Revo Uninstaller - User's Guide

Browsers History Cleaner - Erase web browser history, visited pages history and
temporary internet files of Internet Explorer, Firefox and Opera web browsers; free up a lot
of disk space by deleting temporary internet files like temporary saved videos, temporary
flash files, temporary pictures etc.;

Office History Cleaner - Remove the history of most recently used files in MS Office;
remove your tracks by deleting the list of last opened MS Office documents;

Windows History Cleaner - Remove the history of recently opened files, delete temporary
files, remove usage tracks and other history items that are saved by Windows; remove your
tracks saved by Windows for a lot of operations;

Unrecoverable Delete Tool - Erase files and folders forever; be sure that nobody could
recover your files and folders after deleting;

Evidence Remover - Make sure already deleted files, folders and other data are
unrecoverable; securely erase your data.

2.User Interface

5|Page
 Revo Uninstaller - User's Guide
The main window of Revo Uninstaller is divided into few movable and flexible user
interface components.

The Main toolbar contains some of the main features of Revo Uninstaller. By default it is
located on the top of the main window. It contains some of the main features of Revo
Uninstaller and the available commands for the currently active tool. Through the Tools
button you can show the Tools toolbar with all existing additional tools. Both toolbars can
be turned on and off from a context menu, and can be moved by dragging too (pressing the
left mouse button over a part of the toolbar different than a button). You can show or hide
the text of the icons from the options. The size of the icons can be changed from the options
too.

At the bottom of the main window is the Status Bar. Depending on the active tool it
can show some additional information.
The Description Panel is by default located above the status bar. It shows some
common information about the active tool. It can be turned on and off from the context
menu and it can be moved by dragging (pressing the mouse button anywhere in its
window). The Description Panel supports also an “auto hide” feature that hides and shows
the panel on mouse over. To activate/deactivate the “auto hide” option press the small
button with the shape of a pin in the right upper part of the panel window.

Currently active tool is shown in the middle part of the main window. There could be
only one active and visible tool at a given moment.

3.Uninstaller
When Revo Uninstaller is started, its main window shows installed programs on your
computer. Depending on the settings, other items, such as system updates or system
components may be listed also. Depending on the view setting, programs are shown as Icons,
List, and with Details such as Name, Size, Version, Type, Installation Date, Company,
Comment, and Website.
From the uninstaller toolbar using the View drop-down button you can change the
way that the list of applications may be viewed. Click on the little arrow on its right side. This
will show you the menu with all view options - Icon, List and Details.
By default, installed programs are shown in Details view, where data is divided in
columns. You can right-mouse click on the column header and show, hide and adjust some
of the columns.
In Icons view and when you select a program, in the Description Panel, some of the
properties of the program, like: Icon, Size, Version, Install Data, Company, Update Link and
Web Site, are shown below. Similar data you may also see when you hover the mouse cursor
over a program in the list. In that case the data is shown as Tooltip, next to the mouse cursor.

6|Page
 Revo Uninstaller - User's Guide

Using the Search field in the upper part of the main window, you can filter the list of
the programs by name or company publisher. When you type some text in the Search field,
right below you will see the number of found programs that match the search criteria.

Some commands available from the context menu are:

Uninstall – start the uninstall process of selected program
Search at Google for – Use it to search with Google for the application name, or the
producer of the application. This command will open your default web browser and display
the results of the search.
Open About Link – This command will open your default web browser and load the
address containing information about the application.
Open Help Link – This command will open your default web browser and load the
address containing help information.
Open Update Link – This command will open your default web browser and load the
address providing update information.
Install Location – Opens Windows Explorer, so you can see where the selected
application is installed.
Open Registry Key – Opens the registry editor (RegEdit.exe) and displays the
registry key containing the uninstall information of the selected application.
Export list to – export installed programs to HTML, TXT. You can choose which
details you can export.

