How to uninstall application when control panel and Settings fail?

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Update:

  1. I have seen the answers in the linked question, and it is NOT working for me. The software recommended there fail to detect the program despite its appearing in both Settings and Control Panel. This question is therefore NOT a duplicate of the other one.

  2. I had also tried the manual uninstallation method from the linked document, to no avail.


Background:

  1. I am working in Windows 10.

  2. I'm working on a standard (non-admin) account. BUT I gave administrator permissions on the User account Control prompt during installation.

1. The program:

My current issues started when I tried I tried installing an electrical simulation software called PSCAD. I was a bit unsure at first, as the software seemed to have an unconventional update process involving first installing their own installation tool.

However, I had found out about the software, from a ResearchGate recommendation thread, and when I found the tool's website by Googling, it seemed legitimate enough.

2. My installation process:

I followed the instruction given on the site, following their download links to first download a tool for installing the prerequisites (mainly Visual C++, or at least a program claiming to be it), from their product page linked to from the website. Then running it, and installing the tool.

Ten I made an account on the indicated page, which sent a confiemation email to my account. And I signed in to their installation tool using the provided credentials and tried to install the software I wanted.

There was a lengthy process involving connecting to their server, the short of which was that the software failed to install. Meanwhile, I'd found a different solution for my purpose and wanted to get rid of their tool.

3. My attempts at uninstalling:

I tried doing what felt natural, opening Settings > Apps, and hitting uninstall on the application.The application in Settings > Apps

While the Dialog proceeded, I did the same for the 2 prerequisites installed by it : Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable (x64) and Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable (x86), both of which showed Microsoft Corporation as the 'Verified Publisher'.

When I came back after a couple of minutes, I found that both instances of Visual C++ were gone, but the myUpdater app was still there! And now I couldn't use the Desktop shortcut to run it for want of the prerequisites.

I tried uninstalling it again, both from Settings and Control Panel, only to receive a messge that the uninstall had failed.

At this point, I logged into my admin account, the app wasn't showing in Settings or Control Panel, but the desktop shortcut was there. I then went to My PC in Windows Explorer, searched for both 'PSCAD' and 'myUpdater' and deleted everything I found. I also emptied TEMP for good measure, since most of the files I found were inside it.

I went back to my standard account, the app is still there in Settings > Apps and Control Panel, and won't uninstall.

I reinstalled everything. But during the final reinstallation of the tool I got an error message, which also appeared when I tried to launch the app or uninstall it. I'm showing the messsage below: The error I got

Here is the detailed error message from an uninstall attempt (got by clicking details):

PLATFORM VERSION INFO
Windows             : 10.0.18363.0 (Win32NT)
Common Language Runtime     : 4.0.30319.42000
System.Deployment.dll       : 4.8.3752.0 built by: NET48REL1
clr.dll             : 4.8.4180.0 built by: NET48REL1LAST_B
dfdll.dll           : 4.8.3752.0 built by: NET48REL1
dfshim.dll          : 10.0.18362.1 (WinBuild.160101.0800)

IDENTITIES
Deployment Identity     : UpdateClient.application, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=28d27fd56994edab, processorArchitecture=x86

ERROR SUMMARY
Below is a summary of the errors, details of these errors are listed later in the log.
* Error occurred during store lookup, component store may have been corrupted. Following failure messages were detected:
    + Application is not installed.
* Error occurred during uninstall of the application. Following failure messages were detected:
    + Application is not installed.
* Exception occurred during uninstall of application UpdateClient.application, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=28d27fd56994edab, processorArchitecture=x86. Following failure messages were detected:
    + ARP entry cc1603a5fc0c4161 does not exist.
    + Cannot delete a subkey tree because the subkey does not exist.

COMPONENT STORE TRANSACTION FAILURE SUMMARY
No transaction error was detected.

WARNINGS
There were no warnings during this operation.

OPERATION PROGRESS STATUS
* [03-08-2020 22:19:04] : Looking up information from component store.
* [03-08-2020 22:19:04] : Uninstall of application UpdateClient.application, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=28d27fd56994edab, processorArchitecture=x86 did not succeed.

ERROR DETAILS
Following errors were detected during this operation.
* [03-08-2020 22:19:04] System.Deployment.Application.DeploymentException (SubscriptionState)
    - Application is not installed.
    - Source: System.Deployment
    - Stack trace:
        at System.Deployment.Application.SubscriptionStore.CheckInstalled(SubscriptionState subState)
        at System.Deployment.Application.SubscriptionStore.CheckInstalledAndShellVisible(SubscriptionState subState)
        at System.Deployment.Application.DeploymentServiceCom.MaintainSubscriptionInternal(String textualSubId)
* [03-08-2020 22:19:04] System.Deployment.Application.DeploymentException (SubscriptionState)
    - Application is not installed.
    - Source: System.Deployment
    - Stack trace:
        at System.Deployment.Application.SubscriptionStore.CheckInstalled(SubscriptionState subState)
        at System.Deployment.Application.SubscriptionStore.UninstallSubscription(SubscriptionState subState)
        at System.Deployment.Application.DeploymentServiceCom.MaintainSubscriptionInternal(String textualSubId)
* [03-08-2020 22:19:04] System.Deployment.Application.DeploymentException (InvalidARPEntry)
    - ARP entry cc1603a5fc0c4161 does not exist.
    - Source: System.Deployment
    - Stack trace:
        at System.Deployment.Application.ShellExposure.RemoveArpEntry(DefinitionIdentity subId)
        at System.Deployment.Application.ShellExposure.RemoveSubscriptionShellExposure(SubscriptionState subState)
        at System.Deployment.Application.DeploymentServiceCom.MaintainSubscriptionInternal(String textualSubId)
    --- Inner Exception ---
    System.ArgumentException
    - Cannot delete a subkey tree because the subkey does not exist.
    - Source: mscorlib
    - Stack trace:
        at System.ThrowHelper.ThrowArgumentException(ExceptionResource resource)
        at Microsoft.Win32.RegistryKey.DeleteSubKeyTree(String subkey, Boolean throwOnMissingSubKey)
        at System.Deployment.Application.ShellExposure.RemoveArpEntry(DefinitionIdentity subId)

COMPONENT STORE TRANSACTION DETAILS
No transaction information is available.

