Windows: Uninstall an Application from the Command Line
Contributed by Rob Rogers 
Tagged: Windows By using the Windows Instrumentation command-line interface (WMIC), you can easily uninstall an application without having to use the GUI. Once you become familiar with the steps, it will be much faster than having to access the Add/Remove Programs applet in the Control Panel. This Tech-Recipe applies to Windows XP Professional, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2008.
1. Open a command prompt.
2. Input WMIC and press Return. You will see a prompt that looks like this:
wmic:root\cli>
3. At the new prompt, execute the following command:
product get name
This will generate a list of installed applications.
4. At the prompt, execute the following command:
product where name="
where application name is the name of the program you wish to uninstall (use the exact name provided by the previously generated list).
For example, if I were wanting to uninstall Adobe Reader 9, my command would look like this:
product where name="Adobe Reader 9" call uninstall
5. When prompted, input y to confirm that you wish to uninstall the application and press Return.
The application will be uninstalled.
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Larz said on January 6, 2009
Great tip. Thank you.
uninstall said on February 1, 2009
thanx a million times
Javeed said on April 23, 2009
1. How about those products whose names in the registry are not direct names to search. How about names like HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionUninstall{786C4AD1-DCBA-49A6-B0EF-B317A344BD66}
Creature said on April 30, 2009
Wow. Cool. I’ve been wanting to uninstall from command line for so long!
How about quiet uninstall without typing y every time?
Is it possible?
Pradeep said on May 28, 2009
Wow, this truely helped me. Thanks.
David said on June 2, 2009
This works for XP Pro, but what about one for XP Home?
MadTaffy said on June 15, 2009
Hi there,
I was wondering if you could help, my pc wont boot up because of a app. called ready driver plus, i have tried every option i can think of and thats quite a few, like for e.g repair using installation disc, system restore using disc i’ve even tried using bootrec.exe in the command prompt when using the command prompt fro the reapair option on the installation disc, so i thought i would try to uninstall the program from there but i noticed the command prompt isn’t in the C: drive its in a X:Sources mode and the WMIC option you have mentioned doesn’t seen to work, so i’m not sure if i need to get to the C: drive 1st which i would assume so but i have no idea how to get from this Administrator X:Sources to the C: drive to be able to use the commands WMIC … etc. so if you know how i do this i would be very very gratefull, many thanks in advance, best regards MadTaffy
Anonymous said on July 21, 2009
This doesn’t work on WinXP Pro SP3 32bit. Entering “product get name” at the “wmic:rootcli>” prompt gives the following error:
Code = 0×80041001
Description = Generic failure
Facility = WMI
Typing in “/?” to see the list of commands or help, gives me a listing of commands, but it doesn’t contain “product”. I’m guessing maybe that what causes the error.
will said on August 6, 2009
is there a way is assume yes instead of waiting to be prompted?
Anonymous said on September 1, 2009
To bypass the yes prompt… as in the above example
product where name=”Adobe Reader 9″ call uninstall /nointeractive
By default its interactive
See
http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/wmic.mspx?mfr=true
For options
Hope this helps!!
blak3r said on September 24, 2009
wmic:rootcli>product get name
Node – MyComputerName
ERROR:
Code = 0×80041010
Description = Invalid class
Facility = WMI
Shrug
Anonymous said on October 15, 2009
the command “product get name” is not showing all the installed programes ,then how can i uninstall the desired one .plz send me reply.
Anonymous said on October 15, 2009
the command product get name is not showing all the programmes then how can i uninstall the desired one send me reply.
Anonymous said on October 22, 2009
Beautiful. Ever since i started working with cmd, I’v always known it was the final stop for force removals. After uninstalling some programs to free up space, they still run in start-up. I just deleted the shell folders in program files and will carry out the instruction as above just for keeps.
thanks shamanstears. cheers.
Nag said on October 27, 2009
I got the following error:
Node – my system name
Error:
code = 0×80041010
Description = Invalid class
Facility = WMI
Anonymous said on October 27, 2009
Can I create a bat file?
kiran said on October 29, 2009
thanks a lot
Techno said on January 21, 2010
It doesnt work on my XP sp3 !
I get a
Node – machinenamehere
ERROR:
Code = 0×80041001
Description = Generic failure
Facility = WMI
Omi said on January 26, 2010
For those who are having problems, please use the following command to uninstall under Windows XP SP3 (it’s working for me):
wmic
product “your_program_name” call uninstall /nointeractive
Also you can run the command directly either on a command console or into a batch file:
wmic product “your_program_name” call uninstall /nointeractive
NOTE: /nointeractive bypass Y/N prompt assumming YES
Hope it works for you!
Anonymous said on April 17, 2010
Does this also work on Vista Home basic? I bought CSI deadly intent,and it wont play because d3dx9_41.dll cannot it be found. it says reinstalling should fix it,but the problem is , it wont uninstall from control panel ,,so I hope this works for vista too…if not,if anyone knows could you please let me know how,,I would really appreciate it.
jen
Roushan said on May 21, 2010
thank you very much..i fixed my bluescreen prob using that :)
Eric said on June 28, 2010
Does this work in Windows 7?
ml said on June 30, 2010
very useful
Asdlfkj said on July 6, 2010
Yes
Gjbedi said on July 15, 2010
Not working for WINDOWS 2003 R2
Gjbedi said on July 15, 2010
Not working for WINDOWS 2003 SP2
Nagaraju Vasamsetty said on July 18, 2010
excellent
Marcoapdealmeida said on October 6, 2010
I just want to replace a windows xp pro from my pc and install a home edition, however I haven got only cds for the home edition and the xp pro doesn’t allow the home edition to take control in the boot. When trying format on the command line, the setup response is that is not possible because there are processes running. Any suggestion?
Deeprothan87 said on October 14, 2010
Not working
Kuldeep Singh
Adham da great said on October 15, 2010
thanks
Love said on October 28, 2010
use again
Dbritton said on December 15, 2010
Try running the command prompt as a user who is a local adminstrator. This worked for me when I encountered the same problem.
Rudyguerrero48 said on December 19, 2010
thank u very much! works very well
Petey said on January 10, 2011
Looks really useful, however the problem program for me does not appear in the list of installed programs; does this mean that it is not actually installed and can therefore just be deleted. It is PC Mighty Max 2007 – it is less than a MB but after trying to access it to find an uninstall facility it became very disruptive, popping up and using memory and generally being a real pain.
Anil said on February 14, 2011
How to write this in batch file
Fd said on March 23, 2011
just type in C:
Anon19 said on April 4, 2011
For the people that seem to be having issues with running this, the WMI command needs the latest .net framework to be installed. Check windows update, and make sure you have the latest updates installed.
Sonylaptopfrank said on April 15, 2011
hello,
i cannot start my windows 7 in safe more or use recovery function, what can i do ?
problem happened after windows 7 update, then after restart windows defender asked me to restart again, and then blue screen or auto restart forever.
i would like to disable or uninstall windows defender as i can access the command prompt but i can’t find how to do ?
And do you know how to uninstall windows latest update with command prompt ?
Thanks for help.
Madhurao1983 said on April 21, 2011
How to Uninstall patch from command line
Dd said on May 25, 2011
to uninstall an MSI >>> “/c msiExec /uninstall c:nstaller.msi /quiet”
for exe …. /uninstall c:Installer.exe
Andreas said on December 13, 2011
This saved me a ton of work.
Thanks!
Mahesh C said on January 3, 2012
It works great ! on my XP sp3
Oz said on January 24, 2012
this is great, but how can I stop the computer from doing a reboot after I uninstall?