7|Page
 Revo Uninstaller - User's Guide

The main command you can use on the list of installed programs is Uninstall.
If during the uninstall the build-in uninstaller of the programs runs "Change" or
"Repair" command and tries to reinstall or repair the program instead of uninstalling it then
you can use the command Forced MSI Uninstall. This command is visible in the context
menu only for the MSI(Microsoft Installer) programs, which default uninstall command is
not Uninstall. So if you experience such problem, just cancel the build-in uninstaller of the
program and the uninstall wizard of Revo Uninstaller and start it again using this command
from the context menu

In some cases, when a program from the list is selected, depending on the installer of
that program, you may see on the Commands toolbar the command Change or Repair. That
command is only shown when the installer of the program supports such functionality.
Executing it will open a window, letting you change the modules of the installed program or
repair its installation in case it does not work properly.
Refresh command refill the list of installed programs reading again the data from the
Registry
Selecting a program and pressing Uninstall toolbar button will show up the Uninstall
Wizard. Alternatively you can double left mouse click over the selected program or right-
click on the selected item and then click the Uninstall command on the displayed menu.
After the Uninstall Wizard is shown Revo Uninstaller is going to create a system
restore point (if it is not disabled in Options) and then it is going to run the built-in
uninstaller of the uninstalled program. Revo Uninstaller is not directly involved in that part
of the uninstall process. If errors occur during this initial uninstall process, contact the
author or provider of the application! Or you can ignore the error message and continue the
uninstall. After you have finished uninstallation with the built-in uninstaller, you have to
press Scan button to continue the uninstall process with Revo Uninstaller.

NOTE: The built-in uninstaller may show up behind other open windows and you may need
to switch between them by using the Alt+Tab key combination – hold Alt key and press Tab.

You can choose the scanning mode before the scan:

Safe - performs a scan in the Registry and the hard drive to find leftover items that
are safe to delete. This is the fastest mode;
Moderate - includes the Safe mode and performs an extended scan to find all of the
application's leftover information in the most common places of the Registry and the hard
drive;
Advanced - includes the Moderate mode and performs a deep and thorough scan to
find all of the application's leftover information in the Registry and on the hard drive. This is
the slowest mode.

8|Page
 Revo Uninstaller - User's Guide

Pressing Scan button will trigger scanning for leftovers and the results (if any) will show up
automatically. Revo Uninstaller shows found leftover Registry items first. Registry keys and
values found as created by the uninstalled program are in bold. Not bold keys are considered
as not created by the uninstalled program. You can also check mark them but they will not
be deleted! They have check mark options just because it is easier to select the top parent
and automatically check mark its sub items – no need to go through all of them and check
mark them separately, so, whatever you check mark, when you press Delete button only
check marked bold items are going to be deleted, even when Select All button is used.

9|Page
 Revo Uninstaller - User's Guide
Revo Uninstaller contains advanced algorithms to find leftovers related only to the
uninstalled program. In some cases these algorithms, especially in Advanced uninstall mode,
could list some items related to another program. It could happen, but NOT necessarily (not
always), when you have installed two or more versions of a program, for example "Adobe
Photoshop CS" and "Adobe Photoshop CS5". In this case the user can distinguish the
leftovers. It also could happen if you want to uninstall only a component of a big software
package (i.e. a component of Microsoft Office). In that case Revo Uninstaller could list the
rest of the components as leftovers, because they are installed in the same folder and Revo
Uninstaller cannot distinguish them (Excel, PowerPoint, Word etc). It is better to use Revo
Uninstaller to remove the whole software package instead of a component.
Revo Uninstaller also includes safety algorithms and will NOT list some leftovers if it
decides that deleting them can harm your system. Therefore, although it does a better job
than Windows Programs and Features application and the built-in uninstaller of the
application you want to uninstall, it still may miss something due to safety and the uninstall
mode you choose - Safe, Moderate and Advanced.
In Revo Uninstaller we have implemented a lot of protections to make it safer and
secure, while trying to maximize its accuracy in searching for leftovers.
Basically you can easily distinguish the leftovers (by name, by install path) and in
most of the cases Select All button could be safely used. There are GUIDs and CLSIDs
(alphanumeric items) which are correct leftovers in 99% of the cases, so you can safely
delete them.
Note that Revo Uninstaller creates a Windows System Restore Point and by default
delete every deleted files or folder to the Recycle Bin.
There is also a context menu, which you can see by right-mouse clicking on the
leftover items:
Expand All – expands all items of the shown Registry tree – by default it is expanded
so you may not see any difference first time you use this command;
Collapse All – collapses all items of the shown Registry tree;
Export All – export shown leftover data to HTML file;
Expand selected key – expands only the selected key and its sub items;
Collapse selected key – collapses the selected key and its sub items;
Uninstall selected key – deletes the key from the system;
Mark selected key as Created – marks selected key as created by the program you
are uninstalling. This feature is useful when you see a Registry key which you are sure is
created by the program, but not marked as created because of the safety algorithms in Revo
Uninstaller;

