In rare situations, some users may want to correct serious system problems by completely removing Oracle products from their system. This is not recommended as an easy way to fix problems, especially common ones. Only create a Clean Machine as a last resort, and only if you want to remove all Oracle products from your system. Complete the following steps to create a Clean Machine.
Note: The following Clean Machine instructions assume an OFA (Optimal Flexible Architecture) structure.
Warning: This will remove all Oracle products, Oracle
services, and Oracle registry entries from your computer.
2. Using regedit (at the command prompt, type regedit), go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ORACLE and delete the ORACLE key.
3. Delete HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\odbc.
4 Open HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services, and remove all keys under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services that begin with ORACLE.
7. From the Control Panel, open System.
8. If JRE was installed by Oracle, remove the %ORACLE_HOME%\BIN path and the JRE path. For example, you may see a path similar to this one: C: \ORACLE\ORA81\BIN;G: \Program Files\Oracle\jre\1.1.7\bin. Go to Start > Control Panel > System > Environment tab. Click on the system variable path and modify the path.
9. Delete Icons from <system_drive>: \Winnt\Profiles\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Oracle - <HOME> and <system_drive>: \Winnt\Profiles\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Oracle Installation Products. Where <HOME> is the previous HOME name.
10. Delete <system_drive>: \Program Files\Oracle (from the Windows NT Explorer or from the command prompt).
11. Reboot your computer.
12. Delete all ORACLE_BASE directories (You can find the Oracle homes listed in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ORACLE\ORACLE_HOMES).
In rare situations, you may want to correct serious system problems by completely removing Oracle components from the computer.
Remove all Oracle components from your computer only as a last resort, and only if you want to remove all Oracle components from your system.
Oracle Universal Installer does not delete services created by Oracle Net Configuration Assistant, OiD Configuration Assistant, and Database Configuration Assistant. In addition, several other registry keys are not deleted.
Note: You can also use the ORADIM utility to manually deinstall an instance and services. See "Postinstallation Database Creation" of Oracle9i Database Administrator's Guide for Windows. |
Caution: Use Microsoft Registry Editor at your own risk. Incorrect usage of Registry Editor can cause serious problems and may require reinstallation of your operating system. |
To remove the Oracle Net Service registry entry on Windows NT, Windows 2000, and Windows XP:
C:\> regedt32
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services
and delete the Oracle
HOME_NAME
TNSListener
registry entry. Oracle Universal Installer automatically deletes all other Oracle Net Services.
To remove all Oracle components from a computer on Windows NT, Windows 2000, and Windows XP:
C:\> regedt32
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT
.
Oracle
, ORA
, or ORCL
.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE
.
ORACLE
and Apache Group
keys.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services
.
ORACLE
.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services \Eventlog\Application
.
ORACLE
.
HKEY_CURRENT_USER
.
ORACLE
.
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\ORACLE
.
Oracle
or ORCL
(if any exist).
%ORACLE_HOME%\BIN
path and the JRE
path. You may see a path similar to this one:
C:\oracle\ora81\bin;C:\program files\oracle\jre\1.1.7\bin