Uninstaller recommendation for windows 9x? \ VOGONS

Uninstaller recommendation for windows 9x?

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First post, by retro games 100

Posted on 2009-04-03, 16:04

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I would like to be able to do the following on Windows 98 (and also Windows 95, if possible) -

Install any piece of hardware, along with its associated driver & application software package, and then after testing the hardware, remove it and all traces of its associated driver & application software.

Example - I install a Creative Soundblaster Live! card and then install its driver and software applications from a CD. After testing the card, I want to be able to remove the card and every trace of the driver & applications on the HDD - as if the card was never installed in the first place. I guess I'm looking for a powerful uninstaller which is able to monitor any piece of software being installed, and then be able to "roll back" the "status" of the HDD, to a point just before the software was installed.

It's just to help me test stuff. Sometimes, when you install a piece of hardware & its associated driver/app package, it goes wrong. I just want to be able to "roll back" to a point before I attempted to install something. (I don't want to mess about with back ups, as that can be quite time consuming.)

Thanks a lot for any suggestions! 😀

Reply 1 of 12, by h-a-l-9000

Posted on 2009-04-03, 16:18

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Make an image of your Win9x installation and write that back when you are done?

1+1=10

Reply 2 of 12, by retro games 100

Posted on 2009-04-03, 16:51

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h-a-l-9000 wrote:
Make an image of your Win9x installation and write that back when you are done?

That's what I'm doing ATM. It takes a looooong time.

Reply 3 of 12, by DosFreak

Posted on 2009-04-03, 16:52

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I doubt any of the software virtualization suits support 9x, so what you'll probably have to do is use those utilities that monitor file/registry access for you.

Another option is to use Vmware/VirtualBox/VPC to create a snapshot before installing software and the roll back. You won't be able to test your hardware in a VM though.

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Reply 4 of 12, by h-a-l-9000

Posted on 2009-04-03, 16:57

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It takes less time if you use a smaller harddisk or partition.

1+1=10

Reply 5 of 12, by retro games 100

Posted on 2009-04-03, 17:16

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h-a-l-9000 wrote:
It takes less time if you use a smaller harddisk or partition.

That's a good point. 😀

Reply 6 of 12, by gerwin

Posted on 2009-04-03, 17:20

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Norton Ghost restores amazingly fast IMHO. It has its own smartdrive system. The partition size does not matter on itself, it is the amount of used space on the partition that matters.

Reply 7 of 12, by leileilol

Posted on 2009-04-03, 18:43

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You can't just remove the device and kill the associated INF files?

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Reply 8 of 12, by swaaye

Posted on 2009-04-03, 19:01

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I like BartPE + Driveimage XML. I haven't tried it with 9x though. Seems like it should work....

Reply 9 of 12, by elfuego

Posted on 2009-04-03, 20:30

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What I usually do in these situations on a Win 9x system is to enter safe mode, remove the software and drivers the usual way, then delete all the traces of a driver from the driver manager. After that, running "regedit" and manually search'n'destroy everything thats driver's company related. Of course, its neither fast, nor safe, nor 100% clear afterwards but at least its more or less satisfying.

However, there might be a way to get rid of all the drivers. Make a backup copy of window\system and system32 directories without any special drivers. Then, if things get nasty - delete the current system and system32 directories and replace them with the backups. Never tried it though... 😀