Manually Uninstalling DataFlex

Important! Note that this set of instructions are only applicable to DataFlex revision 19.0 and earlier. For later revisions of DataFlex (19.1 and higher), please follow instructions found at Microsoft's Fix problems that block programs from being installed or removed article.

A normal uninstall procedure of DataFlex revision 19.0 and earlier requires three simple steps:

1. Run Programs and Features (accessible through Control Panel on your Windows machine)
2. Select to uninstall DataFlex
3. Restart your computer to finalize the process (and release anything DataFlex that was loaded in memory)

Sometimes users fail to execute step 3 and go straight to installing another build of DataFlex. What might happen is that files not released from memory will still be detected as existing files and NOT copied (or replaced) during the new installation. That may cause problems of missing files after a reboot of your machine. That may include a missing UNISTALL program or INSTALL.LOG.

When that happens, the steps described above cannot be executed because there is no available UNINSTALL on the machine after the most recent installation.

Then What?

Well, if you find yourself in that situation, you will need to manually uninstall DataFlex. Take the steps listed below in order to successfully do that:

• Run Regedit
• Search for DataFlex in all entries and keys under HKEY_CURRENT_USER and HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
• Find the revision you need to uninstall
• Remove all DataFlex entries/keys for the revision you need to uninstall

CAUTION! Only remove entries from the one revision you mean to uninstall. If you remove entries from a different revision, that revision may no longer run on that machine.

• Close Regedit
• If DataFlex Examples were installed on the machine, run IIS Manager (Control Panel | Administrative Tools | Internet Information Service (IIS) Manager)
• Expand the Connection tree and find the web examples from the revision you are uninstalling

• Select the example site
• Right-click and select Remove from the pop-up menu
• Repeat the two steps above for each site that you need to remove
• Exit IIS
• Run Windows Explorer
• Navigate to the folder where DataFlex was installed to (default: C:\Program Files\DataFlex\[revision]
• Remove that folder and respective subfolders and files
• Navigate to the folder where DataFlex Examples were installed (default: C:\DataFlex [revision] Examples)
• Remove that folder and respective subfolders and files
• Navigate to the folder where the license files are stored (default: C:\ProgramData\Data Access Worldwide\DataFlex\[revision])
• Remove that folder and respective subfolders and files
• Restart your computer (to start fresh)

Note: If you are running on a 64-bit Windows, DataFlex registry entries stored in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE will be under Wow6432Node (i.e. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node.)

After following the steps above, your copy of DataFlex should no longer be on your machine and you should be able to successfully reinstall the same revision of DataFlex if you choose to.