How to uninstall/remove Visual Studio SP1

Question

I have Windows 7 64-bit with Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 and subsequent installation of SP1.

If I open up Control Panels | Programs and Features, I see 3 entries for Visual Studio 2010, the third being one ADO.Net.

I tried to uninstall SP1 first and somehow that failed. It asked for the Visual Studio 2010 setup disk, which I put in. Sadly, after the completion, SP1 stayed in the Programs and Features list.

I tried uninstalling VS2010, which uninstalled nicely, but left the entry for SP1. I tried uninstalling SP1, but got a message that I had to have VS2010 installed, so I bit my lip, shoveled down my irritation, and reinstalled VS2010. I received only one option to install SP1, which I did. I guess you can consider that a reapply.

A refresh of Programs and Features showed once again 3 entries. I was able to uninstall SP1, at least the option was there and I was able to complete the uninstall. I kept the VS2010 disk in the CD tray. Sadly, closing Control Panel Programs and Features (CPPF subsequently) and reopening it, nicely showed Microsoft's bug invested SP1. Selecting to uninstall/change the entry results in a dialog to install SP1.

It appears that SP1 might be gone in part, but obviously not entirely. The entry, the executable/DLL tied to that entry is nicely there.

How do I remove/cleanup/delete/nuke VS2010 SP1 inclusive of CPPF and any other trash that it installed?

Answer 1

As life moves on, I chose a chose maybe not the best solution, but it is a solution, so here is what I did.

I found an article, which talked about removing the entry from Control Panel | Programs and Features. http://www.roelvanlisdonk.nl/?p=1179. I then did other steps.

First from the link as I have a Windows 7 64-bit system, I went to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall

in the registry. There were two locations, one the obvious with the name completely spelled out and the other with the DisplayName property set to the product name as part of a GUIID. I deleted both entries. The main entry with the nice name as the key was the one that deletes the program ID entry from the list.

I noticed that several products share the same InstallSource. That is bizarro (Smallville rocks and sadly ended), all in the C:\Windows\TEMP folder. As the actual setup program is under ProgramData folder, I am not sure what the TEMP folder entries do.

I deleted the ProgramData portion but left the C:\Windows\TEMP, although I am still thinking of cleaning that up, just am cautious.

I then deleted all other VS2010 components leaving the runtime. By the way, do not forget to delete Premptive's expensive and end user install based pricing product. That is further up (name sort ascending) under Dotfuscator...

That more or less cleaned things up. I am not sure what uses the VS2010 runtime, so I am leaving that. I assume that is what is installed at the VS2010 folder.

A side comment: I still find it strange that Microsoft in the registry follows a ...\Software\Microsoft\ entry. They do not follow that anywhere else. Why there?

Details: In the registry, the information was:

{5AB7D739-1735-3A9E-BE73-C43507CB4E6F} Uninstall String: MsiExec.exe /X{5AB7D739-1735-3A9E-BE73-C43507CB4E6F} Install Source: C:\Windows\TEMP\Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Service Pack 1_10.0.40219\ InstallLocation: C:\ProgramData\VS\vs10sp1\SetupCache\ Uninstall Path: C:\ProgramData\VS\vs10sp1\SetupCache\ Uinstall String: C:\ProgramData\VS\vs10sp1\SetupCache\Setup.exe

Shared products using C:\Windows\TEMP...40219 folder: Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Data-Tier Application Framework Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Data-Tier Application Project Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Management Objects Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Transact-SQL Language Service Microsoft SQL Server System CLR Types Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 x86 Runtime - 10.0.40219 Microsoft Visual F# 2.0 Runtime

Paths used by other products:

C:\Windows\TEMP\Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Service Pack 1_10.0.40219\ C:\Windows\TEMP\Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Service Pack 1_10.0.40219\Dotfuscator\

2 of several keys that share the same C:\Windows\TEMP folder entry (InstallSource): InstallSource {09C52940-A4D1-4409-A7CC-1AAE630CF578} {1AA5BD63-6614-44B2-88A7-605191EDB835}

Answer 2

I just ran the web installer for VS2010 SP 1 with the following parameters. That forced it to uninstall and got me past the blocking issue:

VS10sp1-KB983509.exe /uninstall /force

Answer 3

I tried James solution above but it still didn't work and kept requiring the installation CD. After further search I found this solution that worked for me:

Microsoft tool to remove Visual Studio 2010

Answer 4

This answer on the MSDN forum explains a sequence for manual removal, but more importantly it also links to a Microsoft FixIt VS2010 Uninstall Utility which was the only way I was able to get rid of SP1.

Answer 5

None of the solutions here worked for me to remove VS 2010 SP1. The visual stiduio 2010 uninstall utility worked nicely to remove everything but VS 2010 SP1.

to remove SP1 I went to the setup cache and ran setup as follows: C:\ProgramData\VS\vs10sp1\SetupCache>setup /uninstall /force