How to uninstall Rustup on Windows

Save Rust projects and any tools installed with Cargo before removing the toolchain.

This guide covers Rustup 1.29.1 installed per user with winget. It has no separate program folder. The toolchain lives in the user profile.

Quit rustup first

Close any open rustup window. This test did not see a resident process.

Remove it with its own uninstaller

The registered command opens a confirm prompt whose default key is N. To remove it, type y after Continue? (y/N):

& "$env:USERPROFILE\.cargo\bin\rustup.exe" self uninstall

Where the data is

Location	What it holds	What to do
`%USERPROFILE%\.rustup`	The toolchain	Gone after the confirmed uninstall in this test
`%USERPROFILE%\.cargo\bin`	`rustup.exe` (about 11 MB) and zero-byte proxies such as `cargo.exe` and `rustc.exe`	Still there after the confirmed uninstall. Delete it only when you want a clean reinstall
`%USERPROFILE%\rustup-gc-*.exe`	A copy the same size as `rustup.exe`	Left in the profile root this time. Delete it after you confirm rustup is not running

Check the result

Test-Path "HKCU:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\Rustup"
Test-Path "$env:USERPROFILE\.rustup"
Test-Path "$env:USERPROFILE\.cargo\bin\rustup.exe"

False on the first line means the uninstall entry is gone.
False on the second means the toolchain folder is gone.
True on the third means rustup.exe is still in .cargo\bin.

What Mole lists

The recorded review contained no extra rows. This does not prove that no data exists elsewhere.

The confirmed rustup self uninstall removed its registration and .rustup. Mole listed no extra rows. The test still found rustup.exe and proxy executables in %USERPROFILE%.cargo\bin, and a rustup-gc executable at the profile root. Check these individually; .cargo can contain tools beyond rustup.

What this test covered

Recorded on 2026-10-19: Rustup, version 1.29.1, per-user, vendor uninstaller, winget package Rustlang.Rustup. The evidence comes from an ARM64 Windows test environment and a development build of Mole. It does not certify the current downloadable package or removal of real signed-in accounts, synchronized data or production projects.

Vendor documentation. The paths and removal results above are observations from the Windows test unless explicitly attributed to the vendor.