How to uninstall Chrome (and no, I tried that already)

phantom7 · 09 Nov 2016

My wife's Asus laptop is running windows 7 home premium, 64 bit. She wants to uninstall chrome but when she brings up the control panel, uninstall section, it says she doesn't have privilege to uninstall chrome. ask her administrator. She already has administrator access. My userid on her laptop also has administrator access, but I get the same thing. I tried going through CCleaner, and that just throws an error box when I try to use its uninstall method.

I searched around and found instructions for setting up a privileged admin account using "net user administrator active:yes". It works on my pc (I am running Windows 7 Pro 64 bit) but not hers. Another tip led to running "secpol.msc". Works for me on my pc but not hers. Can't even find it on hers. If I copied my file to her laptop, do you think it would work? that's my next method of attack. But I think it won't do it.

1) How exactly do I set up a higher elevated administrator account on her laptop? Or 2) how else can I uninstall Chrome?

Can I do any registry editing? (I know, dangerous possibly.) I was thinking of editing it and then removing every reference to Chrome, but that seems a bit dangerous.

I'd appreciate any responses.
TIA,
S

MourningStar · 09 Nov 2016

have you tried boot machine and "login as administrator", then remove the s/w?

TrustMe · 10 Nov 2016

Maybe this will help.

Built-in Administrator Account - Enable or Disable

Also Chrome has a removal tool. Maybe it will let you run it.

Chrome Cleanup Tool

DavidE · 10 Nov 2016

You could also run a System File Check (SFC) to see if there are system errors, here's the tutorial:
SFC /SCANNOW Command - System File Checker

RolandJS · 10 Nov 2016

** Below information is meant for geek-heads! Average home user should ignore this post. **

To answer your question about registry editing. Sometimes, I am successful in doing what you'r thinking of doing -- removing all traces of "xyz" through-out the registry. After I have removed xyz usually by Revo Uninstaller or program uninstaller, I edit the registry and remove all traces of "xyz".
However, it is important! that you, like me, have already made full images of your OS partition and your data partition onto two reliable and trusted external media devices, such as usb ext HDs for example. Correct, do not make such full images onto a "backup-dedicated" partition residing on the same HD. Important because you just might, hours or days later, be reaching for your backups to do a full OS restore.

** Above information is meant for geek-heads! Average home user should ignore this post. **

phantom7 · 10 Nov 2016

MourningStar said:

have you tried boot machine and "login as administrator", then remove the s/w?

I don't see any "login as administrator" option. Her account is an administrator account. I have tried to enable the elevated administrator account but it doesn't do it.

phantom7 · 10 Nov 2016

TrustMe said:

Maybe this will help.

Built-in Administrator Account - Enable or Disable

Also Chrome has a removal tool. Maybe it will let you run it.

Chrome Cleanup Tool

I went through the process mentioned in Built-in Administrator Account - enable or Disable and it didn't work on her machine. Works fine on mine. But I'm running Windows 7 Pro and she has Windows 7 Home Premium. Any way to make it work on hers?

I looked at the Chrome Cleanup Tool and it mentions:

This application will scan and remove software that may cause problems with Chrome, such as crashes, unusual startup pages or toolbars, unexpected ads you can't get rid of, or otherwise changing your browsing experience.

(bolding mine) It doesn't sound like it removes Chrome, just other software it thinks interferes with Chrome. Does it really get rid of Chrome?

townsbg · 10 Nov 2016

Having a home premium account option 1 & 3 of that tutorial won't work for you. You will need to use 2. Did you open up an elevated command prompt and run the command below? What happens when you try?

net user administrator /active:yes

phantom7 · 11 Nov 2016

townsbg said:

Having a home premium account option 1 & 3 of that tutorial won't work for you. You will need to use 2. Did you open up an elevated command prompt and run the command below? What happens when you try?

net user administrator /active:yes

Yes, I did use that command. it did set up an administrator account which I then logged in with. I got the same result when uninstalling the Google Chrome program: an error message saying I didn't have privilege to uninstall, I should ask my administrator to do it. This is getting ridiculous!

Callender · 11 Nov 2016

When you installed Chrome if you installed it in Appdata maybe that causes the problem.

See: Install Google Chrome in Program Files Folder instead of AppData • Raymond.CC

So when you click on Chrome shortcut what is shown in the Target and Start In box? In other words what is the path to the executable?