How to uninstall TortoiseGit on Windows

TortoiseGit adds icons and right-click menus to File Explorer rather than running as its own app window, and your repositories are ordinary folders that removing it never touches. What it keeps for itself is a small set of settings in the registry, such as your diff and merge tool choices and recent repository list. This guide covers TortoiseGit installed machine-wide from the TortoiseGit.TortoiseGit winget package.

TortoiseGit itself has no main window to close. If you use Pageant, the SSH key agent TortoiseGit bundles from PuTTY, check whether its icon is still in the system tray and close it, and check Task Manager (Ctrl+Shift+Esc) for any TortoiseGit-related process still listed before you uninstall.

Remove the app with its own uninstaller

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

winget uninstall --id TortoiseGit.TortoiseGit

Where the data lives

Location	What it holds	What to do
`HKCU\Software\TortoiseGit`	Your diff and merge tool choices, recent repositories and other settings	Back this up with `reg export` first if you want to restore the same setup later; the uninstaller does not remove it

Check the result

Run these read-only commands after the uninstall finishes:

winget list --id TortoiseGit.TortoiseGit
Get-ItemProperty "HKCU:\Software\TortoiseGit" -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue

A completed winget list query with no match means the package record is gone; a matching row means the uninstall did not finish.
Get-ItemProperty returning values means the entry remains. With no output, check for permission or other query errors before deciding that it is absent.

If you installed it with winget

winget uninstall runs the same MSI uninstaller Settings › Apps uses and removes the same program files; it does not touch HKCU\Software\TortoiseGit on its own.

What Mole lists

For TortoiseGit installed machine-wide from winget:

The Start Menu "TortoiseGit" folder is selected by default.
HKCU\Software\TortoiseGit is listed but not selected.
The install itself did not record its program folder, so Mole shows only the size the vendor reports and no icon for this app, not the folder's real size.

What this test covered

Tested with TortoiseGit 2.19.1.0 installed through winget, machine-wide MSI scope. Every row was ticked and removed in this test. Not verified: a per-user install, SSH keys configured in Pageant, and diff or merge tool integrations.