How to uninstall CodeBuddy on Windows

CodeBuddy is Tencent's AI code editor, built on VS Code. Removing it does not touch your projects, but its uninstaller leaves your settings in %APPDATA%\CodeBuddy and your extensions, plugins and MCP settings in %USERPROFILE%\.codebuddy, so decide on each before you delete anything. If you use Tencent's WorkBuddy or the CodeBuddy command-line tool, they read .codebuddy too. This guide covers the international CodeBuddy installed per-user from Tencent's installer; CodeBuddy CN, the mainland edition, is a separate app.

Quit CodeBuddy first

Save your work and close every CodeBuddy window, then check Task Manager (Ctrl+Shift+Esc) that no CodeBuddy.exe is still listed; it runs more than a dozen of them. CodeBuddy added no startup entry in this test.

Remove the app with its own uninstaller

Go to Settings › Apps › Installed apps, find CodeBuddy (User), and choose Uninstall, or run:

winget uninstall --id Tencent.CodeBuddy

The uninstaller removes the program folder %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\CodeBuddy, the Start Menu shortcut, the Open with entry and the file-type registrations it made for code files. In this test it left %APPDATA%\CodeBuddy, %LOCALAPPDATA%\CodeBuddyExtension, %USERPROFILE%\.codebuddy and the codebuddy:// link registration.

Where the data lives

Location	What it holds	What to do
`%APPDATA%\CodeBuddy`	Settings, keybindings, snippets, workspace state, caches and logs	Back up the `User` folder inside it if you want the same setup after reinstalling; remove it for a clean start
`%USERPROFILE%\.codebuddy`	Installed extensions, plugins, `argv.json` and `mcp.json`	Keep it while WorkBuddy or the CodeBuddy command-line tool is installed; otherwise back up `mcp.json` and anything you wrote, then remove it
`%LOCALAPPDATA%\CodeBuddyExtension`	Data for CodeBuddy's AI extension	Keep it while WorkBuddy is installed; otherwise remove it
`HKCU\Software\Classes\codebuddy`	The `codebuddy://` link registration	Safe to remove once the app is gone

Check the result

Run these read-only commands after the uninstall finishes:

Get-Process CodeBuddy -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
winget list --id Tencent.CodeBuddy
Test-Path "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\Programs\CodeBuddy"
Test-Path "$env:APPDATA\CodeBuddy", "$env:USERPROFILE\.codebuddy", "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\CodeBuddyExtension"
Test-Path HKCU:\Software\Classes\codebuddy

No output from Get-Process only means this query observed no matching process; a suppressed error leaves the running state unknown. A listed process means it is still open.
A completed winget list query with no match means the package record is gone; a matching row means the uninstall did not finish.
The first Test-Path returning False means the program folder is gone; True means files remain there.
The second command prints one True or False per folder, in the order listed. True means that folder is still there, which is expected for the ones you chose to keep, and for .codebuddy while WorkBuddy is installed.
The last Test-Path returning False means the link registration is gone; True means it is still there.

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 the three data folders or the link registration.

Account and subscription

Uninstalling does not cancel a paid CodeBuddy plan or delete your Tencent account.

What Mole lists

For CodeBuddy installed per-user from Tencent's installer:

The program folder goes with the app row. The CodeBuddy Start Menu folder is selected by default.
%APPDATA%\CodeBuddy, %USERPROFILE%\.codebuddy and %LOCALAPPDATA%\CodeBuddyExtension are listed but not selected. The caches inside %APPDATA%\CodeBuddy (Cache, Code Cache, GPUCache, the Dawn shader caches and logs) are listed on their own and selected by default.
The codebuddy:// link, the Open with entry for CodeBuddy.exe and the file-type registrations CodeBuddy made for code files are selected by default and backed up to a .reg file first, when the uninstaller has left them; in this test it had removed all but the link.
A row grouping Windows' own records of when you opened the program is selected by default.

What this test covered

Tested on September 30, 2026 with CodeBuddy 4.12.1 (Windows lists it as version 1.106.1), the x64 per-user installer from Tencent, run under emulation on an ARM64 virtual machine. The test installed it from an elevated session, so its uninstaller asked for administrator access; a normal per-user install does not. The uninstaller is Inno Setup. Every listed row was ticked and removed in this test. An earlier run did not list %USERPROFILE%\.codebuddy; it is listed now, as described above. Not verified: signing in, installed extensions, WorkBuddy or the command-line tool on the same PC.