2021: How to Complete a Clean Uninstall of Revit products

Autodesk Support

Oct 8, 2023

Products and versions covered

Issue:

There may be circumstances where Autodesk Revit products need to be removed from the workstation to allow for a clean installation.
The following process will ensure residual files are properly removed as well.

Solution:

Use the following procedure to uninstall Revit products and remove any remnants from your system.
The result is a clean system on which you can reinstall.
 
Note that all paths listed by default are for Revit 2021. Substitute Revit LT if you are using the LT version and 20XX for older versions :
  • Autodesk Revit LT 2021/RLT 2021
  • Autodesk Revit 2021/RVT 2021
Substitute the current Windows login name for %USERNAME%.

Be sure to back up any custom family or template files prior to following this procedure.

  1. Log on as a Local System Administrator and disable any Antivirus programs,
  2. Remove Revit 2021 from the Windows Control Panel:
  • Control Panel > Programs and Features > Uninstall the specific Revit 2021 product.
  1. Remove the 2021 Material Library from the Windows Control Panel:
    • Control Panel > Programs and Features > Uninstall the Autodesk Material Library 2021.
  2. Use Windows Explorer to locate and delete the following folders as appropriate:
    • C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Revit 2021,
    • C:\ProgramData\Autodesk\RVT 2021,
    • C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Local\Autodesk\Revit\Autodesk Revit 2021,
    • C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Roaming\Autodesk\Revit\Autodesk Revit 2021.
  3. Open the system registry (Windows Start menu > Run > Regedit). Locate and delete the following registry keys as appropriate:
    • HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Autodesk\Revit\Autodesk Revit 2021,
    • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Autodesk\Revit\Autodesk Revit 2021.
Warning! Problems caused by improperly editing the Windows registry could render your computer operating system unusable. Microsoft provides a wealth of critical information that you need to know about the registry in the Microsoft Knowledge Base at Microsoft Support.
Use the Microsoft Registry Editor only at your own risk and only after backing up the registry as well as the system.dat and user.dat files as outlined for your operating system in the Microsoft Knowledge Base and in the article How to backup the system registry. Additional information about the registry is also contained in the Help topics in the Microsoft Registry Editor.
  1. Restart the workstation.

Before reinstalling Revit products

  1. In Windows Explorer, delete the contents of your Windows Temp folder, but do not delete the Windows Temp folder itself. You can locate the Temp folder by entering %TEMP% in the Address bar of Windows Explorer.
  2. Use the End Task feature to end any anti-virus programs.
Note: Disabling anti-virus programs from the system tray may not be sufficient. Virus checking programs may block certain activities that are seen as suspicious (for example, accessing the registry, adding/removing/updating DLL files, and so on), even though these activities are common when installing or removing programs.
Several anti-virus programs can be disabled by right-clicking the taskbar icon and selecting Disable from the shortcut menu. For more information about disabling your anti-virus software, refer to the vendor of that software.

Important! It is important that you not only disable the anti-virus software but also use the End Task feature to end the anti-virus software.
 
To verify that an anti-virus program is not still running in the background as a TSR (Terminate and Stay Resident Program):
  1. Press [Ctrl] + [Alt] + [Delete],
  2. Click Task Manager,
  3. On the Processes tab of the Task Manager, select the process for the anti-virus program and then click End Process.

You are now ready to install Revit products on the clean system.

Products:

Revit Product Family;

Versions:

2021;

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