LINUX, UNINSTALL, DUALBOOT, WINDOWS, OS

Uninstalling Linux in a dualboot system

3 min read

In this article I’m going to show you how to uninstall any Linux distribution from your Linux-Windows dualboot setup.

Run all of these commands in an elevated command prompt or powershell.

1. Mounting the EFI partition

In this step, we’re going to mount the EFI partition of your system. This is where the boot files for your operating system live. This is usually where GRUB gets installed to.

  1. In an elevated cmd or powershell, run diskpart. You should see a prompt like DISKPART>
  2. Here, run list volume to show all the volumes that are connected to your system.
  3. Look for FAT32 volume around 100–300 MB in size. EFI partitions are usually this size.
  4. Run select volume <volume number> to select the partition.
  5. Run assign letter=S to assign a drive letter to the EFI partition. You should see a confirmation that the letter has been assigned. It is so we can access it from Explorer.
  6. Exit diskpart with exit

2. Install WBM (Windows Boot Manager) into the EFI partition

When you’re dualbooting, you usually use a boot manager like GRUB which shows a list of installed OSes at startup to allow you to boot into the OS of your choice. When you remove Linux, there is not really a need for this boot manager anymore. So in this step we’re going to replace it with the default Windows bootloader.

To do this, run the following command in an elevated cmd or powershell.

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bcdboot C:\Windows /l en-us /s S: /f UEFI

This will install Windows boot manager into S:, i.e your EFI partition.

3. Remove Linux Partitions

Final step is to remove the partitions where you’ve installed Linux to. (You should already know where to find this)

I wrote this article solely for my own reference, thus I don’t mention a lot of things here. If you think anything should be added or changed, please feel free to open a pull request :)

4. Removing Grub

4.1 Remove GRUB from Windows Boot Entries

Even after restoring the Windows Boot Manager, GRUB entries can still remain in the UEFI firmware boot menu. You can remove them directly from Windows.

4.1.1 Using bcdedit

Open an elevated Command Prompt or PowerShell and run:

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bcdedit /enum firmware

This lists all UEFI firmware boot entries.

Look for entries related to:

  • GRUB
  • Ubuntu
  • Fedora
  • Arch
  • Debian
  • Linux Boot Manager

Example:

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Firmware Application (101fffff)
--------------------------------
identifier              {2c5b9d5c-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx}
description             ubuntu

Copy the identifier of the Linux/GRUB entry and delete it:

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bcdedit /delete {identifier}

Example:

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bcdedit /delete {2c5b9d5c-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx}

4.1.2 Remove GRUB EFI Files Manually

Since the EFI partition is already mounted as S:, you can also remove leftover GRUB files manually.

Open:

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S:\EFI\

You may see folders like:

  • ubuntu
  • fedora
  • debian
  • arch
  • grub

Delete the folder corresponding to your Linux distro.

Do NOT delete:

  • Microsoft
  • Boot

Those are required for Windows booting.

4.1.3 Optional Cleanup

After everything works correctly, remove the temporary EFI drive letter:

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diskpart

Then:

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list volume
select volume <EFI volume number>
remove letter=S
exit

This hides the EFI partition again from Explorer.

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