Please feel free to use an uninstaller app if you want – my aim is to remove any illusions about how effective they are, or more to the point, aren’t. *To me* the question is brand X better than brand Y is a bit moot, since neither will remove All traces of a previously installed app.
To track the changes made to a copy of Windows when an app’s installed & run, you need to start with a virgin copy of Windows – if you’ve got software installed, you won’t be able to tell if an app’s install routine would add a file that already exists from a prior software install. Then you need to compare before & after snapshots of the registry and all files. For many years I’ve used InstallWatch Pro in a Win7 32-bit VM – unfortunately it won’t run in 64-bit or Win10. When/as necessary I compare those results to installing the same app in a Win10 64-bit VM, using Regshot2 to track registry changes. That isn’t the only way to do it but “Works for Me”.
In most cases, the only way to put Windows back the way it was before adding whatever software, is to restore an image backup – the 2 exceptions are true portable apps [which leave no imprint whatsoever], and the original Store apps using UWP. If the Windows Installer and .NET are not involved, you can get close, but it involves a manual process – there is no automated solution – and in many cases it is not foolproof, so again to be safest, perform a backup. There are a couple of factors behind that… one is that Windows since probably Vista has been designed based on the idea that periodic fresh (re)installs are simply maintenance. [Seriously.] A 2nd is that Microsoft has no say or control over what anyone writing programming code does – they can, and generally do whatever they want – and like every other occupation, some of those actively involved are idiots.
Uninstaller apps, e.g., today’s GOTD, DoYourData Uninstaller Pro, use whatever software’s own uninstall routine, usually supplemented by a registry search for orphans – entries that reference something that is no longer there. Some uninstaller apps let you record a software install, BUT, they will not show you the complete list of changes, nor will they allow you to reverse every change. That’s because not every change can be deleted, so they tend to stay away from any category that may *in some cases* somehow cause a problem.
Some files for example can be used by other software or Windows itself, so they often will not be removed, even if they’re Only used by the app you’re removing. Some files take the place of preexisting files, so to put things back you need to reinstate the old registry entries, and possibly the old files, and uninstallers will not do that either. Searching for orphans in the registry is not efficient… in Very many cases software will add a new key with several sub-keys and values, yet an uninstaller app will only remove those entries [usually just one value or line] that directly reference the app you’re removing. And nothing short of restoring a backup will remove the tracking sort of entries that Windows adds when you install & run new software, e.g., compatibility-related entries.
None of which is to say anything good or bad about DoYourData Uninstaller Pro. It does *something*, so it’s not what some like to call snake oil, but it’s not going to remove every trace of an app – nothing will. Over the years I’ve seen good & bad software on GOTD, same as software on the market in general – there are many paid and free apps that are sadly garbage. But unlike the whole of 3rd party software, I’ve not ever seen anything on GOTD that went so far as to trash Windows. I should add the caveat however, that I mean a properly setup, properly running copy of Windows – it’s all too possible to garbage up Windows so that problems are frequent & should be expected. [And this last paragraph hopefully will address any somewhat contentious comments for today’s GOTD.]