How to uninstall VS Code Insiders on Windows

Save open files and back up Insiders settings and extensions before uninstalling. Stable VS Code is a separate installation; leave its profile and extension directory alone.

Save your data and quit

Use the Insiders profile export if you need to move settings, and keep project folders separately. Close every Insiders window and any terminal task it launched. If a project is open in Stable too, distinguish the two executables before ending a process.

Uninstall the tested package

In Windows 11, open Settings › Apps › Installed apps, find VS Code Insiders, and choose Uninstall. In Windows 10, use Settings › Apps › Apps & features. Keep the installed program folder intact until its uninstaller finishes. If this was the winget package, first confirm its exact identity:

winget list --id Microsoft.VisualStudioCode.Insiders --exact

If the successful query shows the intended installation, remove that package:

winget uninstall --id Microsoft.VisualStudioCode.Insiders --exact

This follows the package’s registered removal method; portable packages use their package-manager removal instead. An error or a missing winget match is not proof that the app is absent: check the Windows app list and the original installation method. Follow any vendor confirmation or restart request after saving other work. See Microsoft’s uninstall command documentation.

Data and components to check

The following locations or components need separate decisions. A remaining folder is not automatically disposable.

See VS Code Insiders’s official documentation.

Check the outcome

winget list --id Microsoft.VisualStudioCode.Insiders --exact
Test-Path -LiteralPath "$env:APPDATA\Code - Insiders"
Test-Path -LiteralPath "$env:USERPROFILE\.vscode-insiders"
Test-Path -LiteralPath "$env:USERPROFILE\.vscode-insiders-shared"

A successful package query with no matching row means that package registration was not found. A matching row means it still exists; an error leaves the result unknown. For each Test-Path, True means that exact location remains and False means it was not found; an access error does not mean it was removed. Keep deliberately retained data. Check Task Manager for a process whose executable belongs to this installation, and distinguish another version or a separate companion app before acting.

What Mole lists

The two Insiders home directories and the roaming profile are reviewable data. The recorded test explicitly selected these data rows and removed them. The default review did not select the home directories; leave them unchecked to retain them. This does not cover Stable VS Code data.

What this test covered

The user-scope winget installation was launched on an x64 PC and uninstalled with the updated directory rules. Both home directories were present before removal and absent afterwards. No available upgrade appeared; an actual version upgrade was not verified.

These results are from a development build of Mole. Other released builds were not individually tested.