Mac Uninstall App From Command Line

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Learning has never been so easy!

When it comes to quickly taking care of daily tasks, the command line can be both powerful and dangerous. Take today’s commands as an example: the rm command allows you to remove. Click 'Start,' select 'Run,' type 'cmd' and hit 'Enter'. If you are running Windows XP, go to 'Run' from. How To Uninstall Apps On Mac OS X Using The Command Line Most of users don’t like to use commands in Terminal to do anything because those commands are not easy to remember. They feel not comfortable and will look for solutions which easier to do, such as an app with a friendly and simple user interface. How To Uninstall Apps On Mac OS X Using The Command Line Most of users don’t like to use commands in Terminal to do anything because those commands are not easy to remember. They feel not comfortable and will look for solutions which easier to do, such as an app with a friendly and simple user interface.

WMIC (Windows Management Instrumentation Command-Line) is a potent tool that often doesn't see much use due to the lack of (easily accessible) documentation available. More information can be found on WMIC here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb742610.aspx. Some great switches and alternate options can be found here: http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/wmic_overview.mspx. We’ll be using WMIC with domain admin credentials to crawl through a list of nodes (PCs/Laptops) and uninstall an example program without interrupting the user.

5 Steps total

Step 1: Load up a command shell with appropriate access permissions

Though a WMIC instruction can be given appropriate credentials prior to operation, it is typically best-practice to avoid clear-text typing the password (who is that looking over your shoulder;)). We’ll execute the runas command like the following:

Runas /user:DomainAdminAccount@DOMAIN cmd

… which will prompt us for the credentials of our DomainAdminAccount. If authenticated, we’ll be handed a command shell running as the Admin.

Step 2: Step into WMIC

One of the nice features of WMIC is that it may be run from any machine. With our admin command shell, we're going to enter the wmic command followed by enter. (Note: We could have jumped into WMIC directly from the runas command.. this just breaks out the steps)

Step 3: Verify Program Installation (an optional informative step)

With our WMIC prompt, we can ask many questions of a node (or nodes) and receive some nicely formatted replies. Though formatting the replies is beyond the scope of this 'How To', much more information can be found on the internet.

So let's find out if a particular node even has our target software (Spiceworks does attempt to list this information in its software scan)

>/node:COMPUTERNAME product get name,version,vendor Google keep mac os app.

This command asks WMI to reply with a list including the Name, Version, and Vendor of all compliant software installations.

If you would like to filter for a specific product, you may do so. Here's an example scanning a networked machine for all installed applications from the vendor 'Apple, Inc'

>/node:ANOTHEREXAMPLE product where vendor='Apple Inc.' get name,vendor

(*Note from Anders4221:
A small hint if you have special characters like '-' or '/' in the computer name you need to use ' ' characters in order to get information from client)

(**Note from Joe3034:
Here is how you use wildcards in your search:

Surround the like phrase in double quotes and your search criteria in single quotes, and use % as the wildcard symbol.

e.g.:
/node:ComputerXYZ product where 'vendor like 'adobe%' get name,version,identifyingNumber )

Step 4: Call for the Uninstallation

So we can make a call to the WMI interface to uninstall a particular product.. let's pick on the MobileMe Control Panel from our previous example. The command:

>/node:EXAMPLE product where name='MobileMe Control Panel' call uninstall

.. will prompt you for confirmation in the following (long) format:

Execute (EXAMPLEROOTCIMV2:Win32_Product.IdentifyingNumber='{6DA9102E-199F-43A0-A36B-6EF48081A658}',Name='MobileMe Control Panel',Version='2.1.0.24')->Uninstall() (Y/N/?)?

. to which you must reply 'y' if you wish to uninstall. WMI compliant software will run the default uninstalation procedures without the user needing to do anything (they receive no prompts etc).

**Note that you may also use the
/nointeractive flag like /node:EXAMPLE product where name='MobileMe Control Panel' call uninstall /nointeractive to prevent the confirmation request!
-thx Bart2691

Step 5: Call Uninstall for a List of Machines (an optional informative step)

Let's assume you just got word that Adobe Reader has a serious flaw in it's old version. In a panic, you asked all your users to blindly install the new version of Adobe reader straight from Adobe's site. Thankfully, they all managed to do so.. however you've received 3 tickets so far about an Acrobat.com icon on the desktop.

You have a flat text file of all your computer's names stored in c:computers.txt. You pop open a WMIC shell with appropriate permissions and enter the following command:

>/failfast:on /node:@'c:computers.txt' product where name='Acrobat.com' call uninstall /nointeractive

Which iterates through your list, skipping nodes that are invalid (eg:machine is turned off) and those that don't meet the criteria. You'll need to confirm 'y' that you want to uninstall on every node unless you use the nointeractive flag.

* Updated Note from Bart2691
.. an easy way to automate answering 'Yes'. Examples for doing it by PC or a text file is to use the /nointeractive flag. Additionally, if you don't wish to hang on failed nodes, use the /failfast:on flag to quickly skip a node that isn't responding.

