Uninstall button for app greyed out in Windows Settings [Fix]

If the Uninstall button for an app is greyed out in Windows Settings, this post will show you how to uninstall such apps and how to enable the Uninstall button in Settings in Windows 11/10.

How to uninstall apps with greyed out Uninstall button in Settings

If Uninstall button for an app is greyed out in Windows Settings, these are the ways by which you can uninstall such apps.

1. By Command Prompt
2. By PowerShell
3. By Control Panel
4. By a third-party application.

Let us talk about them in detail.

1] By Command Prompt

If you are a fan of commands then you can use Command Prompt to uninstall an app with a greyed-out Uninstall button in Settings. To do that, launch Command Prompt as an administrator, type the following commands and hit Enter simultaneously.

wmic

Now, to get the list of apps, type the following command

product get name

In the following command, replace “name of the program” with the program that you want to uninstall. You can check the Screenshot.

product where name="name of the program" call uninstall

Finally, confirm your activity by hitting “Y”.

You will be able to delete the program.

2] By PowerShell

If you don’t use the Command Prompt but PowerShell then you can use it to uninstall the application.

To do that, launch Microsoft PowerShell as an administrator, type the following commands, and hit Enter simultaneously.

Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_Product | Select-Object -Property Name

Now, search for the application you want to uninstall and copy its PackageFullName.

Remove-AppxPackage PackageFullName

Note: Replace “PackageFullName” with the copied PackageFullName.

You will be able to delete the software from there.

3] By Control Panel

There are some applications that can’t be uninstalled from Settings (e.g; VMWare Workstation). Therefore, we need to use the Control Panel to do the same.

Launch Control Panel and click Programs & Features.

Now, select the application you want to uninstall and click Change (you may not get Uninstall/Change in this case, but if you do, click on that).

A wizard of that program will appear asking you to modify or remove the application, select Remove to uninstall the application. (you may get a different wizard depending on the application, but there will be an option to uninstall).

TIP: You can also uninstall a program using the Registry.

4] Using a third-party application

There are many third-party applications to uninstall a program from Windows 10. So, if you don’t want to use any Command-line interpreters or the Command Prompt then you can use a third-party application for the same.

You can use a good free uninstaller software like 10AppsManager or CCleaner.

How to enable the Uninstall button for apps in Windows Settings

While the above options are pretty helpful to uninstall apps even if the Uninstall button is disabled or greyed out for apps, there is a workaround to enable the Uninstall button for apps in the Settings app of Windows 11/10. This can be done using the Registry Editor. Before that, you should back up the Windows Registry. Now follow these steps:

• Type regedit in the Search box and use the Enter key to open the Registry Editor window
• Access the Uninstall Registry key using the following path:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall

• Expand the Uninstall Registry key and you will see multiple sub-keys. Each sub-key is associated with the installed applications on your system. Some sub-keys have names of the installed applications while others have alphanumeric characters. To confirm which sub-key is associated with which app, select a sub-key
• Now you will see a DisplayName String value on the right-hand part of the selected sub-key that shows the application name
• In case you don’t see the application in the above Registry path, then you need to access the Uninstall Registry key in the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE root key. The path is:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall

• Now select a sub-key and check the app name. Once the right sub-key is selected, look for the NoRemove name DWORD (32-bit) Value and delete it
• Repeat the above steps for other applications for which the Uninstall button is greyed out or disabled.

Restart your PC if needed, and the Uninstall button or Uninstall option for apps will be enabled in the Windows 11/10 Settings app.

Read next: Windows Apps greyed out in Start menu in Windows PC.