What's the Right Way To Uninstall Audacity

My upgrade to 10 has gone pretty well so far. The only problem is that Audacity audio editor (2.0.6) won't work
("Internal PortAudio error"/"program not supported.")

I want to uninstall it, but it's not recognized by Windows 10 "Uninstall Programs."
What's the best way to do this without messing up the registry?

Take a look at Revo Uninstaller:


You will probably have to use the "Forced Uninstall" feature:

I have Audacity installed with no side effects on my W10 laptop.

I wonder if it being removed from my machine during Reset My PC, and then me going out and reinstalling it again after W10 was up and running, had anything to do with that.

Try version 2.1.1

Audacity is a great program, there are two ways to get it, with an Installer, or from a Zip file. If you just copied it out of the zip file, it may not be working right. Use the installer and it should hook into your system properly, locating your Audio Hardware. Under "Help" there is a link to check your Audio Hardware:



That should tell you if there are any problems with your hardware. If you don't see the list of supported bitrates, it's not detecting your hardware.

Try version 2.1.1

Be sure to update the FFmpeg library if you use it.

FFmpeg 2.2.2 should be used with the latest version of Audacity.

FFmpeg 0.6.2 for Audacity -> versions lower than 2.0.6
FFmpeg 2.2.2 for Audacity -> versions 2.0.6 and higher
FFmpeg 2.3.x -> versions 2.0.6 and higher
FFmpeg 2.4.x and later is not supported, except for exports using Audacity's command-line encoder.

Audacity Manual FAQ: Installation, Startup and Plug-ins

Advanced usage: If you already have Audacity-compatible FFmpeg 2.2.x or 2.3.x shared libraries in the system PATH, Audacity will use those as long as you don't install FFmpeg from the links below and as long as you don't specify the FFmpeg you want Audacity to use in Libraries Preferences.

I use Audacity 2.0 and it is working flawlessly with Windows 10. As for removal, might I suggest freeware: Move on Boot
. Revo Uninstaller is another great program but the free version probably won't help you if you're on a 64 bit system.

FYI, I use the portable version of any software when possible so they are available to use. This includes: CCleaner, Speccy, Audacity etc.. and they all work correctly. Just put them in a folder on another HD so they are available when I boot into different versions of Windows.

@OP
You don't really need to uninstall it, just download the new version, run the installer, it will overwrite the previous broken version.

there are two ways to get it, with an Installer, or from a Zip file.

This answers the question:

The zip version is poartable; it should notcreate Audacity files at other places than inside the Audacity program folder. If Terry installed Audacity by extracting the ZIP file, then there will be no entry under "Installed Programs" in the control panel. You can then uninstall Audacity by just deleting its program folder.

If Audacity has in contrast been installed using an installer, then you will most likely have user files from it somewhere in your system (e.g. in your user folder). To get these files cleaned up as well, I would try downloading the current version of Audacity (take the installer version again) and install that one "over" the things you currently have. After that, the uninstall function should be working and you should be able to uninstall Audacity properly. :-)

Thanks for the suggestion. Yes, I had zipped version of Audacity which I deleted and installed the current version.
Same old problem: it don't work.

The Audacity Team got caught with their pants down on this one.