SUM: Removing tools

[Tom Hoffmann]

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Thanks to all who answered.  I appreciate the help that was offered.

 

Original Question:

 

I installed a trial version of a third party extension for ArcGIS (LP360 by QCoherent).  The trial period elapsed and I don’t intend to purchase the extension but there are 6 tool options that are still listed in the drop menu and I’d like to remove them.

 

I uninstalled the software.

I deleted any folders associated with the software.

Then I looked for references to the software in the Registry and there are 100’s (?), a lot anyhow.  Is there a way to automate removal of these or do you have to go through them one at a time?  I realize that there are dangers with editing the Registry.  Any suggestions?

 

 

 

I saw a posting the other day on the giveawayoftheday website for a registry cleaner.  The reviews of this software were unfavorable, but one of the posters listed a good (and free) reg cleaner.  I have never used these software but maybe it will help.  Check http://dottech.org/freebies/6255

 

Gerry Gabrisch

I didn’t get around to trying this.

 

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What does the developer of the tool have to say on the subject?

 

Abel Perez

 

Ultimately this worked.

 

 

Tom,

I've been using CCleaner for several years to automatically clean my registry after uninstalling programs and I have never had any problems with it messing things up. It is very highly rated to do this in the tech community too. I'd try that and see if it helps.

 

http://www.ccleaner.com/

 

Dave McGraw

 

I tried this and it cleaned up the Registry but didn’t solve my problem.

 

 

Hi Tom,

 

Here is a link to some free software that I have used in the past to fix registry issues.  Hope it works for you.

 

http://www.iobit.com/advancedwindowscareper.html

 

Meghan Burns

 

Didn’t try this.

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Hi Tom,

Before doing anything else I would log a bug report /complaint with the tool maker. They may have instructions for manual removal. If there is no help forthcoming there, try renaming Normal.mxt in your ESRI %appdata% directory (usually under C:\Documents and Settings\myname\...).

If that doesn't do it:

0. Close ArcMap, ArcCatalog, etc. Read http://ss64.com/nt/regedit.html.

1. Backup the registry

2. Export the ESRI registry sections to text files. Look under the following branches (there may be others, see note at end):

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ESRI
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\ESRI
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\ESRI


3. Open the textfiles in a real text editor (not Word or notepad. Notepad++ is decent (google for it), and prefix all the lines which appear to be LP360 specific with a negtive sign. For example:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\ESRI\Metadata\Settings]

to

-[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\ESRI\Metadata\Settings]

If you want to just delete values, leaving the key in place, set the value you want to delete = to a hyphen:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SomeKey]

"SomeStringValue"=-

4. Save the text file as a copy, then import it into the registry.

5. Open ArcMap and test. If anything has gone awry, import the original unchanged registry file(s) you first exported.


NOTES

For some of the other registry things you might look for, see
...\ESRI\ArcCatalog [and ArcMap] \Settings\CommandBarNameCache
and there will be a long hexidecimal string like this:

"{7AE48457-6A2F-4995-AB64-6B9A31D3F872}"="Multiple Dataframe Context Menu:S"

Check the right hand side for LP360 specific entries, then search for the corresponding occurences of that hex string in the registry. Give them the same treatment (steps 3 & 4).


This is not authoritative. There may be better approaches that are safer or more comprehensive. It's just what I would attempt in your circumstances.

Good luck!

matt wilkie

 

 

I didn’t try this, but I will save it for possible future use.  Looks like good stuff.

 

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