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Cannot uninstall Dell Support 2.1
I have a Dimension 8400 that I purchased in November, 2004. It's running Windows XP Pro. It came with Dell Support 2.1 which I now want to uninstall. The computer won't let me, at least not from the Add/Remove Program utility in Control Panel. It starts the process, then quickly displays a "Cancelling..." message and then stops. I tried reinstalling Dell Support 2.1 from the original Dell Resource CD, but the driver is not included and Dell Support is not listed as an application. Then I tried to find the driver in my c:\dell\drivers folder but my computer does not have such a folder. Finally, I installed Dell Support 3.4 because a Dell technician told me that would automatically uninstall previous versions. Wrong! Now I have both versions on my computer.
I'm hoping someone out there has been through this and knows the solution. Help!
@Alexandra_P wrote:
Do a search on your PC for D*.msi. The older versions should be something like dell_support.msi; the newest one is dsc20.msi. They might have snuck into Program files. You can try double clicking the installer directly to see if it will uninstall.
Alexandra, you are my hero. I did a search for D*.msi and found a bunch of them in my c:\Windows\Installer folder. By running the cursor over each file, a window pops up identifying the program it is for. I quickly found the Dell Support installer (D246.msi in my case.) I double-clicked on it and, sure enough, it gave me a "Remove" button which worked like a charm. Dell Support 2.1 is gone. I searched the Internet, the Dell discussion forum and spent half an hour on the phone with a Dell technician and none of these sources mentioned your simple solution. Good job!Alexandra_P
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Posted April 10th, 2008 03:00
Excellent!
And good riddance :smileyvery-happy: .
Alexandra_P
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2554 Posts
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Posted April 10th, 2008 00:00
Are you sure it's 2.1? I thought that version didn't come out until late last year (the new 2.0 versions have the blue wrench, not the orange E), but I could be wrong. But you can go ahead and try to find the uninstaller and run it directly. The original one should have been in your Dell Drivers folder - if that folder's gone, it may not be possible to get a working (un)installer.
Do a search on your PC for D*.msi. The older versions should be something like dell_support.msi; the newest one is dsc20.msi. They might have snuck into Program files. You can try double clicking the installer directly to see if it will uninstall. If they won't, post back - it's easy enough to disable them to at least keep it from running all the time.
I think the Dell tech was hoping the 3.4 would overwrite the existing version, but obviously it didn't (and I'm not really that surprised).