Firefox is a popular web browser that is widely praised for its privacy features and open-source philosophy.
You might want to uninstall Firefox if you encounter compatibility issues with certain websites or if you prefer a different browser’s user interface.
Let us discuss how to uninstall Firefox on Windows, Mac, and Linux.
Uninstall Firefox on Windows
To uninstall Mozilla Firefox from your Windows computer, you can follow these steps:[1]
- To open the Control Panel, press the Windows key on the keyboard, type “Control Panel”, and then select it from the search results.
- Click on “Programs”, “Program and Features” or “Add or Remove Programs” according to your Windows version in the Control Panel.
- You should see a list of installed programs. Scroll through the list to find Mozilla Firefox.
- Right-click on Mozilla Firefox and select “Uninstall” or “Remove” from the context menu.
- You will be guided through this process by a Firefox uninstall wizard. To complete the uninstallation, follow the onscreen prompts.
Uninstall Firefox on Mac
To uninstall Firefox on Mac, you can follow these steps:[2]
- Ensure that Firefox is not running. If it is, close all Firefox windows and tabs.
- Open a Finder window.
- In Finder, go to the Applications folder. Typically, you can find it by clicking Go in the menu bar at the top of the screen and then selecting Applications.
- Locate the Firefox app icon in your Applications folder.
- In your dock, click and drag the Firefox icon to the Trash icon. Alternatively, you can drag the Firefox icon to the Trash bin in the Finder window.
- Right-click (or Control-click) on the Trash icon in the Dock and select “Empty Trash”.
- Confirm that you want to empty the Trash, and Firefox will be permanently deleted.
Uninstall Firefox on Linux
To uninstall Firefox on a Linux system, you can typically use the package manager that your distribution uses. The process may vary slightly depending on your specific Linux distribution. Here are instructions for some of the most popular package managers:[3][4]
- Using APT (Debian/Ubuntu): If you’re using a Debian-based distribution like Debian or Ubuntu, you can use the
apt
package manager. Open a terminal and run these commands:sudo apt-get purge firefox
This command will remove Firefox and its configuration files. - Using DNF (Fedora/RHEL/CentOS): If you’re using a Fedora-based distribution, such as Fedora, Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), or CentOS, you can use the
dnf
package manager. Open a terminal and run:sudo dnf remove firefox
- Using Pacman (Arch Linux): On Arch Linux, you can use the
pacman
package manager. Open a terminal and run:sudo pacman -R firefox
- Using Zypper (openSUSE): For openSUSE, you can use the
zypper
package manager. Open a terminal and run:sudo zypper rm firefox
- Using YUM (Legacy Red Hat/CentOS): If you are using a legacy version of Red Hat or CentOS that uses YUM, you can run:
sudo yum remove firefox
After executing one of the commands above, the package manager will uninstall Firefox from your system. Additionally, you can remove the Firefox profile and configuration files manually if you want to delete all of its data:
- Remove the Firefox configuration files located in your home directory. These are usually in the
~/.mozilla/firefox/
folder. - Remove any system-wide Firefox configuration files if they exist. The location may vary depending on your Linux distribution, but it’s often in the
/etc/firefox/
or/usr/lib/firefox/
directory.
References
- Uninstall Firefox from your computer | Firefox Help. (n.d.). https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/uninstall-firefox-from-your-computer ↩︎
- wikiHow. (2024, January 6). How to uninstall Firefox: Windows, Mac, Mobile. wikiHow. https://www.wikihow.com/Uninstall-Firefox ↩︎
- Pq.Hosting. (2023, January 5). How to remove Firefox from a computer on Ubuntu OS. VPS/VDS Servers for Rent: Hosting on a Virtual Server | PQ.Hosting. https://pq.hosting/en/help/instructions/332-how-to-remove-firefox-from-a-computer-on-ubuntu-os.html ↩︎
- Hackreveal. (2023, June 4). How to Uninstall and Reinstall Firefox in Ubuntu – hackreveal – Medium. Medium. https://hackreveals.medium.com/how-to-uninstall-and-reinstall-firefox-in-ubuntu-3a27ed2fa968 ↩︎