Timothy
Parker Consulting Incorporated
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Norton
Uninstall Deluxe Norton
Uninstall Deluxe is the latest release of the popular application removal
utility from Symantec under Peter Norton’s name. Designed for both Windows NT and Windows 95 machines, Norton
Uninstall Deluxe is intended to allow a more complete removal of applications
from your system than the standard Add/Remove Programs applet. To
add value to the package, Symantec bundles even more into the software. It can
be used to save existing application configuration information for movement to
another machine, effectively allowing cloning of devices. Norton Uninstall
Deluxe also allows you to compress existing applications that are seldom used,
but that need to remain on your hard drives “just in case”.
Moving applications from one directory to another is also easier with
Norton Uninstall Deluxe, the utility automatically updating paths and registry
entries for you. Finally, Norton
Uninstall Deluxe can scan the Windows Registry and perform a cleanup of orphaned
registered applications. The
reason most people will buy Norton Uninstall Deluxe is for its uninstall
capabilities. We’ve all installed
applications then tried to remove them with the Windows-included applet only to
find entire directories of files that must be manually deleted.
Often, the Add/Remove applet won’t even clean up the Registry properly.
Norton Uninstall Deluxe solves most of these problems for you. Ideally,
Norton Uninstall Deluxe would be installed as the first application on a new
machine. Whenever new software is
loaded and Norton Uninstall Deluxe is active, there is a much better chance of
completely removing the application since Norton Uninstall Deluxe maintains a
list of all changes to the system. When
you remove software, Norton Uninstall Deluxe can rebuild the system files,
driver lists, and registry entries as they were prior to installing that
software. This approach ensures
that all traces of the application (at least in the operating system) are
removed. Norton Uninstall Deluxe
can also be used with applications that are already installed, although in some
cases it doesn’t do quite as good a job of total removal. Installation
of Norton Uninstall Deluxe takes only a minute from the CD-ROM.
The software requires 10MB of disk space, and 16MB RAM minimum for
Windows NT. It will run on any
machine that runs Windows NT or Windows 95, although a Pentium is really
required for reasonable performance. Updates
to Norton Uninstall Deluxe can be downloaded from the Symantec Web site using a
Live Update option embedded in the software. When
launched for the first time, Norton Uninstall Deluxe scans the entire hard disk
and builds a list of files and applications.
This scanning process took about ten minutes on our test system. The main
Norton Uninstall Deluxe interface is visually different from most Windows
applications, and quite attractive. From
the main window, you can launch any of the options such as uninstalling an
application, scanning a disk, or checking the Registry.
An important component of Norton Uninstall Deluxe is the System Monitor,
which runs in background all the time. The
System Monitor records all changes to the system, and can monitor modifications
to system files allowing for easier uninstall. To
test Norton Uninstall Deluxe, we installed it on a dual-processor ALR Revolution
2XL machine running Windows NT 4.0 Server. Starting from a clean operating system install, we loaded
Norton Uninstall Deluxe and then a full suite of applications, games, and
devices. We removed some
applications with Norton Uninstall Deluxe.
Others we removed manually by deleting directories or files, then let
Norton Uninstall Deluxe try to clean up the mess we caused.
In every case, Norton Uninstall Deluxe did an excellent job of rebuilding
our system. When used to remove
applications, Norton Uninstall Deluxe did a remarkable job of deleting all
traces of files and directories, as well as any device drivers, configuration
file modifications, and Registry entries. In
some cases an orphan file or registry line was left, but these usually were
shared items. When we manually deleted applications, Norton Uninstall
Deluxe did a pretty good job of finishing the task for us. Registry entries were almost always properly updated,
although there were often files or directories left over that had to be manually
deleted. Overall, though, Norton
Uninstall Deluxe did a much better job than the Add/Remove applet. We
did find one interesting way of using Norton Uninstall Deluxe on our test
system. Since we often load
software for a limited time period for review, such as a couple of weeks, we
usually have huge chunks of disk space filled with files from applications long
ago deleted. Registries get clogged
and awkward. Frequently, we have
simply reloaded Windows NT from scratch to solve these problems, but Norton
Uninstall Deluxe gave us the ability to easily remove applications after a test
period (it works well on games, too, but we don’t play that many…really!). The
little extras included with Norton Uninstall Deluxe make it more than a simple
installation tool. We really liked
the ability to easily move applications around among disks and directories, not
worrying about paths and configuration files.
As one disk would fill up, we could move applications to another with a
minimum of fuss. A utility for
automatic backup saves a compressed copy of each deletion a user makes, much
like the Undelete feature in Norton Utilities, allowing rapid restoration.
Finally, the AutoClean utility can scan your hard disk for specific types
of files (such as .tmp and browser cache files) and remove them at intervals,
freeing up disk space that often never gets cleared. Norton
Uninstall Deluxe is a relatively inexpensive package, with a suggested retail
price just under $40. Considering
the features it offers, Norton Uninstall Deluxe is well worth the investment.
Installed on a server, it can save an administrator’s bacon many times.
And users of Windows 95 and Windows NT Workstation will find it ideal for
removing all traces of applications no longer wanted.
The Registry clean-up utility alone is probably worth the money.
Simply put, this is an excellent piece of software and worth every penny. Norton
Uninstall Deluxe |
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Send mail to
tparker@tpci.com with
questions or comments about this web site.
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