How to uninstall DS4Windows on Windows

DS4Windows is a portable program: you unzip it and run it, so Windows never lists it as an installed app and there is no uninstaller for it. What does get installed is the ViGEm Bus Driver it asks for on first run, which lets it present your PlayStation controller as an Xbox controller. Removing DS4Windows means quitting it, saving your controller profiles, deleting the folder you unzipped, and uninstalling the driver if no other app needs it. This guide covers DS4Windows from its GitHub releases and the ViGEm Bus Driver installed machine-wide from its official installer.

Save your profiles

On first run DS4Windows asks where to keep its settings: in its own folder, or under %APPDATA%\DS4Windows. Copy the Profiles folder and the settings files from whichever you chose if you want the same button mappings and lightbar setup later.

Quit DS4Windows first

Stop the controller in DS4Windows, then exit from its tray icon's menu; closing the window can leave it in the tray. Check Task Manager (Ctrl+Shift+Esc) for any DS4Windows.exe still listed. If you ticked the option to start it at sign-in, turn that off in DS4Windows' settings first, or in Settings › Apps › Startup.

Remove DS4Windows and the driver

Delete the folder you unzipped DS4Windows into. It is a portable app, so this is its uninstall.
Go to Settings › Apps › Installed apps, find ViGEm Bus Driver, and choose Uninstall. It is installed for all users, so Windows asks for administrator approval. Skip this step if another app, such as a game streaming or controller tool, still uses the driver.

Where the data lives

Location	What it holds	What to do
The folder you unzipped DS4Windows into	The program, and its settings if you chose to keep them there	Save the profiles, then delete it
`%APPDATA%\DS4Windows`	Settings and profiles, if you chose AppData on first run	Save the profiles, then delete it
`%ProgramFiles%\Nefarius Software Solutions\ViGEm Bus Driver`	The virtual controller driver's files	Its uninstaller removes it
`%ProgramFiles%\Nefarius Software Solutions`	The driver vendor's parent folder	Remove it only if it is empty; other Nefarius tools install there too

Check the result

Run these read-only commands after you finish:

Get-Process DS4Windows -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
Test-Path "$env:APPDATA\DS4Windows"
Test-Path "$env:ProgramFiles\Nefarius Software Solutions\ViGEm Bus Driver"
Get-PnpDevice -FriendlyName "*ViGEm*" -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue

No output from Get-Process only means this query observed no matching process; a suppressed error leaves the running state unknown.
Test-Path "$env:APPDATA\DS4Windows" returning True means your profiles are still there; remove the folder yourself once you have saved them.
Test-Path on the driver folder returning False means the driver's program files are gone.
Get-PnpDevice listing a ViGEm device means the virtual bus is still installed; no matching output from a confirmed successful query means it is gone. A restart may be needed before the device disappears.

What Mole lists

DS4Windows itself is not listed, since Windows does not register a portable program as installed.
For the ViGEm Bus Driver, the program folder goes with the app row, and a row grouping Windows' own records of when you opened the program is selected by default.

What this test covered

Tested on September 27, 2026 with DS4Windows 3.9.9 and the ViGEm Bus Driver 1.22.0, installed machine-wide from the official installer on an ARM64 test VM. No controller was connected. Every listed row was ticked and removed in this test. Not verified: the copy of the driver Windows keeps in its driver store, and DS4Windows' own settings folders.