How to uninstall Trae on Windows

Removing Trae and clearing its AI chat data are separate decisions. Your recent chat history, unaccepted code changes and extension state live in your user profile, and none of it goes away when you uninstall the app. Back it up first if you might reinstall. This guide covers Trae installed per-user from the ByteDance.Trae winget package, and keeps your project folders untouched.

Quit Trae first

Save open files and any uncommitted work. Check Task Manager (Ctrl+Shift+Esc) for any Trae.exe still listed before you uninstall.

Remove the app with its own uninstaller

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

winget uninstall --id ByteDance.Trae

Back up before you remove data

Copy %APPDATA%\Trae to keep your AI chat history and settings, and %USERPROFILE%\.trae if you use it for extensions or rules, before you clear either one.

Where the data lives

Location	What it holds	What to do
`%APPDATA%\Trae`	AI chat history, settings and the editor's own caches	Back this up first; the uninstaller does not remove it
`%USERPROFILE%\.trae`	Built-in and user extensions, and other editor configuration	Look inside before removing it; other tools that install rules or skills for several editors can also write into this folder

Check the result

Run these read-only commands after the uninstall finishes:

Get-Process Trae -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
winget list --id ByteDance.Trae
Test-Path "$env:APPDATA\Trae"
Test-Path "$env:USERPROFILE\.trae"

No output from Get-Process only means this query observed no matching process; a suppressed error leaves the running state unknown. A listed process means a window or helper is still open.
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 "$env:APPDATA\Trae" returning True means your chat history and settings are still there, which is expected unless you removed them yourself.
Test-Path "$env:USERPROFILE\.trae" returning True means that folder is still there; check what is inside before deleting it, since another tool may also use it.

If you installed it with winget

winget uninstall runs the same uninstaller Settings › Apps uses and removes the same program files; it does not touch %APPDATA%\Trae or %USERPROFILE%\.trae on its own.

Account and subscription

Uninstalling does not cancel a Trae subscription or sign you out of your account. Check your plan in Trae's own account settings separately.

What Mole lists

For Trae installed per-user from winget:

The program folder, the desktop and Start Menu shortcuts are selected by default.
%APPDATA%\Trae is listed but not selected, since it holds your chat history and settings.
%USERPROFILE%\.trae is listed but not selected, since another tool may also write into it.
A trae:// link registration and the many Trae.<extension> file associations, if they still point at the removed program, are listed and selected by default, backed up to a .reg file first.
Windows' own record of when you opened Trae is grouped into one row and selected by default.

What this test covered

Tested with Trae 3.5.104 installed through winget, per-user scope. The test installed it from an elevated session, so its uninstaller asked to be re-launched with administrator access; a normal per-user install does not. The installation entry was removed, but the program folder and the Roaming data folder could not be recycled and remained on disk; complete removal was not verified. Not verified: a signed-in AI account, installed extensions, and the separate Trae CN app.