Uninstalling Your SAS Software : SAS Help Center

Overview of Uninstalling Your SAS Software

SAS provides two methods for uninstalling:

interactively

Use the Uninstall SAS Software task in the .
non-interactively
- Run the SAS Deployment Manager silently using a response file.
- Run the SAS Deployment Manager silently without using a response file.

Note: The SAS Deployment Agent is removed through a different task in the SAS Deployment Manager. Therefore, the deployment agents must be stopped and removed manually before uninstalling SAS. For more information, see the SAS Deployment Wizard and SAS Deployment Manager: User’s Guide. Starting at SAS 9.4M9, there is one exception. If you are uninstalling your SAS software on Windows, the SAS Deployment Agent service is stopped and removed automatically by the Uninstall SAS Software task in SAS Deployment Manager.

Uninstall SAS Interactively

To uninstall SAS software interactively using the SAS Deployment Manager user interface, perform these steps:

Make sure that you have stopped your SAS servers by following the instructions described for the following operating systems:

On Windows systems, see Running Servers as Windows Services in SAS Intelligence Platform: System Administration Guide.

On UNIX or z/OS systems, see Use the sas.servers Script to Start, Stop, or Restart All Servers or to Display the Status of Servers in SAS Intelligence Platform: System Administration Guide.
Make sure that you are logged on as the SAS Installer user (the user account used to install the SAS Software) or as the Administrator (or a user in the Administrators group).
On the host machine for the products whose configurations you are removing, navigate to SAS-installation-directory/SASDeploymentManager/9.4 and launch sasdm.exe (Windows), sasdm.sh (UNIX), or sasdm.rexx (z/OS). On Windows, you can use the shortcut on the Start menu.
Select the language that you want the SAS Deployment Manager to use when it displays text.

The SAS Deployment Manager splash screen appears.
On the Select Deployment Manager Task window, choose Uninstall SAS Software and click Next.
In the Select SAS Products to Uninstall window, all SAS products are selected to be uninstalled. If there are any products that you want to retain, uncheck them. Or, you can choose to uninstall earlier versions of your SAS products (to free up disk space, for example).

Click Next.

The deployment wizard scans your machine to determine whether any SAS files are locked or do not have Write permission. If no action is required, click Next.

If the wizard lists any files in the text box, then while the wizard is still running, quit SAS, and add Write permission to each file listed. When you are finished, click Next.

A Summary page appears.
If there are any products that you want to keep, click Back until you see the Select SAS Products to Uninstall page and deselect the products. Otherwise, click Start.

The deployment manager uninstalls the selected SAS products.
When you see the Deployment Complete page, click Finish.

The deployment manager closes.
If you intend to remove all SAS software from the machine, follow the steps below:

CAUTION

The following steps remove all SAS 9 software from this machine.
- For UNIX and z/OS systems:
  
  For the SAS Installer user, delete the directory $HOME/.SASAppData.
  
  Delete your SAS installation directory (SASHome).
- For Windows systems:
  
  Delete your SAS installation directory (SASHome). The default location is: C:\Program Files\SASHome.

Uninstall SAS Manually (Windows Only)

These instructions are intended for use when SAS software cannot be uninstalled interactively using the SAS Deployment Manager, or remnants of past SAS installations need to be removed to prepare for re-installation of SAS 9.4 software.

Follow the steps below to manually uninstall all SAS 9.4 software from a Windows machine.

CAUTION

The following steps will completely remove all SAS 9 software from the machine. Proceed with caution and back up any necessary data before you continue.

Make sure that you are logged on as the SAS Installer user (the user account used to install the SAS Software) or as the Administrator (or a user in the Administrators group).
Close all SAS applications and stop any SAS services that might be running on the machine by following the instructions described in Stop SAS Servers That Are Running on Windows.

Note: If you do not have any SAS services installed on the machine, you can skip Steps' 6-9 below.
Delete the following folders:

Note: These are the default installation paths. Your SAS installation might be in different directories, and some of these folders might not exist on your machine.
- C:\SAS
- C:\Program Files\SASHome
- C:\Program Files (x86)\SASHome
- C:\ProgramData\SAS
- C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\SAS
- C:\Users\SAS-Installer-ID\AppData\Local\SAS
Launch Registry Editor (regedit.exe) as an Administrator.

CAUTION

Changes in the Windows registry can render your system unusable. Check key paths before deletion.
In the Registry Editor, locate and delete the following keys. Right-click each key → Delete → Confirm with Yes:
- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\SAS Institute Inc.
- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\SAS Institute Inc
Launch the Services console (services.msc) as an Administrator and identify any services beginning with SAS. If you do not have any SAS services, you do not need to continue with the remaining steps.
Launch Command Prompt (cmd.exe) as an Administrator.
To remove the SAS services, run the following command for each SAS listed in the Services console:
```
sc delete "ServiceName"
```
Note: Replace ServiceName with the actual name of each SAS service. The Service Name can be obtained from the properties of each SAS service in the Services console (Right-click → Properties → Copy the Service Name). Double quotation marks around the Service Name are required.

Here is an example:
```
sc delete "SAS [Config-Lev1] SASMeta - Metadata Server"
```
Repeat this command for each SAS service listed in the Services console. Refresh the Services console (Action > Refresh) to confirm all SAS services have been removed.

Uninstall SAS Non-Interactively (Silently)

To uninstall SAS without interacting with a graphical user interface (silently), you have two options:

Run the SAS Deployment Manager silently using a response file.

For example:
- On UNIX: ./sasdm.sh -quiet -responsefile /myresponse_file
- On z/OS: ./sasdm.rexx -quiet -responsefile /myresponse_file
- On Windows: sasdm.exe -quiet -responsefile c:\myresponse_file
  
  In order to create a response file, you must run the deployment manager and perform an uninstall using the -record option. This is similar to recording a response file for deploying SAS using the . For more information, see Automating the SAS Installation on Multiple Machines.
Run the SAS Deployment Manager silently without a using a response file.

For example:
- On UNIX: ./sasdm.sh -quiet -uninstallall
- On z/OS: ./sasdm.rexx -quiet -uninstallall
- On Windows: .\sasdm.exe -quiet -uninstallall
  
  The above commands assume that the current working directory is SAS-installation-directory/SASDeploymentManager/9.4. The advantage of uninstalling without a response file is that you run the deployment manager one time. Although, all SAS software on the machine is uninstalled; you cannot choose to uninstall a subset of SAS products. A single uninstall command also facilitates using the command in script files.