Fully uninstalling BricsCAD and all traces in the Registry
I have had long-standing problems with using VBA from another program, to interface with BricsCAD. There may be an issue with an errant entry in the registry, and I am seeking to clear this out. However, there are roughly a Zillion occurrences of the word BricsCAD left behind in the registry after I uninstall it.
I have always been afraid to use one of the registry cleaning utilities, since years ago one of them created major problems after using it. But, unless anyone can recommend another approach that is what I will need to use.
Is there a particular registry cleaner someone here can recommend?
-Joe
Comments
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Did you remove Bricscad using their Uninstaller?
Many reg. cleaners allow for cleaning by selecting ‘key words’.
Search for ‘brics’ will include Bricscad & Bricsys entries.
Of course, to minimize the chance of hosing your system before you attempt:
1) Create a Windows Restore Point
2) Opt for creating a backup (in your reg. cleaning program) before cleaning.
3) (To be very conservative) Take an image snapshot of your system.0 -
Yeah but having done that, how does anyone other than a complete geek know which of the zillion deletions has caused any problem, or even that hidden future problems haven't been created? Are you saying that 'if a problem shows up, restore to how it was and live with it uncleaned'?
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Tom, the bigger fear is not realizing there is a problem with some other program until a month or more later. Then, you may not realize it was associated with the Registry Cleaner. And even if you do, restoring it will also break any other changes to the registry since that point.
But, the phrase "Brics" is probably unique enough, that it is not going to mess up other stuff.
-joe
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You obviously wouldn't blindly auto delete every entry containing 'brics'.
Every entry to be potentially deleted must be individually checked for it's Bricscad / Bricsys reference (albeit tedious).0 -
I actually tried to delete many of them. But, soon realized that there were far too many to do that.
Though Brics* wold seem to be unique enough that it is unlikely that anything not related to BricsCAD is installed. Since I have no other BricsSys product installed. Perhaps I can be more specific, and remove BricsCAD and Bricssys. Do you feel that would be safe to do?
-Joe
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Most Bricscad entries under HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT are listed together, as well as HKEY_CURRENT_USER / Software, HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE / Software.
Which should make it a little less tedious.
Other than that, I would just keep hitting F3, looking for all references (and plan on spending a good ~30 min.s.)0 -
@Robt Deans said:
You obviously wouldn't blindly auto delete every entry containing 'brics'Why not? assuming as Joe says Brics isn't a word that any other application would use.
@Robt Deans said:
Every entry to be potentially deleted must be individually checked for it's Bricscad / Bricsys referenceExcuse ignorance, but give me a clue what that means, in idiot terms? What would I be looking for? Or beware of?
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After uninstalling BricsCAD, I tried one of the registry cleaners that had a free (but extremely limited) trial. It found over 2,200 entries for BricsCAD and Bricsys. There is no way I want to spend that much effort manually deleting them.
-Joe
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Joe: Did you remove Bricscad using their Uninstaller?
The directory: HKEY_CURRENT_USER / Software / Bricsys /
Contains thousands of data entries.
(Note: On this machine directories therein contain data including versions 11, 13, 14, 16, 17)
Similarly, HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE contains a Bricsys folder, containing many sub-folders.
Simply deleting these two root directories in a couple seconds will delete thousands of registry entries.
Make it as easy as you can.
Once done, then you can do a search and surgically remove leftovers.Cheers
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Yes, I used BricCADs uninstaller. After deleting the directory you mentioned, as well as one I found under the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE / Software / directory, I ended up with 1684 remaining. It seems that at least some versions of BricsCAD leave a lot behind when it is uninstalled.
I asked for help from Bricsys support about cleaning the registry a few days ago, but they have not offered any suggestions.
-Joe
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I had to stop working on this for a while, because I needed to do some productive work. It is not a quick process to re-install BricsCAD and get it back to where it was. In this most recent effort, I attempted a full uninstall of the garbage left behind in the registry from prior attempts. Even with a backup of the profile, the add-ins that require manual configuration is a major effort. When I just used the stock uninstaller from BricsCAD, more of it was automatically added back when I re-installed.
Anyway, I installed and tried two different free registry cleaners, and one commercial trial version. But, non of them permitted me to simply search for a specific term, and delete them. So, I tried to be very conservative in what I permitted the registry cleaning program to do. One of the programs at least permitted me to do a search for a term, and give me a count, even if it would not permit me to delete them.
Does anyone know of a registry cleaner that will permit this sort of search for BricsCAD elements in the registry and remove them?
-Joe
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Nirsoft's RegScanner will find all instances of a string that you enter in both Registry Keys & Data.
i.e: Find String 'bricscad', Matching 'Registry item contains the specified string' (on this machine) will list ~10,000 Bricscad Registry Keys & Data.
You then have the option to delete all.
(Use with caution!)0 -
The uninstaller doesn't clear %appdata%Roaming\Bricsys\BricsCAD\V17x64 , you have to remove this to purge your old profiles.
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Unless this particular key has information related to the reference files that may be referenced by VBA, I don't think I want to go through another re-install and re-configuring BricsCAD. While I have a user profile saved, it does not restore a lot of things that must be done manually, like the Express tools, etc.
I will also add that Nirisoft's RegScanner was very helpful. though, I don't think it is really 100% successful. It would apparently allow me to delete everything, but a re-scan would find a few more. I repeated this cycle a few times.
-Joe
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In the, end all my efforts have been unsuccessful. In my system, VBA written inside of Excel will not recognize a running instance of BricsCAD, nor will it start a new session. My routine will work on one of Bricssys's computers, but not on mine.
Regardless of my failure, I want to thank everyone who contributed to this thread.
-joe
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