I noticed that when I did an uninstall and reinstall of Sonar 6, upon reinstall it picked up lots of entries from the previous installation, obviously indicating that the unistall program still doesn't really clean up the registry.

I seem to recall that Cakewalk used to provide a utility (this is from the Sonar 3 days and prior) that you could run after using their normal uninstall that would REALLY uninstall all entries created in the registry.

Does anyone know where it can be downloaded or for that matter, if this is still available at all and particularly for Sonar 6?

The Cakewalk web site is very difficult to search and I didn't see any thread on the forums about this utility either.

Thanks.

You'll need a registry cleaner. Cake's and most other software is never fully removed from the registry - unfortunately!

I like the TweakNow RegCleaner Std program. Simple to use and free. Use the custom scan and expert mode to search for all problems.

Sorry guys, but while I appreciate the attempt, this is not the solution. I'm well aware of registry "cleaners" and have been using them for years but they don't resolve this issue. They simply remove pointers to files that don't exist. They will NOT remove valid entries that don't point to files and these types of entries are mostly what program installs like Sonar create. They are the ones that cause trouble on reinstall.

I still need to find someone or some link that has the Cakewalk created uninstall utility that I used to have years ago. I would just call them to get it, but they are not there on the weekends!

Thanks again.

ORIGINAL: SteveFoobar

Sorry guys, but while I appreciate the attempt, this is not the solution. I'm well aware of registry "cleaners" and have been using them for years but they don't resolve this issue. They simply remove pointers to files that don't exist. They will NOT remove valid entries that don't point to files and these types of entries are mostly what program installs like Sonar create. They are the ones that cause trouble on reinstall.

I still need to find someone or some link that has the Cakewalk created uninstall utility that I used to have years ago. I would just call them to get it, but they are not there on the weekends!

Thanks again.

I guess youll have to wait till monday...
CJ

Steven,
For a clean re-install first make sure you back up your presets and any other data in your Sonar 6 folder then run the uninstaller from the programs menu. After that run regedit and delete the Sonar6 keys under HKEY_Current_User\Software\Cakewalk Music Software\SONAR Producer\ and HKEY_Local_Machine\Software\Cakewalk Music Software\SONAR Producer. Leave any keys for earlier versions that might be there. Next, delete the Sonar 6 folder from C/programs/Cakewalk. Now you should be able to get a clean re-install.
Hope that helps.

jb

If that doesn't work, your best bet is to do a clean install of Windows. Doing that from time-to-time is always a good thing anyway.

Thanks for the tip jb. I'll try those keys and see what happens. I admit to not having done a registry text search yet because anyone that's done one knows that sometimes programs install dozens of keys and it's quite improbable to manually remove them. Hopefully this isn't the case with Sonar.

I'll report back if these keys work.

Oh and by the way, Hedgehog...no thanks on the reinstall of Windows. Because of all the audio, video and imaging apps and plug-ins configuration, that's quite literally a two week, full-time ordeal that I only go through in EXTREME desperation (aka. complete hard drive crash).

ORIGINAL: SteveFoobar
Oh and by the way, Hedgehog...no thanks on the reinstall of Windows. Because of all the audio, video and imaging apps and plug-ins configuration, that's quite literally a two week, full-time ordeal that I only go through in EXTREME desperation (aka. complete hard drive crash).

If you had used hard drive imaging software this process would take about 20 minutes and you wouldn't have to deal with this problem. Simply take an image before installing any important software or driver and if you have problems after the install then simply restore the image. Something like Norton Ghost or Acronis True Image (my preference) runs around $50. There have been several threads here about this so you can do a search for more info.

Hard drive imaging software is the best way to reduce computer management from hours and days to just a few minutes.

hey man, i uninstalled sonar then went into program files floder, and there was still a sonar folder, just delete that and re-install should be fresh.