How to silently uninstall PuTTY

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Jason Hanks|Updated January 25, 2021
Silently Uninstall PuTTY
Silently Uninstall PuTTY
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    It does require a little Google Fu in order to silently uninstall PuTTY as you do need to provide silent parameters in order to successfully uninstall this application. Both silent installs and silent uninstall require silent parameters in order to be deployed successfully.

    To uninstall PuTTY on both 32-bit and 64-bit systems you’ll need a total of five steps, all command steps with the following commands in each step. PDQ Deploy is free to download, but you’ll need Pro or Enterprise mode for multiple steps. Or, even easier, this package is already built and ready-to-go in the Package Library which you can import if you have PDQ Deploy Enterprise mode.

    Kill PuTTY

    First, you’ll need to kill PuTTY on consoles if PuTTY is currently open.

    taskkill.exe /f /im putty.exe

    Delete putty.exe

    If you have both 32-bit and 64-bit architectures to deploy to you’ll want a step for each architecture. In each step under the conditions tab you’ll specify the architecture. Doing so will speed up you deployments as the step will only be executed on computers with that particular architecture.

    Delete putty

    For the 32-bit you’ll want the following command.

    del /F "C:\Program Files\PuTTY\putty.exe"

    In a new command step, you’ll want this command to delete the putty.exe from 64-bit machines. Also set your conditions so this step only deploys on 64-bit machines.

    del /F "C:\Program Files (x86)\PuTTY\putty.exe"

    Uninstall PuTTY

    You’ll also want to set conditions for the appropriate architecture here. Here is where the silent parameters come in. You’ll notice that our parameters also hide message box pop ups from interrupting your end user with /SUPPRESSMSGBOXES (and possibly confusing them. The last thing you want is one more unnecessary help desk call, am I right?) as well as stopping the computer from restarting with /NORESTART(which also would probably be an unpleasant surprise for your user).

    32-bit

    "C:\Program Files\PuTTY\unins000.exe" /VERYSILENT /SUPPRESSMSGBOXES /NORESTART /SP-

    64-bit

    "C:\Program Files (x86)\PuTTY\unins000.exe" /VERYSILENT /SUPPRESSMSGBOXES /NORESTART /SP-

    That’s it. Name and save your package. You’ll then click Deploy Now and select computers to deploy your package.

    Jason Hanks headshot
    Jason Hanks

    Being the original Jason at PDQ is a tough mantle to bear, but having used PDQ for over a decade and been a sysadmin for many moons prior, this Jason is just plain old. Now simply referred to as Hanks, he helps guide young sysadmins of the world into a brighter tomorrow where there’s actually time to clear those printer jams and change out projector bulbs, and maybe have time to use the restroom at work.

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