AutoCad Reinstall

[Piriform913]

I recently had to reinstall AutoCAD 2016 due to some DLL issues. I'd done the uninstall through Control Panel (Windows 10). Upon launching the AutoCAD Installation program to reinstall AutoCAD 2016, the install program saw it as though AutoCAD was still installed. I spent countless hours doing internet searches on how to insure all of the previous install was in fact uninstalled. Went through several suggested procedures to no eval. Performed the CCCleaner Registry cleanup, went through the file system, went through the registry manually. still the AutoCAD install program saw it was still installed. I finally went onto the AutoDesk Community Forum and got the answer I needed, and this is both Microsoft's fault as well as AutoDesk's. And this is why I'm writing this post to see if Piriform could build this into there Registry Cleaner. Turns out that when uninstalling programs through Control panel, Microsoft does not delete the reference to the program, they just rename it to a cryptic name enclosed within {}.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\{search}

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\{search}

And AutoDesk is just as guilty for looking at keys with these garbage names!

So if Piriform could clean up this Garbage it could potentially save others form going through the headache I went through...

 

Regards, R.Allan Albanese

[nukecad]

This is a known problem with trying to get Autocad uninstalled to do a fresh install.

The uninstaller leaves behind some files and registry entries, as you have found.

 

Glad you found the answer, but you may not have needed to completely uninstall / reinstall in the first place.

 

Usually missing or corrupted DLLs can be fixed by using the 'repair' option.

Go to Windows control panel, programs and features, uninstall or change. Select AutoCad 2016, and you will be asked, "Uninstall, or Repair". Of course select repair.

 

For future Autocad help you might like to look at the CadTutor forums, there are some very knowledgeable users there.