How to uninstall Terraform on Windows

Terraform is a single command-line program, so uninstalling it is quick, but the files that matter are elsewhere: your configurations, state files and each project's .terraform folder live in your project folders, and a token saved by terraform login lives in your profile. Keep your projects and back up the state of anything you still manage before you change the install. This guide covers Terraform installed per-user from the Hashicorp.Terraform winget package, which winget manages as a portable package.

Finish running commands first

Let any terraform plan or terraform apply finish, since stopping one halfway can leave a state lock behind. Terraform has no background process, tray icon or startup entry, so there is nothing else to quit.

Remove the app

A portable winget package has no separate uninstaller; winget removes it:

winget uninstall --id Hashicorp.Terraform

It also shows in Settings › Apps › Installed apps, where Uninstall does the same.

Where the data lives

Location	What it holds	What to do
`%LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\WinGet\Packages\Hashicorp.Terraform_Microsoft.Winget.Source_8wekyb3d8bbwe`	The `terraform.exe` program	Removed by the uninstall
`%APPDATA%\terraform.d`	CLI data; `terraform login` saves its API tokens here in `credentials.tfrc.json`	Keep it if you will reinstall; remove it to drop saved tokens
Your project folders, with `.terraform` and `.terraform.lock.hcl`	Configurations, providers and lock files for each project	Keep; they are yours, not the program's

HashiCorp documents where the CLI keeps its configuration and credentials in its CLI configuration reference.

Check the result

Get-Command terraform -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
winget list --id Hashicorp.Terraform
Test-Path "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\Microsoft\WinGet\Packages\Hashicorp.Terraform_Microsoft.Winget.Source_8wekyb3d8bbwe"
Test-Path "$env:APPDATA\terraform.d"

If Get-Command succeeds without suppressed errors, no output means terraform is no longer on your PATH. A result means another copy is installed somewhere else; its path shows which one.
A completed winget list query with no match means the package record is gone.
The first Test-Path returning False means the package folder is gone; True means files remain there.
Test-Path "$env:APPDATA\terraform.d" returning True means the CLI data folder, and any saved token, is still there, which is expected unless you removed it yourself.

If you installed it with winget

For portable packages, winget documents winget uninstall --purge, which also deletes everything inside the package folder, including files created there after the install. It does not touch %APPDATA%\terraform.d or your projects.

Account

Uninstalling does not revoke a token saved by terraform login. If you want it gone everywhere, revoke it in your HCP Terraform or Terraform Enterprise account settings as well as removing credentials.tfrc.json.

What Mole lists

For Terraform installed as a winget portable package:

Mole removes the package through winget's own uninstall, which takes the package folder.
%APPDATA%\terraform.d is listed but not selected, since it can hold saved tokens.
Your project folders are never listed.

What this test covered

Tested on September 28, 2026 with Terraform 1.16.2 installed through winget as a portable package, per-user scope. %APPDATA%\terraform.d was ticked and removed in this test. Not verified: terraform login, a CLI configuration file, or a project with providers downloaded.