Removing all Autodesk® software products from system to ensure a clean installation

Issue

You may experience installation problems with Autodesk® software products after failed installs or uninstalls of other Autodesk products. In these cases, it is strongly recommended that you completely remove all Autodesk products from the system and then attempt to reinstall them on the cleaned system.

Solution

This solution explains how to uninstall your Autodesk® software products and remove any remnants of these products from the system. The end result is a clean system on which you can install your new Autodesk product. 

Important! 

• Back up any existing customized Autodesk files before you implement the following procedures.
• Different versions of Windows may label options differently. The following procedures include the descriptions for the Windows XP, and Windows Vista™ operating systems. Follow the correct instructions for your operating system.

Uninstall all Autodesk products:

1. Open the Control Panel (from the Start menu in Windows).
2. In Control Panel, open Add/Remove Programs (Windows 2000/XP) or Programs and Features (Windows Vista).
3. Select the Autodesk product to be uninstalled and click Change/Remove (Windows XP), or Uninstall/Change (Windows Vista).  
4. At this point another dialog box may be displayed. Select the appropriate option depending on the Autodesk product version:
• AutoCAD® 2008 and newer versions: Click Uninstall when the Installation Wizard – Maintenance Mode dialog box is displayed
• AutoCAD 2007 and older versions: Click Yes to start the uninstall
• Note: If you are prompted to remove shared files, click Yes to All, and then click Yes when prompted for confirmation to proceed.
5. After the uninstall procedure has completed, click OK.
6. Select the next Autodesk product to be uninstalled and repeat steps 3 - 6.
7. Repeat the above processes until all Autodesk products have been uninstalled from the system.
    
   Note: The uninstall procedure for some Autodesk products may require you to restart the computer when the uninstall has completed. If this is the case, restart the computer as instructed and then return to the Add/Remove Programs or Programs and Features dialog box to continue removing any remaining Autodesk products.
   
   
8. After the last Autodesk product has been uninstalled, restart the computer.

Remove any remaining Autodesk files:

1. In Windows Explorer, delete the installation folder for each Autodesk product that was uninstalled in the previous procedure (for example, C:\Program Files\AutoCAD 2008).
2. Delete the C:\Program Files\Common Files\Autodesk Shared\ folder.
    
   Note: If your operating system is configured to store the Program Files folder on a drive other than C, the path will be on that drive.
   
   
3. Delete the following user profile folders: 
   
   Windows XP
• C:\Documents and Settings\%username%\ Application Data\Autodesk
• C:\Documents and Settings\%username%\Local Settings\Application Data\Autodesk
• C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Autodesk
Windows Vista

• C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Roaming\Autodesk
• C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Local\Autodesk
• C:\ProgramData\Autodesk

Remove any remaining entries for Autodesk products from the Windows registry: 

Warning! Problems caused by improperly editing the Windows registry could render your computer operating system unusable. Microsoft provides a wealth of critical information that you need to know about the registry in the Microsoft Knowledge Base at http://support.microsoft.com/support.

Use the Microsoft® Registry Editor only at your own risk and only after backing up the registry. 

Back up the registry by following the Microsoft Knowledge Base article "How to back up and restore the registry in Windows" at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/322756. Additional information about the registry is also contained in the Help topics in the Microsoft Registry Editor.

1. Log on to the workstation as a member of the local Administrators group.
2. On Windows XP, click Start > Run. On Windows Vista, type [Windows key] + R.
3. In the Run dialog box, enter REGEDIT in the Open box and click OK.
4. In the Registry Editor, locate the following subkeys and delete them:
• HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Autodesk
• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Autodesk
5. Close the Registry Editor.
6. Restart the computer.

Each of the previously-installed Autodesk products has now been removed from the system.

Before reinstalling any Autodesk programs

1. In Windows Explorer, delete the contents of your Windows Temp folder, but do not delete the Windows Temp folder itself. You can locate the Temp folder by entering %TEMP% in the Address bar of Windows Explorer.
2. Use the End Task feature to end any anti-virus programs. 

Note: Disabling anti-virus programs from the system tray may not be sufficient. Virus checking programs may block certain activities that are seen as suspicious (for example, accessing the registry, adding/removing/updating DLL files, and so on), even though these activities are common when installing or removing programs.

Several anti-virus programs can be disabled by right-clicking the taskbar icon and selecting Disable from the shortcut menu. For more information about disabling your anti-virus software, refer to the vendor of that software. 

Important! It is important that you not only disable the anti-virus software but also use the End Task feature to end the anti-virus software. 

To verify that an anti-virus program is not still running in the background as a TSR (Terminate and Stay Resident Program): 

Windows XP and Windows Vista

1. Press [Ctrl] + [Alt] + [Delete].
2. Click Task Manager.
3. On the Processes tab of the Task Manager, select the process for the anti-virus program and then click End Process.

You are now ready to install your new Autodesk products on the clean system.