To uninstall TurboTax for Windows 8.1, 10, and 11, first you need to make sure you have administrator permissions enabled on your computer.
Step 1: Enable Windows administrator permissions
- Right-click the Window Start icon
- Select Settings (or select the Windows key + I)
- Go to and select Accounts
- Select Your Info
- The administrator account info is listed under the liscensed name and email address
- Select Administrator, if it isn’t already
If that isn’t working, you can also try this:
- Right-click the Window Start icon
- Select Search
- In the search bar type control.exe
- Press Enter to launch the control panel
- From the control panel, select User Accounts
- On the next screen you'll see info related to your account, including if the account is:
- Standard or Administrator
- Local or Microsoft
- Password protected
- Select Administrator, if it isn’t already
Step 2: Uninstall TurboTax
Once you’ve made sure your administrator permissions are enabled:
- Close all open programs on your computer
- Close TurboTax
- Make a backup copy of your tax file
- Your tax file ends with the extension *.tax20xx (For example: the tax file for 2021 would have the extension *.tax2021)
- Right-click the Windows Start icon
- Select Search
- In the search bar, type appwiz.cpl
- Press Enter to go to the Uninstall or Change a Program selection screen
- From the list, go to the version of TurboTax you wish to uninstall (For example: TurboTax2021)
- Double-click the TurboTax version you wish to uninstall
- Select Yes when the Programs and Features dialog box asks, Are you sure you want to uninstall TurboTax 20XX?
- The uninstall will continue, and you'll see the Windows Installer box
- Select Yes when the User Account Control box asks, Do you want to allow this app to make changes to your device?
- Keep the box open until the uninstallation process completes
- When the uninstallation completes, the progress box will disappear
- Close the Programs and Features window
- Restart your computer
