How to uninstall Zed on Windows

Save open buffers and finish any task running in Zed's integrated terminal. Your settings, keymaps and Zed's own data live separately from the program files, and neither goes away when you uninstall the app. Back them up first if you might reinstall. This guide covers Zed installed per-user from the ZedIndustries.Zed winget package, and keeps your project folders untouched.

Quit Zed first

Close every Zed window. Check Task Manager (Ctrl+Shift+Esc) for any Zed.exe still listed before you uninstall.

Remove the app with its own uninstaller

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

winget uninstall --id ZedIndustries.Zed

Back up before you remove data

Copy %LOCALAPPDATA%\Zed and %APPDATA%\Zed to keep your settings and any installed extensions before you clear either one.

Where the data lives

Location	What it holds	What to do
`%LOCALAPPDATA%\Zed`	Settings, keymaps and local app data	Back this up first; the uninstaller does not remove it
`%APPDATA%\Zed`	Additional Zed data	Back this up too if you want the same setup after reinstalling

Check the result

Run these read-only commands after the uninstall finishes:

Get-Process Zed -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
winget list --id ZedIndustries.Zed
Test-Path "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\Programs\Zed"
Test-Path "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\Zed"
Test-Path "$env:APPDATA\Zed"

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.
The first Test-Path returning False means the program folder is gone; True means files remain there.
Test-Path "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\Zed" and Test-Path "$env:APPDATA\Zed" returning True means your settings are still there, which is expected unless you removed them yourself.

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 %LOCALAPPDATA%\Zed or %APPDATA%\Zed on its own.

Account and collaboration

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

What Mole lists

For Zed installed per-user from winget:

The program folder and the user Start Menu folder are selected by default.
%LOCALAPPDATA%\Zed and %APPDATA%\Zed are listed but not selected.
A zed:// link registration and Zed's file type associations, if they still point at the removed program, are listed and selected by default, backed up to a .reg file first; in this test the uninstaller had already removed them.

Projects on disk are not part of this list.

What this test covered

Tested with Zed 1.21.0 installed through winget, per-user scope. The test installed it from an elevated session, so its uninstaller asked for administrator access on the first attempt and was re-run elevated to finish; a normal per-user install does not need this. Not verified: Zed collaboration sign-in, the Zed Preview channel.