You need to perform a complete uninstall of Inventor for some reason. Here's how.
Applies to: Inventor 10
How To
If you want to achieve a complete removal of Inventor from your system, here are the steps to take:
Log in as the local system administrator and disable any virus scanning programs
In Control Panel - Add/Remove Programs, uninstall Inventor Series 10 (Figure 1)
Figure 1: Uninstall ("Remove") Autodesk Inventor 10 from Add/Remove Programs
NB: If you have Inventor Professional installed, you will also need to uninstall "Inventor Professional 10 Modules" from Add/Remove programs
Also in Add/Remove Programs, uninstall Microsoft SQL Server Desktop Engine (INVENTORCONTENT) (Figure 2)
Figure 2: Uninstall ("Remove") Microsoft SQL Server Desktop Engine (INVENTORCONTENT) from Add/Remove Programs
Using windows explorer, navigate to %Installation Directory%\Program Files\Autodesk\ and delete the folder called "Inventor 10". Installation Directory is most commonly C:\ (Figure 3)(if you have Inventor Professional installed, also delete "Inventor Professional 10")
Figure 3: Delete the folder "Inventor 10" from your Program Files\Autodesk directory
Also in Windows Explorer, navigate to %Installation Directory%\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server and delete the folder called "MSSQL$INVENTORCONTENT" (Figure 4)
Figure 4: Delete the folder "MSSQL$INVENTORCONTENT" from your Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server
On the Start Menu, selet "Run". Type "regedit" to enter your computer's registry (Figure 5)
Figure 5: In the Run dialog, type "regedit" and select ok to enter your computer's registry
Warning! Problems caused by improperly editing the Windows® registry could render your computer operating system unusable. Microsoft has provided a wealth of critical information you need to know about the registry in the Microsoft Knowledge Base at http://support.microsoft.com/support. Use the Microsoft® Registry Editor only at your own risk and only after backing up the registry as well as the system.dat and user.dat files as outlined in ARTICLE-ID: Q132332 "How to Back Up the Registry" in the Microsoft Knowledge Base. Additional information about the registry is also contained in the Help topics in the Microsoft Registry Editor.
Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Autodesk\Inventor and delete any subkey relating to Inventor 10 (if any) (Figure 6)
Figure 6: Delete any subkey relating to Inventor 10 from HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Autodesk\Inventor
Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Sotware\Autodesk\Inventor and delete any subkey relating to Inventor 10 (if any) (Figure 7)
Figure 7: Delete any subkey relating to Inventor 10 from HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Sotware\Autodesk\Inventor
Close the registry editor and reboot your machine
Inventor 10 is now completely uninstalled from your machine.
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Notes
Please note: to completely remove Inventor 11, the process is much the same, except that it is not necessary to remove your Microsoft SQL Server Desktop Server instance, as the Content Centre is controlled through the Autodesk Data Management Server 5, not Inventor itself.
