Uninstall Visual Studio 2008

Question

_{Friday, July 29, 2011 5:08 PM}

I'm having problems with Visual Studio 2008. I have the following Windows Update which cannot install:
Security Update for Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Service Pack 1 (KB2538241)

I'm not using VS2008 anymore - I use VS2010. So I wish to uninstall.

I try to uninstall, so I go to 'Programs & Features' and go to Uninstall/Change VS2008.
The setup runs and I choose to uninstall.

After a little which Setup.exe crashes with the standard:
 'setup.exe has stopped working.
  A problem caused the program to stop working correctly....'
 
 The setup has a link to the error log, which conains:
 [07/29/11,09:58:16] setup.exe: [2] ISetupComponent::Pre/Post/Install() failed in ISetupManager::InternalInstallManager() with HRESULT -2147023293.
[07/29/11,09:58:22] VS70pgui: [2] DepCheck indicates Microsoft Visual Studio Team System 2008 Development Edition - ENU is not installed.

The setup log file contains a whole bunch of data which I can also post.

• How do I uninstall VS2008?

All replies (5)

_{Monday, August 1, 2011 3:09 AM ✅Answered | 2 votes}

Hi Pinky and the Brain,

Welcome to the MSDN Forum.

Would you please let me know what is the version of your OS?

The HRESULT -2147023293(HEX 0x80070643) is a generic catch-all error code that means "Fatal error during installation".  This error code is returned when any action fails during an installation, and most commonly it indicates that one of the custom actions in the MSI failed. We can locate the cause of error code 1603 with methods in this article: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/astebner/archive/2005/08/01/446328.aspx.

To uninstall Visual Studio 2008, you can follow the steps below (in Windows 7):

• Before uninstall Visual Studio, please turn off your anti-virus/antispyware software; clean your %temp% folder (Start Menu >> Run >> Type "%temp% >> OK).
• Make sure you are login Windows as Administrator;
• Please open Strat menu >> Control Panel >> Programs >> View installed updates, check and remove all Visual Studio 2008 updates, then remove Visual Studio 2008 SP1;
• Read the Visual Studio 2008 Readme for steps to manually remove Visual Studio 2008;
• You can use this automatic uninstall tool to make sure Visual Studio 2008 be removed completely

Additionally, this blog introduces some steps to manually remove Visual Studio 2008.

If the uninstall still failed, please collect the installation log files from "%temp%" folder with the Log Collection Tool. Send the vslogs.cab file in the %temp% folder to me (E-mail: v-anwu_at_microsoft_dot_com). Note: Please attach the link of this post in the mail.

I'm waiting to hear from you about the status of this issue.

Have a nice day.

Andrew Wu [MSFT]
MSDN Community Support | Feedback to us
Get or Request Code Sample from Microsoft
Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they help and unmark them if they provide no help.

_{Friday, August 5, 2011 7:33 AM}

Hi Pinky and the Brain,

We have not heard from you in a couple of days. Would you mind letting me know the result of the suggestions?

If you need further assistance, feel free to let me know. I will be more than happy to be of assistance.

Best Regards,

Andrew Wu [MSFT]
MSDN Community Support | Feedback to us
Get or Request Code Sample from Microsoft
Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they help and unmark them if they provide no help.

_{Tuesday, August 9, 2011 3:54 PM}

Hi Andrew, I was out-of-office last week. Today, I used the Uninstall tool to remove VS2008. This worked.

Thanks.

_{Saturday, January 5, 2013 5:31 AM}

Hello Sir,

I had installed Visual Studio 2008. Now I want to uninstall that. I had used the automatic uninstall visual studio for uninstalling but it gives me error of "The feature you are trying to use is on a network resource that is unavailable " "Click OK to try again, or enter an alternate path to a folder containing the installation package "dynamicanalysis_collectionbits.msi" in the box below." I dont find any of the dyanamicanalysis_collectionbits.msi file on my pc.

I had also try to uninstall manually from the control panel but it gives same error with different msi file.

I need urgent help. Please do help for these.

Thanks in advance

_{Sunday, October 27, 2013 4:08 AM}

 I used the Uninstall tool to remove VS2008 from my machine . Its worked.

Thanks