Review of:
Norton Uninstaller Deluxe 
by Vade Forrester

 Although Windows 95 has an uninstall feature, it really depends on the program itself to provide an uninstall program, and just runs that program. If you install a Windows 3.1 program (fortunately those are becoming extinct (sorry, Windows 3.1 users), you probably won't have any uninstall program. So Symantec joins Quarterdeck, Cybermedia, and other companies to offer a program that removes your program files safely and thoroughly, and also removes all references in the Registry and INI files. At least that's the intent; let's see how it works. 

I will make a few comparisons to Quarterdeck's CleanSweep and CyberMedia's Uninstaller programs, which I have also tried. My overall experience with uninstaller programs has shown that they can be invaluable, but also can be very dangerous if they are too aggressive and remove files shared by other programs. CleanSweep has had a reputation for that sort of behavior, but the latest version is much more conservative. Uninstaller has always been very safe, but recent versions have been excruciatingly slow. 

The opening Norton Uninstall Deluxe screen looks like Norton Utilities 3.0's screen, making it easier to move between programs in the Norton family. It is very straightforward to find and use all features of the program. Like most uninstall programs, Norton Uninstall Deluxe also performs several other housekeeping functions, some unique. Let's look at the program in detail 

. When you start Norton Uninstall Deluxe, it builds or loads its SafetyScan database, which contains a complete description of all the files on your hard drive, and also the INI files and registry. All uninstall programs use database files to track changes to the system, and Norton Uninstall Deluxe seems to create and load its database much faster than others. 

The Program Overview selection on the main menu gives a very cursory description of the program functions; I suspect it is there just to balance out the menu. The Program Cleanup selection brings up a group that has some operational functions: Remove, Move, Copy, Store and Restore. The main claim to fame is, of course, the Remove function, which safely deletes programs. Or does it? Let's see. 

 To test how well Remove worked, I downloaded a program called Com 69 from the Alamo PC BBS. Com 69 is a Windows 95 communications program like QModem, but whose shareware cost of only $25 makes it a great value. I installed the program using its own Setup program. After I tested the program and found it to be very attractive, I decided to remove it. Although Com 69 had placed an uninstall entry on the Windows 95 Control Panel's Add/Remove Programs list, I decided to use Norton Uninstall Deluxe to remove the program. 

 One of the Norton Uninstall Deluxe's most interesting features is called InstallGuard, which lets you install a program, try it out, then if you don't want to keep it, restores your computer to its exact configuration before you installed the program. That means it keeps copies of all files that were removed or replaced and puts them back when you remove the program, plus restores INI and Registry files. 

After InstallGuard removed Com 69, I searched for evidence of its existence left behind. There was no entry in the Start menu, and even the Add/Remove Programs menu entry had been deleted. But when I looked at the drive with Explorer, I found residual files left in a Com folder. On examination, those files were created after the program was installed, and included phone numbers I had installed in the dialing directory, and a file I had downloaded from the Alamo PC BBS, along with a couple of macro and script files. These files were created after the program was installed, so Norton Uninstall Deluxe did not identify them in its SafetyScan. This is the safe approach to program deletion, although it did not notify me to manually remove files in the Com folder, as CleanSweep would have. 

 Other uninstall programs give you the option to look at the files it is about to remove for you so you can be sure you are not trashing something essential. So does Norton Uninstall Deluxe, but only if you ask it to. Let's face it, most of us don't have a clue what most of those files really do anyhow, so what good does it do us to look at a list of them? Norton makes it possible, but normally proceeds on its own. 

 Besides deleting programs, Norton Uninstall Deluxe moves programs from one drive or partition to another. Lets's say you install a second hard drive and need to move some programs there to free up space on your original drive. Norton Uninstall Deluxe moves all the program files and updates all the references in INI files and the Registry. You could also use that feature if you convert a FAT16 drive to a FAT32 drive and want to move all programs to your C: drive. 

To try out the Move feature, I selected a small shareware program I recently downloaded. Called TechFacts 95, it tells you a great deal about your Windows 95 installation and lets you tweak it, rather like TweakUI, but more comprehensive. I selected Move on the Norton Uninstall Deluxe menu, identified the program to move, identified where I wanted to move it (in this case, by Zip drive, with drive letter E:). I then told Norton Uninstall Deluxe to move the program. 

 I peeked at the Advanced option, which told me what steps it planned to take. I saw files being moved, Registry and INI entries being changed, and shortcuts being updated. After Norton Uninstall Deluxe moved TechFacts 95, I ran it from the E: drive, and it worked perfectly. Looking at the new folder on the E: drive, I observed that all the files had been moved there. Even the shortcut in another folder was updated and worked. Success! 

 Norton Uninstall Deluxe also searches for and removes duplicate files. It also makes copies of programs on removable media like Zip drives that you can install on other computers. Before you use that feature, review your license agreement; as making additional copies of the program to use on other computers may very well violate your license. 

The next group of programs is called Disk Cleanup, and include such functions as AutoClean, to automatically delete unnecessary files; Files Cleanup, to delete unwanted files; Duplicates Cleanup to remove files with the same name, size, and date; and Registry Cleanup, which fixes invalid entries in the Registry. There is also a Restore function that lets you restore files you delete; in other words, an "Oops" function. Most other uninstall programs offer similar cleanup functions, as do utility programs like Norton Utilities 3.0. 

Files Cleanup lets you choose the file types you want to remove, then lets you review them before they are deleted. Actually, most are not deleted; instead they are stored in a compressed backup file so you can reinstall them with the Restore command. You can be conservative or daring in your choice of files to delete. One choice that is pretty safe is removing Internet cache files, and that usually frees up a lot of space. 
 
 

Problems

I also must relate that the first time I installed Norton Uninstall Deluxe, it seemed problematical, and an uninstall of a rather complex problem didn't seem to work right, producing error messages telling me certain VxDs were missing when I rebooted. I uninstalled Norton Uninstall Deluxe, and reinstalled it later, and it has worked fine since. 
 
 

Bottom Line

The Details