Clean up old .NET installs with the .NET Uninstall Tool

17th October 2025

Using the .NET Uninstall Tool to remove redundant .NET SDK versions

New versions of .NET are released almost monthly with bug and security fixes. Visual Studio also will install specific versions of .NET SDKs. What this means is that over time you may end up with a lot of .NET SDKs and runtimes installed, some of which are redundant and just taking up disk space.

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You could uninstall specific versions manually, or you could use the .NET Uninstall Tool.

On Windows if you’re using Chocolatey, you can install the tool like this:

choco install dotnet-uninstaller

Or you can download the installer directly from https://github.com/dotnet/cli-lab/releases (there’s also a Mac OS version available). That GitHub repository has the source for the tool too.

Here’s what dotnet --info shows on my machine:

.NET SDK:
 Version:           10.0.100-rc.2.25502.107
 Commit:            89c8f6a112
 Workload version:  10.0.100-manifests.4d32cd9e
 MSBuild version:   18.0.0-preview-25502-107+89c8f6a11

Runtime Environment:
 OS Name:     Windows
 OS Version:  10.0.26100
 OS Platform: Windows
 RID:         win-x64
 Base Path:   C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk\10.0.100-rc.2.25502.107\

.NET workloads installed:
There are no installed workloads to display.
Configured to use workload sets when installing new manifests.
No workload sets are installed. Run "dotnet workload restore" to install a workload set.

Host:
  Version:      10.0.0-rc.2.25502.107
  Architecture: x64
  Commit:       89c8f6a112

.NET SDKs installed:
  3.1.426 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk]
  6.0.428 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk]
  8.0.318 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk]
  8.0.415 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk]
  9.0.205 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk]
  9.0.305 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk]
  9.0.306 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk]
  10.0.100-rc.2.25502.107 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk]

.NET runtimes installed:
  Microsoft.AspNetCore.App 3.1.32 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.AspNetCore.App]
  Microsoft.AspNetCore.App 6.0.36 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.AspNetCore.App]
  Microsoft.AspNetCore.App 8.0.21 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.AspNetCore.App]
  Microsoft.AspNetCore.App 9.0.6 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.AspNetCore.App]
  Microsoft.AspNetCore.App 9.0.9 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.AspNetCore.App]
  Microsoft.AspNetCore.App 9.0.10 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.AspNetCore.App]
  Microsoft.AspNetCore.App 10.0.0-rc.2.25502.107 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.AspNetCore.App]
  Microsoft.NETCore.App 3.1.32 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.NETCore.App]
  Microsoft.NETCore.App 6.0.36 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.NETCore.App]
  Microsoft.NETCore.App 8.0.21 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.NETCore.App]
  Microsoft.NETCore.App 9.0.6 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.NETCore.App]
  Microsoft.NETCore.App 9.0.9 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.NETCore.App]
  Microsoft.NETCore.App 9.0.10 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.NETCore.App]
  Microsoft.NETCore.App 10.0.0-rc.2.25502.107 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.NETCore.App]
  Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App 3.1.32 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App]
  Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App 6.0.36 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App]
  Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App 8.0.21 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App]
  Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App 9.0.6 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App]
  Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App 9.0.9 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App]
  Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App 9.0.10 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App]
  Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App 10.0.0-rc.2.25502.107 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App]

Other architectures found:
  x86   [C:\Program Files (x86)\dotnet]
    registered at [HKLM\SOFTWARE\dotnet\Setup\InstalledVersions\x86\InstallLocation]

I have Visual Studio 2022 and Visual Studio 2026 Insiders installed, and also used some of the Chocolatey packages to preinstall various SDK versions (and some runtimes may have been installed as dependencies of other software).

