Windows 7: Atheros BlueTooth Suite Won't Uninstall

I'm trying to upgrade Windows 7 to Win8. The compatibility checker flagged the Atheros BT Suite as follows: "Uninstall this app now because it isn't compatible with Windows 8."

I removed it using the program uninstaller. It appeared to finish cleanly and prompted to reboot. Then, Win8 says it's still installed and has to be removed manually.

Yup, the uninstaller left behind its program files, driver and numerous registry entries.

So, how do I manually remove the bluetooth suite?

Safe mode, regedit, manually search for everything Atheros related- you'll probably have to 'Take possession' of some of the keys, and you might run into the dreaded 'Trusted Installer' block.. hit the web for instructions to disable/modify that one. I had to do it just to clear out some extra cursor fluff I didn't want.

I caved... Wiped Windows 7 and installed Win8 from scratch. Thanks for the suggestion!

What do you think of 8 after a few hours of hair pulling? More hair pulling??

Is it possible to install the latest driver before upgrading to Windows 8? my Acer V5-571G has ABS also, but the download page for my laptop has a section for Windows 8 (When upgrading from Windows 7). I'm going to try that.

FuturDreamz: Tried to do that -- even tried to reinstall existing Bluetooth driver...however, Windows 7 barked about a policy violation (no details in event viewer). I'm fairly certain it was because Atheros deeply embedds itself and has an ineffective uninstaller. Wasted too much time trying to circumvent the process and ultimately decided to wipe the boot partition and install Win8 from scratch.

jerrybear: I like Win8. Easy to install and took about 5 minutes to navigate around their new UI. It has a Windows 7 look and feel under the hood -- except the start menu (I like the new start menu concept). Stock drivers are one rev back; the only driver Win8 didn't install was the X-FI sound card (I manually installed the Windows 7 x64 driver). My fingerprint scanner doesn't work and will require a paid upgrade. HP hasn't released their Win8 driver suite yet, so I'm temporarily limited to printing on my MFP. My only other comment is Win8 seems a bit sluggish. There is a noticeable, albeit slight, hesitation when working in certain programs, It appears to be a disk I/O issue. My Windows experience dropped from 6.0 (Windows 7) to 5.9 (Win8). Disk I/O was the lowest number.

I was able to uninstall it fine, and I just reinstalled when I upgraded.

The Win8 upgrade advisor flagged Atheros as not compatible and prompted me to uninstall it. Appeared to uninstall fine, but the upgrade advisor kept saying Atheros was installed -- despite being removed from the programs list. Couldn't continue Win8 installation, so eventually wiped the drive.

Glad you didn't have a problem.

I installed it using control panel.

It's possible doing it directly in upgrade adviser doesn't work...

My experience with Atheros hardware and drivers has led me to NOT having them- Kill them as they come in the door.
Dell sent me an Atheros wifi/Bt card for a new Inspiron 5720, (The Intel 2230 driver situation was beyond silly- But I figured it out eventually) The Atheros was the largest pain to mess with and I never got it to work right. Nothing BT was ever detected-EVER.. the Wifi would only connect at G speeds and no amount of tweakery would get it right- and then the uninstall was as big a nightmare as I have ever seen!.