How To Uninstall and Remove 3DExperience SOLIDWORKS Products

This guide is written for 3DExperience SOLIDWORKS, this package updates automatically to the newest version of SOLIDWORKS. As changes are made to the program, this document will be updated accordingly.

This information is subject to change without notification. If you have any questions or find that there are discrepancies between this document and the SOLIDWORKS website or documentation, please contact Hawk Ridge Systems Technical Support.

If you are experiencing serious issues with your SOLIDWORKS software, you may need to fully uninstall the program and all associated programs and files before attempting to reload the software. This document covers how to do this complete removal of the product.

This is not a troubleshooting guide. If you have any technical issues with SOLIDWORKS, please contact Hawk Ridge Systems Technical Support.

Before Uninstalling 3DExperience SOLIDWORKS Connected

Prior to uninstalling SOLIDWORKS Connected, you will need to make sure you are working online.

Make sure you are first working online. If you are working offline, please start
SOLIDWORKS Connected > Work Online > Reconnect to the 3DExperience Platform.

It is recommended, but optional, to copy your current user settings before uninstalling SOLIDWORKS. If you wish to do so. Please reference Appendix - Settings Wizard on the steps to use the Settings Wizard for saving your user settings.

Uninstalling 3DExperience SOLIDWORKS Connected

To uninstall 3DExperience SOLIDWORKS, please follow the below steps:

Log in as the Administrator.
Disable all anti-virus and anti-spyware programs. (Some of these programs can sometimes block the uninstall process. It is also recommended to turn these programs off before reinstalling SOLIDWORKS.)
Confirm within SOLIDWORKS connected that you are working online.
Close all open applications.
Navigate to Control Panel > Programs > Programs and Features > Dassault Systems SOLIDWORKS 3DEXPERIENCE R20xx
This will bring up the DS Installer and load a warning asking if we are sure we want to uninstall all items under the installation directory. Select Yes to proceed. This will begin the uninstallation process and may take several minutes to complete.

If you do not have access to Administrator credentials on your machine, you can also uninstall SOLIDWORKS connected from the Compass on the 3DExperience platform using the steps below:

From the Compass, click the arrow on the right of the app, and select the Uninstall icon.
In the 3DEXPERIENCE Uninstallation dialog box, click Yes.
A native app uninstallation dialog box is displayed during the uninstallation process.

After Uninstalling 3DExperience SOLIDWORKS Connected

At this point, the 3DExperience SOLIDWORKS products have been removed from your machine. However, many folders, files, and registry keys remain on your system. If these items were the cause of your software issue, reinstalling the product without removing them will not fix the issue. This next section covers how to check and safely remove all remaining items from your system.

Uninstalling Related 3DExperience SOLIDWORKS Programs and Prerequisites

3DExperience SOLIDWORKS Connected requires many other libraries and software dependencies in order for the program to execute on your machine. Upon a fresh install, 3DExperience SOLIDWORKS will install these additional programs automatically, but this is not necessarily the case for an uninstall. To perform a thorough uninstall, please remove the following programs (order of removal is not important) from the Windows Control Panel:

3DEXPERIENCE Launcher
CEF for SOLIDWORKS Applications (new starting with R2023x)
Dassault Systemes Software VC10 Prerequisites x86-x64
Dassault Systemes Software VC11 Prerequisites x86-x64
Microsoft Visual C++ 2012 Redistributable (x64)
Microsoft Visual C++ 2012 Redistributable (x86)
Microsoft Visual C++ 2013 Redistributable (x64)
Microsoft Visual C++ 2013 Redistributable (x86)
Microsoft Visual C++ 2015-2019 Redistributable (x64)
Microsoft Visual C++ 2015-2019 Redistributable (x86)
Microsoft Visual Studio Tools for Applications 2019
WPTx64
Visual Basic (VBA) 7.1
1. Download the attachment 'QA00000070487_uninstall_vba.bat'.
2. Right click the batch file and select 'Run as administrator'.

Cleaning the Registry and Folders for SOLIDWORKS

The computer registry is where much of the information for all your programs is stored. This is accessed in the Registry Editor program.

Type regedit into the Windows search line in order to select and open the Registry Editor program from the search results.
Select File, Export, if you wish to back the registry in order to avoid any accidents on the following steps. It is not possible to undo a folder deletion in the registry, so that is why a backup is recommended.

Important: You must be very careful to only delete the items specifically called out in this document. Any other items removed from this area may cause your system or other programs to not function correctly.
Continue by deleting the following registry key folders.

NOTE: Some of these folders are deleted in Uninstalling Related 3DExperience SOLIDWORKS Programs and Prerequisites or may not exist in your environment, and some may contain important user data like downloaded media, document templates, databases, and design library files. Create a backup of the %public% and %programdata% folders before deletion. (To access these directories, type Windows Key+R > Paste in the following location(s) > Enter).

Program Files and Folders:

%programfiles%\Dassault Systemes\SOLIDWORKS 3DEXPERIENCE
%programfiles%\Common Files\SOLIDWORKS Shared
%programfiles(x86)%\Common Files\SOLIDWORKS Shared
%public%\Documents\Dassault Systemes
%public%\Documents\SOLIDWORKS
%programdata%\DassaultSystemes\3DEXPERIENCELauncher
%programdata%\SOLIDWORKS
%programdata%\SolidWorks HotFix
%appdata%\DassaultSystemes
%appdata%\SolidWorks
%localappdata%\TempSWBackupDirectory
%localappdata%\DassaultSystemes
%localappdata%\SolidWorks

Registry Entries:

NOTE: Incorrectly editing the Windows Registry can severely damage your system. The Hawk Ridge Systems Technical Support team strongly recommends that you back up registry keys before making any changes or deleting them.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Dassault Systemes\SolidWorks Shared
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Dassault Systemes\SolidWorksPDM
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\SolidWorks
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Dassault Systemes\SolidWorksPDM
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Dassault Systemes\SwxConnectors
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Dassault Systemes\V6_Common
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\SolidWorks
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Srac
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\SolidWorks

Appendix - Settings Wizard

You can save your toolbar locations, command changes, keyboard shortcut hotkeys, and system options (including file locations). If you want to save these, then you will need to save the settings. Once you have reinstalled SOLIDWORKS, it will have the default settings, so you should test if SOLIDWORKS functions correctly before reapplying your custom settings.

Go to Start, All Programs, SOLIDWORKS Tools 20XX, Settings Wizard.

a. We also can access the Settings Wizard through Tools > Save/Restore Settings
Press the Save Settings button on the first page and press the Next button to continue.
If you have SOLIDWORKS open, you will be warned that any changes in the current sessions will not be saved. Close SOLIDWORKS if you want to keep any changes from this current session. Press the Yes button to continue.
On the following page, you can specify the location and name of your settings file. Press the Browse button to search for a save location.
Select the checkboxes in front of the customized settings you would like to save.
Press the Finish button to save the .sldreg file.
You will be informed that your .sldreg file has been successfully saved. Press OK to finish.
You can browse to the save location and see the file. When you want to reset your SOLIDWORKS program to use your customized options, simply double-click this file and the settings will be written to the current user’s registry.