I just discovered this project but have always disliked the binding of software to a computer. This is especially true when involved in trying to troubleshoot and repair problems where you cannot rely on either the software you want to use being available or the software that is installed being reliable. What led me to Portableapps was the need to uninstall software that couldn't be uninstalled using the software installed on the computer (i.e., Windows in combination with vendor supplied uninstaller).
Portableapps.com is able to supply several, ? portable, uninstall programs the use of which represent my initial experience with Portableapps. It seems that none of them were any better at uninstalling the troublesome software. However, much to my dismay I did find evidence of troublesome alterations that had been made, without my intention, to the target computer, which causes me to ponder what characteristics should be expected from the apps being promoted and distributed via Portableapps?
To my way of thinking a very desirable characteristic of portability is the idea of being able to use your own software on anybody's computer and end up where the results of running that software leave with you. From the point of view of the computer, being temporarily pressed into service, there are no permanent changes. When the portable software leaves (e.g., USB drive removed) the computer is left as it was found.
Unfortunately, my very first experience with Portableapps failed to achieve this result. In this case, I used the app supplied by the Portableapps.com website called IObit Uninstaller Portable. It failed which in this case means it entered the deadly embrace where it appeared to do nothing and couldn't be terminated without shutting down the computer. However, after restarting the computer, without the USB drive containing the Portableapps system, and opening the "Control Panel>Add and Remove Programs" there appears an entry in the list of installed programs for IObit Uninstaller, which came as a complete surprise. The whole idea here was to be able to uninstall an unwanted program without having to install another unwanted program onto the computer.
When an attempt is made to use the "Add and Remove Programs" feature of Windows to uninstall this unwanted program it fails with a message referring to the inaccessibility of the storage where the program is located which is referencing the formerly inserted USB drive. Then when you insert the USB drive it fails saying it cannot find the uninstall program which of course was no surprise. While there is no evidence that IObit Uninstaller was actually installed (i.e., no software to be found in a recognizable sub-directory of "Program Files", other than being in the list of installed programs, leaving this bit of misinformation behind is unacceptable even if it is harmless.
I don't know much of anything about IObit Uninstaller Portable but consider that it is possible that this program makes some changes to the list of installed programs, in this case saying it is installed, which it intends to later remove but then attempts to invoke the vendor supplied uninstaller which is known to hang the system and as a result hangs the IObit Uninstaller Portable program leaving us in this state where the target computer has been further corrupted without making any improvement.
Sorry about the length of this post but it seems to leave me with 2 basic questions:
1. Does Portableapps really want to distribute a program with this kind of defect?
2. Am I out of my mind to think that the goal of portable apps should be to leave the borrowed computer as it was found?
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If you shut down a PC or crash a PC without allowing a more complex app to cleanly shut down, it can leave things behind. Running it again on launch will allow it to clean up after itself.
In the future, if you encounter a misbehaving app, you can kill it in Task Manager. Just kill the main app process (IObitUninstaler.exe in this case) which will allow the launcher that makes it portable (IObitUninstallerPortable.exe) to properly clean up after it. Shutting down Windows crashes both and leaves things behind.
Note that if your computer is infected with some sort of uninstallable malware, most uninstaller apps will not work properly. Nor will Task Manager. You need to solve the malware infection first using security utilities.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
I know how to use the Task Manager but in this case neither the vendor supplied uninstaller nor the IObit Uninstaller can be ended with Task Manager. Also the program I am trying to uninstall is supplied, at significant cost I might add, from a legitimate vendor. I do suspect that this vendor may be a little weak when it comes to software production and this may account for some of what I am experiencing.
My approach to recovery from such problems is to restore the system partition from a known good backup. I'm afraid I don't trust security software much more than the malware/viruses it is claiming to protect against. I wouldn't have undertaken any of the above without having an image of the system partition which is known to be good and I do have the capability to restore the system to the state it was in before experimenting with Portableapps.
I'd think that legitimate (portable) software would NOT make such alterations to my system. To me that makes IObit Uninstaller illegitimate. At minimum such software should advise of any such risk it imposes on a computer and allow user to opt out.
When it comes to trouble shooting and repairing defective software I suppose one must recognize that there are limits to what can be expected from portable software that necessarily has some dependency on the proper function of the host computer.
Would it be considered legitimate for a portable game to leave such tracks on the host computer?
Many apps store local files temporarily though most are just basic ones or empty ones (Firefox, Chrome, etc). This is now and has always been acceptable under the definition of portable software. Ideally, the app would have a way to redirect settings directly to the drive and not store things locally. Some apps like Iobit Uninstaller don't. But we get agreement from the publisher to repackage them with a launcher that allows them to run portably. The app isn't modified (nor can it be by us). The only way to make it not save to the local machine would be to package it in a VM or sandbox, but then it wouldn't be able to perform its primary function.
Your case is rather unique. An 'Uninstaller' app won't help with the issues you're having. Most uninstaller apps are just to make uninstalling apps more convenient. If an app's uninstaller doesn't work right due to poor coding, they can't really make it better. I don't personally use them. It won't matter whether it's installed locally or run portably, as the result of running it will be about the same.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
Yes, I get the part about temporary storage for disposable files. I'm more concerned about permanent changes.
This experience has put me in your camp when it comes to third party uninstallers. As best I can tell they don't actually do the uninstall they rather use the vendor supplied uninstaller and only wrap it with function they are selling as advantageous but I'm not sold on any of those advantages. It looks to me like manual uninstall is what I'm faced with. While I know how to find registry keys and delete those that seem obvious there is no way to be sure you got everything. Also, finding related files in Documents & Settings is similarly straightforward. Desktop icons and start menus are also manageable.
What I don't know how to do is to remove the entries from the list of installed programs in the Add & Remove Programs window.
is not extremely useful software as all it can do is pick the original list of tasks and carry them out. It is the same as to uninstall with the windows utility. If the original installer list is not available it will not work too.
The wise unistaller can try something more, but will in general also fail on complex things.
In complex uninstall problems, use search and delete from registry.
This is all not a problem of portable apps, the original programs are of no big value.
Otto Sykora
Basel, Switzerland
In addition to what Otto has said you can also use Wise Registry Cleaner (PA version nearby) or CCleaner (portable version available from publisher) to tidy up most of the mess resulting from a forced or manual uninstall. Needless to say they both presume you know what you are doing.
As a matter of curiosity what is the crappy app you are trying to get rid of?
Wm