topic Need help uninstalling Cortex XDR in General Topics

Need help uninstalling Cortex XDR

vwongbowdoin — Mon, 23 Feb 2026 01:38:57 GMT

Hi, I am looking to get help on uninstalling Cortex XDR from my personal machine. I have tried creating an account and opening a support ticket via https://support.paloaltonetworks.com/, however it just directs me to an error page

I do not have the uninstall password, and the online recommendations to try Password1 for cytool protect disable did not work. Can someone please send me the cleaner or uninstaller for this? Thank you for the help

Re: Need help uninstalling Cortex XDR

kiwi — Mon, 23 Feb 2026 08:52:12 GMT

Hi @vwongbowdoin ,

Removing Cortex XDR from a personal machine without the uninstall password is difficult by design, as the software includes "Tamper Protection" to prevent unauthorized removal.

There are several thing you can try but if everything else fails it may come down to reaching out to your XDR tenant admin to have it removed via the Cortex XDR management console.

There are several discussions on the topic. Here are some examples:

https://live.paloaltonetworks.com/t5/cortex-xdr-discussions/impossible-uninstall-cortex-xdr/m-p/1000115#M7677

https://live.paloaltonetworks.com/t5/general-topics/uninstalling-cortex-xdr/m-p/560129#M113566

Kind regards,

-Kim.

Re: Need help uninstalling Cortex XDR

vwongbowdoin — Mon, 23 Feb 2026 20:40:34 GMT

Thanks Kim for the context. This program was installed while I was at a prior company from more than a few years ago, so I don't really have any contacts there anymore. I only recently came across the process as I was looking at my computer's performance.

Is there no other way to remove the installation?