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General discussion

Vista won't let me remove programs!

May 15, 2010 7:41AM PDT

I am running Vista home premium (which I hate). I go to the uninstall programs area in the control panel. When I attempt to remove a program I get the message, "you do not have sufficient access to uninstall.... Please contact your system administrator." Guess what. I AM THE SYSTEM ADMINISTRATOR and I would not know how to deny access to someone other than set them up as a "regular" user. Yes, I am logged in as the administrator. Please help!!!!

Discussion is locked

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Try...
May 15, 2010 4:22PM PDT

The program's own uninstaller, if any, found at the program's folder, or its shortcut folder at the start menu... or

Reinstall it again whereby the previous installation will be ovr-ridden. The uninstall to [via control panel-add or remoe programs... else find out about 'CCleaner' and use that to remove unneeded programs.

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edit permission settings
May 16, 2010 2:12AM PDT

You can do this by right-clicking the program you wish to remove; scroll down to 'Properties', click on the Security tag.
Click on your name, then click 'edit-to change the permission setting'.Once in the Edit section; again click on your name, check the box 'Full Control', apply, okay.
This should give you Admin rights to remove said program

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I've changed all the setting and still cannot remove Skype.
Jun 16, 2010 11:09PM PDT

Though I've changed all settings to allow me permission to uninstall, I still can't uninstall Skype. It insists I contact the administrator. I am the administrator! It is eating up resources and really slowing my system down.
Any other suggestions?

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The Old Blow It Away or "manual uninstall."
Jun 16, 2010 11:12PM PDT

If uninstalls fail I could always boot up some UBUNTU LIVE CD and delete the Skype folder then boot back into windows to correct what errors that created.

Shotgun!
Bob

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same problem here
Mar 11, 2012 1:08AM PST

security setting didn't help me either

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Run as Administrator
May 17, 2010 3:26AM PDT

When trying to uninstall, is there an option to "Run as Administrator"? If there is, click it and enter your admin password.

You can also try uninstalling the program while Windows is running in Safe mode. To find more information on safe mode, search the help menu for "safe mode".

Cheers,
Cassandra

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administrator
May 17, 2010 8:47AM PDT

Um, as I said, I am logged in as the administrator. In addition, if I right click, there is no option to "run as administrator."

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won't hurt at this point to
May 17, 2010 9:10AM PDT

give my earlier suggestion a try

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Thanks!
Mar 11, 2012 1:13AM PST

This worked on google earth which I was having trouble uninstalling. I had to go into the program folder, right click on uninstall google earth and then "run as administrator." (I had been trying to uninstall it from the control panel.)

However, Skype and some of the other programs I want to get rid of don't have the "unistall" icon in the program folder.

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UAC is blocking unistall
May 21, 2010 1:41PM PDT

Turn off User Account Control (Type UAC in search), reboot and uninstall with administrator privileges. Right click program and check that your user name has administrator privileges. That should do it for you.

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Uninstall Adobe Reader
May 21, 2010 9:23PM PDT

Hi,had a "MESH"comp since end sept,new motherboard and corrupt Vista within 5 weeks,came back Vista not installed properly.Cant update Adobe as i tried several times diff ways keeps coming up ERROR 1606 could not access network location %APPDATA%\.Mesh wont help,spent over

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MESH computers
May 22, 2010 6:33AM PDT
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Adobe Reader
Jun 17, 2010 3:59AM PDT

Hi,i have reinstalled Win Vista 2 weeks ago,it was only way to use Reader 9,Skype and other programs.If anything goes wrong seek help from someone you know (or try yourself as i have learnt alot) not TECHNERDS as they dont tell you the whole story.They were useless and i got more done by myself.

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That's a FINE SOLUTION.
Jun 17, 2010 4:04AM PDT

In fact my brother returned a laptop I loaned him and what a mess. It had been hit with Antivirus 2009 (a malware!) and he had used registry cleaners and what else.

Armed with many moderators advice here I looked at it, ran the usual and it was still a mess. Since there were no files to save I booted the restore media and in the next hour it was back to it's pristine fine self.
Bob