How to: Remove an application from a PC

The starter 2.0 removes an application with /uninstall or the entry under Windows “Apps” (see Uninstall). The starter 1.0 has no uninstall: it installs nothing for the computer and writes only into the user's profile. To take an application of the starter 1.0 away from a user, remove what its starts left behind, for that Windows user.

• The product key of the application (product in bootstrapper.json), here Customers.
• The user has closed the application; no MSACCESS.EXE of the user holds a copy open.
• No administrator rights: every part lies in the user's profile and below HKEY_CURRENT_USER. Run the steps as that user (a logon script, a software distribution in the user's context, or by hand).

The details of each part are in What the starter writes and reports.

1. Delete the folder of the application and its trusted location:

   $product = 'Customers'
   Remove-Item -Recurse -Force (Join-Path $env:LOCALAPPDATA "WKL\$product")
   Remove-Item -Recurse "HKCU:\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Access\Security\Trusted Locations\WKL.$product" -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue

   Remove only the key WKL.<product>: the other trusted locations belong to the user or to other applications.

2. Remove the starter folder and the user's shortcut, if they were copied to the PC.

3. Only when no other WKL application of the user remains, unregister and delete the components. Unregister every release folder below %LOCALAPPDATA%\WKL\Components with the regsvr32 of its bitness, then delete the folder:

   %windir%\SysWOW64\regsvr32.exe /s /u /n /i:user "%LOCALAPPDATA%\WKL\Components\2.0.0\x86\Wkl.Forms.ObjectLibrary.dll"
   %windir%\System32\regsvr32.exe /s /u /n /i:user "%LOCALAPPDATA%\WKL\Components\2.0.0\x64\Wkl.Forms.ObjectLibrary.dll"

   A release folder of 1.x holds Wkl.Access.Components.dll instead of Wkl.Forms.ObjectLibrary.dll.

   Skip this step when another application still uses them. Its next start registers them again when its starter delivers components (components in bootstrapper.json); without delivered components it stops with code 30.

%LOCALAPPDATA%\WKL\Customers and the key WKL.Customers are gone. The application's own settings - tables, files or registry values the application writes itself - are not touched by these steps; remove them as the application documents. A later start of the same starter places the version again as on a new PC.

• An open copy cannot be deleted; close Access first. A folder whose name starts with a dot (.1.4.0.tmp-..., .1.4.0.old-...) is a leftover of an interrupted placement and can be deleted as well.
• Another Office version: the trusted location lies below the Office version of the key, 16.0 for Microsoft 365, Office 2016, 2019 and 2021.
• The settings window (/settings) places a version again (Copy again) and removes versions beyond keepVersions (Remove old versions); it does not remove the whole application.

• What the starter writes and reports
• How to: Deliver an application with the bootstrapper
• Error codes of the starter