Windows Installer Clean Up Utility

The Windows Installer CleanUp Utility (MSICUU2.exe) was a software utility for the Microsoft Windows operating system designed to solve uninstallation problems of programs that use the Windows Installer technology. It looks up registry references and files related to Windows Installer that were installed by various programs, and forcibly wipes invalid entries out. It works in all 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Microsoft Windows.

The utility was first released by Microsoft in 1999 to help Windows-based computers clean up installed programs that would either refuse or pretend not to remove themselves from the add/remove programs feature in Microsoft Windows.

The utility will only change registry values and files associated with the Windows Installer portion on the program. It will not remove many files from the computer and is only to be used as a last-ditch attempt when dealing with a buggy program. The utility can only be run by users who are logged in as system administrators.

For developers who have problems with the Windows Installer automatically repairing their own installations on developer machines (when the developer has manually updated some of the binaries), this utility is ideal to remove the Windows Installer information whilst leaving the actual installation intact.

The utility was retired by Microsoft on June 25, 2010, due to conflicts with Office 2007. It was replaced by a Microsoft Fix It, which can be found here: http://support.microsoft.com/mats/Program_Install_and_Uninstall/

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    What a cheerful rhyme! Clean not mean!
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    Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)