Innovative Solutions releases Advanced Uninstaller Free, a free version of their Advanced Uninstaller Pro

Not to be confused with IObit’s Advanced Uninstaller, Innovative Solutions – a software development firm most famous for their DriveMax software – recently released Advanced Uninstaller Free, a free version of their Advanced Uninstaller Pro software:

Advanced Uninstaller is a program that – like IObit’s Advanced Uninstaller and RevoUninstaller – aims to help user perform clean uninstalls. However, while IObit’s Advanced Uninstaller and RevoUninstaller approach the clean uninstallation problem by scanning the computer for leftover files and registry entries after a program has been uninstalled, Innovative Solutions’ Advanced Uninstaller provides a two-pronged attack.

Innovative Solutions’ Advanced Uninstaller has the ability to scan the computer for leftover files and registry entries after a program has been uninstalled, but it also has an “installation monitor” feature which tracks the exact changes made to your computer during and installation and “undos” the changes during uninstallation; users are given the option to use either method as they desire (the “installation monitor” feature is similar to how ZSoft Uninstaller works). The installation monitor method, of course, is the best way to do a clean uninstall because it tracks all changes made to your computer, making it easy to undo those changes. The only downside to installation monitor is that a user needs patience – your computer needs to be scanned before and after an installation in order for the program to figure out all the changes made on your computer by an installer.

In addition to the two cleaning uninstalling features already mentioned, Advanced Uninstaller has a handful of other features also. This chart gives a list of the features of Advanced Uninstaller and shows the differences between Advanced Uninstaller Free and Advanced Uninstaller Pro:

(Click on the above image to view it in full size.)

As mentioned in my earlier post on IObit Advanced Uninstaller, a clean uninstalling program is only as good as its performance; any program can good look on paper but performance is what determines its true usefulness. So, in that regard, I tested Innovative Solutions’ Advanced Uninstaller Free against RevoUninstaller. Of course since Innovative Solutions’ Advanced Uninstaller Free has an installation monitor and RevoUninstaller does not, I did not test that clean uninstallation method. Rather, I tested the scan-computer-after-uninstallation method because 1) it is the method common between the two programs and 2) it is the preferred method for clean uninstalling because most users don’t want to wait and scan their computer’s twice with the installation monitor method. Innovative Solutions’ Advanced Uninstaller Free failed; RevoUninstaller ran circles around it. For example, while uninstalling Kid Savvy PC (yes, I was too lazy uninstall the program ever since I reviewed it…) RevoUninstaller found 5 registry entries and 75 files leftover after the Kid Savvy PC’s normal uninstaller ran. Advanced Uninstaller Free, however, found 0 registry entries and 0 files. Results were similar when testing both programs with other uninstallations. On top of the poor performance, Advanced Uninstaller Free has no option to automatically create System Restore points before an uninstallation (a very useful feature of RevoUninstaller) and Advanced Uninstaller Free is a bit slow in scans.

While I wasn’t particularly impressed by Advanced Uninstaller Free’s ability to do clean uninstalls, I was impressed by the fact that Advanced Uninstaller Free’s “Quick Cleaner” (a privacy cleaner) supports cleaning traces from many, many third party applications. Of course, Advanced Uninstaller Free is aimed at being an uninstalling program and not a privacy cleaning program, so this fact really doesn’t help Advanced Uninstaller Free’s cause. However, it is something to consider.

You may download Advanced Uninstaller Free from the following link: