Visual COBOL for VS 2019 not detected by uninstall (or VS) but still blocks installation of Visual COBOL for VS 2022

Hi Stephen,

Can you please provide more details?

What product version are you referring to here for Visual COBOL for VS2019?
What is the error message that you receive when you try to uninstall it?

Did you happen to uninstall Visual Studio 2019 without first uninstalling Visual COBOL for VS2019 so that VC is left orphaned?

I had an expired trial for Visual COBOL connected to Visual Studio 2019. I installed Visual Studio 2022 and tried to install Visual COBOL for VS 2022 but it complained that Visual COBOL for 2019 had to be uninstalled first. I tried to uninstall Visual COBOL for 2019 with no affect after a few seconds. (Windows 11 - App uninstall). I have since tried so many things uninstall and reinstall of VS 2019 - removal of VS 2022 and attempted uninstall of Visual COBOL after that - all to no avail. At this point Visual Studio 2019 has no COBOL recognition, an attempt to install Visual COBOL 2019 doesn't even open a dialog and after installing VS 2020 again an attempt to install Visual COBOL for VS2020 still complains that Visual COBOL 2019 has to be removed first (and an attempt to install Visual COBOL 2019 patch claims that Visual COBOL 2019 is not detected).

Is there not a way to simply get rid of ALL traces of Visual COBOL on a machine? 

There are tools such as this which will completely remove installed products but that is really a last resort.

Try the following first.

1. Uninstall VS2022
2. Install VS2019
3. Open up a Visual Studio Developers prompt (Under the Visual Studio group)
4. Navigate to the folder C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Micro Focus\\Visual COBOL\\vsix\\VS16.0
5. Run the command - vsixinstaller VSCore.vsix
    This is our primary COBOL integration (contains templates, editor colorization etc). Does this tell you the extension is already installed or offer the ability to install it? 
6. Install it if you are given that option.
7. If this is sucessful, open up VS2019 and check if the COBOL extension is present.
8. If it is present then close Visual Studio and try to uninstall Visual COBOL again.

I followed these steps and successfully re-enabled the expired license version in VS2019. I then tried to uninstall Visual COBOL (using Windows 11 settings-apps-advanced-uninstall) to no avail. I then tried running mfvsixinstall -u which successfully removed COBOL from Visual Studio but curiously Visual COBOL was still in the app list (although no longer available to VS2019). Tried to install VS2022 followed by Visual COBOL 2022 again but ran head long into the wall (you must uninstall 2019 first).

Please try the following in case your previous attempts at installation left some Visual COBOL registry entries in an inconsistent state:

1. Delete the "Visual COBOL" key from the following (if present) -- Be very cautious that the key to be deleted here is Micro Focus, and the following

is the location:

   • HKEY_CURRENT_USER\\Software\\Micro Focus

   • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SOFTWARE\\Micro Focus

   • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SOFTWARE\\Wow6432Node\\Micro Focus

Deleted the keys using regedit and both the license manager and visual COBOL still appear in the installed app list.

Ran MFVSIXInstall -u again and both the license manager and visual COBOL still appear in the installed app list.

Is this a Windows 11 thing?

It shouldn't be a Windows 11 problem but then again I haven't really seen this problem before.

Did you try rebooting the machine?

What is the error message you get when you try to uninstall the product?

mfvsixinstall -u does not uninstall the product, it simply uninstalls the Visual Studio extensions. That is why it has no effect on Visual COBOL and License Manager being in the installed app list.

Deleting the registry keys and using the Microsoft uninstall tool that Chris included a link to above should completely remove an existing installation.