$app = Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_Product | Where-Object {
$_.Name -match "Software Name"
}
$app.Uninstall()
Edit: Rob found another way to do it with the Filter parameter:
$app = Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_Product `
-Filter "Name = 'Software Name'"
$app = Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_Product | Where-Object {
$_.Name -match "Software Name"
}
$app.Uninstall()
Edit: Rob found another way to do it with the Filter parameter:
$app = Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_Product `
-Filter "Name = 'Software Name'"
EDIT: Over the years this answer has gotten quite a few upvotes. I would like to add some comments. I have not used PowerShell since, but I remember observing some issues:
- If there are more matches than 1 for the below script, it does not work and you must append the PowerShell filter that limits results to 1. I believe it's
-First 1but I'm not sure. Feel free to edit. - If the application is not installed by MSI it does not work. The reason it was written as below is because it modifies the MSI to uninstall without intervention, which is not always the default case when using the native uninstall string.
Using the WMI object takes forever. This is very fast if you just know the name of the program you want to uninstall.
$uninstall32 = gci "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall" | foreach { gp $_.PSPath } | ? { $_ -match "SOFTWARE NAME" } | select UninstallString
$uninstall64 = gci "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall" | foreach { gp $_.PSPath } | ? { $_ -match "SOFTWARE NAME" } | select UninstallString
if ($uninstall64) {
$uninstall64 = $uninstall64.UninstallString -Replace "msiexec.exe","" -Replace "/I","" -Replace "/X",""
$uninstall64 = $uninstall64.Trim()
Write "Uninstalling..."
start-process "msiexec.exe" -arg "/X $uninstall64 /qb" -Wait}
if ($uninstall32) {
$uninstall32 = $uninstall32.UninstallString -Replace "msiexec.exe","" -Replace "/I","" -Replace "/X",""
$uninstall32 = $uninstall32.Trim()
Write "Uninstalling..."
start-process "msiexec.exe" -arg "/X $uninstall32 /qb" -Wait}
Powershell to uninstall software
HOWTO Uninstall Software Using Powershell in Windows 10 - Software & Applications - Spiceworks Community
Script to uninstall program
Why is it so difficult to uninstall a program using PS?
Videos
You could use this PowerShell fragment :
$program = Get-ChildItem -Path HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall, HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall | Get-ItemProperty | Where-Object {$_.DisplayName -match "Part of App Name" } | Select-Object -Property DisplayName, Uninstallstring, QuietUninstallString
start-process cmd.exe -argumentlist "/c ""$($prog.quietUninstallString) /norestart""" -Wait
Where "Part of App Name" is enough to uniquely identify the product.
I was able to write a small PowerShell script for my specific need:
# Name of the software to check
$softwareName = "O365ProPlusRetail - de-de"
# Check if software is installed
$software = Get-ItemProperty HKLM:\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\* | Where-Object { $_.PSChildName -match $softwareName }
if ($software -ne $null) {
# Software is installed, uninstall it
& 'C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\ClickToRun\OfficeClickToRun.exe' scenario=install scenariosubtype=uninstall sourcetype=None productstoremove=O365ProPlusRetail.16_de-de_x-none culture=de-de version.16=16.0 DisplayLevel=False forceappshutdown=true
Write-Host "$softwareName has been uninstalled."
}
else {
# Software is not installed
Write-Host "$softwareName is not installed."
}
it works for me but this is not a general solution.
Within PowerShell, this is very easy to do.
The below block of script will take a computer name, your username and password, connect to the remote computer and list all installed software by name:
$computerName = "SomeComputerName"
$yourAccount = Get-Credential
Invoke-Command -ComputerName $computerName -Credential $yourAccount -ScriptBlock {
Get-WmiObject Win32_Product | Select Name
}
When you have the name of the product you want to uninstall remotely - you can the perform an uninstall like this:
$computerName = "SomeComputerName"
$appName = "AppName"
$yourAccount = Get-Credential
Invoke-Command -ComputerName $computerName -Credential $yourAccount -ScriptBlock {
Get-WmiObject Win32_product | Where {$_.name -eq $appName} | ForEach {
$_.Uninstall()
}
}
In the above eaxmples - replace "SomeComputerName" with the name of the computer you wish to uninstall from.
You can also make the script prompt you for a computer name if you prefer with the following line:
$computerName = Read-Host "Enter Computer Name"
If you have multiple computers with the same piece of software that you want to uninstall - you can also define an array of computers to work with and do uninstalls from lots of machines:
$computerNames = @("SomeComputerName1", "SomeComputerName2", "SomeComputerName3")
$appName = "AppName"
$yourAccount = Get-Credential
ForEach ($computerName in $computerNames) {
Invoke-Command -ComputerName $computerName -Credential $yourAccount -ScriptBlock {
Get-WmiObject Win32_product | Where {$_.name -eq $appName} | ForEach {
$_.Uninstall()
}
}
}
If you create a file called "servers.txt" and place your list of servers in it you could also reference $computerNames as follows:
$computerNames = Get-Content "C:\some-directory\servers.txt"
$appName = "AppName"
$yourAccount = Get-Credential
ForEach ($computerName in $computerNames) {
Invoke-Command -ComputerName $computerName -Credential $yourAccount -ScriptBlock {
Get-WmiObject Win32_product | Where {$_.name -eq $appName} | ForEach {
$_.Uninstall()
}
}
}
I've used this approach many times in production environments and it seems to work for me. Always test this in a non-production environment before completing in a prod environment.
Fellow Admins,
I need you help as Im growing hate for MS every minute.
How in the world do you delete software with powershell? I've tried several methods and it's still there. At this point I find it irrational, it cannot be that hard.
Any help would be appreciated.
Hello all, Not directly power shell but this is the closest sub I could find that may be able to help. I am trying to uninstall a program and clean up afterwards by deleting the associated folders, but running into issues when combining all the commands as a script.
What I have so far is:
-
@ECHO OFF
-
Net stop tripwireAxonAgent
-
Wmic
-
product where name="Axon Agent" call uninstall /nointeractive
-
Quit <=(here is where I have the issue)
-
RMDIR /s /q "C:\ProgramData \Tripwire\Agent"
-
Pause
My main issue is after the product uninstall via WMIC, it will not exit that prompt and remains inside the subsection for it. I’ve tried “quit” “exit” and CD back to the default c:\windows but any command I enter says “syntax error” and just puts the command to delete the directory on screen and freezes the screen.
If I run the commands by themselves, there is no issue and it completes without a problem.
What am I missing / not doing properly. Any help is appreciated.
Also, for reference, I used WMIC to uninstall the program because the MSI the vendor was telling me to use was consistently giving me errors saying “ a product is already installed. You cannot install this version.” or I would get an error saying “ the product is not installed”
Would it be easier to switch this over to power shell to complete the task? I did not originally use power shell because the vendor said there may be issues when using it.
Can someone explain the process of uninstalling a program that displays in the control panel. Or point me to some documentation I can read.
I can’t even figure out how to uninstall Notepad++. Uninstall-Package does nothing, Remove-WmiObject does nothing, Remove-package does nothing.
Idk what i’m missing here