Remove Visual Studio

  • 2 minutes to read

If you encounter a catastrophic error and cannot repair or uninstall Visual Studio, you can run the InstallCleanup.exe tool to remove installation files and product information for all installed instances of Visual Studio 2017 or Visual Studio 2019. Running this tool should be done only as a last resort if repair or uninstall fail, and may uninstall features from other Visual Studio installations or other products that might then also need to be repaired.

In the following instructions, you can run the tool with different command-line switches with the following behavior:

Switch Behavior
-i This switch is the default if no other switch is passed and removes only the main installation directory and product information. This behavior is preferable if you intend to reinstall the same version after you run the InstallCleanup.exe tool.
-f Specifying this switch removes the main installation directory, product information, and most other features installed outside the installation directory that may be shared with other Visual Studio installations or other products. This behavior is preferable if you intend to remove Visual Studio without reinstalling later.

  1. Close the Visual Studio Installer.

  2. Open an administrator command prompt. To open an administrator command prompt, follow these steps:

    • Type cmd in the "Type here to search" box.
    • Right-click Command Prompt, and then click Run as administrator.

  3. Type the full path of the InstallCleanup.exe utility and pass whichever command-line switch you desire. By default, the path of the utility is as follows:

    C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\Installer\resources\app\layout\InstallCleanup.exe

If you do not find InstallCleanup.exe under the Visual Studio Installer directory - always located at %ProgramFiles(x86)%\Microsoft Visual Studio - follow the instructions to install Visual Studio and when the workload selection screen is displayed, close the window and follow the preceding steps again.

Get support

Sometimes, things can go wrong. If your Visual Studio installation fails, see Troubleshoot Visual Studio installation and upgrade issues for step-by-step guidance.

We also offer a live chat (English only) support option for installation-related issues.

Here are a few more support options:

See also