How to uninstall Google Chrome and wipe data completely 👉

The Google Chrome browser is probably one of the most widely used and popular browsers available. However, backlash often occurs due to unwanted updates or privacy compromises resulting in mass removal. But, even after uninstalling Chrome, the data files are still stored locally. We need to clear this residual data for a complete removal manually. Find out how to uninstall Google Chrome and erase data completely

Among the older web browsers, Chrome has been the preferred choice for many users. Lately, however, there have been a few other notable competitors who have presented a formidable challenge to this offering from Google.

How to uninstall Google Chrome and wipe data completely

Companies like Microsoft Edge, Vivaldi, Brave and Opera Browser have managed to attract a decent number of users towards their products.

If you are also in the same boat and planning to make a switch from Chrome to any of your other preferred browsers, then the first step requires removing Chrome from your PC.

However, simply uninstalling it through the Settings menu will only do half the job. You will also need to disable your scheduler from Update tasks remove your update service files, profile Y data folder .

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If you don’t, there’s a good chance some Chrome file traces are left behind. This, in turn, could conflict with the installation of another browser.

Therefore, we will inform you in detail about the steps to uninstall and remove files from in this guide.

Note: Most of the steps mentioned below are valid for Windows PC users. Mac users can remove the Google Chrome app from the folder Applications .

We have listed the instructions below in a staggered manner. Make sure to follow the same mentioned sequence to get rid of Google Chrome completely.

Step 1: Uninstall Google Chrome

Let’s start with the native method to uninstall Chrome via Settings or Control Panel, just like we do any other app.

Here are the steps to uninstall Google Chrome from computer :

Press the Windows + I hotkeys to open the menu windows settings .
Switch to Applications in the left menu bar and select Apps and features .
scroll to Google Chrome under Apps & Features and click Plus to see the list of options.
Select the command uninstall from the list of options.

Enable the check box to also delete your browsing data and press the button uninstall Command button.

The process will take a few seconds, and once done, it will remove the Chrome app from your browser. However, the residual data files remain intact. So, go ahead and delete the remaining files as well.

Step 2: Stop the Chrome background process

Next, you will need to kill all background processes from Chrome. This will act as a prerequisite for the rest of the steps to remove the browser data files.

Failure to stop these processes will prevent you from deleting the associated Chrome files and will instead throw the following error message » The action cannot be completed because the folder or file it contains is open in another program «.

Here are the steps to kill Chrome background process on Windows PC :

Press the shortcut keys Ctrl + Shift + Esc to open Windows Task Manager .
in the tab Process expand background process .
Select the processes Chrome (if any) and press Final task Command button.
Switch to tab Details .
Select the process chrome.exe and press the button again. Final task or End Task

Kill all existing chrome.exe processes with the End Task command.

That is all. All Chrome background processes have been stopped. Now you can proceed with manual file deletion.

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Step 3: Delete the Chrome profile folder

Next, you will need to delete the Chrome profile folder which contains all the browser data. These include cookies from likes, saved passwords, bookmarks, etc.

Here are the steps to remove Chrome profile and local saved data from computer :

start Windows File Explorer ( Win + E ).
go to the folder of google local app data (make sure to replace UserName accordingly).C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Local\Google
Select the folder of Chrome Y click with the right button to access the context menu.
Hit the Erase command menu.

It will remove all data related to your Google Chrome profile. Saved local data like cookies, cache and browsing history will also be deleted.

Step 4: Delete the Chrome installation folder

You will also have to manually delete the remaining Chrome installation files and the folder stored in the directory Program files .

Here are the steps to remove residual Chrome installation files :

start the File Browser from the task bar.
Access the google chrome folder in Program Files from the File Explorer window. C:\Program Files (x86)\Google
Select the folder of Chrome Y click with the right button to access the context menu.
Hit the Erase command menu.

In most cases, this is all it takes to completely uninstall and remove Google Chrome files.

But to be doubly sure, it is recommended to perform the following two steps. Most users may not even see any settings related to Chrome.

Step 5: Delete the Google Update Service files

If there are some update service-related files left, you may need to reinstall the browser on your PC and update it to the latest version. Therefore, it is recommended to remove those files as well.

Here are the steps to remove Google Update service files from Windows :

Go to the menu Start and search CMD for the app Symbol of the system .
start the symbol of the system What administrator .
Run the following four commands to remove the google update service .sc stop gupdate sc remove gupdate sc stop gupdatem sc remove gupdatem
Get out of the command prompt window.

Once this is done, all update services related to Google and Chrome will be removed.

Step 6Disable Google Update Task

Now let’s give it the final touch and disable the Google Update Task as well. We can use the Task Scheduler app from a Windows PC to disable updates.

Task Scheduler reminds the updater to update Chrome after a specified interval. So disabling the scheduler will kill it.

Here are the steps to disable Google update task from Task Scheduler :

start the task scheduler parts through the menu Start .
double click on the library of task scheduler in the menu bar on the left.
Select the task whose name starts with GoogleChromeUpdateTask .
right click to access the context menu and select the option To disable .

There may be multiple tasks beginning with that name; make sure you disable them all.

Browser update tasks are now disabled, and with this, the uninstall process is complete.

Conclusion: Complete removal of Chrome

So this was all from this guide on how you could completely uninstall and remove Google Chrome files. If you uninstall the app from the Windows settings menu, there are high chances that your data files will be left behind.

Therefore, it is always recommended to double check that those files are not present in their respective directory and if they are, you should delete them immediately.

MacOS users can throw the Chrome app in the Applications folder’s trash can, which will basically delete the files and folders.

Let us know what you think about completely removing Chrome browser from your computer. Also, please share if you encounter any challenges getting rid of Chrome browser.

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