Ideally I’d just end up with the latest SDK for each major version. The Uninstall tool has a few different commands and combinations of options. First up let’s see what the list command generates:

dotnet-core-uninstall list

This tool cannot uninstall versions of the runtime or SDK that are 
    - SDKs installed using Visual Studio 2019 Update 3 or later.
    - SDKs and runtimes installed via zip/scripts.
    - Runtimes installed with SDKs (these should be removed by removing that SDK).
The versions that can be uninstalled with this tool are:

.NET Core SDKs:
  9.0.306  x64    [Used by Visual Studio. Specify individually or use --force to remove]
  9.0.305  x64
  9.0.205  x64
  8.0.415  x64    [Used by Visual Studio 2022. Specify individually or use --force to remove]
  8.0.318  x64
  6.0.428  x64    [Used by Visual Studio 2022. Specify individually or use --force to remove]
  3.1.426  x64    [Used by Visual Studio 2019. Specify individually or use --force to remove]

.NET Core Runtimes:

ASP.NET Core Runtimes:

.NET Core Runtime & Hosting Bundles:

My goal is to remove 9.0.305, 9.0.205 and 8.0.318 SDKs, as I have newer versions of 8 and 9 already installed.

Before committing to removing anything, it’s probably a good idea to make use of the whatif (aka dry-run) command first, just so you can confirm it is going to do what you thought.

First up, let’s see what the --all-lower-patches filter does:

dotnet-core-uninstall whatif --all-lower-patches --sdk

*** DRY RUN OUTPUT
Specified versions:
  Microsoft .NET SDK 9.0.305 (x64)
*** END DRY RUN OUTPUT

Interesting - that’s a good start, but it doesn’t include the other two SDKs.

What about --all-but-latest?

dotnet-core-uninstall whatif --all-but-latest --sdk

*** DRY RUN OUTPUT
Specified versions:
  Microsoft .NET SDK 9.0.305 (x64)
  Microsoft .NET SDK 9.0.205 (x64)
  Microsoft .NET SDK 8.0.318 (x64)
*** END DRY RUN OUTPUT

That looks good! Let’s do this..

dotnet-core-uninstall remove --all-but-latest --sdk --yes

Uninstalling: Microsoft .NET SDK 9.0.305 (x64).
Uninstalling: Microsoft .NET SDK 9.0.205 (x64).
Uninstalling: Microsoft .NET SDK 8.0.318 (x64).

And there you go!

Here’s what dotnet --info produces now:

.NET SDK:
 Version:           10.0.100-rc.2.25502.107
 Commit:            89c8f6a112
 Workload version:  10.0.100-manifests.4d32cd9e
 MSBuild version:   18.0.0-preview-25502-107+89c8f6a11

Runtime Environment:
 OS Name:     Windows
 OS Version:  10.0.26100
 OS Platform: Windows
 RID:         win-x64
 Base Path:   C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk\10.0.100-rc.2.25502.107\

.NET workloads installed:
There are no installed workloads to display.
Configured to use workload sets when installing new manifests.
No workload sets are installed. Run "dotnet workload restore" to install a workload set.

Host:
  Version:      10.0.0-rc.2.25502.107
  Architecture: x64
  Commit:       89c8f6a112

.NET SDKs installed:
  3.1.426 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk]
  6.0.428 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk]
  8.0.415 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk]
  9.0.306 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk]
  10.0.100-rc.2.25502.107 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk]

.NET runtimes installed:
  Microsoft.AspNetCore.App 3.1.32 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.AspNetCore.App]
  Microsoft.AspNetCore.App 6.0.36 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.AspNetCore.App]
  Microsoft.AspNetCore.App 8.0.21 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.AspNetCore.App]
  Microsoft.AspNetCore.App 9.0.10 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.AspNetCore.App]
  Microsoft.AspNetCore.App 10.0.0-rc.2.25502.107 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.AspNetCore.App]
  Microsoft.NETCore.App 3.1.32 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.NETCore.App]
  Microsoft.NETCore.App 6.0.36 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.NETCore.App]
  Microsoft.NETCore.App 8.0.21 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.NETCore.App]
  Microsoft.NETCore.App 9.0.9 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.NETCore.App]
  Microsoft.NETCore.App 9.0.10 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.NETCore.App]
  Microsoft.NETCore.App 10.0.0-rc.2.25502.107 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.NETCore.App]
  Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App 3.1.32 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App]
  Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App 6.0.36 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App]
  Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App 8.0.21 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App]
  Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App 9.0.9 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App]
  Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App 9.0.10 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App]
  Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App 10.0.0-rc.2.25502.107 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App]

That looks better. I can see there is still a 9.0.9 runtime that might be a candidate to be removed given there’s also a 9.0.10. That specific runtime was originally installed as a Chocolatey package dependency, so I expect that will be resolved when the package that depends on that runtime version gets upgraded.