How do I uninstall MathWorks Products on Windows when the uninstaller fails?

I could not uninstall MATLAB. How do I uninstall MATLAB completely from my computer?

Answer 1

[MathWorks Support Team]

If the MATLAB or other MathWorks Products uninstaller was unable to complete, try running the uninstaller located in the MATLAB installation folder. Here are the default uninstaller locations by release:

R2023b and earlier:

C:\Program Files\MATLAB\R20XXx\uninstall\bin\win64\uninstall.exe

Since R2024a:

C:\Program Files\MATLAB\R20XXx\bin\win64\MathWorksProductUninstaller.exe

If you are unable to complete the uninstaller, you can manually delete the MATLAB installation folder.

Afterwards, you can remove the MATLAB entries from the Windows System Path. For help modifying the Path in Windows, see the related article:

How do I set my system path under Windows?

https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/94933

If you are encountering DLL-related errors, it is possible a DLL has been replaced by Microsoft Visual Studio, another program, or malicious software. Because of this corruption, the uninstaller will not work and the files must be deleted manually.

Answer 2

[Vladimir Sovkov]

I have a similar but somewhat different problem. For a couple of years, I used Matlab 2019b with Windows 10. This year I decided to switch to the newer version Matlab 2021b. After installing and testing it, I decided to remove the older one using the standard Windows tools. However, it reproted that it could not do it because it could not find "uninstall.exe". Indeed, I did not find it in the installation folders of Matlab 2019b as well (meanwhile, "uninstall.exe" exists in the installation folders of Matlab 2021b...). Are there any ideas of where it could go? Is there a way to restore "uninstall.exe" and uninstall the older version in a regular way? Or, can it only be removed manually as described in those answers above? Would not it harm the new version somehow?

[Vladimir Sovkov]

Unfortunately, I was not. Two installations of Matlab still coexist in my system.