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Very few modern apps on Windows are as difficult to remove as the Adobe Creative Cloud (Adobe CC) suite. However, with the right approach, you can get rid of Adobe CC and all of its traces in about 10 minutes. We’ll show you how below.
Uninstall All Adobe Apps
To uninstall Adobe Creative Cloud, you first need to uninstall all the Adobe apps, like Photoshop, Lightroom, InDesign, Premiere Pro, etc., that you may have installed using Creative Cloud. If not, you’ll likely see the “Couldn’t uninstall Creative Cloud for desktop” error.
While you can uninstall Adobe apps from the Settings app, it’s best to do it from the Adobe CC desktop app. This way, the desktop app can keep track of all the Adobe apps removed from your computer and prevent any escalation when you attempt to remove Creative Cloud.
To uninstall your Adobe apps:
If you can’t access your Adobe CC account, try to uninstall the Adobe apps from the Settings app. To do this, pressWin + Ion your keyboard to openSettings, selectAppsfrom the left sidebar, and clickInstalled Appson the right.
Locate the Adobe app you want to remove, click thethree-dots menu, and chooseUninstall. ClickUninstallagain to remove the app. If you still can’t uninstall the apps, use the Adobe CC Cleaner Tool as described in the last section of this guide.
Remove Adobe Creative Cloud Using Its Uninstaller
You caneasily uninstall any Windows app from the Settings app, except the Adobe Creative Cloud for desktop. Any attempt to remove it ends with the “Couldn’t uninstall Creative Cloud for desktop” error. Instead, you’re able to use the Adobe CC Uninstaller, a dedicated uninstaller from Adobe, to uninstall the desktop app.
Clean Up Leftover Bloatware With Adobe CC Cleaner Tool
Thanks to Adobe’s deep integration into the Windows OS, you still need to clean up some mess left by the Creative Cloud app. To remove leftover bloatware and files, we’ll use the Adobe Creative Cloud Cleaner tool.
If completed successfully, pressEnterto quit. If you see any errors, run the tool again to remove any leftover files.
Manually Remove Adobe Genuine Service and Folders
The last bit of this puzzle involves removing the Adobe Genuine Service (also known as Adobe Client), which is designed to detect pirated Adobe tools on your computer.
To remove Adobe Genuine Service:
After that, you can delete the Adobe folders in the following locations:
Open the Adobe folder, select all the files within, and chooseDelete. Do this for all the folders above. Also, remember toempty your recycle bin to free up space on your drive.
Adobe makes it unnecessarily difficult to remove its Creative Cloud desktop app. While it does offer a few tools to clean up the installation, some manual cleaning is still necessary to remove all the files.
If you’re moving away from the Adobe ecosystem, you may want to checkour curated list of Adobe software alternativesthat are available for free.
