How can I uninstall an application using PowerShel

Question

Is there a simple way to hook into the standard 'Add or Remove Programs' functionality using PowerShell to uninstall an existing application? Or to check if the application is installed?

Answer 1

I found out that Win32_Product class is not recommended because it triggers repairs and is not query optimized. Source

I found this post from Sitaram Pamarthi with a script to uninstall if you know the app guid. He also supplies another script to search for apps really fast here.

Use like this: .\uninstall.ps1 -GUID {C9E7751E-88ED-36CF-B610-71A1D262E906}

[cmdletbinding()]            

param (            

 [parameter(ValueFromPipeline=$true,ValueFromPipelineByPropertyName=$true)]
 [string]$ComputerName = $env:computername,
 [parameter(ValueFromPipeline=$true,ValueFromPipelineByPropertyName=$true,Mandatory=$true)]
 [string]$AppGUID
)            

 try {
  $returnval = ([WMICLASS]"\\$computerName\ROOT\CIMV2:win32_process").Create("msiexec `/x$AppGUID `/norestart `/qn")
 } catch {
  write-error "Failed to trigger the uninstallation. Review the error message"
  $_
  exit
 }
 switch ($($returnval.returnvalue)){
  0 { "Uninstallation command triggered successfully" }
  2 { "You don't have sufficient permissions to trigger the command on $Computer" }
  3 { "You don't have sufficient permissions to trigger the command on $Computer" }
  8 { "An unknown error has occurred" }
  9 { "Path Not Found" }
  9 { "Invalid Parameter"}
 }

Answer 2

function Uninstall-App {
    Write-Output "Uninstalling $($args[0])"
    foreach($obj in Get-ChildItem "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall") {
        $dname = $obj.GetValue("DisplayName")
        if ($dname -contains $args[0]) {
            $uninstString = $obj.GetValue("UninstallString")
            foreach ($line in $uninstString) {
                $found = $line -match '(\{.+\}).*'
                If ($found) {
                    $appid = $matches[1]
                    Write-Output $appid
                    start-process "msiexec.exe" -arg "/X $appid /qb" -Wait
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

Call it this way:

Uninstall-App "Autodesk Revit DB Link 2019"

Answer 3

EDIT: Over the years this answer has gotten quite a few upvotes. I would like to add some comments. I have not used PowerShell since, but I remember observing some issues:

1. If there are more matches than 1 for the below script, it does not work and you must append the PowerShell filter that limits results to 1. I believe it's -First 1 but I'm not sure. Feel free to edit.
2. If the application is not installed by MSI it does not work. The reason it was written as below is because it modifies the MSI to uninstall without intervention, which is not always the default case when using the native uninstall string.

---

Using the WMI object takes forever. This is very fast if you just know the name of the program you want to uninstall.

$uninstall32 = gci "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall" | foreach { gp $_.PSPath } | ? { $_ -match "SOFTWARE NAME" } | select UninstallString
$uninstall64 = gci "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall" | foreach { gp $_.PSPath } | ? { $_ -match "SOFTWARE NAME" } | select UninstallString

if ($uninstall64) {
$uninstall64 = $uninstall64.UninstallString -Replace "msiexec.exe","" -Replace "/I","" -Replace "/X",""
$uninstall64 = $uninstall64.Trim()
Write "Uninstalling..."
start-process "msiexec.exe" -arg "/X $uninstall64 /qb" -Wait}
if ($uninstall32) {
$uninstall32 = $uninstall32.UninstallString -Replace "msiexec.exe","" -Replace "/I","" -Replace "/X",""
$uninstall32 = $uninstall32.Trim()
Write "Uninstalling..."
start-process "msiexec.exe" -arg "/X $uninstall32 /qb" -Wait}

Answer 4

$app = Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_Product | Where-Object { 
    $_.Name -match "Software Name" 
}

$app.Uninstall()

Edit: Rob found another way to do it with the Filter parameter:

$app = Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_Product `
                     -Filter "Name = 'Software Name'"

Answer 5

To fix up the second method in Jeff Hillman's post, you could either do a:

$app = Get-WmiObject 
            -Query "SELECT * FROM Win32_Product WHERE Name = 'Software Name'"

Or

$app = Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_Product `
                     -Filter "Name = 'Software Name'"