How to completely uninstall Adobe CS4 or CS5 using the Adobe Clean Script

If you can’t properly uninstall Adobe CS4 / CS5 because of an error message, or you just simply want to completely remove all traces of Adobe CS4 / CS5, use the Adobe CS5 Clean Up Utility! Don't let the name fool you, since this tool can also uninstall Adobe CS4, Adobe CS3, Adobe Creative Suite beta installations, and Adobe Flash Player.

Before using the clean up tool, Adobe first recommends you uninstall the program the normal way through the control panel. If you are unfamiliar with how to uninstall programs, below are the steps for Windows Vista and Windows 7. (If you received an error message, you've obviously tried already, so skip to the "Using the Adobe CS5 Cleaner Tool" section below).

Steps to uninstall through Control Panel:

1. Go to Start -> Control Panel

2. If you are viewing the control panel in category view, look under "Programs" and click on "Uninstall a program". If you are viewing under Large or Small icons view, find and click on "Programs and Features".

3. Find Adobe Creative Suite in the installed programs list and click Uninstall/Change

4. Follow the prompts to uninstall

You may be tempted to skip these steps and immediately use the clean up script to remove all traces of the program to avoid the additional time required to uninstall the normal way. Although you can technically do this, as mentioned its not recommended, and its better, if possible, to first uninstall through the control panel and then afterwords use the Adobe clean up script .

Using the Adobe CS5 Cleaner Tool:
Important: Administrator privileges are required to use this utility

1. First download the Adobe CS5 Cleaner Tool here (direct adobe download link)

2. Extract contents of zip file to a folder

3. Right click CS5InstallerDatabaseUtility.exe and click Run As Administrator

4. Command prompt interface will appear and will ask you to select your language.
Type e for English or j for Japanese.

5. Type y to accept the Adobe End-User License Agreement

6. Choose the program and version you wish to uninstall by typing its corresponding number (in this case CS4, so type the number 1) and then pressing Enter.

7. A list of corresponding adobe programs installed on your machine will appear. Select the product you want to remove or select "Clean All" to remove the programs that appear in the list.

8. Confirm the selection by typing y and then pressing Enter

9. The script will begin uninstalling. When the script successfully finishes uninstalling, press Enter then restart your computer.

Congrats, you’re done! Hopefully, all traces of the program were removed.
However, sometimes even when the script successfully uninstalled the program, you may still see Adobe CS4 listed in the currently installed programs list. Don’t panic just yet! The script had likely succeeded in removing the program, yet it just hasn’t "informed" windows that the program is gone. Therefore, simply double click the entry and click yes to delete it from the installed programs list.