By Chris Smith
Introduction
Autodesk Access is the predecessor to the Autodesk Desktop App and is the easiest way to keep your current software up to date. Many issues with the software packages we use can be resolved by installing the latest updates, so it is an important tool to ensure we can keep working without issues.
An issue we may come across is the Autodesk Access app trying to update an application that we no longer have installed on our system, and although not a problem that will prevent us from working, it can be a little annoying seeing the update request when we are maintaining our current applications.
What causes the issue?
The reason we see the warning in the Autodesk Access app is because there are still residual registry keys relating to the application.
The Autodesk Access app sees these registry keys are understands that as the products are still installed.
Solution
Important note before continuing
There may be many reasons why the registry keys are not removed when uninstalling the applications so it is strongly advised that the next steps in this guide are completed by someone with a good understanding of the operating system registry, as making changes could cause serious effects on the system.
Before making any changes to the registry the user should always take a registry backup to allow them to restore the system to a working state in the event of a system failure.
If a problem does arise from modifying the registry, then the registry will need to be restored from the command console so it is advisable to export the registry backup to an easily accessible location.
Solution 1 – Microsoft system troubleshooter (MSfixit)
As this can be a common issue, Microsoft has an application that will allow the user to remove superfluous registry keys with a simple application/GUI called MSfixit. This application can be downloaded from Microsoft free of charge and at the time of writing this article can be accessed from the link below.
Running the application and following the on-screen instructions will bring the user to a list of applications that the system understands as installed.
If the application is show in the list simple select the entry and click next. The application will then proceed to remove all associated registry keys. Repeat this step for all the entries relating to your old software.
Solution 2 – Manual registry key removal
If the Microsoft app does not find the software you are having issues with, we can still remove the troublesome keys, but it takes a little extra effort. Again, it is STRONGLY recommended that these next steps are performed by someone with knowledge of the system registry.
Each software installation will have a product code associated to it. These can be found by looking in the following registry location.
Computer > HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > SOFTWARE > Autodesk > UPI2
By scrolling through each entry in this location we can find the product code relating to our troublesome application.
The details on the right will have an entry called “ProductName” and will display the name of the application as shown above. Deleting this registry branch will stop the Autodesk Access app from thinking the product is still installed on the system and stop the entry from showing up in the list of required updates.
You may need to remove more than one branch in the registry so check through all the branches in the UPI2 key to ensure all the all the keys relating to the problem install have been removed.
Once the registry references have been removed, restart Autodesk Access and the update requests should be gone.