusable because Picassa does something to all the desktop icons as well as the Programs list. When he clicks on any of the desktop icons or anything in the Programs list, he gets an error message about it being an "invalid image". He can't even uninstall Picassa using the Picassa uninstall then. Fortunately he has been able to get to Windows 7's version of Add/Remove programs, so he has been able to uninstall it that way. With Picassa installed, the computer is crippled.

I have searched at length through Google's help forums. I see others have experienced this issue and this has been going on for nearly a year now. I have yet to see a satisfactory solution from Google staff, although one person actually reinstalled his operating system. Well, I don't think that is a reasonable answer.

I think there could be some corrupted Picassa file on his system somewhere and I thought Revo might find it and get rid of it. However, once we get Picassa on there, we won't be able to run anything else of course. My question is: if Revo is installed and run now, without Picassa being reinstalled, would Revo be able to find any elements of Picassa there and clean them up? Or does the program you're trying to uninstall already have to be installed before Revo can get rid of it?

(I'm remembering an issue I had a long time ago trying to run ZoneAlarm's cleanup tool, which crashed and left garbage in my root directory, but apparently their cleanup tool was only to be run if one actually still had ZA installed, which I didn't at that point. Other cleanup tools I've used are run AFTER the affected program is already uninstalled...)

Another thing I thought my Dad could try is reinstalling Picassa yet again and having him make sure to not select Picassa as his photo viewer. I see that others have tried this and it doesn't work, however.

I've used the free version and own the Pro version. The Revo Uninstaller has to have a program to start with.. and then is hell-on-wheels; especially if you let it do the scan for remnants afterwords. But without a program to "start" from I, so far, haven't found a way to go looking for stuff. That's where a stand-alone registry cleaner comes in handy but half the Staff here at MBAM don't believe in them; registry cleaners, that is.. Sorry..

Has your Dad tried an earlier version of Picaso to see if the problem disappears; sometimes the latest and greatest is not so much so..

~Shy

[Haider]

Hello Amethyst:

Same to you too. My personal experience about Revo Uninstaller free version

[ShyWriter]

Hello Amethyst:

Same to you too. My personal experience about Revo Uninstaller free version

[Haider]

Steve: This post may have some answers, however, just reading this post may negate my stand, it has to be taken in it's entirety

[Amethyst]

Thanks, Haider and ShyWriter.

For now, I suggested to Dad that he try installing Picasa 3 and de-select the option to include the Photo Viewer in the installation. There's also a setting within the Picasa program to tell it to NOT look in certain places for image files.

I think Dad actually liked the newer version of Picasa when it was working properly, so I don't think I'm going to sell him on going with an older version. He was enjoying the facial recognition feature and the collage thing. Personally, I found the facial recognition to be an annoyance, as it has to scan every image at first and that can take a while. And I don't even have a lot of images to scan on the laptop (and I won't be putting it on our desktop because we simply don't need it there).

I've been looking at screen shots of Revo on the internet, and from what I can see it looks like Revo would need to see Picasa on a list of installed programs. I'm still keeping it in mind as an option to try out, however.

I think, too, I'll go on the Google support board and ask about a thorough uninstall tool. This sort of thing has been a problem for quite some time now, and one would think they would have come up with an effective fix by now.

[ShyWriter]

Thanks, Haider and ShyWriter.

[...]

I've been looking at screen shots of Revo on the internet, and from what I can see it looks like Revo would need to see Picasa on a list of installed programs. I'm still keeping it in mind as an option to try out, however.

[..]

Exactly.. It does.. And since *I* actually use the program, between Haider and myself, I've learned to live with some of its inadequacies.

You're very welcome for the assist..

Happy Holidays,

~Shy

[Amethyst]

In all my searching around re Picasa, I realized I was running 3.6, and now the latest version is 3.8, so I updated mine to that. I'll see how Dad does if he tries this again. Another thing, too, I don't know whether or not he let Picasa's uninstaller remove the database. If he has the same thing happen again, though, I'll suggest that next time he permit the database to be uninstalled and maybe that will help.

