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How can I fully uninstall Dropbox, including Registry classes?

I am attempting an Advanced uninstall of Dropbox. (I will address to the reason in another post.) I followed the following article:

How to run an advanced reinstall of Dropbox on your computer

Step 6 says: find the “Dropbox” and “DropboxUpdate” folders by searching in the folders named “SOFTWARE” and “WOW6432Node”.

If one uses 'Find', there are HUNDREDS of key values which contain the string "Dropbox" under the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\ key. (And I hadn't found the end of the keys.) I'm fairly knowledgeable about Windows and know that most of the time these 'Classes' can (and should) be ignored. But this is ridiculous! I don't think any well designed application should leave so much junk around in the registry.

I checked and there is another posting that asks a similar question.

How can I fully uninstall Dropbox?

But doesn't address the registry issue I'm seeing on my system.

So how can I uninstall and remove all the JUNK Dropbox leaves in the registry?

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Megan

Hey @DoctorBashir, thanks for posting here!

Keep in mind that uninstalling our app should uninstall all of its registries too. In some rare cases, if there are any registries left behind, a manual uninstall might be needed.

Did you search and locate them once the application was removed from the device?

Keep me posted, and we'll take it from there!

DoctorBashir

Yes, I searched after I verified that the Dropbox application was removed. I was following the procedure I referenced above. I got to step 6. I used the 'find' option in Regedit and that's when I encountered all the Dropbox keys and values.

I am logged on as a Windows Standard user. (That is the normal way I use my system.) I have verified via Control Panel that Dropbox has been removed when logged in as an Administrator.

A large portion of the key and values found are under: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\PackagedCom\ClassIndex\

These values are also visible here: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\PackagedCom\ClassIndex\

All the HKCR entries are visible here because the hive is linked here.

I know this is really down in the weeds. The procedure could be clearer if the user is to avoid encountering these entries. But I also think the application must do a better job of removing registry entries when uninstalling or an advanced uninstall app should be provided when needed.

Megan

Hey @DoctorBashir, I see!

Thanks for the heads up.

I see where you're coming from. Most of the time, all registry entries are removed for any program that's uninstalled, but still, there's always a chance that something is left behind.

This also has to do with Windows and the OS, other than Dropbox. In any case, I'll forward your feedback to the appropriate areas so we can continue to improve.

If you need something else, please let me know and I will be more than happy to help every step of the way!

DoctorBashir

I fully understand that this is also, or primarily, a Windows issue. I appreciate anything app developers can do to reign this in and make it easier for users. We're sure not getting much help from you know who.