How to uninstall WinRAR on Windows

WinRAR's uninstaller warns that all settings, including passwords stored in the organizer and compression profiles, are lost unless you export them first. If you use either, export your settings from WinRAR's Options menu (Import/Export › Export settings to file) and keep the file somewhere outside the program folder. Your archives stay where you saved them. This guide covers WinRAR installed machine-wide with the official x64 installer, the one the RARLab.WinRAR winget package uses.

Quit WinRAR first

Close every WinRAR window. WinRAR has no tray icon, startup entry or service. Check Task Manager (Ctrl+Shift+Esc) for any WinRAR.exe still listed before you uninstall.

Remove the app with its own uninstaller

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

winget uninstall --id RARLab.WinRAR

A machine-wide install asks for administrator access. The uninstaller then shows the settings warning above with Yes and No buttons; choose Yes to continue.

Where the data lives

Location	What it holds	What to do
`%ProgramFiles%\WinRAR`	The program	Removed by the uninstaller
Start Menu `WinRAR` folders (all users and your own)	Shortcuts to WinRAR and its help	Removed by the uninstaller
`HKCU\SOFTWARE\WinRAR`	Your settings, the password organizer and compression profiles	Export first if you need them; the uninstaller removed it in this test
`%APPDATA%\WinRAR`	A small file of WinRAR's own	Safe to remove
`HKCU\Software\WinRAR SFX`	A key WinRAR writes at install time for self-extracting archives	Safe to remove

WinRAR's file associations and its right-click menu package were removed by the uninstaller itself in this test.

Check the result

Run these read-only commands after the uninstall finishes:

Get-Process WinRAR -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
winget list --id RARLab.WinRAR
Test-Path "$env:ProgramFiles\WinRAR"
Test-Path "$env:APPDATA\WinRAR"
Test-Path "HKCU:\Software\WinRAR SFX"

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.
The first Test-Path returning False means the program folder is gone; True means files remain there.
The second returning True means the small %APPDATA%\WinRAR folder is still there; nothing in it needs keeping.
The third returning True means the WinRAR SFX key is still there; it holds nothing you need.

If you installed it with winget

winget uninstall runs the same uninstaller Settings › Apps uses, with the same warning, and removes the same files.

License

Uninstalling does not affect a WinRAR license you bought. If you registered it, copy your rarreg.key file somewhere safe before uninstalling, since you need it again after reinstalling.

What Mole lists

For WinRAR installed machine-wide:

The program folder goes with the app row. Both Start Menu WinRAR folders and a row grouping Windows' own records of when you opened the program are selected by default.
%APPDATA%\WinRAR and HKCU\SOFTWARE\WinRAR are listed but not selected. Mole backs a registry key up to a .reg file before removing it.
HKCU\Software\WinRAR SFX is not listed; check it and remove it yourself if you want to.

What this test covered

Tested on September 28, 2026 with WinRAR 7.23.0, the x64 installer from the winget manifest, machine scope, run under emulation on an ARM64 PC. The uninstaller's settings warning was answered Yes, and it removed the program folder, both Start Menu folders and HKCU\SOFTWARE\WinRAR before Mole's own step ran. Every listed row was ticked and removed in this test. Not verified: a registered copy, and exported settings imported after a reinstall.