Warning: Be very careful using this command. Mark the key only if you are sure that
it belongs to the uninstalled program!

Add to Exclude List – adds the selected key to the exclude list, which protects the key
from deletion. Excluded keys have red color and you can edit the exclude list from options in
Revo Uninstaller;
Open Registry Key… - open the selected Registry key in Windows Registry Editor
(RegEdit.exe).

10 | P a g e
 Revo Uninstaller - User's Guide

After finishing removal of the Registry leftovers you can press Next button and
continue with the file and folder leftovers. Note that Next button may not be available if there
are no other leftovers found.

Revo Uninstaller shows you found leftover files and folders so you can check the results and
delete them. You can see the number of leftover files and folders found.
Deleted files and folders are moved to the Recycle Bin by default, so you can recover
them from there. You can change that option from Options -> Uninstaller.

There is a context menu, which you can use by right mouse-click on a file of folder:
Open – command on the context menu which acts the same way if you double click
on a file or folder in Windows Explorer. Note that if there is no file association for the file you
click on nothing will happen;
Properties – command on the context menu, which acts the same way if you right-
mouse click on a file and choose Properties – shows properties like file size, attributes, date
of creation, modification etc;
Open Containing Folder – opens the folder that contains selected item in Windows
Explorer;
Export – exports the list of found leftover files and folders to a HTML file.

You can use Select All button to select all found leftover files and folders at once and
then use Delete button to delete them.

11 | P a g e
 Revo Uninstaller - User's Guide

4.Windows Apps
The Windows Apps module lists all installed Windows apps, this includes built-in
apps when you install Windows, and apps downloaded from Microsoft Store. The module
helps you uninstall any app with a single click. To start the Windows Apps module press its
button in the main toolbar

NOTE: Windows Apps module is available on Windows 8 and newer version of

Windows.

The main window has a few columns with Name, Size, Install Date, Version,
Publisher, and Description. Right clicking the header of a column allows you to change the
alignment and choose which columns are shown. The entire list may be sorted by clicking a
column header.

The main command is Uninstall - selecting an app and pressing the Uninstall button
from the main toolbar will bring up the Uninstall Wizard. Revo Uninstaller tries to create a
full Registry backup (if this is not disabled in the Options) and a System Restore Point, and
then runs the default command to uninstall the app. After the app is uninstalled, you have to
click the Scan button to continue the uninstallation process with Revo Uninstaller.

12 | P a g e
 Revo Uninstaller - User's Guide
Revo Uninstaller shows found leftover Registry entries first. Registry keys and values
found as created by the uninstalled program are in bold. Entries that are NOT in bold are
considered as not created by the uninstalled program. You can safely check them (leave them
checked), as they will not be deleted! Entries not in bold are displayed for two reasons: 1)
for information: to give you a better idea of the tree structure, and 2) to make selecting
leftovers for deletion easier and faster. You can simply check an entire parent branch, as that
will automatically select all of its children. This eliminates the need to check each individual
leftover item manually and separately. So, again, whatever items you check, when you press
the Delete button, only entries that are checked and in bold will actually be deleted. This
applies to when the Select All button is used as well.

