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Windows x64Intel or AMD Windows Arm64Arm / Snapdragon

How to uninstall WinMerge on Windows

WinMerge keeps a small settings key under your user profile and nothing else outside its own program folder, so there is little to back up before you remove it. This guide covers WinMerge installed machine-wide from the WinMerge.WinMerge winget package.

Quit WinMerge first

Close any open comparison window and check Task Manager (Ctrl+Shift+Esc) for WinMergeU.exe before you uninstall.

Remove the app with its own uninstaller

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

winget uninstall --id WinMerge.WinMerge

WinMerge's own uninstaller runs silently with no prompt.

Where the data lives

Location What it holds What to do
HKCU\SOFTWARE\Thingamahoochie\WinMerge Your comparison settings, filters and window layout Removed by the uninstaller in this test; if it survives on your machine, it is safe to remove

Check the result

Run these read-only commands after the uninstall finishes:

Get-Process WinMergeU -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
winget list --id WinMerge.WinMerge
Test-Path "$env:ProgramFiles\WinMerge"
Get-ItemProperty HKCU:\SOFTWARE\Thingamahoochie\WinMerge -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
  • No output from Get-Process only means this query observed no matching process; a suppressed error leaves the running state unknown.
  • A completed winget list query with no match means the package record is gone; a matching row means the uninstall did not finish.
  • Test-Path "$env:ProgramFiles\WinMerge" returning False means the program folder is gone; True means files remain there.
  • 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 Inno Setup uninstaller (unins000.exe /SILENT) Settings › Apps uses and removes the same program files and settings key.

What Mole lists

For WinMerge installed machine-wide from winget:

  • The program folder and the public Start Menu folder are selected by default.
  • HKCU\SOFTWARE\Thingamahoochie\WinMerge is listed, for review, not selected by default; in this test the uninstaller had already removed it before Mole's review ran.

What this test covered

Tested with WinMerge 2.16.58.2 installed through the arm64 Inno Setup package, machine scope, elevated. Every row the uninstall review listed was already gone by the time Mole checked, confirmed again right after the uninstall finished; no comparison filters or plugins were configured during the test.