Uninstalling Oracle Manually

Uninstalling Oracle Manually

Windows XP /2000 / 2003 Server
In the past I've had many problems uninstalling all Oracle products from Windows systems. Here's my last resort method:

    * Uninstall all Oracle components using the Oracle Universal Installer (OUI).
    * Run regedit.exe and delete the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/ORACLE key. This contains registry entires for all Oracle products.
    * Delete any references to Oracle services left behind in the following part of the registry:
      HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SYSTEM/CurrentControlSet/Services/Ora*
      It should be pretty obvious which ones relate to Oracle.
    * Reboot your machine.
    * Delete the "C:\Oracle" directory, or whatever directory is your ORACLE_BASE.
    * Delete the "C:\Program Files\Oracle" directory.
    * Empty the contents of your "c:\temp" directory.
    * Empty your recycle bin.

At this point your machine will be as clean of Oracle components as it can be without a complete OS reinstall.

Remember, manually editing your registry can be very destructive and force an OS reinstall so only do it as a last resort.