Can't uninstall programs

My computer was incredibly slow, so I uninstalled a bunch of programs. Just games and such - nothing system-essential to my knowledge. It actually did the trick, my computer is not operating at normal speed. However, somewhere in the process, I lost the ability to do further uninstalls.

I now get a popup with the message "Install Server Not Responding" when I try to do an uninstall. Wondering what I can do to fix this?

Of course the thought has crossed my mind, "What if it was the Install Server that was slowing it down?" I figure that's probably not the case, but since I don't understand Windows under-the-hood at all, who knows? )

Thanks for any help with this!

I've been just using Add/Remove programs... the standard Windows utility. It was working fine, now it is not, it gives the same error message no matter what I try to remove. Something is clearly broken - I don't think using a new piece of software is the answer here.

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Ghot said:

It's hard to answer some of your question(s), without knowing what you are uninstalling.

Some programs like antivirus or Acronis True Image backup software, require a special "tool" to uninstall.

For most others, Revo Uninstaller will work just fine. It can uninstall a program, then remove left over registry entries, then remove any "other" left over entries.

Download Revo Uninstaller Free - Remove unwanted programs easily

I've been just using Add/Remove programs... the standard Windows utility. It was working fine, now it is not, it gives the same error message no matter what I try to remove. Something is clearly broken - I don't think using a new piece of software is the answer here.

Try unregistering and re-registering Windows Installer.

Click Windows Key + R on the keyboard,(open runbox)

In the "Open" box, type "msiexec /unreg", and then press ENTER.

Open the runbox again.. type "msiexec /regserver", and then press ENTER.

See if that fixes the issue..

or try

Program Install and Uninstall Troubleshooter in Windows

Wolverine 7 said:

Try unregistering and re-registering Windows Installer.

Click Windows Key + R on the keyboard,(open runbox)

In the "Open" box, type "msiexec /unreg", and then press ENTER.

Open the runbox again.. type "msiexec /regserver", and then press ENTER.

See if that fixes the issue..

or try

Program Install and Uninstall Troubleshooter in Windows

That's a pretty deep fix/tweak I didn't know about, where Can I look these things up!? I would never have thought to try that!

Very cool.

Would there be any potential problems why I should not try to "re-register" windows installer?? as in can something go wrong after doing that? like I don't know, perhaps some program losing it's path names to uninstall or something?? haha

and what else can I just "re-register?"! ha!

nice stuff.


for example I want to get rid of all my pseudo adapters in my ipconfig /all, should I do something like that to reset that?

Wolverine 7 said:

Program Install and Uninstall Troubleshooter in Windows

This did the trick, thank you!

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Ghot said:

Well you can always try opening a command prompt as admin and running these two commands, one at a time...

sfc /scannow

Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth

Thanks, I will check these commands out :)

That's a pretty deep fix/tweak I didn't know about, where Can I look these things up!? I would never have thought to try that!

Its just a standard windows comand to reregister a misbehaving function,..loads of that stuff online if you look at the better tech forums,...look at brinks posts,on this site....some people have amazing knowledge of tech..computer science..im still learning

Glad the troubleshooter worked..sometimes they do

for cleaning stuff you could try.

Download Device Cleanup Tool - MajorGeeks