You can bring up a context menu by right clicking. These are the available commands:
Expand All – expands all items in the Registry tree – by default it is expanded so you
should not see any difference the first time you use this command.
Collapse All – collapses all items in the Registry tree.
Export All – export shown leftover data to an HTML file.
Expand selected key – expands the selected key and its sub items.
Collapse selected key – collapses the selected key and its sub items.
Uninstall selected key – deletes the selected key from the system.
Mark selected key as Created – marks the selected key as created by the program
you are uninstalling. This feature is useful when you see a Registry key, which you are sure
is created by the program but is not marked as created because of the safety algorithms in
Revo Uninstaller.

Warning: Be very careful using this command. Mark the key only if you are absolutely
certain that it belongs to the uninstalled program!

Add to Exclude List – adds the selected key to the exclude list, which protects the key
from deletion, and marks it in red. You can edit the exclude list from the Options in Revo
Uninstaller.
Open Registry Key… - opens the selected Registry key in the Windows Registry
Editor (regedit.exe).

After removing the Registry leftovers, you can click the Next button, and continue to
the file and folder leftovers. Note that the Next button may not be available if there are no
other leftovers found.
Revo Uninstaller shows you found leftover files and folders so you can check the
results, and delete the ones you want. Revo Uninstaller also displays the number of files and
folders found, as well as their total size on the drive.
Deleted files and folders are moved to the Recycle Bin by default, so you can recover
them from there. You can change that option in Options -> Uninstaller.
You can bring up a context menu by right clicking on a file or folder:
Open – acts the same way as if you double clicked on the file or folder in Windows
Explorer. Note that if there is no program associated with the file, nothing will happen.

13 | P a g e
 Revo Uninstaller - User's Guide
Properties – acts the same way as if you right clicked on a file, and chose Properties
– shows various properties like file size, attributes, date of creation, modification, etc.
Open Containing Folder – opens the folder that contains the selected item in
Windows Explorer.
Export – exports the list of found leftover files and folders to an HTML file.

You can use the Select All button to select all found leftover files and folders at once,
and then use the Delete button to delete them.

To refresh the list of listed Apps you can use the command Refresh from the main toolbar.

Other commands available in the context menu for Windows Apps are:
Search at Google for – use it to search online using Google for the application’s name
or publisher. This will open your default web browser and display the results of the search.
Install Location – opens the location where the app is currently installed in Windows
Explorer.
Open Registry Key – opens the Registry editor (regedit.exe) and displays the
Registry key containing the uninstallation information for the selected application.

5.Hunter Mode
Hunter mode is an innovative and flexible feature of Revo Uninstaller, which
gives you the ability to uninstall, stop or delete only by aiming applications icon
on the desktop, quick launch toolbar, system tray or opened application with just
one click. This can be very useful because a lot of applications are loading on start up and
stay in the system tray without your agreement or you don’t even know which application is
that.

When you press the Hunter mode button on the main toolbar of Revo Uninstaller, the
current window will disappear and a small blue target window will appear at the right upper
corner of your screen. Hunter mode is now activated.

There are some main options in Hunter mode, available on its context menu (right-mouse
click):
Open main window – opens Revo Uninstaller’s main window and exits Hunter mode;
Auto Start with Windows – sets Hunter Mode to start automatically on Windows
startup;
Window's size – there are three available sizes of the current window – Small, Middle
and Large;
Transparency - sets the Hunter Mode window’s transparency – 50% by default;
Help – opens help file;
EXIT – exits Revo Uninstaller.

To operate in Hunter mode you have to do the following steps:

14 | P a g e
 Revo Uninstaller - User's Guide
1. Press the left mouse button over the blue target window and hold it pressed;
2. Move the mouse over an item supported by Hunter mode (desktop shortcut, open window,
icon etc.). While doing so a tool tip is shown with information about the application you will
select if you release the button;
3. Release the left mouse button and a menu will show up;
4. Select desired command from that menu:

Uninstall – start the Uninstall module of Revo Uninstaller;

Stop Auto Starting – disable the application from auto start when Windows starts;
Kill – Stop the application;
Kill and Delete – stop and delete the application;
Open Containing Folder - Open a new instance of windows explorer and explore the
directory, where the application is located;
Search at Google for - Use it to search with Google for the application name, file name
or the company name - producer of selected application. This command will open your
default web browser and load the result of current search in the Google web site;
Properties - Show application's executable file's properties;
Cancel – Cancel the operation.

