How to remove Start8?

I'm having exactly the same problem.  I submitted a problem report to Stardock yesterday, but so far have received no reply other than the automated response that the report was received.

Hello Gulf80 and jknauth,

Sorry for the trouble you're experiencing!

aleksandermaaen, I've created a ticket for you under your account email address and sent some things to try. Please let me know if you experience any further trouble after giving them a try.

jknauth, I've provided a reply to your ticket. Please take a look and let me know if you have any questions.

Hello again !

Thank you very much ! this sloved my problem. i did what u told me on Email and installed Start10 and it works great!

It can look like something wrong happend when i upgraded to windows 10. It's always something wrong that happends when upgrading.

Hope this helps everyone else to ! Have a nice day !

Regards, Gulf80 ! (Yes, i have changed my name on forums now)

Hey again Gulf80,

Thanks for the update, I'm glad to hear everything is now in working order!

kin3tix: It would be great if you could post the solution... I'm having the same issue, I think (can't install Start10 because Start8 is still installed, and can't uninstall Start8 because the uninstall xml is invalid after the Windows 10 upgrade). 

kin3tix: I also need a solution to uninstall ModernMix (as I'm encountering the same issue: it lingers on my upgraded system, but can't be uninstalled because of the invalid uninstall xml left as a result of the Windows 10 upgrade).

Hello!

Please post the solution as I am having the same problem as well.

Thank you!

Hello jon88 and mmanolio,

I've provided a link to a tool that will remove Start8 and Start10. After you've completed this process, simply restart and perform a fresh install with a new copy of the Start10 installer.

**IMPORTANT** Please save any open documents/work and close out all of your applications including browsers, the following tool will force a restart.

Please follow this link:

http://sd.stardock.com/zubaz/apps/Purge_StartALL.bat

Save the file to your desktop, right click it and select "Run as Administrator". (Example: http://screencast.com/t/Zv5LzdG8W8 )

You may be notified that Windows is protecting your PC. Select "More info" and then "Run anyway".

After this process has completed, log into your Stardock account to grab a new Start10 installer and perform a fresh installation:

https://store.stardock.com/myaccount/products

Please DO NOT change any of the default settings until you verify that the application is running as expected in its default state.

Please let me know whether this resolves your problem or if you have any additional questions.

Nope. That didn't work. I downloaded the batch file and ran it as administrator. Got a dialog re: invalid uninstall xml file. Then got a command/dos window, stating that multiple files it was looking for couldn't be found. It asked me if I wanted to proceed (type Y to continue). Did that, and got 4 or five "access denied" messages for various files.

When I go to Programs and Features, Start 8 is still there.

Also, this solution, if it ever works, does not address my other issue: I need something to uninstall ModernMix, as well

To remove Start8 :

Open Services.msc, set Start8 service to disabled.

Sign out and in again (or reboot)

Delete contents of Start8 folder.  I believe the check is for the config exe so deleting that would be enough.

For ModernMix :

Set the Stardock ModernMix service to disabled

Sign out and in again (or reboot)

Delete Modernmix folder in c:\program files (x86)\stardock

That seems to have worked insofar as I was able to disable the programs and delete them from the Programs(x86) folder. However, after installing Start10, I now don't seem to be able to use the Windows key on my keyboard... it does nothing (whereas under Start8 I could toggle between Win7-like/desktop view and the modern ui). I appear to be stuck in desktop mode (even after several reboots). I'm going to do a clean install of Windows 10, as things just seem to be deteriorating at this point. I'll let you know if I have any issues with Start 10 after the clean install, etc. 

Just FYI. I did a clean install of Windows 10, installed Start 10, and everything appears to be fine. A clean install was really my preference, so not such a bad thing.

This worked for me.

Thank you very much!

[quote who="Gulf80" reply="3" id="3580549"]
Hello again !

 

Thank you very much ! this sloved my problem. i did what u told me on Email and installed Start10 and it works great!

It can look like something wrong happend when i upgraded to windows 10. It's always something wrong that happends when upgrading.

 

Hope this helps everyone else to ! Have a nice day !

 

 
Great! but what did you do to solve the problem?

Most likely the fix listed above from Kin3tix.