This guide is written for SOLIDWORKS Electrical specifically and not for other SOLIDWORKS products.
If you are experiencing serious issues with your SOLIDWORKS Electrical software, you may need to fully uninstall the program and all associated programs and files before attempting to reload the software. This document covers how to do this complete removal of the product and associated components.
Before Uninstalling SOLIDWORKS Electrical
Prior to uninstalling SOLIDWORKS Electrical it is recommended to backup your environment and then deactivate your Electrical license. If you are using a network license skip the deactivation process and continue to backing up your data.
For information as to how to get a full backup of Solidworks electrical, please see our guide here: How to Archive Environment in SOLIDWORKS Electrical – Hawk Ridge Systems
License Deactivation
Go to Windows Search Box, type SOLIDWORKS Electrical, and click to launch the program.
After SOLIDWORKS Electrical starts, go to the Help tab and choose Deactivate License.
Choose to activate Automatically over the Internet.
Press the Next You will now connect to the SOLIDWORKS Activation site to return the license. You will be informed that the license has been transferred back to SOLIDWORKS.
Press the Finish button to complete.
SOLIDWORKS Electrical will not run on this machine until it is re-activated.
Uninstalling SOLIDWORKS Electrical Client
- Open the Windows Control Panel or Add or Remove Programs menu and right-click on Solidworks [version] item and select Uninstall.
- Ensure that only Solidworks Electrical is selected, then select "remove items".
- Ensure the following Registry Keys are removed:
- Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\SolidWorks\SOLIDWORKS Electrical
- Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\SolidWorks\SOLIDWORKS Electrical
- Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\SolidWorks\SOLIDWORKS Electrical
Uninstalling SOLIDWORKS Electrical Server
The next steps are for cleanly removing the rest of the Electrical data including the program folders, project folders, application registry, SQL, SQL folders, and SQL registry.
Warning: Do not proceed unless you have a full Electrical environment backup or without the help of your IT professional. SQL can be a shared resource, uninstalling it can impact other applications. Deleting IT keys can cause system instability. Do not proceed without IT consent.
Remove Electrical Server Components
1. Go to Control Panel > Programs > Programs and Features.
2. Scroll to Solidworks Electrical [Version]
3. Right-click on this item > Uninstall
4. Ensure only Solidworks Electrical and electrical related products are selected and continue through the prompts.
Remove SQL Server
- Go to Control Panel > Programs > Programs and Features.
- Scroll to Microsoft SQL Server [version] (64-bit).
- Right-click on this item > Uninstall/Change.
- When the SQL Server window appears, click Remove.
- In the Remove SQL Server window, select the SQL Server instance that you want to remove from the drop-down list.
- Click Next.
- Select to enable only the Database Engine Services feature, and then click Next.
- A summary screen shows items for removal. If this is correct, click Remove. This uninstalls the instance.
NOTE: If this SQL server only hosts electrical, it is suggested to remove all SQL related installations listed in Add/Remove programs.
Note: Backup the SQL content. Also not to be done if you have built library content. Full uninstall instructions for SQL can be found here.
Folders to delete:
- C:\ProgramData\SOLIDWORKS Electrical
- C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server
Registry keys to delete:
- Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Trace Software
- Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\SolidWorks\SOLIDWORKS Electrical
- Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Trace Software
- Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\SolidWorks\SOLIDWORKS Electrical
- Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Trace Software
- Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\SolidWorks\SOLIDWORKS Electrical
- Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\SolidWorks\TrUiTreeListOcx
Note: The Trace Software registry keys support the SOLIDWORKS® Electrical 2021 version and earlier. There is no Trace Software registry after the SOLIDWORKS® Electrical 2022 version. Removing other SOLIDWORKS Products
To cleanly remove other SOLIDWORKS products, please review this video.
Comments
Article is closed for comments.