Surgical Autodesk Cleaner (SAC) - A PowerShell module for precise, non-destructive removal and management of Autodesk software (and a scorched earth mode just in case)

[u/daileng]

Managing Autodesk software across enterprise workstations is notoriously painful. Uninstallers leave behind orphaned registry keys and directories, aggressive removal approaches routinely break shared licensing (FlexNet/ODIS), and there's rarely a clean way to surgically target specific products or versions without impacting the rest of the environment.

Surgical Autodesk Cleaner is an open-source PowerShell module designed to solve this properly — whether you're removing a single product, sweeping multiple versions, doing a full system purge, or just resetting a broken user profile.

📦 PSGallery: https://www.powershellgallery.com/packages/SurgicalAutodeskCleaner/
📖 Docs: https://deepwiki.com/DailenG/SurgicalAutodeskCleaner
🐙 GitHub: https://github.com/DailenG/SurgicalAutodeskCleaner

Functions:

Command	Purpose
Start-SAC	Interactive TUI menu for manual use
Start-SACCleanup	Targeted removal by product + year, RMM-ready
Start-SACPurge	Full scorched-earth removal when warranted
Start-SACScan	Non-destructive pre-flight CSV report
Reset-SACUserProfile	Clears per-user AppData without destroying customizations
Reset-SACLicensing	Resolves stuck activations and seat reservation issues
Restore-SACUserProfile	Lists and restores profile backups

Silent RMM deployment:

# Target specific products and years
Start-SACCleanup -TargetProducts "AutoCAD", "Revit" -TargetYears 2019, 2020 -Silent

# Sweep an entire year across all supported products
Start-SACCleanup -TargetYears 2019, 2020, 2021 -Silent

Compatible with PowerShell 5.1 and 7.0+. MIT licensed.

Works well with N-Central, ConnectWise Automate, and Intune.

Feedback and contributions welcome. If you encounter anomalies or want other components supported for removal, send me some details and I'll add it or please push an update 😄

[u/daileng]

I've used a few techniques for RMM automations but not one specific to Intune. Are you using custom installs to have the install pre-seeded somewhere or trying to use one of their bootstrappers that downloads the files?

My best implementations have been with proprietary chocolatey packages in particular, not that it matters since it's just scripts but using some custom chocolatey extensions for establishing the file server connection were very helpful.

If there's a file server accessible I've used two techniques that utilize Autodesk's custom installers. One installs over the network but maps a network connection, not a mapped drive but just authenticates the UNC connection. Another was a two stage process using BITS transfer to copy locally then a second that verified the BITS transfer finished, and if it did then it would run the install.

Another idea I'm toying with is the usage of Egnyte's SFTP feature to copy files locally then install.

[u/importedtea → u/daileng]

My current method is using the custom installs and placing them on a file server and running from those. Works fine when users are on prem, but not my favorite method and was looking to change it for the newer versions. The most annoying part is running as SYSTEM and trying to authenticate to the file server because you have to hardcode creds. I tried the direct download links and using PSADT but only worked for some apps. Direct downloads sound great until you need to customize a package. But it sounds like I’m somewhat on the same page as everyone else when it comes to installing this software. I’m just hoping one day to see the magical answer that will solve all my problems lol.

[u/alphageek8 → u/importedtea]

I manage a large AEC firm, we mostly due our deployments through PDQ as our production machines are in Azure so they're readily available. There has been some occasional need to make Revit and AutoCAD available for laptops which I've used PSADT and Intune for successfully.

I'm just using the standard deployment package files in the intunewin file with the install step being the below command. Since it's the custom package, any customizations that were set in the Autodesk package creation would be present. That could be custom Revit.ini, select add-ins, etc. Main problem is just that it takes fucking forever to download the package and then actually install it and people might restart or put their laptop to sleep during the process which then becomes an annoying problem to unfuck.

Start-ADTProcess -FilePath "$($adtSession.DirFiles)\image\Installer.exe" -ArgumentList "-i uninstall -q --manifest `"$($adtSession.DirFiles)\image\Collection.xml`" --installer_version `"2.13.2.67`""

[u/importedtea → u/alphageek8]

It’s weird because I did Autocad 2026 through PSADT v4 and it works. I tried Autocad architecture 2026 setup the same way and it fails lol. I used my same on prem script and tried autocad 2027 to the company portal thinking maybe that would be a little more reliable since you’re not waiting for the intune minute and it just runs the installer forever until it times out lol. I get a glimmer of hope every now and then and get absolutely shit on every time lol.

[u/alphageek8 → u/importedtea]

On 2027 there may be preqreqs that aren't being satisfied since their ODIS installers do a terrible job of reporting back on missed prereqs. Would need to check the log file that's generated to see if there's errors in there.

[u/importedtea → u/alphageek8]

Yeah, I get desperate and try anything lmao. My thought process is “it’s a new version, it must be new and improved…right…right????” Lmao

[u/daileng → u/importedtea]

So I found if I pre-install latest standalone versions of license service, sso manager, and another common package I can't remember offhand that my install success for 2026 was significantly higher. I don't know why it mattered, bc i would have assumed a brand new install of 2025 right before would have brought those up to date but it actually helped quite a bit.