With over 150 million active gamers chatting daily across PCs and phones, Discord stands tall as the social hangout hub for players worldwide.
However, even the best apps outlive their usefulness eventually. You may decide your once-beloved Discord is now just wasting resources or causing issues.
Uninstalling Discord seems easy enough at first glance…
Step 1: Open Control Panel
Step 2: Remove Discord
Done! Discord disappeared, no more wasted storage. Or is it?
Hold up. Removing Discord via your control panel is just the tip of the iceberg.
Lurking behind the scenes are massive caches of archived Discord data you probably never knew existed:
- 526 MB inside LocalAppData
- 1.44 GB nestled in AppData roaming folders
Still there after running the uninstall. Still gobbling up your precious SSD space.
What‘s worse, keeping these crippled remnants of Discord wreaks havoc when you reinstall it or install updates down the road.
"Why does my Discord crash instantly even after reformatting my PC?"
"I keep getting ‘DiscordDLL‘ errors after removing and adding Discord back?"
Does this headache sound familiar?
The nuisance continues because your Control Panel uninstall only deletes the Discord program itself. Not the 1.9+ GB database still clinging to life behind partition walls.
Hence this guide.
Today you‘ll learn the oft-neglected art of fully purging Discord on Windows 10, 8, and 7 – leftover folders included!
When we‘re through, no trace of Discord shall remain. Just sweet, sweet freedom.
Here‘s what Removing Discord: The Complete EditionTM entails step-by-step:
Phase 1: Soft Discord Removal The "Normal" Way
To start, we stick to the basics and utilize Windows‘ built-in uninstall protocols. This removes the primary Discord program itself, but leaves configurations, caches and user data behind.
We‘ll clear that leftover clutter soon! First, let‘s knock out the low-hanging fruit:
Force Quit Discord Processes
Before removing anything, you need to fully quit out of Discord on your computer:
- Hit Ctrl + Shift + Esc to open the Task Manager.
- Click the Processes tab so you can view (and end) all running programs.
- Seek out any process called Discord in the long list. When found, right click it and select End Task.
- Repeat for all Discord related processes until none remain. This completely stops Discord from running in the background.
With Discord purged from your computer‘s memory, the next phase can begin…
Uninstall Discord via Control Panel
Here we enact the classic app removal you already know via the Programs menu:
- Type "Add or remove programs" into Windows Search and select the Apps & Features result.
- Scroll down your list of installed applications and click on Discord.
- Choose Uninstall and confirm you want to remove Discord when prompted.
After less than a minute, Windows unceremoniously wipes the central Discord program from your hard drive. Almost getting the job done.
But that initial 2 GB of extraneous data still lurks secretly in the shadows. Growing ever larger…
Phase 2: Eliminating ALL Leftover Discord Files
Now for the real file-scrubbing legwork!
Discord litters traces of itself across your Windows user account in hidden application data folders:
- LocalAppData – 526 MB of cached messages, server data, update archives and other temporary junk.
- AppData Roaming – 1.44 GB of preferences, login profiles and local settings that "roam" between devices.
Cleaning out both leaves no trace of Discord‘s existence.
Important: Improperly tampering with these folders can seriously break your Windows installation temporarily. We want surgical precision here.
Let‘s don our hazmat suits and terminate Discord‘s sprawling remainder on a granular level!
Wiping Discord From LocalAppData
What Lives Here: Temporary caches to boost performance, discord update archives, debug logs and incomplete download packages.
Why Delete it? Frees up disk space. Avoids issues reinstalling or updating Discord later.
- Open your Windows File Explorer.
- Type the following path into the navigation bar and press Enter:
%localappdata% - Now find and click open the Discord folder lurking in the folder list.
- Inside this folder, Ctrl+A to select everything, then hit Delete to wipe contents.
- Lastly, right click on the Discord parent folder itself and choose Delete. Confirm deletion if asked.
Poof! 526 MB of miscellaneous Discord data banished in the blink of an eye.
Only one hidden storage basket left now containing your Discord digital footprint!
Obliterating Discord‘s Roaming Profile
What Lives Here: User-specific data like Discord settings, login profiles and customizations that sync across devices.
Why Delete It? Avoid login and settings errors when reinstalling Discord later.
- Redo step 1 and 2 above, but instead type/enter:
%appdata% - Inside AppData, drill down through the Roaming folder.
- Seek out and select the discord folder (note lowercase name).
- Just like before: Ctrl+A > Delete to clear contents, then right click > Delete on the parent discord folder itself.
- Clear your recycling bin to finish the job.
With approximately 1.44 GB of settings, login data and usage logs formally expunged, Discord is now out of sight and out of storage-gobbling mind.
Huzzah! 🥳️
Moving On After Discord
With every last remaining Discord file eradicated from your Windows world, go celebrate!
Dance like no one‘s watching:
You‘re now free to cleanly reinstall Discord or any program formerly plagued by installation and login issues.
A few parting tips:
- Reset Discord server permissions since old settings are wiped.
- Consider updating Windows itself after deleting lots of system folders.
- Run an antivirus scan to catch any dormant malware exposed after deleting hidden caches.
Otherwise, congrats on overcoming the complexities of modern software removal!
You‘ve conquered the notorious outlive-its-uninstall beast in record time. Share this guide with any other dissatisfied Discord dropouts seeking freedom.
Now go enjoy the blissful silence and extra GBs of HDD space!
