UnInstall Visual Studio 2010

Question

I want to uninstall Visual Studio 2010 because the installation is corrupt, but impossible to do so. When I try to uninstall with the control panel, it got stuck at the beginning (I found on the web that I am not the only one). So I tried to use Visual Studio 2010 Uninstall Utility, but it got stuck too!!

I am completely out of ideas and I am in a hurry, can you help?

Thanks in advance.

Eric

Answer 1

Visual Studio 2010 Uninstall Utility by Microsoft, this can be downloaded from here:

Download link

This handy little tool did not only runs successfully, but it completely removes and uninstalls Visual Studio 2010 and all it's installed modules.

The Visual Studio 2010 Uninstall Utility can be ran in 3 different modes:

Default (VS2010_Uninstall-RTM.ENU.exe)

Uninstalls all top level products of 2010 release and its supporting components. This mode does not remove Visual Studio components shared with previous product releases (e.g. Visual Studio 2008) or system level updates such as Microsoft .NET Framework 4.0.

Full (VS2010_Uninstall-RTM.ENU.exe /full)

Removes Visual Studio 2010 and supporting products, including components shared with previous versions of Visual Studio. Note: may break features of previous versions of Visual Studio installed on the machine. This option does not remove Microsoft .NET Framework 4.0 from the machine.

Complete (VS2010_Uninstall-RTM.ENU.exe /full /netfx)

Removes entire set of Visual Studio 2010 and supporting products, including Microsoft .NET Framework 4.0 and components shared with previous versions of Visual Studio. Note: may break features of previous versions of Visual Studio or other products taking dependency on Microsoft .NET Framework 4.0.

More information can be found here:

Answer 2

I once had such a problem and struggled a lot before being able to uninstall it. I wrote the following PowerShell script for doing so:

# Be careful with that axe, Eugene.

Get-ChildItem HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall | 
select @{Name='Guid';Expression={$_.PSChildName}}, @{Name='Disp';Expression={($_.GetValue("DisplayName"))}} | 
where-object {$_.Disp -ilike "*Studio*"} | 
where-object {$_.Guid -like '{*'} | 
% {"rem " + $_.Disp; '$Env:WinDir\system32\msiexec.exe /x "' + $_.Guid + '" /passive'; ''} > uninstallVS.bat

This generates a .bat file that you can run to uninstall the thing.

No need to say that this is an absolute last resort / desperate measure. Don't use it if your life is not threatened.

Answer 3

I ran into this problem today and discovered the the removal tool does NOT remove SP1, you should remove SP1 through Add/Remove programs in the control panel and then use the tool.