Uninstalling by Force

Sometimes an application fails to uninstall and you are stuck in a situation where you can’t repair, remove or update it. Fortunately Microsoft provides a tool called msizap that removes all the necessary MSI metadata enabling you to again reinstall the application.

Msizap is distributed as a part of the Windows SDK available at the Microsoft download center.

To remove a installation do the following:

  1. Start the SDK command line (CMD) through the Windows SDK menu in your start menu
  2. Type in the command “msizap TP <path to the msi package>”

Even if the msizap fails to remove some data, the Windows installer should again allow you to reinstall. Note that msizap will only remove the MSI metadata, leaving all files and registry keys installed.

For more information check out MSDN.