How to uninstall Tencent START on Windows

This check installed Tencent START 0.11.0.23900 with winget in a Windows 11 VM, opened the client without signing in, then removed it with Mole. Cloud gaming and account data after sign-in were not tested.

Remove Tencent START

Close START and select it in Mole's Apps tab. The review showed eight cache and shortcut rows selected by default. Two app data folders and a HKCU\SOFTWARE\Tencent\START key were listed separately under Needs review and left unchecked by default. This test selected all eleven rows.

Mole launched the registered uninst.exe with /S, but the vendor still opened its own window. The check clicked 卸载, confirmed that START Cloud Gaming and START Cloud PC would both be removed, then clicked 再见 when the vendor reported completion. Mole returned Removed; three review rows were Removed and eight were already Missing.

Check the result

Test-Path "${env:ProgramFiles(x86)}\Tencent\START\0.11.0.23900"
Test-Path "$env:APPDATA\START"
Test-Path "$env:APPDATA\Tencent\START"
Test-Path 'HKCU:\SOFTWARE\Tencent\START'
Test-Path 'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\START'
@(Get-CimInstance Win32_Process -ErrorAction Stop | Where-Object Name -eq 'START.exe').Count

The five paths returned False and the process count was 0 in this VM. The 42 uninstall registration IDs present before installation matched the 42 after removal. An empty Program Files (x86)\Tencent\START parent and an empty %APPDATA%\TDM\tdm_tmp folder remained; no app files were found in either.

What Mole lists

Program caches and shortcuts are selected by default. %APPDATA%\START, %APPDATA%\Tencent\START and HKCU\SOFTWARE\Tencent\START are listed but not selected by default. A selected settings key is backed up before removal.

What this test covered

Tested on October 5, 2026, in a Windows 11 ARM64 VM with a Mole development build. The program and selected data and settings were absent afterward. Sign-in, real cloud gaming, data recovery, detection after external uninstall and the released download were not tested.