Uninstalling and Deactivating a MATLAB Installation :: Standard Installation and Activation Procedures (Installation Guide for Windows®)

Uninstalling and Deactivating a MATLAB Installation

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Uninstalling MathWorks Products Deactivating a License Running the Uninstall Program Noninteractively

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Running the Uninstall Program Noninteractively

Uninstalling MathWorks Products

Note Deactivating a license and removing the software are separate activities. You can deactivate a license without removing the software from your computer. When you uninstall the software, the uninstaller offers you the option to deactivate it as well. For information about deactivating software, see Deactivating a License.

To remove MathWorks products from your system, follow this procedure:

Shut down the MATLAB software.
Start the uninstaller.
On the Windows Start menu, select Settings > Control Panel > Add or Remove Programs. Select MATLAB R2009b from the list of products. (You can also start the uninstaller by navigating to your MATLAB installation folder, opening the uninstall folder, and double-clicking uninstall.exe.) To learn how to use an initialization file to run the uninstaller noninteractively, see Running the Uninstall Program Noninteractively.
Select the products you want to remove and click Uninstall.
When it starts, the uninstaller displays a list of products associated with the release you selected. If you select MATLAB, you automatically remove all other MathWorks products.

You might receive a message telling you that the product you want to uninstall has other products that depend on it. For example, all MathWorks products require the MATLAB product. To dismiss the message and continue removing products, click OK. To change the products you had selected for deletion, click Cancel. For more information, see Product Dependencies.
If you also want to remove your MATLAB preferences file, click the Uninstall MATLAB preference files check box. By default, the uninstaller does not delete these preference files. MATLAB preference files contain your environment settings, such as command history and Help favorites. To find where MATLAB stores your preferences, use the prefdir command at the MATLAB prompt, as in the following example:
```
prefdir
ans =
C:\WINNT\Profiles\username\Application Data\MathWorks\MATLAB\R2009b
```
username is the user name of the person running the uninstaller.
(Optional) Choose whether to delete download archive files. If your MATLAB installation folder contains the archive files for downloaded products, the uninstaller displays a message asking if you want to delete these archive files. The installer stores these archive files in the matlabroot/archives folder of your installation. To remove these files, click Yes.
To proceed with the removal, click the Uninstall button. The uninstaller displays the status of the operation as it progresses and displays a dialog box when the operation is complete. Click Finish to exit the uninstaller. When you uninstall a MATLAB installation, the uninstaller displays a dialog box suggesting that you deactivate the installation. For complete information about deactivation, see Deactivating a License.

Deactivating a License

Deactivating a license renders the MathWorks software unusable on a particular computer. Deactivation can be a useful way to manage usage of the software on multiple computers. For example, if you want to install and activate the software on a new computer, and you've already performed all the activations allowed by your license, you can deactivate one of your existing installations to enable activation on your new computer.

The deactivation process has two parts: the license must be deactivated on your computer and must also be deactivated in MathWorks systems. If you have Internet connectivity, the MathWorks deactivation application can take care of both parts of the process. If you do not have Internet connectivity, the deactivation application disables the software on your computer and gives you a deactivation string. To complete the deactivation process, you must visit the MathWorks Web site and enter the deactivation string. When you deactivate a license, you deactivate all the installations of that license on a particular computer.

Note Deactivating a license and removing the software are separate activities. You can deactivate a license without removing the software from your computer. For information about removing an installation, see Uninstalling MathWorks Products.

To deactivate a license on your computer, follow this procedure:

Start the deactivation application, using any of the following methods:
- Click the Windows Start menu and choose Programs > MATLAB > R2009b > Deactivate MATLAB R2009b.
- Choose to start deactivation after running the uninstaller.
- Choose to start deactivation after a validation check that finds the installation is inactive.
- Choose the deactivate option from the Help > Licensing menu in the MATLAB desktop.
- Navigate to your MATLAB installation folder, open the uninstall folder, and double-click deactivate_matlab.exe.
Select the license that you want to deactivate and click Deactivate.
When the deactivation application starts, it displays the licenses you currently have installed and activated on your system. If you start the application from within MATLAB, the license you are using is preselected.

If your Internet connection requires a proxy server, click the Connection Settings button and enter the server name and port information. Click OK to return to the MathWorks Software Deactivation dialog box.
Confirm deactivation. Click Yes and the deactivation application attempts to contact the MathWorks.
Complete deactivation. Click OK.
If the deactivation application can deactivate the license on your computer and in MathWorks systems, it displays the Deactivation Complete dialog box. Click OK to return to the MathWorks Software Deactivation dialog box, where you can choose to deactivate other licenses.

If the deactivation application can deactivate the license on your computer but not in MathWorks systems, it displays the Deactivation Next Steps dialog box. This dialog box contains the deactivation string. To complete deactivation, you must go to the MathWorks Web site, log in to your account, and enter the deactivation string. See the License Center help for more information. Click OK to return to the MathWorks Software Deactivation dialog box.
Select another license from the list and click Deactivate to repeat the deactivation procedure, or click Close to exit the deactivation application. After you deactivate a license, the MathWorks Software Deactivation dialog box displays an additional column listing the status of the licenses.

Running the Uninstall Program Noninteractively

To run the uninstaller noninteractively, perform these steps:

Create an uninstaller initialization file.
Make a copy of the uninstaller initialization template file, named uninstaller.ini, located in the uninstall folder in your MATLAB installation folder.
```
copy matlabroot\uninstall\uninstaller.ini C:\temp\my_uninstall.ini
```
Open your copy of the initialization file using any text editor, and enter all the required information. For example, use the directory parameter to specify the name of the root folder of the installation you want to remove:
```
directory=C:\Program Files\MATLAB\R2009b
```
In this initialization file, you can specify the name of the products you want to remove and other parameters. By default, the uninstaller removes all products. If your initialization file is missing a required parameter, the uninstaller stops and writes an error to the output log. Two optional parameters you might want to set are:
- visible= — By default, when you run the uninstaller in silent mode, the uninstaller still displays the dialog box, even though no interactive response is required. If you want to suppress the display of this dialog box, set the value of the visible parameter to false.
```
 visible=false
```
- outlog= — To request that the uninstaller create an output log file that reports the status of removing an installation, specify the full path as the value of the outlog parameter.
```
 outlog=C:\temp\my_uninstall.log
```
Save your changes to the file.
Run the uninstaller (uninstall.exe), using the -if flag to specify the initialization file as a command-line argument.
For example, click the Start button and select the Run option. In the Run dialog box, enter the uninstall command, specifying the full path of the initialization file as a command-line argument:
```
uninstall.exe -if C:\temp\my_uninstall.ini
```

After You Install

System Requirements

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