How to uninstall 7-Zip on Windows

7-Zip keeps almost nothing of its own outside its program folder: your archives stay where you saved them, and its settings (the archive history, the folders you opened last, the options you changed) sit in one registry key. Note any option you changed if you want the same setup after reinstalling. This guide covers 7-Zip installed machine-wide in %ProgramFiles%\7-Zip, the layout the 7zip.7zip winget package uses.

Quit 7-Zip first

Close every 7-Zip File Manager window and let any extraction or compression finish. 7-Zip has no tray icon, startup entry or service. Check Task Manager (Ctrl+Shift+Esc) for 7zFM.exe or 7zG.exe before you uninstall; a File Explorer window with the 7-Zip right-click menu open can also keep its menu extension loaded, so close those too.

Remove the app with its own uninstaller

Go to Settings › Apps › Installed apps, find 7-Zip, and choose Uninstall, or run:

winget uninstall --id 7zip.7zip

A machine-wide install asks for administrator access.

Where the data lives

Location	What it holds	What to do
`%ProgramFiles%\7-Zip`	The program, its language files and help	Removed by the uninstaller
Start Menu `7-Zip` folder (all users)	The shortcut to 7-Zip File Manager	Removed by the uninstaller
`HKCU\SOFTWARE\7-Zip`	Your 7-Zip settings and history	Keep it if you might reinstall; safe to remove for a clean start

7-Zip's right-click menu is registered for the whole machine, not in your user profile. It belongs to the program and is not something to clean up by hand.

Check the result

Run these read-only commands after the uninstall finishes:

Get-Process 7zFM, 7zG -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
winget list --id 7zip.7zip
Test-Path "$env:ProgramFiles\7-Zip"
Get-ItemProperty "HKCU:\SOFTWARE\7-Zip" -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue

No output from Get-Process only means this query observed no matching process; a suppressed error leaves the running state unknown.
A completed winget list query with no match means the package record is gone; a matching row means the uninstall did not finish.
Test-Path returning False means the program folder is gone; True means files remain there, which can happen when File Explorer still had the menu extension loaded. Sign out and back in, then check again.
Get-ItemProperty printing values means your settings key is still there, which is expected unless you removed it yourself.

If you installed it with winget

winget uninstall runs the same uninstaller Settings › Apps uses and removes the same program files; it does not touch HKCU\SOFTWARE\7-Zip.

What Mole lists

For 7-Zip installed machine-wide:

The program folder goes with the app row, and the Start Menu 7-Zip folder and a row grouping Windows' own records of when you opened the program are selected by default.
HKCU\SOFTWARE\7-Zip is listed but not selected, since it holds your settings. Mole backs a registry key up to a .reg file before removing it.
The right-click menu registration is machine-wide and is not listed.

What this test covered

Checked on September 27, 2026 with 7-Zip 26.03 (ARM64), installed machine-wide and in daily use on the test PC. This test read the review Mole shows for the installed app and did not run the uninstall, so whether the uninstaller removes every file and the right-click menu was not verified here.