How to uninstall Element on Windows

Element keeps your end-to-end encryption keys and a local copy of your message history on this PC. Before you remove it, make sure you have a recovery key, because without one, or another signed-in device, you can lose access to your encrypted history. Removing the app does not delete your Matrix account, and the account stays on your homeserver whatever you do with this PC. This guide covers Element Desktop installed per-user from the Element.Element winget package.

Save your recovery key first

If you are signed in, click your profile picture at the top left, open All Settings, then Encryption, and choose Get recovery key if you have never set one up, or confirm you still have it if a key already exists. Store it in a password manager or another safe place off this PC. Element's own documentation covers this under Security & Privacy › Secure Backup.

Quit Element first

If you are signed in, sign out of this PC's session first, from All Settings › Sessions, so your homeserver knows this device is gone. Then quit Element from its window or tray icon. Element runs several processes, one per window plus helpers, so check Task Manager (Ctrl+Shift+Esc) for any Element.exe still listed before you uninstall.

Remove the app with its own uninstaller

Go to Settings › Apps › Installed apps, find Element, and choose Uninstall, or run:

winget uninstall --id Element.Element

Where the data lives

Check the result

Run these read-only commands after the uninstall finishes:

Get-Process Element -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
winget list --id Element.Element
Test-Path "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\element-desktop"
Test-Path "$env:APPDATA\Element"

• 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.
• The first Test-Path returning False means the program folder is gone; True means files remain there.
• Test-Path "$env:APPDATA\Element" returning True means your session and keys are still there, which is expected unless you removed them yourself.

If you installed it with winget

winget uninstall runs the same Squirrel uninstaller Settings › Apps uses and removes the same program files; it does not touch %APPDATA%\Element on its own.

Account and subscription

Uninstalling does not deactivate your Matrix account or remove it from your homeserver. Deactivating the account is a separate, permanent step inside Element under Settings › General, and Element warns it cannot be undone. You do not need to do this to uninstall.

What Mole lists

For Element installed per-user from winget:

• The program folder and the Start Menu shortcut are selected by default.
• %APPDATA%\Element is listed but not selected, since it holds your session and encryption keys. The caches inside it (Cache, Code Cache, DawnGraphiteCache, DawnWebGPUCache, GPUCache) are listed on their own and selected by default.
• If an element:// or io.element.desktop link registration still points at the removed program, Mole lists it too, after backing it up to a .reg file.

What this test covered

Tested with Element 1.12.29 installed through winget, per-user scope. The welcome page was reached without signing in, so the recovery key and sign-out steps above come from Element's own documentation, not from this test. No account, browser connector or synced device was tested.