How to uninstall balenaEtcher on Windows
This guide covers balenaEtcher 2.1.7 installed per-user from the official installer used by the Balena.Etcher winget package. Keep any disk images you want to use again, and wait for an active flash operation to finish before uninstalling.
Quit balenaEtcher and uninstall it
Close balenaEtcher, then check Task Manager for remaining balenaEtcher or etcher-util processes. Open Settings › Apps › Installed apps, find balenaEtcher and choose Uninstall, or run:
winget uninstall --id Balena.Etcher --exact
The measured installation used its registered Squirrel uninstaller. Do not delete the program directory instead of uninstalling.
Where the files live
These locations were observed in this test.
| Location | What it holds | What to do |
|---|---|---|
%LOCALAPPDATA%\balena_etcher |
Program and update files | Uninstall first, then check what remains |
%APPDATA%\balenaEtcher |
Local application settings and Electron data | Copy it first if you want to keep settings |
Cache, Code Cache, Crashpad, DawnGraphiteCache, DawnWebGPUCache and GPUCache inside that profile |
Cache and crash-report data | Can be removed separately from the settings |
%APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Balena Ltd and the balenaEtcher desktop shortcut |
Launch shortcuts | Check after uninstalling |
HKCU\SOFTWARE\Classes\etcher |
The app's link registration | Check whether it remains after removal |
Keep disk images and personal files you saved outside these application directories. This test did not verify image-file retention or a flash operation.
Check the result
Get-Process balenaEtcher,etcher-util -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
winget list --id Balena.Etcher --exact
Test-Path "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\balena_etcher"
Test-Path "$env:APPDATA\balenaEtcher"
Test-Path "$env:APPDATA\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Balena Ltd"
Test-Path (Join-Path ([Environment]::GetFolderPath('Desktop')) 'balenaEtcher.lnk')
Test-Path 'HKCU:\SOFTWARE\Classes\etcher'
No process output means the query observed no matching process; a suppressed error leaves that check unresolved. A successful winget query without a matching record means that package record is absent. Test-Path returning True means the location remains; False means it was not found by that query. Resolve query or access errors before concluding that removal finished.
What Mole lists
The program, shortcuts, owned link registration and usage records are selected by default. The six cache and crash-report directories above are separate default-selected rows. The whole %APPDATA%\balenaEtcher profile is listed but not selected by default; leave it unchecked to retain settings. Selected files go to the Recycle Bin, and the owned registry link is backed up before removal.
What this test covered
Tested on October 6, 2026, in a Windows 11 ARM64 VM with a source-built Mole. First launch, native icon, size, Status, Startup and the uninstall review were observed. This run selected the ordinary profile row as well as the default-selected rows, then completed one vendor uninstall. The registration, program, selected data, link, shortcuts and owned processes were independently absent afterward. The update page listed the installed version, which does not prove an upgrade. Disk flashing, real image files, settings recovery, external-uninstall detection and the downloadable Mole package were not tested.