Visual Studio is an Integrated Development Environment or IDE provided by Microsoft. It is used to develop rich console and GUI (graphical User Interface) applications for both Windows OS and online web platforms. It is a complete package that includes form and web designer, class and database designer, supported by all Windows products, ranging from Windows mobile to desktop applications.
There are multiple ways to uninstall Visual Studio from the system, which are as follows –
- Uninstalling from Control Panel
- Using the Visual Studio.NET uninstaller tool
- Using System Restore
Uninstalling from Control Panel – This method utilizes the windows uninstaller program to completely remove Visual Studio from your computer. To achieve this, follow the steps listed below –
- Go to Control Panel.
- Click on Program and Features option, which brings the complete list of installed programs.
- Choose Visual Studio or Visual Studio.NET from the list and select Uninstall.
This is the basic method of uninstalling Microsoft’s IDE from the system.
Using the Visual Studio Uninstaller tool – Microsoft provides a Visual Studio Uninstaller tool that removes the files from the system completely. This file can be downloaded from the Microsoft website. To achieve this, follow the steps below –
- Open the browser and go to the Microsoft website.
- Browse downloads for Visual Studio.
- Download the Uninstaller tool from the website.
- Run the Uninstaller tool by double clicking on it.
It will take around 3-5 minutes to uninstall all the packages related to Visual Studio from the system, and after this process, it will be completely uninstalled from your system.
Using System Restore – You should use this process after you have tried the above steps. System restore is a feature provided by the Windows OS. The system randomly keeps a snapshot of the registry as a backup, and once this feature is run, it restores the settings to the chosen date. By choosing the date before Visual Studio installation, the system restore restores the registry to the chosen date. Once this is done, all folders and registry entries are placed according to that date, so this will completely remove it from the system. To run the system restore, follow these steps-
- Click on Start.
- Select All programs.
- Go to Accessories and then Click on System tools.
- Browse System restore and choose a date prior to the installation of Visual Studio.NET .
- Follow the screen instructions to complete the process.
System restore will take some time to apply the settings to the selected date, and once the settings are applied, it will restart the system.
Registry key removal is also a procedure that can be employed to remove Visual Studio.NET from the system, but the knowledge of Windows registry is essential. This is because if one system key is deleted, it can harm the system completely. To avoid this, you can use reliable software like RegGenie to efficiently remove unwanted and null registry keys. You can also use the Perfect Uninstaller software, which uninstalls software from all the computer locations.