Clean Uninstall of SolidWorks Written by Rebekah Haag on June 7, 2010.

Posted in SolidWorks, Technical Tips One frequent request that comes across my desk, is how to perform a clean uninst allation of SolidWorks. SolidWorks installs too many locations on a user s local disk drive. When a user uninstalls SolidWorks, a lot of these folders are retai ned on the system and you can end up with unnecessary or duplicate folders. Als o, at times a SolidWorks installation can become corrupt and it may be necessary to completely wipe SolidWorks from the systems registry and start fresh. If you decide you need to do a clean uninstallation of SolidWorks, you can foll ow these steps to find all the locations on a system created by the program: From Add or Remove programs in the Windows Control Panel, uninstall all Soli dWorks listings. Then you ll want to delete any folders relating to SolidWorks on your hard dri ve. You might find SW folders in the locations listed below. Make sure you do not have any custom templates or library parts existing in these folders that you d want to keep. Depending on your installation, there may be additional folders from pre vious installs or folders may not be named exactly the same.

For Windows XP: (64-bit systems will have additional folders in C:\Program F iles (x86)) C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Application Data\SolidWorks C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\SolidWorks C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\DassaultSystemes C:\Documents and Settings\CURRENT_USER\Application Data\SolidWorks C:\Documents and Settings\ your user name \Application Data\SolidWorks C:\Documents and Settings\ your user name \Application Data\DassaultSystemes C:\Program Files\Common Files\SolidWorks Installation Manager C:\Program Files\Common Files\SolidWorks Shared C:\Program Files\SolidWorks C:\Program Files\SolidWorks(2) C:\Program Files\SolidWorks Corp

For Windows 7 and Vista: (32-bit systems would not have folder locations in C:\Program Files (x86)) C:\SolidWorks Data C:\Program Files\SolidWorks Corp C:\Program Files\Common Files\SolidWorks Shared C:\Program Files (x86)\SolidWorksx86 C:\Program Files (x86)\SolidWorks Corp C:\Program Files (x86)\SolidWorks C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\eDrawings2010 C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\SolidWorks Shared C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\SolidWorks Installation Manager C:\ProgramData\SolidWorks C:\ProgramData\DassaultSystemes C:\Users\ your user name \AppData\Roaming\SolidWorks C:\Users\ your user name \AppData\Roaming\SolidWorks 2010 C:\Users\ your user name \AppData\Roaming\DassaultSystemes C:\Users\ your user name \AppData\Roaming\DWGeditor C:\Users\ your user name \AppData\Roaming\EDrawings

After deleting folders, edit the Windows registry to remove the following ke ys (some keys may not be present on your system). To access the Windows Registry Editor select Run in the Windows Start Men u, type regedit, and hit OK. HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\eDrawings HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\SolidWorks HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\SolidWorks BackOffice HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\SRAC HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\ eDrawings HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\SolidWorks HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\SolidWorks Corporation HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\SRAC