Brute Oracle Uninstall

If you, like me, run into a situation where you are unable to uninstall Oracle products, in my case the client and database,  then this post might be able to provide you a little guidance.

Before you use this method plz use the deinstall method from Oracle first or download the Uninstall tools for your particular version of client and database provided on the Oracle web site!!

Only use this appraoch as a last resort to remove an oracle[client,database] install from the PC if other uninstall methods provided by Oracle fail or the Universal installer doesn't get the job done.

1. Uninstall all Oracle components using the Oracle Universal Installer (OUI).
2. Run regedit.exe and delete the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/ORACLE key. This contains registry entries for all Oracle products.
3. Delete any references to Oracle services left behind in the following part of the registry (HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SYSTEM/CurrentControlSet/Services/Ora*). It should be pretty obvious which ones relate to Oracle.
4. Reboot your machine.
5. Delete the "C:\Oracle" directory, or whatever directory is your ORACLE_BASE.
6. Delete the "C:\Program Files\Oracle" directory.
7. Empty the contents of your "C:\temp" directory.
8. Empty your recycle bin.
9. Remove any path variable from your environment system variables.
10. Remove ddl references from GAC(Make sure you remove them with Full Admin rights)

If all went well you can reinstall Oracle products correctly or you can descide to use other db software products who are easier to uninstall *grin*.

Stumbled upon a youtube movie of someone showing how to uninstall 11gr2 and 12c