If only all software were as straightforward and effective as Total Uninstall 4. It's a tool that never deviates from its given intent; to rid your machine of unwanted programs once and for all.

Sadly, in the modern world, it's a necessary tool. How many programs have you thought you'd uninstalled, only to have registry entries, data files and other bits of virtual cat litter left behind by the software's own uninstallation routine? That's what Total Uninstall seeks to fix.

It works like this. On launching, the program brings up a list of all your installed programs. Once it's done that, you highlight one you want to get rid of. The software doesn't instantly give you an uninstall option, instead spending a couple of seconds doing some analysis work.

This digs out the changes that the program made to your computer, including registry keys and suchlike. Only then does the Uninstall option become available, and when you hit it, you go across to the relevant program's own uninstallation routine. Thus, if you have a program that takes a country age to remove itself through its own uninstaller, there's nothing that Total Uninstall can do about that, which is a pity.

However, once the individual program has done its work, you then duck back to the Total Uninstall window. At that point you hit Uninstall, and any of the program's running services are stopped, registry keys are removed, and the leftover clutter is deleted (although not before the program has taken a quick, safety system snapshot, which is reassuring).

Of course, there are moments when a service can't be stopped for whatever reason, and then a warning is left over in the on-screen uninstallation log (a text log file is also left behind). There's no solution offered, sadly, and so a less experienced user may not be sure about restarting their machine and having another go. But that's a small problem in the midst of an efficient solution.

Beyond the main screen, the program packs in a search function too, where you can hunt down programs, registry entries, folders and so on by name, but we found this to be of less use and we can't see too many users spending much time on it.

So it's the core function that we're here for, and the $30 asking price seems quite fair for the good job that Total Uninstall does. It isn't perfect, but it's better than the uninstall routine accompanying the majority of PC programs, and that has to be a good thing. Plus there's a 30-day, unlimited free trial too.

An accomplished and useful tool to have in your armoury for when you need to properly eliminate unruly programs that have left their mark on your system. Worth the modest investment.