Can't uninstall Google Chrome? Close every Chrome window first

The official way: close Chrome, then uninstall from Settings

Google gives separate steps for Windows 11 and Windows 10 in its Chrome Help article on uninstalling. They differ in the name of the apps page and in the browsing-data box.

1. 01

   Close all Chrome windows

   On Windows 11, Google says to close all Chrome windows; on Windows 10, all Chrome windows and tabs.

2. 02

   Open the apps list

   Click the Start menu and open Settings. On Windows 11 select Apps, then Installed apps. On Windows 10 select Apps and look under Apps & features.

3. 03

   Uninstall Google Chrome

   On Windows 11, open the More menu next to Google Chrome and select Uninstall, then Uninstall again. On Windows 10, click Google Chrome, then Uninstall, and confirm.

4. 04

   Allow the change

   To allow the app to make changes to your device, click Yes.

5. 05

   Decide about browsing data (Windows 10 steps)

   To delete your profile information, like bookmarks and history, check Also delete your browsing data, then click Uninstall. Google adds that the data will then no longer be on your computer.

6. 06

   If you want the data gone from your Google Account too

   Google says that if you are signed in to Chrome and save your data to your Google Account, some information might still be on Google's servers. Deleting it is done by deleting your browsing data, which Google covers in a separate article.

What can stay behind, and what to check

The Chromium project's documentation gives the default location of Chrome's user data directory on Windows as %LOCALAPPDATA%\Google\Chrome\User Data, and describes it as containing profile data such as history, bookmarks and cookies. Whether that folder is still there after an uninstall follows from the browsing-data choice above. These read-only PowerShell commands show whether Chrome is still running, whether the folder exists, and whether Windows still lists Chrome. A name match is a lead, not proof.

Get-Process | Where-Object Name -match '^chrome$' | Format-Table Name, Id
Test-Path "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\Google\Chrome\User Data"
Get-ItemProperty 'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\*',
  'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\*' |
  Where-Object DisplayName -match 'Google Chrome' | Format-Table DisplayName, DisplayVersion
Get-Service -DisplayName '*Google Chrome*' | Format-Table Name, DisplayName, Status
Get-ScheduledTask |
  Where-Object { $_.TaskName -match 'Google Chrome' -or $_.TaskPath -match 'Google Chrome' } |
  Format-Table TaskPath, TaskName, State