I recently developed a tool for Windows that can remove one or all libraries installed for Bodule's version of Kontakt 8. It'll completely remove them from the system, including the registry and cache locations.

Repository: https://github.com/jakerieger/K8-LRT
Latest Version: https://github.com/jakerieger/K8-LRT/releases/latest

Hopefully some of you guys find this useful. It's also open source so any contributions are welcome (please open an issue first, though)

UPDATE: Version 1.1.0 is out now and fixes some problems with the initial 1.0 release.

 

Last edited: Jan 26, 2026 at 9:24 PM

I appreciate it, I've been doing it manually for a long time and never really thought about coding something to take care of the grunt work.

 

Nice, very nice! In good old C on top of that
I'll make sure to test it. Good job

 

Thanks very useful. I really appreciate it.

 

failed to start

 

If you can, open an issue on the GitHub repository with your system information (OS, specs) and the attached K8-LRT.log file (same location as the .exe). Only Windows 7 through 11 are supported so if you're running one of those Windows versions, it's likely a bug.

 

Btw, haven't seen a bi-weekly kontakt sampler update in a while now. Oh CRAP, I jinxed it...

 

I write everything in C, the way God intended ;)

 

Great line
I learned to program in C and loved it, but ended writing PHP/MySQL for work so I'm rusty as f*ck

I browsed a bit your repos and damn, pretty exciting stuff. I'll test this tool today or tomorrow tops and give feedback

 

Just a stupid thing -how does it work. When I start the exe I get the information that I have not libraries installed. Which is defintely not - but yes they are located and registered in a different location as Kontakt would normally expect them to be.

 

The tool checks the registry for key entries under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Native Instruments (standard location for NI products). If you don't have any keys present there, then my tool won't find any libraries. Do you perhaps have any keys under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Native Instruments? This is an additional location in the registry keys might be stored, although in my testing its very rare.

 

Thank your for coming back to me - I have all my libraries registered here Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Native Instruments\
ie. Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Native Instruments\Bernard Herrmann Composer Toolkit. So that looks right? Doesn`t it?
The libraries itself are stored on a seperated sssd hub.

 

Hm okay, so that is in fact the correct location. I'll DM you.

 

Thank you! Funny thing is my first internship was web stuff with PHP/MySQL and I haven't touched it since.

 

Getting "Failed to query libraries" error

 

Try this version and if it gives you the same error, upload your K8-LRT.log file so I can see what's going on (same location as exe). You can also go to Menu->View Log and paste the contents here but log file will reduce thread clutter.

 

Thanks. This is where it errored. I don't remember installing that so not sure how there's a registry entry.

Spoiler: Log

[2026-01-27 01:00:26.918] [INFO] Found registry entry: '70 DVZ Strings'
[2026-01-27 01:00:26.918] [ERROR] Failed to retrieve ContentDir value for registry key: 'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Native Instruments\70 DVZ Strings'
[2026-01-27 01:00:28.579] [DEBUG] Detached debug console

 

Last edited: Jan 27, 2026 at 2:42 PM

Interesting that you didnt install the only entry present. If you go in RegEdit and look under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Native Instruments do you have any keys?

I’ll also remove the hard fail for missing a ContentDir value so that won’t just nuke the program. Thanks for posting your log.

Another previous reply mentioned a similar issue but I’m still waiting on their response. I’ll have a patch within the next 24 hours.

 

Sorry that wasn't the full log. Under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Native Instruments I have a ton of entries, including libraries I didn't install (weird). Looks like it errored when it hit a library with a missing ContentDir.

Spoiler: K8-LRT.log

[2026-01-26 20:24:36.497] [INFO] --- K8-LRT Started ---
[2026-01-26 20:24:36.497] [WARN] Failed to attach debug console (process must be executed from within a shell)
[2026-01-26 20:24:36.498] [INFO] Enabled registry backup privileges
[2026-01-26 20:24:39.456] [INFO] Found registry entry: '24K Drums'
[2026-01-26 20:24:39.456] [INFO] Found library entry: '24K Drums (Z:\MasterLibrary\Instruments\Kontakt\+libraries\Native Instruments\Play Series\24K Drums Library)'
[2026-01-26 20:24:39.457] [INFO] Found registry entry: '24K Keys'
[2026-01-26 20:24:39.457] [INFO] Found library entry: '24K Keys (Z:\MasterLibrary\Instruments\Kontakt\+libraries\Native Instruments\Play Series\24K Keys Library)'
[2026-01-26 20:24:39.457] [INFO] Found registry entry: '40s Very Own - Drums'
[2026-01-26 20:24:39.480] [INFO] Found library entry: '40s Very Own - Drums (Z:\MasterLibrary\Instruments\NI\40s Very Own - Drums Library)'
[2026-01-26 20:24:39.480] [INFO] Found registry entry: '40s Very Own - Keys'
[2026-01-26 20:24:39.480] [INFO] Found library entry: '40s Very Own - Keys (Z:\MasterLibrary\Instruments\NI\40s Very Own - Keys Library)'
[2026-01-26 20:24:39.480] [INFO] Found registry entry: '70 DVZ Strings'
[2026-01-26 20:24:39.480] [ERROR] Failed to retrieve ContentDir value for registry key: 'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Native Instruments\70 DVZ Strings'
[2026-01-26 20:24:41.416] [DEBUG] Detached debug console
[2026-01-26 20:24:41.416] [INFO] --- K8-LRT Stopped ---

 

Sounds like your tool should do a registry search of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ for any NI library related entries and report back the findings to the user. Then the user can take over to point the tool at the proper area of interest.

Like a "Locate Libraries" button in case the system has libraries stored in abstract locations...