Advanced Tip of the Day: Uninstalling SW completely

We all know how to do a clean uninstall of SW:

Add/Remove Programs > SolidWorks Delete SolidWorks folder Use Regedit to remove the SolidWorks folder under HKLM/Software

but there is something else that you can check and it has to do with Windows installer. This is also helpful if you want to find out whether SolidWorks was installed locally or from an image.

1. Download msisources from
   formatting link
   Follow the directions in the help html file to list all msi packages
2. Find the entries that refer to Solidworks, eDrawings, etc.

Inspect the entries. First a bunch of numbers, then path information. It is here where you can findout whether SW was installed locally or from an image, because if an image the path to the image will be listed. If you are doing a clean install and SolidWorks shows up in this listing, you can use the long string of number to find the registry entry pertaining to msi and SolidWorks. Backup the folder and delete it. Now SolidWorks will be unknown to msi.

Example:

The key and path to a SW installation. {4E921E6B-CFF1-4901-B262-FD049AC8EF56} = SolidWorks 2004 SP0 12.1.0 d:\swwi\Dat

The folder in the registry where the above number resides. HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Installer\Products\B6E129E41FFC10942B26DF40A98CFE65 Backup and delete. The numbers may be different on your system, don't use this key

I came across this when trying to uninstall 3DXWare. MSI insisted that

WARNING. DOING ANYTHING IN THE REGISTRY CAN HAVE SERIOUS CONSEQUENCES. PERFORM THESE OPERATIONS AT YOUR OWN RISK AND ONLY IF YOU UNDERSTAND WHAT YOU ARE .DOING.