Cannot uninstall user-scoped packages using Administrator account

[djohts]

Relevant area(s)

WinGet CLI

Relevant command(s)

winget uninstall

Brief description of your issue

Using local Administrator account. Installed GH Copilot CLI in user scope. Trying to uninstall fails with The package installed for user scope cannot be uninstalled when running with administrator privileges.

Steps to reproduce

1. Use local Administrator account
2. Install GitHub.Copilot under the user scope
3. Attempt to uninstall GitHub.Copilot

Expected behavior

Package to be uninstalled.

Actual behavior

Package does not uninstall because The package installed for user scope cannot be uninstalled when running with administrator privileges.

Environment

winget --info
Windows Package Manager v1.29.280
© 2026 Microsoft. All rights reserved.

Windows: Windows.Desktop v10.0.26200.8737
System Architecture: X64
Package: Microsoft.DesktopAppInstaller v1.29.280.0

[Trenly]

This is not a bug, but intentional behavior to prevent escalation of privelege scenarios. The relevant change(s) are #6344 and #6345 with the reasoning explained by @florelis in #6344 (comment)

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From a personal standpoint, I also feel an admin should be able to uninstall user scoped packages. Not only are there packages that require admin to u install even though they write to user scoped keys, but also, it seems to me that uninstalling from the control panel runs the same command from the registry. If the process is running elevated, escalation has probably already occured and this possible mitigation seems a bit frivolous. Especially since instead of using WinGet, a priveleged context could simply find and read the uninstall string to execute anyways.

I do understand that there is some inherent security risk, but I would argue that it is no more insecure than any user faces with the current way windows handles uninstalls and is not exactly unique to WinGet.

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At the end of the day, though, WinGet is a potential attack vector and security does need to be a high priority. While I may not agree with the decision or approach, I can accept that it is the objectively correct approach.

Hopefully this can become a feature where WinGet is enhanced with the ability to lower it's own privelege level to allow this in the future while also providing a way for programs that do write to HKCU but modify files at the machine scope to still be uninstalled while priveleged

[Trenly]

[Policy] Reset Labels

[Trenly]

[Policy] Issue Feature
[Policy] Command Uninstall
[Policy] Context Elevated User