MaxIm DL v5 Manual Uninstall Instructions

These instructions explain how to remove the registry keys, files, and folders created by the V5 installer beyond the obvious ones such as "Program Files/Diffraction Limited/MaxIm V5", the location of the user license, and MaxIm DL's own registry entries (See the last paragraph).

1) Run REGEDIT, and select the registry key:

"HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Uninstall"

2) a.) Open the Find dialog using Edit > Find (or press Ctrl+F) and set "Find what" to MaxIm DL V5.
b.) Set ONLY the "Data" checkbox (inside the frame "Look at").
c.) Click "Find Next".

3) REGEDIT should stop on the Display Name entry within a key called:

{A3474A79-B574-417A-A31A-B2651C2BBA8E}

Highlight this key in the left-hand pane (and double-click this!!!) and press Delete. Confirm deletion of key and subkeys.

4) Enter Edit > Find Next (or press F3).

5) REGEDIT will probably stop on the DisplayName of an key called:

InstallShield_{A3474A79-B574-417A-A31A-B2651C2BBA8E}

6) Check the entry ModifyPath; it will probably begin:

"C:/Program Files/InstallShield Installation Information/{A3474A79..."

Use Windows Explorer to locate and delete this folder and its contents. You may have to change some of the advanced settings on the View tab of Explorer's Tools > Folder Options command to be able to see, access and delete these files. You should select "Show hidden files and folders" and uncheck both "Hide extensions for known file types" and "Hide protected operating system files".

7) Back in REGEDIT, highlight the last key found, i.e.:

InstallShield_{A3474A79-B574-417A-A31A-B2651C2BBA8E

[be careful!] and press Delete. Confirm deletion of key and subkeys.

8) Now select the registry key:

"HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Installer/UserData"

9) Again, enter Edit > Find Next (or press F3).

10) REGEDIT will stop on an entry such as:

"{97A4743A-475B-A714-3AA1-2B56C1B2ABE8}"

with data like:

"C:/Program Files/Diffraction Limited/MaxIm DL V5/RcCamDat.dll"

in a key (left-hand pane) such as:

"{01F5E081-CCC3-D674-9922-52D2BD06633B}"

which in turn is a subkey of something called "Components". (The entire keyname can be read from the status bar at the bottom of the REGEDIT window.) The hex numbers and filename may be different, but the data will be a reference to some DLL, other file or folder within the MaxIm DL V5 installation folder (although the second character may be a question mark rather than the usual colon). Now:

a.) IF THERE ARE NO OTHER ENTRIES IN THE RIGHT-HAND PANE (except "(Default)") select the key in the left-hand pane, press Delete and confirm.

b.) BUT IF THERE ARE OTHER ENTRIES, select only "97A47..." value, or whatever it was, and press Delete. In this case the confirmation requested will be "Are you sure you want to delete this value?" instead of "...this key and all its subkeys"; click Yes.

11) Repeat steps 9 and 10 approximately 130 times. The "97A47..." entry will be the same every time. Stop as soon as the located key is NOT a subkey of "Components". It should instead be in "InstallProperties" under "Products/97A4743A475BA7143AA12B56C1B2ABE8", where again the hex number matches that found in step 10.

12) Assuming this to be the case, note the data associated with the entry LocalPackage. This is a filename such as "C:/Windows/Installer/1123e4c.msi". Using Windows Explorer, locate and delete this file; see the note in step 6 above. Also be aware that Explorer sorts filenames consisting of groups of digits alternating with letters rather strangely. Treat the numeric portions as if they really were numbers, so "1123e4c" might be found between "985b8" and "2410ca", for example.)

13) Back in REGEDIT, highlight the parent folder of "InstallProperties" (e.g., 97A4743A-475B-A714-3AA1-2B56C1B2ABE8) in the left-hand pane and press Delete. Confirm the deletion.

At this point, Windows should no longer be aware of any MaxIm DL V5 installation.

14) Delete the following registry keys:

"HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Diffraction Limited/MaxIm CCD 5"

and

"HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Diffraction Limited/MaxIm DL 5"

15) Delete the installation folder and all its contents and subfolders ("C:/Program Files/Diffraction Limited/MaxIm DL V5"). Hopefully if you then run a MaxIm DL V5 installer, it will perform a clean installation.

Note: that if the Microsoft Installer Cleanup Utility has been run, some of these registry keys and/or files may already have been removed. In this case, the best you can do is skip those parts that refer to nonexistent entries or files and hope for the best. The worst problem is with the files whose names and/or locations are known only through registry entries; if the latter have been deleted, it will be difficult and could be impossible to find the former.