How To Use The Microsoft Uninstall Troubleshooter
Something that everyone who deploys and installs applications will inevitably experience is an installation that didn’t go as planned. These problem installations manifest themselves in a variety of different ways, but here are some of the likely symptoms you’ll come across:
– Registry key corruption on 64-bit operating systems (Most operating systems nowadays are 64-bit)
– Registry keys responsible for controlling the update data becoming corrupted
– New programs being prevented from being installed
– Existing programs being prevented from updating or uninstalling completelyÂ
– You’re blocked from uninstalling the program via Add or Remove Programs in Control Panel
Good news! The “Program Install and Uninstall troubleshooter” by Microsoft is incredibly helpful in these scenarios.Â
Let’s dive in!
Step 1:
On the machine with the bad installation, open this URL: Fix problems that block programs from being installed or removed (microsoft.com), click “Download troubleshooter”, and then “Open file” from the “Downloads” dropdown in your browser.
(Note: You may need to open the file location and run as admin depending on the security restrictions in your environment)
Step 2:
Choose “Next” on the window that opens.
Step 3:
After the troubleshooter finishes “Detecting Problems”, select “Uninstalling”.
Step 4:
Select the program you’re experiencing issues with. We will select “Chrome” for demonstration purposes. 
If you don’t see the program listed, select “Not Listed” at the top of the view. 
You’ll be asked for the product code and there’s a few ways to find this…
I like using Right Click Tools > Console Tools > System Information > Applications to quickly find the product code in the uninstall string:
Example for Recast Agent using RCT:
You can highlight the row and press ctrl + C to copy and then press ctrl + V to paste it over into a word editor to avoid having to type the string out.
You can also manually look up the “UninstallString” registry values using Registry Editor in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall for 64-bit installers and HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall for 32-bit installers on 64-bit operating systems.
Example for Recast Agent using the Registry Editor: 
Example:
We can see that the product code is recognized on the following page… 🙂
Note: Be wary of using get-wmiobject win32_product to pull the product key. Here is why: Win32_Product Is Evil. | Greg’s Systems Management Blog (gregramsey.net)
(Thank you, Garth!)
Step 5:
Choose “Yes, try uninstall”. 
You’ll see it begin to resolve problems…
When it finishes, you’ll see that the problems were found and resolved…
Step 6:
Reinstall the program. 🙂
Feel free to reach out if you have any questions!
Thank you, Garth Jones (@GarthMJ) / Twitter for the topic suggestion and information around using Win32_Product!