I installed a trial of Naturally Speaking and it automatically installed ISUSPM (Flexnet software updater) on my new Windows 10 PC. I can't figure out how to remove it because it doesn't show up under Windows uninstaller or other uninstaller programs. I see ISUSPM.exe pop up when starting my PC and I want this thing gone. Here are the file locations:
Program Files (x86)Common FilesInstallShieldUpdateISUSPM.exe
Program Files (x86)Common FilesInstallShieldUpdateService_isusres.dll
Program Files (x86)Common FilesInstallShieldUpdateServiceagent.exe
ProgramDataFLEXnetConnect11_ispmres.dll
ProgramDataFLEXnetConnect11_isusres.dll
ProgramDataFLEXnetConnect11agent.exe
ProgramDataFLEXnetConnect11ISDM.exe
ProgramDataFLEXnetConnect11issch.exe
ProgramDataFLEXnetConnect11ISUSPM.exe
ProgramDataFLEXnetConnect11isusweb.cat
ProgramDataFLEXnetConnect11isusweb.dll
ProgramDataFLEXnetConnect11products.fnc-xml
To be more confusing, there's also ProgramDataInstallshieldUpdateisuspm.ini. This is listed in autoruns as "Optimize Thumbnail cache Files". There are no other files in this folder.
If I click on agent.exe in ProgramDataFLEXnetConnect11, it runs "FLEXnet Connect Agent (32-bit) in the task manager.
If I click on agent.exe in Program Files (x86)Common FilesInstallShieldUpdateService, it runs "Macrovision Software manager Agent (32-bit) in the task manager.
Both files show dates as having been installed or updated tonight when I installed Naturally Speaking.
I found a tool that supposdekly lets me uninstall this. Here are the instructions:
1Download the FlexNet Connect Software Manager Uninstall program from the Flexera Software website.
2 Click the "Start" button Windows and select "All Programs." Click on the "FlexNet Software Manager" to start the application
3 Click on the "Settings" button in the window that appears. Change the frequency of the automated update checks to "Manually" for the "Critical" and "Important" updates.
4 Run the FlexNet Connect Software Manager Uninstall program to remove the FlexNet Connect Software Manager registry-key settings.
5 Press "Alt." Ctrl" and "Delete" on your keyboard, and click on "Start Task Manager." Click "isuspm.exe" from the list and click the "End Process" button.
6 Browse to "c:program filescommon filesinstallshieldupdateservice" in the Windows Explorer window, press the "Delete" key and click the "OK" button to remove the FlexNet Connect Software Manager from your computer.
So I did everything except step 6. It says I can just delete the UpdateService" folder. Okay, but it only contains 2 files. ISUSPM is actually in the other folder (Program Files (x86)Common FilesInstallShieldUpdate). Plus it's also in ProgramDataFLEXnetConnect11. So I'm very confused. What can I do to remove all of this. Why does Program Files (x86)Common FilesInstallShieldUpdateServiceagent.exe run the Macrovision Software manager Agent? I don't want to remove something I shouldn't. If I run ISUSPM.exe from the Common Files folder, it tries to connect to the internet but then doesn't seem to run the software. It's like some files are already deleted or missing (Elsewhere I've read that tool only removes certain versions - maybe that's what the uninstall tool did, and left other versions behind?). The instructions don't mention anything about the Program FilesFLEXnet folder. I have no idea now if other software that relied on ISUSPM are affected. If I run ISUSPM from the ProgramData/FLEXnet folder, it runs the software updater program, which lists Naturally Speaking but nothing else.
What do I do to get rid of all this? I could try uninstalling Naturally speaking but I'd like to leave it installed for now.
Any help with this Installshield ISUSMPM mess?
I uninstalled Naturally Speaking and that left only 1 file remaining in the ProgramDataFLEXnetConnect11 folder - products.fnc-xml. So I just deleted the FLEXnet folder in ProgramData. So I'm guessing whatever FLEXnet is it won't be bothering me again.
That left me with:
Program Files (x86)Common FilesInstallShieldUpdateISUSPM.exe
Program Files (x86)Common FilesInstallShieldUpdateService\_isusres.dll
Program Files (x86)Common FilesInstallShieldUpdateServiceagent.exe
ProgramDataInstallshieldUpdateisuspm.ini
I just moved those files out into a backup location just in case. Now in the Program Files (x86)Common FilesInstallShield folder there are 3 other folders with files inside that I didn't touch:
Engine
IScript
Professional
I don't know what those are so I'm leaving them alone. I'm afraid somewhere in here now I may have made a mess moving and deleting these Installshield files. There was a scheduled task calling ISUSPM to run "Optimize Thumbnail Cache Files". No idea what that is and I can't find anything at all about it or if it was part of Windows scheduled tasks or if it was put there by something else. I deleted it because it called upon ISUSPM. Does anyone know what that is? Naturally speaking made a mess out of my new PC with all this Installshield ISUSPM garbage, and it doesn't help that it's in multiple places. I sure hope I didn't mess things up on my new PC already trying to get rid of this junk.
See your other post.
