How to remove Ubuntu 16.04 after installing Ubuntu 18.04?

[MartyIX]

Hi,

I have installed via Ubuntu 18.04 via Microsoft Store (I just clicked Install). How can I now remove Ubuntu 16.04 that still resides on my computer?

Thank you

Best regards,
Martin

Environment: Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.17134.165]

[WSLUser]

Settings - System - Apps and Features. Search for "Ubuntu". Click on Ubuntu 16.04, click on "Uninstall". Now go to your rootfs under C:\Users\username\appdata...\Canonical.Limited... Right Click and Delete (or just rm -rf from Ubuntu 18.04 that directory.) Be sure to delete the 16.04 directory as 18.04 will also start with Canonical.Limited.. Now done.

[benhillis]

@DarthSpock Uninstalling the app also removes the root file system. No manual steps are required.

[WSLUser]

I've seen it left before on my own machine when I switched to Debian (on 16299) and it was reported in #3390 (17134). So the uninstall doesn't always completely remove everything. Pretty sure I've seen leftover registry entries as well but I run a registry cleaner every week to clean up such issues.

[benhillis]

Question has been answered.

[ohadschn]

For me Ubuntu 16.04 did not appear in Apps & Features (Windows 10 1909). However I was able to remove it using wsl --unregister <DistributionName> (in my case wsl --unregister "Legacy"). You can use wsl --list to see all installed distributions.

Docs: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/wsl-config#unregister-and-reinstall-a-distribution