Windows Uninstall

You may want to review the Uninstall Overview here.

High-Level Steps

1. You initiate the uninstall with a shell command in a Windows terminal.

   1. You do not run it in the WSL2 terminal for the NVIDIA-Workbench distro.

   2. This uninstalls the application from the WSL2 distro, NVIDIA-Workbench, and it will also remove some, but not all, application files from the Windows’ side.

   3. However, it doesn’t remove the NVIDIA-Workbench distro

   4. It doesn’t remove nvidia-workbench where the Project repos are, in case you want to keep them.

   5. Nor does it remove the .nvwb sub-folder where the application binaries are held.

2. Then you uninstall the rest of the application using the Windows add/remove programs feature in Windows.

   1. This will remove the Electron app and the icon from your desktop and tray.

3. Then, you need to remove two file folders on the Windows’ side in AppData.

   1. You will need to unhide files and folders to see AppData.

4. Finally, you will need to remove WSL2 through the add/remove programs feature in Windows.

   1. You may also need to remove the associated update.

Where to Find Application Files on Windows

• On Windows, all application files are in the WSL2 distro, NVIDIA-Workbench, or the AppData folder on the Windows’ side.

  • You shouldn’t randomly delete any of them. The uninstall should be done in the order given.

  • The path to your AppData folder should be C:\Users\<your_user_name>\AppData.

  • To see AppData, you must unhide files and folders in your Windows Explorer. See here for how to do it.

• A few folders in AppData have application files.

  • The folders holding NVIDIA AI Workbench files are:

    • C:\Users\<your_user_name>\AppData\Local\nvidia-workbench-updater

    • C:\Users\<your_user_name>\AppData\Local\NVIDIA Corporation\AI Workbench

    • C:\Users\<your_user_name>\AppData\Local\NVIDIA Corporation\Workbench

    • C:\Users\<your_user_name>\AppData\Roaming\nvidia-workbench

• In the NVIDIA-Workbench WSL2 distro, the application files are in $HOME/.nvwb.

  • The dependencies are installed as usual.

1. In a Windows shell, run the command wsl -d NVIDIA-Workbench -u root -- /home/workbench/.nvwb/bin/nvwb-cli uninstall --uid 1000 --gid 1000

   1. This will start a flow in the terminal and ask you to agree. Enter y and hit enter.

2. When it terminates, in the WSL2 shell for the NVIDIA-Workbench distro, remove the .nvwb sub-folder with rm -r ~/.nvwb.

   1. (Optional) To remove the Project repos in the nvidia-workbench sub-folder, run rm -r ~/nvidia-workbench.

3. (Optional) To remove the WSL2 distro NVIDIA-Workbench, in a Windows shell, run wsl --unregister NVIDIA-Workbench.

   1. This will permanently remove all of the files for that Ubuntu distribution.

   2. If you do this then you can skip step 2 above.

4. (Optional) To remove WSL2 from your machine, use the Windows add/remove program feature.

   1. Enter Windows Subsystem for Linux and remove it.

   2. Enter Windows Subsystem for Linux Update and remove it.

5. Then, go to the Windows’ add/remove programs feature, type in Workbench, and follow the uninstall flow.

   1. This will remove the Electron app and more program files from the Windows’ side.

   2. Click uninstall when asked, and again each time you are asked to verify.

6. When this finishes, you still need to remove two folders in AppData.

   1. Delete C:\Users\<your_user_name>\AppData\Local\nvidia-workbench-updater

   2. Delete C:\Users\<your_user_name>\AppData\Local\NVIDIA Corporation\Workbench