How to uninstall Playnite on Windows

Playnite is a library manager, not a store: games you installed through Steam, Epic, GOG or any other launcher stay installed when you remove it. Your Playnite library itself, with its metadata, covers, categories, extensions and themes, lives in %APPDATA%\Playnite; copy that folder first if you might reinstall and want the same library. This guide covers Playnite installed per-user from the Playnite.Playnite winget package.

Quit Playnite first

Close Playnite from its window or tray icon. It runs a main process, Playnite.DesktopApp.exe, plus several CefSharp.BrowserSubprocess.exe helpers for its built-in browser; check Task Manager (Ctrl+Shift+Esc) that none is still listed before you uninstall. Playnite added no startup item in this test.

Remove the app with its own uninstaller

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

winget uninstall --id Playnite.Playnite

Where the data lives

Location	What it holds	What to do
`%LOCALAPPDATA%\Playnite`	Program files	The uninstaller removes it
`%APPDATA%\Playnite`	Library database, metadata and covers, settings, extensions and themes	Back it up first; keep it if you plan to reinstall, remove it for a clean start
`HKCU\Software\Classes\Playnite` and `Playnite.ext`	The `playnite://` link and the file type that opens add-on packages	Safe to remove once Playnite is gone
`.pext` and `.pthm` under `HKCU\Software\Classes`	File extensions for Playnite add-ons	Only an "open with" note remains; leave them, other apps may share the extension keys
Desktop shortcut and Start Menu folder	Shortcuts	The uninstaller removes them

Check the result

Run these read-only commands after the uninstall finishes:

Get-Process Playnite* -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
winget list --id Playnite.Playnite
Test-Path "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\Playnite"
Test-Path "$env:APPDATA\Playnite"
Test-Path "HKCU:\Software\Classes\Playnite"

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 "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\Playnite" returning False means the program folder is gone; True means files remain there.
Test-Path "$env:APPDATA\Playnite" returning True means your library is still there, which is expected unless you removed it yourself.
Test-Path "HKCU:\Software\Classes\Playnite" returning True means the playnite:// link still points at the removed program.

If you installed it with winget

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

Accounts

Uninstalling Playnite does not sign you out of Steam, Epic, GOG or any other store you connected, and it removes none of their games. Those accounts and installs belong to each store's own launcher.

What Mole lists

For Playnite installed per-user from winget:

The program folder goes with the app row. The desktop shortcut, the Start Menu folder and a row grouping Windows' own records of when you opened the program are selected by default.
%APPDATA%\Playnite is listed but not selected, since it holds your library.
The playnite:// link and the Playnite.ext file type are selected by default when they still point at the removed program, and backed up to a .reg file before removal.
The .pext and .pthm extension keys are left alone.
Games installed by other launchers are never part of this list.

What this test covered

Tested on 2026-09-28 with Playnite 10.58 installed through winget, per-user scope. The test installed it from an elevated session, so its uninstaller asked for administrator access; a normal per-user install does not. First-run setup was left open with no store library connected. Every listed row was ticked and removed in this test. Not verified: an imported library, store sign-ins, or add-ons.