How do I get rid of Photo Impression 5?

[teton]

It was installed when my daughter downloaded a camera that has since been returned. So I don't have the disk that installed it. I have tried the remove from the programs list but it keeps trying to install and then asks for the disk.
When I try to delete from program files I get the message:
Cannot delete PI Monitor.exe:Access is denied
Make sure the disk is not full or write-protected and that the file is not currently in use.

[UberAAZ]

Ok: here's what you should do:

1) Hit CTRL+ALT+DELETE. If you are running windows XP/2000, hit processes, then look for a running process called PI Monitor.exe and stop it. If you're running windows 9x or ME, look for PI Monitor.exe in the list and hit End Task.

2) Try deleting the file again. It should work this time.

3) (extra bonus step if you are using XP:) go to add/remove programs and try to unistall the program again. It should say the uninstaller wasn't found and offer to remove the entry from the list. Accept that and it will be removed from the list.

Your software should be gone!

Hope that helps,

[teton]

Thanks!
I did the ctrl/alt/delete.
When I tried to delete from the program file I got the message:
Cannot delete PIHook.dll.... (same as previous)(so is this different than what it couldn't delete before (PIMOnitor.exe)
Then when I went to add programs it is not there and the icon just now disappeared from the toolbar that is on the bottom right.
So I guess it is gone?!
Thanks again!!!

[ping]

I also wanted to remove all files relating to the above and was stuck with the PIHook.dll file. I could not find where to stop this process so I could delete the file. I worked out a solution and thought I would post it here to close this thread.

By the way, I only had the PIHook.dll file to delete. If you have other files that won't delete, I can't guarantee this will work.

Click Start>Run, type regedit, click OK
Select My Computer
Click File>Export, give a file name and save somewhere you can remember //this will back up your entire registry if something goes wrong
Click Edit>Find, type pihook, click Find Next
//This search sould find the line that loads pihook into the shell
//This may be hard to explain, but here goes
//You should see in the left hand panel a folder called InprocServer32.
Right click that folder, click delete, click Yes
//If you now have a folder in the left panel that has a name full of numbers and letters and has one line on the right panel that has a Data value something like PI5 Ŀ¼¹³, then right click the folder in the left panel, click delete, click Yes
//If you don't know what you are doing, don't mess with anything else in here.
Close Registry Editor
Restart Computer
//I was actually surprised that my computer started up quicker after that
Now you should be able to delete the ArcSoft folder and it's content.

//Should something go wrong as mentined before, Import your saved Registry to put things back to the way it was before, then delete the saved registry file
//Should things be just fine, delete the saved registry file

Hope this helps,
James

[teboyle1216]

I also wanted to remove all files relating to the above and was stuck with the PIHook.dll file. I could not find where to stop this process so I could delete the file. I worked out a solution and thought I would post it here to close this thread.

By the way, I only had the PIHook.dll file to delete. If you have other files that won't delete, I can't guarantee this will work.

Click Start>Run, type regedit, click OK
Select My Computer
Click File>Export, give a file name and save somewhere you can remember //this will back up your entire registry if something goes wrong
Click Edit>Find, type pihook, click Find Next
//This search sould find the line that loads pihook into the shell
//This may be hard to explain, but here goes
//You should see in the left hand panel a folder called InprocServer32.
Right click that folder, click delete, click Yes
//If you now have a folder in the left panel that has a name full of numbers and letters and has one line on the right panel that has a Data value something like PI5 Ŀ¼¹³, then right click the folder in the left panel, click delete, click Yes
//If you don't know what you are doing, don't mess with anything else in here.
Close Registry Editor
Restart Computer
//I was actually surprised that my computer started up quicker after that
Now you should be able to delete the ArcSoft folder and it's content.

//Should something go wrong as mentined before, Import your saved Registry to put things back to the way it was before, then delete the saved registry file
//Should things be just fine, delete the saved registry file

Hope this helps,
James

Hi James,

Thanks so much for your answer (worked like a charm). It is a pleasure when you find someone who hits the nail on the head (coming from a retired IBM systems programmer, who read dumps and wrote in ssembler language (those days are gone forever)).

Thanks again,
Terry Boyle