How to Uninstall Visual Studio 2008

What is Visual Studio 2008?

Visual Studio 2008 is an Integrated Development Environment or IDE developed and distributed by Microsoft. It has features like visual designer, which helps in designing application for Windows OS and testing them in real time. It includes a number of packages, such as designer software, database, web development applications, which help in designing application for all platforms of Windows, like mobile, OS- and web-based applications.

How to Uninstall Visual Studio

There are multiple ways to uninstall Visual Studio.

  1. Windows uninstaller
  2. Visual Studio 2008 uninstaller tool
  3. Registry removal

Uninstalling using Windows Uninstaller – Windows OS provides an uninstaller that is used to uninstall any installed program. This feature is present in the Control panel of Windows OS.  To run this feature, follow the steps below –

  1. Click on Start and go to Control Panel.
  2. Click on Program and Features option or Add/Remove Program, this will show a complete list of installed programs.
  3. Choose Visual Studio 2008/Codename Orcas products from the list and select uninstall. This will just remove the core component but to remove Visual Studio 2008 from the system completely uninstall the packages listed below  –

    4. Microsoft Visual Studio Codename Orcas Remote Debugger
    Microsoft Visual Studio Performance Collection Tools
    MSDN Library for Visual Studio 2008 Beta
    Microsoft SQL Server Compact Edition 3.5
    Microsoft SQL Server Compact Edition 3.5 Design Tools
    Microsoft SQL Server Compact Edition 3.5 for Devices
    Microsoft Visual Studio 64bit Prerequisites Beta (64-bit platforms only)
    Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5
    Microsoft .NET Compact Framework 3.5
    Microsoft Visual Studio Web Authoring Component / Microsoft Web Designer Tools
    Microsoft Visual Studio Tools for Office Runtime 3.0
    Microsoft Device Emulator 3.0
    Microsoft Document Explorer 2008
    Windows Mobile 5.0 SDK R2 for Pocket PC
    Windows Mobile 5.0 SDK R2 for Smartphone
    Crystal Reports for Visual Studio 2008 beta2 (or Crystal Reports 2007)

Visual Studio 2008 Uninstaller tool – Microsoft provides a Visual Studio 2008 Uninstaller tool, which can be downloaded from its website. It helps in complete removal of Visual studio 2008 from the system. Once you download the file, just double-click the file and it will take around 5 minutes to clean up the folders and registry keys related to Visual studio 2008.

Registry Removal – Once Visual Studio 2008 is uninstalled using the windows uninstaller and the uninstaller tool, you can check the system registry and delete keys from it. But it is advised to run this step only if you have knowledge of the Windows registry. If you are comfortable with the registry, follow the steps below –

  1. Click on Start and go to Run and then type Regedit
  2. Click on OK, this will open the registry editor window
  3. Browse
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\VisualStudio\    and delete the key 9.0
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\VSWCU\      delete the key  Microsoft Visual Studio Team System 2008 Team Suite – ENU
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\VSA\     and delete the key 9.0

    4. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\vsto runtime Setup\ and delete the key v9.0.21022

By following these steps, you can remove Visual Studio 2008 completely from the system.  If you are not comfortable working within the registry, you can use software like RegGenie. RegGenie clears up all empty keys within the registry, thus overcoming the complex process of removing them manually.  Perfect Uninstaller software is a powerful piece of software that uninstalls any software completely from the system.