Is there an alternative to CleanSweep? [closed]

Question

Possible Duplicate:
What’s an extremely vigilant uninstaller application?

There was a product called CleanSweep, a very mature uninstaller. Are there any such tools available now that can track the installation as the Setup starts?

Answer 1

You can try Revo Uninstaller

Revo Uninstaller helps you to uninstall software and remove unwanted programs installed on your computer even if you have problems uninstalling and cannot uninstall them from "Windows Add or Remove Programs" control panel applet.

Revo Uninstaller analyzes an application's data before uninstall and scans after you uninstall an application. After the program's regular uninstaller runs, you can remove additional unnecessary files, folders and registry keys that are usually left over on your computer. Even if you have a broken installation, Revo Uninstaller scans for an application's data on your hard disk drives and in the Windows registry and shows all found files, folders and registry keys so you can delete them.

Answer 2

From Wikipedia (don't shoot the messenger...):

Third-party uninstallers today

Nowadays, pure third-party uninstallers (uninstallers that only contain basic components -- that is the watcher, logger, uninstaller, and probably the analyzer) generally are unpopular and are not needed anymore, because:

Most software programs come with their own uninstallers (which are generally better and more accurate), Most uninstallers are not entirely accurate (most of them are known to leave leftovers, which should be deleted by uninstallers), There are many better and safer tools that can be used to replace uninstallers, Because of this, to make uninstallers more merchantable, most (if not all) of today's uninstallers contain other related tools (such as a cache cleaner, a junk file cleaner, etc.)

Why the third-party uninstallers are still used today:

More complex installed programs make system changes that the authors forget, ignore or are not aware. They often integrate third-party components with no thought of their uninstallation. The competition to release new software versions with additional features leave the uninstallation with a very small amount of attention and testing. The accuracy of the integrated uninstallers commonly leave much to be desired. The uninstallers that don't contain a logger module are aggressively promoted on the market claiming that completely uninstall programs (a task that is impossible and even dangerous without monitoring installation) Many programs are bundled with all kind of add-ons, spyware or not, that are intentionally left on the user's computer after uninstallation of the main program. At this time-- when adware, spyware, keyloggers, trojans and other Internet threats appear every day-- installation of a software product from an unknown source is a great risk. When things go wrong with a newly installed program, an uninstaller with a logger module can prove invaluable.

Besides the Wikipedia info, I do recall problems with CleanSweep when you altered / added / deleted files while installing software. Furthermore, did CleanSweep check whether files where used by multiple applications (like shared dll's)?

Answer 3

CCleaner is very good at finding the detritus left over from incomplete uninstalls.