1. Sonarworks Support Center
  2. Community
  3. Feature Requests

Uninstallation process of Reference leaves a lot of things remaining on machine

Avatar
Alexander Frömmichen Follow
Updated

Hi,

I recently temporarily uninstalled Sonarworks Reference 4.4.4.1 from my Windows 10 Pro machine due to some cleanup procedures I needed to carry out.

I then did a full search for "sonarworks*" on my C drive and in the registry and was baffled by what the uninstallation process had left on my machine.

File system:

  • "Sonarworks" folder in %localappdata% still containing log files, analytics, config database, GUI cache
  • "Sonarworks" folder in %ProgramFiles% still containing various MSI installers
  • "Sonarworks" folder in %ProgramData% with empty sub folder

Registry:

  • HKCU\Software\Sonarworks\Reference 4 Plugin
  • HKCU\Software\Microsoft\ActiveMovie\devenum\{E0F158E1-CB04-11D0-BD4E-00A0C911CE86}\DirectSound:{4B557462-1363-40EF-94BC-D1AB87089717} ("DirectSound: Speakers (Sonarworks Virtual Audio Device)")
  • HKCU\Software\Microsoft\ActiveMovie\devenum\{E0F158E1-CB04-11D0-BD4E-00A0C911CE86}\wave:{4B557462-1363-40EF-94BC-D1AB87089717} ("Speakers (Sonarworks Virtual Audio Device)")
  • HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Speech\AudioOutput\TokenEnums\MMAudioOut\{0.0.0.00000000}.{4b557462-1363-40ef-94bc-d1ab87089717} ("Speakers (Sonarworks Virtual Audio Device)")
  • HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run ("Reference 4 Systemwide" WTF? It is not installed anymore!)
  • HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\MMDevices\Audio\Render\{4da21095-0a2b-4305-957b-d42fa692c51d}\Properties ("Sonarworks Virtual Audio Device", "oem1.inf:ed86ca11d6757636:SONARWORKS_VirtualDevice.NT:16.12.23.648:*SONARWORKSDevice")
  • HKLM\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\DeviceClasses\{e6327cad-dcec-4949-ae8a-991e976a79d2}\##?#SWD#MMDEVAPI#{0.0.0.00000000}.{4b557462-1363-40ef-94bc-d1ab87089717}#{e6327cad-dcec-4949-ae8a-991e976a79d2}\#\Device Parameters ("Speakers (Sonarworks Virtual Audio Device)")
  • HKLM\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\DeviceClasses\{e6327cad-dcec-4949-ae8a-991e976a79d2}\##?#SWD#MMDEVAPI#{0.0.0.00000000}.{4da21095-0a2b-4305-957b-d42fa692c51d}#{e6327cad-dcec-4949-ae8a-991e976a79d2}\#\Device Parameters ("Speakers (Sonarworks Virtual Audio Device)")
  • HKLM\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\DeviceClasses\{e6327cad-dcec-4949-ae8a-991e976a79d2}\##?#SWD#MMDEVAPI#{0.0.0.00000000}.{657a2773-18c4-4664-b759-c8f9221e5e8b}#{e6327cad-dcec-4949-ae8a-991e976a79d2}\#\Device Parameters ("Speakers (Sonarworks Virtual Audio Device)")
  • HKLM\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Enum\SWD\MMDEVAPI\{0.0.0.00000000}.{4b557462-1363-40ef-94bc-d1ab87089717} ("Speakers (Sonarworks Virtual Audio Device)")
  • HKLM\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Enum\SWD\MMDEVAPI\{0.0.0.00000000}.{4da21095-0a2b-4305-957b-d42fa692c51d} ("Speakers (Sonarworks Virtual Audio Device)")
  • HKLM\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Enum\SWD\MMDEVAPI\{0.0.0.00000000}.{657a2773-18c4-4664-b759-c8f9221e5e8b} ("Speakers (Sonarworks Virtual Audio Device)")
  • HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\DeviceClasses\{e6327cad-dcec-4949-ae8a-991e976a79d2}\##?#SWD#MMDEVAPI#{0.0.0.00000000}.{4b557462-1363-40ef-94bc-d1ab87089717}#{e6327cad-dcec-4949-ae8a-991e976a79d2}\#\Device Parameters ("Speakers (Sonarworks Virtual Audio Device)")
  • HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\DeviceClasses\{e6327cad-dcec-4949-ae8a-991e976a79d2}\##?#SWD#MMDEVAPI#{0.0.0.00000000}.{4da21095-0a2b-4305-957b-d42fa692c51d}#{e6327cad-dcec-4949-ae8a-991e976a79d2}\#\Device Parameters ("Speakers (Sonarworks Virtual Audio Device)")
  • HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\DeviceClasses\{e6327cad-dcec-4949-ae8a-991e976a79d2}\##?#SWD#MMDEVAPI#{0.0.0.00000000}.{657a2773-18c4-4664-b759-c8f9221e5e8b}#{e6327cad-dcec-4949-ae8a-991e976a79d2}\#\Device Parameters ("Speakers (Sonarworks Virtual Audio Device)")
  • HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\SWD\MMDEVAPI\{0.0.0.00000000}.{4b557462-1363-40ef-94bc-d1ab87089717} ("Speakers (Sonarworks Virtual Audio Device)")
  • HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\SWD\MMDEVAPI\{0.0.0.00000000}.{4da21095-0a2b-4305-957b-d42fa692c51d} ("Speakers (Sonarworks Virtual Audio Device)")
  • HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\SWD\MMDEVAPI\{0.0.0.00000000}.{657a2773-18c4-4664-b759-c8f9221e5e8b} ("Speakers (Sonarworks Virtual Audio Device)")
  • HKEY_USERS\redacted SID\Software\Microsoft\ActiveMovie\devenum\{E0F158E1-CB04-11D0-BD4E-00A0C911CE86}\DirectSound:{4B557462-1363-40EF-94BC-D1AB87089717} ("DirectSound: Speakers (Sonarworks Virtual Audio Device)")
  • HKEY_USERS\redacted SID\Software\Microsoft\ActiveMovie\devenum\{E0F158E1-CB04-11D0-BD4E-00A0C911CE86}\wave:{4B557462-1363-40EF-94BC-D1AB87089717} ("DirectSound: Speakers (Sonarworks Virtual Audio Device)")
  • HKEY_USERS\redacted SID\Software\Microsoft\Speech\AudioOutput\TokenEnums\MMAudioOut\{0.0.0.00000000}.{4b557462-1363-40ef-94bc-d1ab87089717} ("Speakers (Sonarworks Virtual Audio Device)")
  • HKEY_USERS\redacted SID\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run ("Reference 4 Systemwide")
  • HKEY_USERS\redacted SID\Software\Sonarworks