6.Tools
Revo Uninstaller gives you 8 handy and powerful tools to clean up your system. To access
the Tools you have to press the Tools button on the main toolbar. Then on the left side of
the main window appears the Tools toolbar containing buttons of all the available tools:
AutoRun Manager, Junk Files Cleaner, Windows Tools, Browsers Cleaner, MS Office
Cleaner, Windows Cleaner, Evidence Remover, and Unrecoverable Delete

6.1. AutoRun Manager

Auto Run Manager allows you to manage auto running programs and services on
Windows startup. With this tool you can not only enable or disable applications from auto
starting on Windows startup but you can also get more information about a particular
application set to run when Windows starts. You can get information about the publisher of
the auto starting program or service, its description, its launch path - where it is saved on
your computer or the status of the application - if it's running or not. If this information is
not enough to decide whether to enable or disable the program from auto starting, you can
get more information about the publisher and the executable file name directly from Google
with just one right-mouse click.
When you buy a brand new computer it has no or few applications which are loaded
at Windows startup. During the time you install new applications to your PC some of these
applications are installed as auto starting on Windows startup. You can see some of them in
the "system tray" (near the clock) as small icons. Often such applications are messengers,
adware, advertisement programs and applications you do not need to start automatically.

15 | P a g e
 Revo Uninstaller - User's Guide
When an application is started it takes resources such as RAM, CPU time. The amount
of these resources depends on started applications but, no matter how much memory and
resources it takes, when the number of started applications is bigger the slower is your
computer.
If you want a program to start automatically when Windows starts, a common place
to put the program is in the Startup folder of the Start Menu.
Some applications like anti-virus, firewalls and system programs must be started on
Windows startup to keep your system running smoothly and without problems. Get as much
information for an auto running program as possible and decide whether to enable or disable
it.

The most common task you would like to do is to disable/enable an application from
auto starting when the Windows operation system is started. This can be done with a single
click; all you have to do is to uncheck/check the check box in front of the application name.

You can right-mouse click on the column header and show or hide some of the
columns. This way you can also choose what to print.

There are several commands you can use in AutoRun Manager:

Run - You can run an application, which status is NOT RUNNING just by selecting the
application in the list of applications and press Run button on the toolbar;

16 | P a g e
 Revo Uninstaller - User's Guide
Kill - You can stop an application, which status is RUNNING just by selecting the
application in the list of applications and pressing the Kill button on the toolbar;

Remove - If you want to remove an application from the list and prevent its auto
loading when Windows is starting, you have to select the application and press Remove
button from the toolbar. Note, that it is better to uncheck mark it only, because, in that way,
it will be removed from startup but will remain in the list of AutoRun Manager, so you can
check mark it again if you need it in future;

Set auto start for:

All users – if you want that program to start on every user login;
Current user – if you want that program to start when only current user is logged
Select to auto-start from:
Registry: Run – on every startup of Windows – this option will add startup setting
to Windows Registry, which is common place for auto startups;
Registry: RunOnce – only once on the next startup of Windows – this option is
similar to previous one but will start the program only once and then that Registry key will
be deleted automatically by Windows;
Startup Folder – on every startup of Windows – this option will add a shortcut to
the program in Startup folder, which is also a common place for startups and is accessible
from Start menu -> All Programs.

