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Leaving cleanly

How to uninstall Paul’s Dashboard completely.

Five steps, two minutes, nothing left behind. The uninstaller removes the program; the folders below are yours and it leaves them alone on purpose, so this page lists them. There is no account to close and nothing of yours on any server, because nothing ever left your machine.

Step by step

Remove it

  1. 1

    Quit the app

    Closing the window only hides it: the app keeps running in the system tray. Right-click the tray icon (bottom right, near the clock; it may be behind the little arrow) and choose Quit. If you had turned on Start with Windows, untick it in the tray menu first, so nothing is left to start next time.

  2. 2

    Uninstall the program

    Open Windows Settings, go to Apps, then Installed apps, find Paul's Dashboard and choose Uninstall. Control Panel's Programs and Features works too. This removes the program folder (%LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\pauls-dashboard), the Start menu entry and the desktop shortcut.

  3. 3

    Delete your data folder

    The uninstaller leaves your settings, widgets, photos, recordings, sounds and GIF library where they are, so a reinstall gets them back. For a clean machine, delete %APPDATA%\pauls-dashboard. Paste that path into the Explorer address bar and press Enter to get there.

  4. 4

    Delete the update cache

    Downloaded updates wait in %LOCALAPPDATA%\pauls-dashboard-updater. Delete that folder too. Early versions of the app were called Custom Dashboard and kept their data in %APPDATA%\custom-dashboard; if that folder exists, delete it as well.

  5. 5

    Check the startup list

    If Start with Windows was on and you uninstalled without turning it off, Windows may still list the app under Settings, Apps, Startup (or Task Manager, Startup apps). Switch it off or remove it there. That is the last trace.

The folders

Every place it writes

Paste a path into the Explorer address bar to open it. Delete the first three for a clean machine; the uninstaller handles the last one.

  • Your settings and files%APPDATA%\pauls-dashboard
  • Downloaded updates%LOCALAPPDATA%\pauls-dashboard-updater
  • Data from versions before 2.0%APPDATA%\custom-dashboard
  • The program itself (the uninstaller removes this)%LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\pauls-dashboard
For the record

What it never installs

  • No Windows service, scheduled task, driver or browser extension
  • No account, and no copy of your dashboard anywhere but your disk
  • No registry entries beyond the standard uninstall record and, if you chose it, the Start with Windows entry above
  • Nothing in Program Files: it installs for your user only, no administrator rights involved

If something in the app sent you here, the changelog lists what each release fixed, and the Bug me button in the app goes straight to the person who wrote it.