Recently I discussed with an individual at Autodesk how to reset a Revit installation back to its “default” state.  The default state being without add-in software or other customizations. That goes beyond a simple “complete” uninstall (which still leaves files/info behind) and includes information such as how to remove add-ins, remove material libraries, and restoring the Ribbon and Quick Access toolbar to their defaults.  Here are the findings from that discussion:

A normal uninstall and reinstall of Revit, will not clear any customizations, since the uninstall process will only remove files and registry keys created during the installation, and not any new files/add-ins that were installed/created separately.

The following document has instructions on cleanly removing Revit prior to reinstalling:

2012: How to Complete a Clean Install [Uninstall] of Revit products

http://usa.autodesk.com/getdoc/id=TS16828836

Alternatively, you can use the instructions from the following blog posting to remove the add-ins directly:

http://revitclinic.typepad.com/my_weblog/2010/05/disable-addins-for-revit-2011-products.html

Note: Since the blog posting was written for the 2011 software, you will need to replace “2011” in the instructions with “2012”.

If you want to restore the Ribbon, and Quick Access toolbar to the default settings, you can use the following document:

Resetting the Autodesk Revit 2012 user interface

http://usa.autodesk.com/getdoc/id=TS16825244