Which Uninstall Application is the Safest, Most Thorough, and Best for You? UnInstaller 4.5 Douglas Smith
MicroHelp created the uninstall category. UnInstaller 4.5 ($35 street) upholds the program's long-standing reputation for safety, power, and simplicity. UnInstaller's main focus is safety; its database recognizes crucial Windows system files and prevents you from deleting them.
This Windows 95, 98, or Windows NT 4.0 program removes or archives applications, transports them to other drives or other computers, cleans up the Windows Registry, and roots out a vast variety of unneeded files (including those in your browser's cache). When you first install UnInstaller 4.5, it scans your hard disk and Windows system for file links. It then checks its database every time you launch it, and a background monitor tracks any changes made to your system.
If you remove an application not monitored by UnInstaller, the program does a thorough job of finding removable files, but doesn't try as hard to root out Registry entries. An ingenious feature lets you specify the amount of disk space you want to free up and then recommends files for deletion. An uninstall module archives applications, moves applications between drives, and creates self-installing files that you can transport to other computers.
A separate File Cleanup utility lists backup, multimedia, and other discardable files together with a very conservative list of orphan entries in the Windows Registry. Unless you change a default option, UnInstaller lists only duplicate files that are exact matches. Unlike more aggressive file removers, such as CleanSweep and Remove-It, UnInstaller makes no attempt at all to find unused DLLs, because many so-called "unused" files are in fact used by Windows.
UnInstaller's Achilles' heel is performance. It tended to be slower than other uninstall programs, but a free fix should be available from MicroHelp's Web site soon. In the meantime, if you don't mind trading a little time for extra peace of mind, you'll find UnInstaller the ideal house cleaner for your overstuffed system.
UnInstaller 4.5 Street price: $35 Requires: 486-based PC or faster, 8MB RAM, 8MB hard disk space, Microsoft Windows 95, Windows NT 4.0, or later http://www.luckman.com/microhelp