** note from true911 (unconfirmed)
The correct flag is failfast:on, not fastfail:on

wmic /failfast:on /node:@'FILENAME.txt' product where 'name like 'microsoft office professional edition 2003' call uninstall /nointeractive

Hopefully you've been intrigued by the potency of WMIC. Though the command-line use of the uninstall call may not be commonly needed with software management tools, AD, etc.. it can sometimes be the best way to accomplish a task quickly without disturbing your user(s).

Let's hope spiceworks takes its WMI implementation a step further in a future release and automates this for us;)

Published: Jan 07, 2009 · Last Updated: Jun 22, 2017

Mac Uninstall App From Command Line Installer

References

  • AppDeploy Free Snapshot MSI creator (used mostly for legacy Apps).. will add application to WMIC
  • Using WMIC to Install Programs on a Remote PC

432 Comments

Uninstall Program From Windows Command Line

  • Datil
    DinkLock Jan 7, 2009 at 05:37pm

    Roeman,
    This looks awesome. Can't wait to give it a shot.

  • Chipotle
    benpbolton Jan 8, 2009 at 09:28am

    It can definitely be a life-saver to make this happen without the user being bothered or needing to respond to any prompts. It's a poor-man's software management tool:) Many simple programs may be uninstalled in this manner and reinstalled using your preferred technique in much less time than the multiple restarts (or walking/talking/remote control time) required with many tools.

    Thanks for the comment and spice ;)

  • Chipotle
    Hodge Jan 8, 2009 at 11:04am

    Great idea. Thanks for the info.

  • Pure Capsaicin
    akp982 Jan 13, 2009 at 10:27am

    THANKS :D Loving the idea and will deff be useful

  • Sonora
    yeahflaskdjfasdjflkajsdfsafsfsasfsfasdf Jan 13, 2009 at 10:56am

    How could I remove something like, for exampe, google toolbar when it doesnt show up in the list? I know theres a way to do it when you have the CLSID but I cant find any info on it yet.

  • Chipotle
    benpbolton Jan 13, 2009 at 12:27pm

    FraFraFreddy,

    'Google Toolbar for Internet Explorer' is a WMI compatible app.. it's listed clearly, and uninstalls cleanly on a test machine I have here.

    Is it possible you may be mistaken or inspecting the wrong computer (node)?

  • Sonora
    yeahflaskdjfasdjflkajsdfsafsfsasfsfasdf Jan 14, 2009 at 07:24am

    I stand corrected, It is listed roeaman. I had a brain fart. Anyway thanks for the how to, works like a charm.

  • Chipotle
    GoofyGeek Jan 14, 2009 at 08:58pm

    Thanks, this worked great. Since I'm relatively new to SW, does it take a few network scans to fully report that the app is gone?

  • Chipotle
    benpbolton Jan 15, 2009 at 01:07pm

    Rollme,

    Spiceworks uses WMI for most of its data gathering, so removing it via WMIC should show removed on your next spiceworks scan I believe. The exception may be alerts - I'm unsure if alerts remain despite removal?

    Also, some applications will require a restart before the last vestiges of them are gone.. does that help at all?

  • Thai Pepper
    TimmyG Feb 6, 2009 at 05:13pm

    Well, paint me red and call me a chicken, look at this!

    I'm definitely a CUI junkie, I grew up on DOS and Linux, but still use Windows at home and at work, so I was very glad to see this How-To. I just ran the test uninstall of Acrobat.com across the network and it worked wonderfully!

    Thank you very much for upping this great How-To.

  • Pimiento
    chris9943 Feb 9, 2009 at 07:50am

    I wonder if anyone has made a gui frontend for the wmic? Great tutorial thanks!!

  • Poblano
    anders4221 Feb 11, 2009 at 06:25am

    Great help and I cant wait to uninstall things on our network!
    A small hint if you have special characters like '-' or '/' in the computer name you need to use ' ' characters in order to get information from client.
    Thanks for a great how-to

  • Chipotle
    benpbolton Feb 11, 2009 at 09:23am

    Thanks for that hint anders.. I've stuck it in the how-to and credited you. That tip may save someone some frustration:)

  • Poblano
    Martin Lillepuu Feb 17, 2009 at 01:24pm

    pstools from microsoft sysiternals team (psexec in this particular case) are also one option to consider for remote installing software or doing other batch changes to computers. psexec can even copy the executable file to remote computers c: drive and isn't limited to installing msi files (you need to run installer with silent install options though since you can't interact with the installer).

  • Chipotle
    benpbolton Feb 19, 2009 at 10:24am

    Martin, while I use and love pstools, it's rare that a software vendor will provide an executable with silent uninstall options that we could take advantage of. However for installations, it often does beat out the inconvenience of using WMIC to install MSIs.. that how-to is here: http://community.spiceworks.com/how_to/show/211

Uninstall Application From Command Line

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