 

Please fix the uninstaller so it deletes those Sonarworks folders, completely removes the Sonarworks virtual audio device and the autostart entries. Thanks!

Alex

Comments

4 comments

Sort by Date Votes
  • Avatar
    Alexander Frömmichen

    Hi Kristiāns,

    thanks for looking into this! Other companies wouldn't even reply. ;)

    Regarding the Windows registry issue: I guess there is no need for the uninstaller to manually delete those entries. From my perspective, the Sonarworks virtual audio device remained registered with Windows and if there is an installation procedure in Windows that installs such a device, then Windows should also provide an uninstallation mechanism that will implicitly remove the mentioned registry entries. I assume this should work similar to the uninstallation of real hardware devices and their drivers.

    Regards
    Alex

    1
    Comment actions Permalink
  • Avatar
    Chris

    Hey,

    Thank you for bringing this to our attention!
    We will do our best to introduce an uninstaller that would remove the extra files as well as user data and configuration files.
    The registry data might be a challenge as most of it is not created by our software directly, bet we will look into solving this.

    0
    Comment actions Permalink
  • Avatar
    Chris

    Hey Alex,

    That is a fair point!
    Hopefully, through this well find a more efficient and non-intrusive method of removing any remnants of the software!

    0
    Comment actions Permalink
  • Avatar
    Joshgoodwin

    Install again and use the revo uninstaller free. This is a pro developer tool. Nearly every development team use.

    0
    Comment actions Permalink

Please sign in to leave a comment.