IMPORTANT NOTES:
A clean uninstall will affect all versions of SolidWorks installed on the machine.
Person performing the uninstall/reinstall must be a local administrator
BEFORE YOU UNINSTALL:
- Back up all templates, sheet formats, BOM templates, tables, customized sheet metal and weldment tables, and drawing standards. (The location for all of these can be found in Tools>Options>File Locations for each file type.
- Back up users’ settings using the Copy Settings Wizard, (Start>All Programs>SolidWorks>SolidWorks tools>Copy Settings Wizard
- Open SolidWorks and click the Help menu > About SolidWorks. Take note of the serial number on the computer.
- Transfer the SolidWorks license off the computer.
Open SolidWorks, click the Help Menu, click Transfer Licenses, and select Automatically, and click Next.
SolidWorks will then close automatically.
Ensure that SolidWorks-related processes are stopped.
To do this, right-click your Taskbar and select “Start Task Manager”
From the Processes tab,
Find the sldIMScheduler.exe process.
Right-click the process and select End Process
Uninstall SolidWorks 2011 from the Control Panel
Select All items to be uninstalled and click Remove Items
You will receive a notification when the uninstall process completes successfully.
Clean the hard drive
Delete all files and folders relating to the SolidWorks Installation. Some of the folders are hidden, so you’ll have to unhide the hidden and protected folders.
To do so, open the Windows Explorer and select Folders and search options from the Organize Menu:
Make sure the following options are selected/unchecked. Click OK
C:\Program Files\Common Files\SolidWorks Installation Manager
C:\Program Files\Common Files\SolidWorks Shared
C:\Program Files\SolidWorks Corp
C:\ProgramData\DassaultSystemes
C:\ProgramData\SolidWorks
C:\Users\All Users\DassaultSystemes
C:\Users\All Users\SolidWorks
C:\Users\CURRENT_USER\AppData\Roaming\SolidWorks
C:\Users\egre\AppData\Local\Dassault_Systèmes_SolidWo
C:\Users\egre\AppData\Local\DassaultSystemes
C:\Users\egre\AppData\Local\SolidWorks
C:\Users\egre\AppData\Local\Temp – MAKE SURE THERE ARE NO PROGRAMS RUNNING IF YOU DO THIS!
C:\Users\egre\AppData\Local\TempSWBackupDirectory
C:\Users\egre\AppData\Roaming\CircuitWorks
C:\Users\egre\AppData\Roaming\DassaultSystemes
C:\Users\egre\AppData\Roaming\Edrawings
C:\Users\egre\AppData\Roaming\IM
C:\Users\egre\AppData\Roaming\SolidWorks
C:\Windows\SolidWorks
CLEAN THE REGISTRY
Click Start, type regedit to open the registry editor.
WARNING: Entering incorrect information in the registry through REGEDIT can cause serious problems on a computer. Always take precautions to recover the computer setup in case of incorrect entries. Change the registry using REGEDIT at your own risk.
Navigate to the folder named
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\eDrawings
Right-click it and select Rename.
Renaming can be as simple as appending “_OLD” to the end of the name. This is safer than deleting it.
Also rename the following registry folders:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\SolidWorks
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\SolidWorks BackOffice
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\srac
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\DesignSource
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\SolidWorks
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\SolidWorks Corporation
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Srac
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\SolidWorks
Restart your computer
Before you install:
Temporarily disable any antivirus, anti-spyware, or anti-malware software, and ensure that it does not start up again when the system is rebooted:
To do this: Click Star, Type: Services
Select Component Services to open the window, and select Services from the left-hand pane.
Scroll to find the services pertaining to your anti-virus software.
Take note of the Status and Startup Type settings of the services before you make any changes.
Right-click to stop the anti-virus service, (in the case below, it’s Symantec), then right-click to select Properties
From the pull down menu, set the Startup Type to “Disabled” instead of “Automatic”:
Click OK.
Repeat the process with all anti-virus services until you have stopped all the anti-virus services that can be stopped.
Install SolidWorks
Restart your computer
Restart your Anti-virus services.
Apply your saved SolidWorks settings by double-clicking on the *.sldreg file you saved earlier.
Open SolidWorks and activate it.
Re-point SolidWorks to all the templates, sheet formats, etc that you backed-up earlier.