Trying to run their installer (updater) does this:

Error on instllation attempt

Here is the full message:

PLATFORM VERSION INFO
Windows             : 10.0.18363.0 (Win32NT)
Common Language Runtime     : 4.0.30319.42000
System.Deployment.dll       : 4.8.3752.0 built by: NET48REL1
clr.dll             : 4.8.4180.0 built by: NET48REL1LAST_B
dfdll.dll           : 4.8.3752.0 built by: NET48REL1
dfshim.dll          : 10.0.18362.1 (WinBuild.160101.0800)

SOURCES
Deployment url          : file:///C:/Users/devashish/Downloads/UpdateClient.application

ERROR SUMMARY
Below is a summary of the errors, details of these errors are listed later in the log.
* Activation of C:\Users\devashish\Downloads\UpdateClient.application resulted in exception. 
Following failure messages were detected:
    + Access is denied. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80070005 (E_ACCESSDENIED))

COMPONENT STORE TRANSACTION FAILURE SUMMARY
No transaction error was detected.

WARNINGS
There were no warnings during this operation.

OPERATION PROGRESS STATUS
* [03-08-2020 22:26:18] : Activation of C:\Users\devashish\Downloads\UpdateClient.application has started.

ERROR DETAILS
Following errors were detected during this operation.
* [03-08-2020 22:26:27] System.UnauthorizedAccessException
    - Access is denied. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80070005 (E_ACCESSDENIED))
    - Source: System.Deployment
    - Stack trace:
        at System.Deployment.Internal.Isolation.IStore.GetAssemblyInformation(UInt32 Flags, IDefinitionIdentity DefinitionIdentity, Guid& riid)
        at System.Deployment.Internal.Isolation.Store.GetAssemblyManifest(UInt32 Flags, IDefinitionIdentity DefinitionIdentity)
        at System.Deployment.Application.ComponentStore.GetAssemblyManifestFromStore(DefinitionIdentity asmId)
        at System.Deployment.Application.ComponentStore.GetAssemblyManifestWithRetry(DefinitionIdentity asmId, TimeSpan retryInterval, Int32 maxRetryCount)
        at System.Deployment.Application.ComponentStore.GetSubscriptionStateInternal(DefinitionIdentity subId)
        at System.Deployment.Application.SubscriptionStore.GetSubscriptionStateInternal(SubscriptionState subState)
        at System.Deployment.Application.SubscriptionStore.CheckAndReferenceApplication(SubscriptionState subState, DefinitionAppId appId, Int64 transactionId)
        at System.Deployment.Application.DownloadManager.DownloadDeploymentManifestDirectBypass(SubscriptionStore subStore, Uri& sourceUri, TempFile& tempFile, SubscriptionState& subState, IDownloadNotification notification, DownloadOptions options, ServerInformation& serverInformation)
        at System.Deployment.Application.DownloadManager.DownloadDeploymentManifestBypass(SubscriptionStore subStore, Uri& sourceUri, TempFile& tempFile, SubscriptionState& subState, IDownloadNotification notification, DownloadOptions options)
        at System.Deployment.Application.ApplicationActivator.PerformDeploymentActivation(Uri activationUri, Boolean isShortcut, String textualSubId, String deploymentProviderUrlFromExtension, BrowserSettings browserSettings, String& errorPageUrl, Uri& deploymentUri)
        at System.Deployment.Application.ApplicationActivator.PerformDeploymentActivationWithRetry(Uri activationUri, Boolean isShortcut, String textualSubId, String deploymentProviderUrlFromExtension, BrowserSettings browserSettings, String& errorPageUrl)
 --- End of stack trace from previous location where exception was thrown ---
        at System.Runtime.ExceptionServices.ExceptionDispatchInfo.Throw()
        at System.Deployment.Application.ApplicationActivator.PerformDeploymentActivationWithRetry(Uri activationUri, Boolean isShortcut, String textualSubId, String deploymentProviderUrlFromExtension, BrowserSettings browserSettings, String& errorPageUrl)
        at System.Deployment.Application.ApplicationActivator.ActivateDeploymentWorker(Object state)

COMPONENT STORE TRANSACTION DETAILS
No transaction information is available.

I'm quite worried since whenever I try to do anything involving this...thing, my CPU fan starts running like crazy.

I found an uninstallation guide on the product website, but it doesn't seem to be of much help as Control Panel is useless, and I can't even install the app now.

I've returned to Windows after a lot of time on Ubuntu, and am far from an expert in these matters.


My Question:

At this point, I just want to get rid of everything I have installed without breaking anything.

  1. What kind of program is this? Does this seem like the behavior of some Malware? I have QuickHeal Antivirus Pro on my system which shows that everything is fine (including the Anti-Malware tool), for what's it worth.

  2. How can I get rid of this thing? I thought of restoring. If possible I would like to avoid it. I haven't put up any explicit backups or restore points and don't want to lose my files. I just want to get my system back to its previous state anyhow.

windows-10
installation
uninstall
runtime-error
malware-detection
asked on Super User Aug 3, 2020 by Devashsih Kaushik • edited Aug 4, 2020 by Devashsih Kaushik

0 Answers

Nobody has answered this question yet.


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