How to uninstall Wins on Mac

Copy wanted Wins settings before removing this window manager. Keep your license details for a reinstall; the support page links its License Manager for device bindings, which are separate from local app removal.

Quit and preserve settings

Finish window-management actions and quit Wins. Copy wanted existing ~/Library/Application Support/cools.wins.main and ~/Library/Application Support/Wins outside sync/removal roots before clearing them; these app-state locations come from the cask, not a vendor backup guarantee. After backup, follow Apple's Finder removal instructions and move Wins.app from Applications to the Trash.

The recorded app registered a cool.wins.WinsHelper login helper. If it still appears in System Settings › General › Login Items & Extensions, review only that owned entry, keeping other login items. An app's absence does not alone prove all helper registrations are gone.

If you installed it with Homebrew

The cask unloads cool.wins.WinsHelper during ordinary uninstall, independently of zap:

brew uninstall --cask wins

Zap additionally names both support folders above, ~/Library/Application Scripts/cool.wins.WinsHelper, ~/Library/Containers/cool.wins.WinsHelper, ~/Library/Containers/WinsHelper, ~/Library/Caches/cools.wins.main, ~/Library/HTTPStorages/cools.wins.main*, ~/Library/PreferencePanes/Wins.prefPane, ~/Library/Preferences/cools.wins.main.plist, ~/Library/WebKit/cools.wins.main, and matching cool.wins.*.sfl* and cools.wins.*.sfl* entries in ~/Library/Application Support/com.apple.sharedfilelist/com.apple.LSSharedFileList.ApplicationRecentDocuments. Inspect exact matches, preserving shared parents and wanted settings.

Direct brew uninstall --cask --zap wins ignores Mole's checkboxes. Mole uses zap only when the whole scope passes selection, ownership and safety checks; selected remnants otherwise use its own Trash flow. Ordinary helper unloading does not depend on zap selection.

Check the result

pgrep -ifl wins
launchctl list | grep -F cool.wins.WinsHelper
ls -ld "$HOME/Library/Application Support/cools.wins.main" "$HOME/Library/Application Support/Wins"

The broad process pattern can match other apps; inspect executable paths. No match means this pattern found none. With a successful launchd read and no errors, no matching row means no matching job in that user list. Printed folders remain, expected if kept; missing-path errors concern those folders only, other errors are inconclusive.

What Mole lists

The exact main-ID support folder can be selected by default; the display-name support folder and differently identified cool.wins.WinsHelper data require review. With Remove data and settings with apps off, reviewed data starts unchecked; enabling it can preselect eligible unshared rows. The helper ID does not continue the main cools.wins.main ID, so it does not inherit the main container's selection merely by being bundled.

What this test covered

The official-download Wins 3.6 app-copy removal was recorded on September 23, 2026, and separately rechecked on September 26. The selected reviewed app/data list was removed and the login helper no longer appeared afterward. The PreferencePane was absent in the first run. Settings restoration, license transfer and Homebrew were not tested.