One of the biggest day to day problems IT administrators have to deal with is users installing unwanted programs on their systems. You can use Distribution to remove those programs from computers managed by your KACE appliance. In this example, we’ll be looking at using a Managed Install to remove the uTorrent client from a system automatically. 

Whenever a program is installed onto a managed computer, the next check in will list that program in the inventory page. The software details for a given program will often provide you with the uninstall command. 

To remove the unwanted program, we just need to create a new Managed Install. Go to Distribution and choose Add New Item from the dropdown. Then, select the item from your dropdown list. Since this program is not one that is being installed by the KACE appliance, it will not have an associated file. Check the “Also show software without an Associated File” box and select the program from your list.

Click the “Configure Manually” button, then paste the text of the uninstall string into the Installation Command box. For this example, we’ll be doing a silent uninstall, so we will add the /s parameter to the uninstall string. 

"C:\Program Files (x86)\uTorrent\utorrent.exe" /uninstall /s 

Check the “Un-Install using Full Command Line” and “Run Command Only” boxes.

Add any notes in the “Notes” field, then choose how you want the Managed Action to run. For this example, we’ll be executing the command at the next check in, so use “Execute anytime (next available)”. 

Since this is a program we do not want in our network, we’ll also deploy this Managed Install to all machines. 

Set any pre or post-install messages you would like to send to the user, then click save. Since we’re doing a silent uninstall, we will not be adding messages for this example.

The next time the system checks in, the program will be removed. You can force a check in to remove it faster if you desire. The distribution will show up in the “To Install List” for any computer that has uTorrent installed. 

*Note: It may take two inventory cycles for the software removal to reflect in your inventory, since the first check in initiates the uninstall command. 

Rogue programs are a problem that affects every environment. Using this process, you can effectively remove them from your network, allowing you to focus on more important tasks.