ZSoft Uninstaller 2.4.1

.
Good afternoon everyone,

Once again, I apologize for my absence due to ill health. However I’m back on track, and have been thinking about paying homage to a few free programs over the next week or so, including open source, which I do support wholeheartedly.

Today’s review is about an uninstaller I’ve been using for about 6 months, with great success. The software is called Zsoft Installer 2.4.1 and it saves a wealth of time by avoiding the Control Panel to uninstall programs, among other things.

Publisher: ZSoft Software

Supported Languages:

English; Danish; Dutch; French; German; Hungarian; Italian; Portuguese; Russian; Spanish; Valencian.

System Requirements: Windows XP; Vista.

Additional Requirements: None

Tested on: Windows XP Pro.

You’ll be amazed at how fast this small application locates all your installed programs. You have to wonder why Windows takes SO long to do the same thing. This uninstaller also has a rather unique feature that lets you analyze your drive/s both before and after installing a program.

This process ensures that when you decide to uninstall a program, ZSoft Uninstaller will make sure that every last file of an application is removed – something that Windows does not do well at all. This is a major boon for people in my profession, who are constantly downloading; testing and uninstalling various software.

GUI (Graphical user interface:)

The interface is easy to navigate and understand; it’s mostly intuitive and has a toolbar and a buttonbar. The toolbar comprises File; Functions; Filters; Settings; Language and Help.

The buttonbar has four buttons which are: Uninstall; Analyze; Temp File Finder and Help.

To the right of the interface, is a search box to quickly locate any installed program.

The main list has three tabs:

• Installed programs;Analyzed programs;Hidden Programs.

Settings:

Uninstall Priority: Set to high; normal or low;

Show Icons: This shows small icons to the left of the program listing;

Big icons: Which will show the the main program list in the same way as changing a normal folder to ’show icons’, instead of showing a detailed file listing etc.

Sort List After: This setting allows you to sort your list in two four different ways:

Name; ascending or descending;

Time; ascending or descending.

This option allows you to sort your list in the order you installed your software. I tend to use this (descending) option, since it’s unlikely I’ll want to locate any early installations after I had to reformat my C: drive. I’m basically only interested in software I’ve installed from then on.

Change the Background Color: Here you can change various backgrounds within the program to suit your own tastes.

Show Grid Lines: Toggle on or off.

Edit Hide Filter: Since the only programs that I hide in the uninstaller are Windows updates, my filter is empty. However, you may choose to hide certain programs for your own reasons. You can always locate them here and edit them as you wish.

Choose Font: Brings up your normal Windows font selection dialog box.

As many settings as there seems to be, quite a few of them deal only with aesthetics, rather than actual program functionality – and therefore incredibly easy to manipulate. It also indicates the true simplicity of the software.

So let’s go through the basics first:

First: Analyze the drive where you want to install the new software by clicking the Analyze button and choosing “Analyze an Installation.”

Second: Install the new software. When you return to Zsoft Uninstaller you will see that the program now appears under the 2nd tab “Analyzed Programs.” If you ever want to uninstall the program in the future, you would return to this tab, click the relevant program and then the large Uninstall button.

At first, the program attempts to use the programs own uninstaller. This would often leave trace files, folders or shortcuts behind – and this is where ZSoft Uninstaller steps up to the pace by deleting them all for you as well. This has really been one of the most useful and functional uninstallers that I’ve ever used.

Filters:

Given that some unethical programs like to install programs without your knowledge, these filters are especially useful for determining which “kind” of files you’d like to see displayed, in order to perform some other command, such as ‘delete.’

Dead links:

These are defined by ZSoft Uninstaller, which will have determined won’t work because the .exe file that the uninstall string points to – doesn’t exist. If a program exists or if the string points to msiexec.exe, rundll32; regsvr32 or rundll.exe it will not be considered a dead link. Dead links are safe to delete, as there’s no good reason for them to stay in the registry.

Crapware:

These are programs like the Alexa Toolbar; Gator; BonziBuddy; Purity Scan; Internet Optimizer etc, that are known to install files other than the obvious. However, this is one filter that doesn’t work 100% – generic names like the latter crapware I mentioned, might easily come up on the list if it happens to be Swan’s Internet Optimizer Pro., as well. Make sure you apply logic and good sense before uninstalling anything.

There are several other filters that don’t need any explanation.

Help File:

The help file explains all the functions and features of the software well, even though it’s incredibly brief – again showing the ease of using Zsoft Uninstaller.

Features:

• Find and delete temporary files;Hide Windows Updates;Hide entries from the list that should never be uninstalled (drivers etc.) making the list more concise and therefore easier to manage;Gives a lot more information on each installation than you’ll ever see in Add/Remove Programs;

  Automatically find entries from programs that are most likely already uninstalled;

  Export functionality;

Points:

• Originality: 7/10
  Functionality: 9/10
  Intuitiveness: 9/10

Price: FREE

Summary:

As I mentioned earlier, ZSoft is my personal choice for uninstalling unwanted programs. Because of my profession, I am constantly installing; testing and uninstalling software and this program seems to have met all my needs.

Simple to use; time saving; functions extremely well and has the right price.

Recommendation:

I would bet on this uninstaller against many others I’ve tried in the past, including a popular one that you need to pay for called – Cleanse Uninstaller which requires you have .NET installed and to pay $20.00.

ZSoft doesn’t need you to be a rocket scientist, just read the brief help files and awaaaay you go!

Why not spend a little time shopping at ~ Software by Swan ~

If you enjoy my reviews, please vote for this web site – votes are always appreciated and give more visibility to my clients and their products, which therefore obtains more work for me – thank you! Not to mention that it improves your own karma!

Have a wonderful day everyone!
~ Swan

All Content is Copyright © 2007 Swan-Reviews-Almost-Everything.blogspot.com
All Rights Reserved.

Shop for your software needs at: ~ Software by Swan ~

Developers, Software Houses and Web Designers:Please contact Swan if you’d like to purchase a candid, constructive review, under privately agreed terms, of your software; games; or web site design.

Advertisers:

Please contact Swan, if you’d like to arrange for advertising your product on this web site.

Ahhh Agloco – I’m making money, are you?“The day will come when machines and software will tell us whom to know; what to eat; what to wear; when to go to work and what profession to pursue; when to sleep; what entertainments to enjoy and with whom to have any kind of relationship. It can’t be avoided and you will succumb.”
~ Swan (2005)

You can contact ~Swan at swan.review.everything@gmail.comIf you enjoy her reviews, please leave a comment on her blog and a return URL – so that she can visit you too!