How to uninstall windows desktop search?

This is a tutorial on uninstalling/removing windows desktop search (WDS).Some do not like Windows Desktop search and want to uninstall/remove/delete it before trying another product like Google Desktop search.

How to uninstall standalone Windows desktop search (WDS package)?

To uninstall the standalone Windows desktop search (WDS package), go to Add/Remove Programs and select “Windows Desktop Search” from the list, then click “Remove.” 
 

You may receive a message dialog stating “Setup has detected the following programs on your computer:” followed by a list of updates. This dialog also states that “If Windows Desktop Search is removed, these programs may not run properly. Do you wish to continue?“. You can say “Yes” here. The message dialog appears due to the fact that windows Desktop Search(WDS) is installed using an update.exe package and is listed along with other Windows updates. Some products updates are dependant on previous updates and if one is removed, it may cause issues. However you are safe in removing Windows Desktop search (WDS) and removing it will not disable or impact any other programs or updates listed.

How to uninstall Windows desktop search bundled with MSN search toolbar?

Windows Desktop Search also gets itself installed as part of MSN search toolbar. If you installed the “MSN Search Toolbar with WDS” – it will show up as “MSN Search Toolbar” in the Add/Remove Programs control panel.Uninstall/remove “MSN Search Toolbar” to get rid of Windows desktop search (WDS). 
 

If you still like to retain MSN search toolbar but uninstall Windows desktop search alone, then you can uninstall MSN search with WDS and reinstall MSN search alone or you can even try this manual alternative: 
 

• Delete the Windows desktop search (WDS) directory from “program files” directly.
• Deleting the associated registry keys – “Windows Desktop Search” and “RSSearch” found under “Software\Microsoft” in both HKEY_CURRENT_USER AND HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE.
• Run a registry cleaner for windows to get rid of the invalid COM registrations.

If you cannot delete the program folder for reasons such as files are in use, try renaming the folder – Windows desktop search (WDS) directory or the file(s) within and then rebooting.

Uninstall/Remove Windows desktop search from command line:

Uninstallers for windows desktop search can be found in the following locations: 
 

• windows desktop search (WDS) version 2.6.0.2083 :
  %systemroot%\$NtUninstallKB907371-V2$\spuninst
• windows desktop search (WDS) version 2.6.0.2057 :
  %systemroot%\$NtUninstallKB907371$\spuninst
• windows desktop search (WDS) version 2.6.5.Beta :
  %systemroot%\$NtUninstallKB911993\spuninst

There are several options to uninstall/remove windows desktop search (WDS) via command line, using the above mentioned uninstallers for their respective versions.However the following three would be useful.

Interactive Mode:

Spuninst.exe is run without any command-line arguments as given below. Uninstaller prompts for restart at the end.  
 

%systemroot%\$NtUninstallKB907371-V2$\spuninst\spuninst.exe

Quiet Mode:

Spuninst.exe is run using the ‘/q’ or ‘/quiet’ command-line argument. Uninstaller forcefully restarts the system without informing the user after un-installation is complete  
 

%systemroot%\$NtUninstallKB907371-V2$\spuninst\spuninst.exe /q

Passive Mode:

Spuninst.exe is run using the ‘/passive’ command-line argument. Uninstaller prompts for restart displaying the wait time in seconds for automatic restart. 
 

%systemroot%\$NtUninstallKB907371-V2$\spuninst\spuninst.exe /passive  
 

How to uninstall windows desktop search if none of the above works?

If none of the above works, then try the following manual solution.This method involves creating your own uninstall information file (spuninst.inf), based on installation configuration file like “update.inf” and any other spuninst.inf template. 
 

• Unpack the windows desktop search distrubtion (ie. Start->Run->WindowsDesktopSearch-KB917013-V301-XP-x86-enu.exe -x) to some folder, say, “uninstwds”. Note that the name of the WDS exe file may differ, depending on the version of WDS installed on your PC/computer.
• Create a folder to store the uninstall information.For example, you can create a folder spuninst within uninstwds ( “uninstwds\spuninst”)
• Copy spuninst.exe from “uninstwds” to spuninst folder
• Copy updspapi.dll from “uninstwds\update” to spuninst folder
• Get any “spuninst.inf” as template file from “%SystemRoot%\”. You may find spuninst folder within any uninstall folder under “%SystemRoot%\”. Get the “spuninst.inf” file from the folder.
• spuninst.inf contains common uninstall information structure for spuinist.exe utility.But the contents of this file depends upon the application to uninstall.Since we are trying to uninstall Windows desktop search (WDS), create your own spuninst.inf, using any spuninst.inf template and the information available in “uninstwds\update\update.inf”
• Edit the section of “uninstwds\spuninst\spuninst.inf” and set “RebootRequired = 1″
• Ensure that the uninstall folder (”uninstwds\spuninst\”) contains spuninst.exe, spuninst.inf, updspapi.dll
• Finally run “uninstwds\spuninst\spuninst.exe”

That is all folks!!!  
 

Let me know, if this tutorial to delete/remove/uninstall Windows Desktop Search (WDS) helps. 
 

Disclaimer : Try the above solutions at your own risk.