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Q: How do I completely uninstall Sony Vegas Pro or Sony Vegas Movie Studio from Windows 8.1?

Answer: If something goes wrong with Vegas Pro, Vegas Movie Studio Platinum or any other Magix/Sony program and nothing you do seems to fix the problem, the best solution is to do a clean uninstall and reinstall.

A "clean" uninstall will uninstall the application and remove all traces of it from your PC. Doing this can sometimes remove problems that are impossible to discover by yourself. After you remove all traces of Vegas from your PC, you can then re-install the program from a fresh copy of Vegas.

Important - Please Read the following Before you Proceed !

Are you removing a Sony program or Magix/Vegas program ?

Sony Creative Software use to own Vegas, but in 2016, Magix Software bought Vegas from Sony and is now releasing Magix/Vegas versions of VEGAS. You need to follow the instructions below, that are for the version of Vegas you own and ignore everything else.

For MAGIX Vegas Pro 13 (build 543), 14, 15 & 16 and/or MAGIX Vegas Movie Studio Platinum 13 (build 987), 14 & 15 follow the instructions here.

For Sony Vegas Pro (version 13, build 453 and older) and/or Sony Vegas Movie Studio Platinum (version 13, build 955 and older:

Warning - Please read !

This procedure is potentially hazardous, if you do not follow the instructions correctly. Do it at your own risk. Take backups of your system drive and registry before you proceed, if you are not an advanced computer user.

Step 1 - Before doing a Clean Reinstall, it is important to do the following

  • Warning: This procedure is potentially hazardous. Do it at your own risk. Take backups of your system drive and registry before you proceed.

  • All audio and video effects chains and presets will be erased, so if you need to make a back up of your presets please download our Preset Manager program. For more information about backing up presets: How to back up and restore audio presets | How to backup and restore video presets

  • Safely disconnect any external USB or Firewire devices like hard-drives or dongles.

  • Temporarily turn off ALL anti-virus and security services. These applications have been known to interfere with software installation and registration.

Step 2 - Uninstall the Programs you want to remove

In the search box next to the Windows Start button, type "Control Panel" and select Control Panel from the results.

In the search box located in the top right corner of the Control Panel, type "program" and select Uninstall a Program from the options - this will open the Programs & Features window.

I recommend pressing on top of the Publisher column, which will alphabetically sort all your programs by Publisher. If the Publisher column is not turned on, right-click the Name column and turn on Publisher.

If you are uninstalling an older Sony version of Vegas, look for programs listed under Sony.

Step 3

Once uninstalled, delete the following folders, if they're present on the machine.

If not, please continue with the instructions. Do not delete these entire folders if you have other Sony applications installed. Only delete the folder for the Sony Creative Software application you are using as well as the Shared Plug-Ins folder.

  • C:\Program Files\Sony\

  • C:\Program Files (x86)\Sony\

  • C:\Program Files\Sony Setup

Step 4

WARNING: The next step will require you to delete Windows Registry Keys. The Registry is a very sensitive area to work in. If you are not comfortable with advanced configuration and system changes, ask an administrator to help you with this.

Related Topics: How to back up and restore the registry in Windows

Next, open the Registry Editor. Press Windows Key + Q and type REGEDIT in the 'Start Search' box.
Press enter on your keyboard.

In the Registry Editor, locate and delete the application folder found within the following registry entries (e.g. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Sony Creative Software\Vegas Pro)

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Sony Creative Software

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Sony Creative Software

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Wow6432Node\Sony Creative Software

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Sony Creative Software

(Depending on which product and version you have installed, you may see one or more of these entries. If you do not see all of these, that is normal. Delete those which you do find.)

Close the Registry Editor.

Step 5

After removing all of the previous items, you may download and re-install from this link:

Sony Creative Software and Vegas (MAGIX) Creative Software program downloads

When finished with all re-installation, please restart your computer. When your computer has restarted, you will have a completely clean installation.

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