How to Uninstall VLC Player

What is VLC Player?

VLC stands for Video Lan Client and is a free open source media player, which supports a wide variety of video codecs and streaming protocols. This open source software is extremely popular because it is constantly updated and its versions are released at regular intervals. VLC media player can be installed on Windows, Mac OS, and any Linux/ UNIX variant.

How to Uninstall VLC Player

There are multiple methods that can be employed to uninstall VLC player from a system.  A few of them are listed below –

  1. VLC player installer
  2. Windows Uninstaller
  3. System Restore

VLC Player Uninstaller – VLC media player installation file has a built-in uninstaller. This program actually triggers the Windows uninstaller service to uninstall VLC player from the system. Follow the steps below to use the installation file to uninstall VLC player –

  1. Double-Click on the installation file.
  2. Click Yes on the dialog box and then click Next.
  3. Click on the Uninstall button.
  4. Click Finish to complete the uninstall.

This process will remove all traces of VLC media player from the system.

Windows Uninstaller –Windows uninstaller program is provided with all versions of Windows to completely remove installed software from the system. To do this, follow these steps –

  1. Click on Start and then select Control Panel.
  2. Click on Program and Features or Add and Remove Programs option, as this brings a complete list of programs installed on the system.
  3. Select VLC media player from the list and click on uninstall.

If the program is not removed completely, you can always try the uninstall option in the Safe mode of Windows. Safe mode is an option where only the pure OS is loaded and no programs or drivers run in the background. To get into Safe mode, perform the following steps –

  1. Restart your system.
  2. Keep hitting the function 8 or F8 key during boot up.
  3. Choose Safe Mode using the arrow keys and press Enter.

It will take 2-3 minutes to get into the safe mode and then follow the step to uninstall VLC player using the Windows uninstaller.

Using System Restore – The system restore feature helps in restoring the system to the date when the VLC player was not installed. You can run this feature using the following steps –

  1. Click on Start and then select All programs.
  2. Browse Accessories and then select  System tools.
  3. Click on System restore and choose a date prior to the installation of VLC player.
  4. Click Next after selecting the date.

Once the settings are applied, it will restart the system, which will remove the VLC media player.

There are chances that even after VLC media player is uninstalled from the system, traces of its registry keys will still be present in the registry keys. If you are comfortable in deleting the keys, you can manually browse through the registry and delete the keys. If not, you can use the RegGenie software, which is very efficient in removing empty registry keys related to VLC player. You can also use a powerful software called Perfect uninstaller to completely uninstall VLC player from the system.