Ashampoo has announced that its application remover Ashampoo Uninstaller is now free for anyone to download and use.

It may not look that way when you install it – there are still prompts for licence keys – but register with your email address and you’ll get a free key immediately.

The main issue with Ashampoo Uninstaller is that it’s not seen a major update since 2012, and presumably won’t be getting one in the future, either.

But the company says it’s fully compatible with everything from Windows XP – 10, and there’s still more than enough power here to make it interesting.

Yes, it’s old. And “free” is probably the right price. But Ashampoo Uninstaller is still worth a look

The ability to monitor installations is a highlight. Install a program this way and Ashampoo Uninstaller tracks all the changes it makes, giving you a much better chance of cleanly removing it later.

The program can also detect and remove orphaned files and Registry keys left by a regular uninstall.

Integrated Drive and Registry Cleaners scan your system to find and delete the remnants of other applications.

There are a pile of other PC maintenance tools, including an internet cleaner, drive defragger, duplicate file finder, startup program manager, system restore point manager, undeleter and secure file wiper.

These modules aren’t exactly what we’d call leading edge, but they’re more capable than some of the competition. The Startup Manager won’t persuade you to dump Autoruns, for instance, but it does at least provide user-based ratings for your programs, to help you decide exactly what to keep.

Ashampoo Uninstaller isn’t a great product, then, but its installation monitoring still helps it stand out from the crowd. Give it a try.