He's actually had a computer tech try to fix this and the guy didn't have any luck. If we could actually get Revo to run when Picasa has such a stranglehold on the computer, it probably would get rid of whatever is causing the problem.

Well, we'll keep at it, anyway.

Thanks, Shy.

[Amethyst]

Well, we're throwing in the towel for Picasa on my Dad's computer, so I guess there's no point in his using Revo.

The final straw, he tried installing Picasa again and ran into the same issue with the icons being all blank and unusable, and not being able to run any programs. During the installation, he had chosen not to install the Photo Viewer. When he ran into the same problem, he uninstalled Picasa yet again through the control panel programs list. This time, however, all did not return to normal. He restarted his computer 3 times, and the icons and programs were still unusable.

:D

So he phoned me and I talked him through doing a system restore. That brought things back to normal, so we're both really grateful for that. He only had one restore point on the computer, which was from yesterday. I told him not to touch Picasa again, it just isn't worth it. And I sent him instructions on how to manually create daily restore points if Windows isn't going to do it automatically.

[ShyWriter]

[...]

So he phoned me and I talked him through doing a system restore. That brought things back to normal, so we're both really grateful for that. He only had one restore point on the computer, which was from yesterday. I told him not to touch Picasa again, it just isn't worth it. And I sent him instructions on how to manually create daily restore points if Windows isn't going to do it automatically.

Is his computer not automatically making Restore points because of hard drive space (lack thereof?) or because the system has been told to only save one restore point?? If it's HD space, he needs to clean the old junk off the drive to make space.. or add an internal/external HD and copy some of the non-system stuff over.

CCleaner 3.2.0.1343 does a great job of cleaning normal, everyday buildup of temp files and browser crap and the newer versions also clean quite a few of the junk that external programs like OFFICE, etc, generate. Everyone I know swears by it.. http://www.piriform.com/

He can also get DEFRAGGLER 2.1.0.239 at the same link to defrag his drive after he cleans it. Those version #s are the ones that will download as of today. (And are most current.)

Good luck.. God speed..

~Steve

EDIT: I downloaded the update for my Picaso which I rarely use and had no problems. Is this the version he is using??

Edited December 27, 2010 by ShyWriter

[Amethyst]

Hello Steve,

I don't know much about Windows 7 and how it deals with restore points. I had to google the info yesterday to tell my Dad how to do a system restore, and then I sent him a link to a page with instructions on how to create a restore point manually and I advised him to do it daily. From what I've read, though, Windows 7 by default creates one restore point per week unless there are major system changes. It's odd, though, that there was only one restore point there. I don't know why there would only have been one, and I'm looking around for info about that. Next time I'm over visiting my folks, I'll see if I can look into the settings and see if that can be changed. My XP systems save many more than I'll ever need, but I'm OK with that.

I don't think Dad's hard drive would be close to being full. He's pretty good at keeping his computer cleaned up, but I'll look into that, too, next time I'm there.

He probably did use the newest version of Picasa, and that was worse, so I think we're just going to leave it alone for now.

[Amethyst]

Just had this thought that my Dad might have used the disk cleanup tool recently, which would explain why he had only one restore point.

Edited to add:

Or else it's this:

http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums...ab-214a0022716b

I didn't realize that Windows 7 has some issues regarding system restore. Pretty bad on Microsoft's part, if you ask me. Hopefully this isn't what's going on with Dad's computer.

[ShyWriter]

Just had this thought that my Dad might have used the disk cleanup tool recently, which would explain why he had only one restore point.

Edited to add:

Or else it's this:

http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums...ab-214a0022716b

I didn't realize that Windows 7 has some issues regarding system restore. Pretty bad on Microsoft's part, if you ask me. Hopefully this isn't what's going on with Dad's computer.

Got'cha - no problem..

~Steve