Revo Uninstaller free edition for Windows does a great job at helping you uninstall programs and get rid of the data files and folders they leave behind. It’s been in my Windows software arsenal for years, so here’s a quick look.
Background Info on Revo Uninstaller
Two programmers banded together in 2007 to start VS Revo Group Ltd., which is the developer of Revo Uninstaller. It’s located in Bulgaria and the company mainly focuses on Windows and Android development.
Features
There are two versions offered by the developer: Revo Uninstaller free and Revo Uninstaller Pro with portable versions also available. I have only used the free version so that’s the one I’ll be covering.
Uninstaller
Uninstalling a program is pretty simple. Just open up Revo Uninstaller and wait for the list to load. I personally sort by install date, so I can see the most recent things I installed first and scroll from there. There is also an icon view and other sorting options.
Once you highlight a program and click uninstall, it will bring up that program’s uninstaller first. After waiting for that to finish, you will see a new option to scan for leftover files. The choices are safe, moderate, and advanced.
I’ve used Revo for a number of years, and from my experience, you can’t go too wrong with the default.
Here I have uninstalled LibreOffice and scanned for leftovers. Here are the results.
Now let’s see what Revo Uninstaller picks up after I uninstalled Opera.
Hunter Mode
I don’t use this too often, but it’s nifty to have. Maybe you have a shortcut to a program you just can’t seem to find in the list or it goes by a weird name somewhere. Hunter Mode is a way you can have Revo Uninstaller track it down for you.
When you turn on hunter mode, a blue square with a crosshair in it will appear in the upper right hand of your desktop. Drag the cross-hair over one of the shortcuts on the desktop to trigger some options such as uninstall, prevent autostart, etc.
Windows App Uninstall
What’s the difference between regular uninstall and Windows App uninstall? That’s a great question and one that might be a little complicated to answer. Traditional Windows programs are written using the Win32 API or the .NET platform.
“Windows Apps” refers to apps/programs that were written using Microsoft’s Universal Windows Platform. Ideally, these apps could be run on not only Windows but things like Xbox and other platforms. It’s confusing to be honest, so just know that if you have any apps from the Microsoft store, then you should be able to see them in this list to remove/uninstall here.
Tools (Autostart Manager, Files cleaner, etc)
Apparently, the developers weren’t satisfied with just having an uninstall tool. They also included a bunch of useful little tools for tweaking and cleaning the system. You’ve got an autorun manager, junk files cleaner, browser cleaner, Microsoft Office cleaner, and a Windows cleaner.
My personal recommendation would be to leave the cleaning to other dedicated programs. However, the autorun manager has proven to be very useful in seeing what is starting up with your system. I found it much easier to see all the things turning on here than by checking the standard task manager>startup tab.
Final Thoughts on Revo Uninstaller Free edition
I’ve spent a ridiculous amount of time testing all the major uninstallers out there. This includes the famous IObit uninstaller, Wise Uninstaller, and countless others that I’ve forgotten. There always seems to be some annoying thing that prevents me from keeping the uninstaller on my system. However, Revo is very respective of the user.
Based on my usage and experience, Revo Uninstaller’s leftover file scanner is generally right 90% of the time whereas the other utilities I mentioned detected unnecessary things or just no file remnants at all.
Link: Download it!