Browser extensions are great add-ons when they work. But I ran into a problem where one of them continually crashed when I opened Google Chrome. Worse, because it didn’t load properly, I couldn’t uninstall the Chrome extension in the normal manner. Fortunately, there is another solution to this problem.

Typically when I’ve uninstalled a Google Chrome Extension I’ve done it by typing chrome://extensions in the Google address bar. Alternatively, you can use the browser’s Customize and Control settings page. The process is easy as you would expect if the extension shows.

Uninstall Google Extension Using Customize and Control

1. Click the wrench button on the Google Chrome toolbar.

2. Select Extensions from the menu.

3. Click the Uninstall link next to the extension you wish to remove.

The above process works well except if the extension crashes. In many cases, you won’t see it in the extension listing. It’s harder to uninstall an add-on that doesn’t show in the list.

Uninstalling Google Extensions That Don’t Show

The trick to uninstalling the problem extension is twofold. First, you need to find the default folder that contains your Chrome extensions. Second, you need to find the folder containing the problem extension.

1. Close Google Chrome

2. Find your Default folder location. The location depends on your Windows operating system. You’ll need to substitute your user name where I have <username> below.

Windows XP

C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default

Windows Vista

C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default

Windows 7:

C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default

Another way to find the folder is to right-click the Chrome icon and select Properties. The Target: field should show Chrome’s path. From there, you can go up one folder level and select User Data.

3. Within the Default folder should be another folder called Extensions. If you click that, you should see a folder for each of your Chrome extensions. As you can see from the screen snap below, the folder names are cryptic.

4. If you open a folder, you’ll see a subfolder with the extension’s version number.

5. If you open the folder with the version number you should be able to tell which extension it belongs to by the enclosed file names.

6. Delete the folder belonging to the Chrome extension you wish to uninstall. This will be the folder with the cryptic name.

7. Restart Google Chrome.

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