PSA: Do not run AMD Catalyst Un-install Utility on Windows 8

Whatever you do never run the AMD Catalyst Un-install Utility on Windows 8.

If you do your OS will be very crippled and will require a reinstall to resolve. I hit this the hard way and it sucked as when even the OS reset failed I had to pull out the flash drive and go that route.

Symptoms on Windows 8 after running the program.
* UAC (User Account Control) no longer automatically prompts when an application attempts to elevate itself (eg setting date/time). This affects multiple case scenarios and I just gave one example. Manual elevation still works (eg elevating a program for compatibility or via Run as Administrator).
* Users, Windows Update, and Personalize Panels disappear from Change PC Settings
* When looking at the services list most entries show that the description could not be loaded (Error 2)
* When attempting to uninstall applications via add/remove programs many entries will fail indicating that an error occurred.
* You can't delete any system protected files or change permissions via Windows Explorer because elevation fails (silent fail)

* System Restore stops working (says can't access a file)
* Refresh fails to function in Windows 8

This is just a subset of the issues. I know there is more however the last 2 are the most severe because in some cases you might not realize the issue right away (I didn't discover until 2 weeks down the road) and when you do even if you do have a restore point you might not be able to roll back in order to fix the issue.

I've emailed AMD and asked them to post a disclaimer flagging the incompatibility until a fixed version is released.

Example issue: http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...-from-pc/f3f0bca2-0669-4695-88a6-e0f51ca5dba7
+ myself...

EDIT: Fed out into Twitterverse... https://twitter.com/shinji257/status/342992390858084352

EDIT: Clarification of issue -- I'm referring the the utility available here: http://sites.amd.com/us/game/downloads/Pages/catalyst-uninstall-utility.aspx

 

The Utility also removed my ability to change Power Plans. I should have expected AMD to do something wrong.

 

Huh, so that's why my windows 8 install went bonkers. Good to know, + rep.

 

I'm guessing it's just the uninstaller since installing the newer deriver over the older one didn't cause me any troubles.

 

Thanks for the warning, This bug didn't hit me when uninstalling 13.4 a few days ago to update to the newest beta.

EDIT: Seems you're talking about a seperate utility (amd_cleanup_util_1.2.1.0.exe) and not the uninstall programs way in Windows which I thought you ment.

~Aeny

 

It's the uninstall utility that they provide on their website which is designed to be used in the event of a bad uninstall not the normal uninstall process. It causes major issues on Windows 8. I linked to it above so people know which one I'm referring to. I thought I had linked to it before though...

 

Alright, thanks for the clarification.

 

Good advice. I borked my desktop computer doing that earlier this year. System restore didnt even fix it. I had to reinstall windows.

Sent from my Nexus S using Tapatalk 2

 

Gives a answer to the problems I have here.

Thank you

 

Oh man, that's rough. Guess this is one of the cases where "Currently supports Windows 7 at this time" means that it only actually works on W7...