There are more commands you can execute over a selected application:
Run Process - run selected application;
Kill Process - stop selected application;
Search at Google for - use it to search with Google for the selected start up name, file
name, publisher name or description. This command will open your default web browser
and load the result of current search in the Google web site;
Open containing folder - opens a new instance of windows explorer and explores
the directory, where the selected application is located;
Go to Location - runs "Registry Editor" and opens the Registry key with auto starting
information of the selected application;
Open Registry Key - opens "Registry Editor" and the Registry key with the uninstall
information of the selected application;
Remove selected - remove selected application from the list;
Remove all not valid - remove all applications with status NOT VALID from the list;
Remove all not running - remove all applications with status NOT RUNNING from
the list;
Remove all disabled - remove all disabled applications from the list;
Properties - show application's properties;
Open Windows Services - Opens the Windows Services management application
and lets you get more properties and options to manage the services.

6.2. Junk Files Cleaner

17 | P a g e
 Revo Uninstaller - User's Guide
Junk Files Cleaner allows you to find and remove various types of junk and
unnecessary files from your computer. Many of the Windows applications create junk files.
Normally, such files are deleted by the application that had created them as soon as it did not
need them. However they may remain permanently on your hard drive if there is an
unexpected termination of the parent application, a system crash, etc. If this happens, it will
cause reduction of free disk space (even hundreds of megabytes), or may slow down system
speed and performance.

With Junk Files Cleaner you can select which of your drives to scan and what
extension of files to scan for. The most common temporary and junk files extensions are
built-in, but you can also add whatever extension you want.

Commands of Junk Files Cleaner:

Scan - to start scanning for junk files, just press the Scan button from the current
toolbar or from Command menu. This action will perform a scan operation with your current
options. A small window appears to wait until the scan is complete. There is a "Cancel" button
on that window, if you press it the scan process will be interrupted and you will only see the
junk files found until that moment;
Delete - after the scan process is completed, all found files are loaded in the list with
their full path, their name and their size. To delete any file of the shown press Delete button
and all check files will be deleted;
There are more commands you can execute over selected file(s):
Open – open selected file;

18 | P a g e
 Revo Uninstaller - User's Guide
Search at Google for – Use it to search with Google for the name of the selected file.
This command will open your default web browser and load the result of the current search
in the Google web site;
Open containing folder - Open a new instance of windows explorer and explore the
directory, where the selected file is located;
Properties – Show file’s properties;
Check all items – Set a check in front of all items in the list;
Uncheck all items –Remove the check in front of all items in the list;
Check all selected items - Set a check in front of all selected items in the list;
Uncheck all selected items - Remove the check in front of all selected items in the
list.
You can adjust settings on Junk Files Cleaner by pressing Options button in the toolbar or
from the Tools menu.

6.3. Windows Tools

There are a lot of handy and useful tools and components bundled with every Windows
operating system. Some of them have complex command line options, others are difficult to
access. Windows tools give you a fast - one click - access to more than ten tools of Windows,
which you use in your daily work. Almost all of them are included in Windows XP, Windows
Vista and Windows 7.

19 | P a g e
 Revo Uninstaller - User's Guide

Windows XP Vista 7 8 (Pro) 8.1 10 Server

2012 R2

№ x86 x64 x86 x64 x86 x64 x86 x64 x86 x64 x86 x64 x64
Windows Tools

1 System Restore √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √

2 Network Diagnostics √

3 Network Information √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √

4 Security Center √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √

5 System Properties √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √

6 System Information √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √

7 TCP/IP Netstat Command √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √

8 On-Screen Keyboard √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √

9 Disk Defragmenter √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √

10 Services √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √

11 Shared Folders √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √

12 Group Policy √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √
(Pro)

13 Add/Remove Windows Components √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √

14 Microsoft Windows Malicious Software √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √

Removal Tool
15 Windows Backup and Restore √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √

16 Task Scheduler √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √

17 Check Disk √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √

18 System File Checker √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √

6.3.1. System Restore

System Restore is a component of the Windows operating system you can use to
restore your computer to a previous state, if a problem occurs, without losing your personal
data files (such as Microsoft Word documents, browsing history, drawings, favorites, or e-
mail). System Restore monitors changes to the system and some application files, and it

20 | P a g e