Uninstalling the SMTP service in Windows Server 2008
I had previously installed a third party SMTP application (MailEnable) on Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1. However, I then decided to remove it and install Microsoft Exchange 2010 instead.
Unfortunately, the SMTP service component gets left behind and causes the Exchange installer pre-requisite checker to fail saying that the SMTP service must first be removed. However, the component does not get listed with the rest of the IIS components in the Server Manager snap-in.
To identify it run this command to enumerate the components:
servermanagercmd -q
The component name is the value between the square brackets.
It should come up in green with a cross in the checkbox.
Removal is then simple enough using an administratively-elevated PowerShell prompt:
Import-Module Servermanager
Remove-WindowsFeature SMTP-Server -restart
This will restart the machine too to complete the uninstall.
If PowerShell isn’t available for some reason then this can all be done from an old-style administratively-elevated command-prompt:
ServerManagerCmd.exe -query
ServerManagerCmd.exe -remove SMTP-Server-restart
many thanks, exactly was I was looking for
Nice, thank you!