Manually uninstall Pro Tools files on a Windows PC.

Follow these instructions to completely remove all Pro Tools files from your PC. Keep in mind that this is NOT equivalent to uninstalling Pro Tools, but will render Pro Tool scompletely useless on your PC. This is a technique that can be used if:
* Pro Tools will not uninstall completely;
* A newer version of Pro Tools will not install after uninstalling an older version; or,
* another installation/uninstallation error comes up.

Here are the steps to “surgically” remove Pro Tools from a PC:

1. Go to C: > Program Files and delete the Digidesign folder.
2. Go to C: program Files > Common Files, and delete the Digidesign folder.*
3. Go to C: > Documents and Settings > (your user name) > Application Data,** and delete the Digidesign folder.
4. Go to C: > WINDOWS > system32. In the View menu, select “Choose details…” In the list, select “Company” and press “OK.” Go back to the View menu, and make sure “Tiles” is selected. Go back to the View menu and select “Company” in the “arrange icons by” subwindow.
5. In the second line of the tile description, you will see the name of the company for each icon. Find the ones that say “Digidesign,” and delete them. Do NOT delete andything from “Digi International.”
6. Go to C: > WINDOWS > system32 > drivers, and locate and delete “dalwdm.sys” and “digifilter.sys.”
7. On the root level of every hard drive, delete the “Digidesign Databases” folder.

* NOTE: Inside of this folder, there is another folder that contains all plugin files. if you do not want to reinstall your 3-rd party plugins (Autotune, Waves, etc.), then cut all associate .dpm and .dpm.rsr files frm the C: > program Files > Common Files > Digidesign > DAE > plugins folder, and paste them in another folder where you can recopy them back at another time.
** If the Application Data folder is not there, go to: Tools (in the menus at the top) > Folder Options > View, and select “Show Hidden Files and Folders.”

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