Unable to uninstall ENow client through Windows Control Panel

Symptom

Uninstalling the ENow Client through Windows Control Panel > Uninstall a Program fails.

Cause

Locked or corrupted files have left the ENow client services in an orphaned state. They cannot be removed, so the uninstall aborts.

Try this first

Download and run Microsoft's uninstall troubleshooter on the affected server. In many cases it clears the condition on its own, without the manual steps below:

• Fix problems that block programs from being installed or removed (Microsoft Support)

If the uninstall still fails after running it, remove the client manually using the steps below.

Manual removal

1. Open Task Manager, select each ENow process in turn, right-click, and choose End Task.
   
2. Open Windows File Explorer, navigate to Program Files (x86)\ENow, then right-click the ENow folder and delete it.
   
3. In the Windows search box type cmd, then right-click Command Prompt and choose Run as administrator.

4. Delete the ENow services with SC delete:

   SC Delete "ENow Admin Service"
   SC Delete "ENow Client Service"

   The quotation marks are required, because both service names contain spaces.

Once the client is removed this way, you can reinstall it on the monitored server.

Related

If you are removing a server from monitoring altogether rather than reinstalling, see Remove a server from the Admin console through config files, which covers clearing the server's entries on the ENow web server after the client is uninstalled.

Applies to

ENow Software has tested this method on EMS 7.13 CU1 (7.13.1.232). It should work on other versions as well.