No uninstall documentation for the native Claud Code build (Windows)

[eikowagenknecht]

Environment

• Claude CLI version: 1.0.98
• Operating System: Windows 11

Bug Description

While installing Claud Code is easy (irm https://claude.ai/install.ps1 | iex), there's no documented way to uninstall it when it was installed that way.

I tried to return to the npm version (reasons not relevant here) by just deleting ~/.claude and ~/.local folders and then installing the npm version, but that only leads to the errors:

● Directory C:\Users\<user>\.local\bin does not exist
● Claude command not found at C:\Users\<user>\.local\bin\claude.exe

Neither the AI agent on the antropic page not Claude itself can help with this and I can't see it anywhere in the docs either.

Expected Behavior

It would be nice to have a way to actually uninstall Claud Code native. Or if there is one, have it documented.

[github-actions]

Found 1 possible duplicate issue:

1. How to (completely) uninstall it on windows? #6349

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🤖 Generated with Claude Code

[eikowagenknecht]

In the other issue, the suggested fix was deleting the .local folder.

This did not work for me as stated above.

Besides, it does not address the main point that this is undocumented.

[smcneece]

In the other issue, the suggested fix was deleting the .local folder.

This did not work for me as stated above.

Besides, it does not address the main point that this is undocumented.

Did you ever figure this out? I am trying to remove this as well because it just keeps freezing on me. I just get a message like:

npm uninstall -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code

up to date in 291ms

And it never uninstalls.

[eikowagenknecht]

Unfortunately not, my workaround is to use Claude Code in WSL instead. But I still really don't know how to get rid of the broken Windows installation.

[burakdede]

+1 to having a dedicated uninstall command/script with proper docs for each installation method.

In my case, things broke pretty badly:

My npm install failed to auto-update for some reason in the middle of session, and the claude command just disappeared completely from my system.

I then tried the native binary installation, hoping it would be more stable. Instead, my local setup started throwing random errors some related to npm, some related to the binary because both installations were being detected at once.

When I tried to clean things up:

• npm uninstall ... didn’t work → kept failing with ENOTEMPTY and other errors.
• Native binary uninstall → couldn’t find any dedicated uninstall command or documentation.

As a temporary workaround, I ended up writing my own uninstaller script to wipe out both npm and native-binary installs so I could start fresh:

https://github.com/burakdede/claude-code-uninstaller

[BenNewman100]

@burakdede this issue is for windows, your script doesn't support windows

[danneu]

@BenNewman100 you can run into this on any system where you run claude install since the installer finds and deletes the previous executable.

$ which claude
/home/dan/.npm-global/bin/claude

$ ls /home/dan/.npm-global/bin
claude

$ claude install
Native installation exists but ~/.local/bin is not in your PATH

$ claude
claude: command not found

$ ls /home/dan/.npm-global/bin
(empty)

It would be safer if claude install didn't touch your working executable and instead told you to prepend ~/.local/bin to your PATH.

[varadan13]

Still no documentation found for uninstalling claude code in windows

[ericburcham]

@BenNewman100, @burakdede's script does support Windows through WSL. However, if you don't have WSL (or other bash support) or are uncomfortable with it, I have added a PowerShell version. I also sent him a PR if he wants to merge it back to his main branch.

Here is the PowerShell Version:
https://github.com/ericburcham/claude-code-uninstaller

[github-actions]

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