How to Uninstall APK Files from Android Device Emulator

In our previous tutorial How to Install APK Files on Android Device Emulator we described how to install step-by-step an APK package on the emulator. Today we want to briefly cover how to remove already installed applications.

Note: Google explains that in short here: http://code.google.com/android/intro/installing.html#uninstalling

To perform this operation you would need (how logical) the emulator itself, which is shipped with Android SDK. Once again, you don't need Eclipse development environment neither for installing and testing of Android applications nor to remove it from the emulator.

Ok, so you have a working SDK with emulator. In the SDK's main directory (in the last how-to we called it "$SDK_ROOT") there is the folder called "tools". You need to start the console terminal ("Start -> Run... -> type 'cmd'" for Windows PCs). Type-in the following command: adb shell rm data/app/$APK where $APK is the name of the APK file. For example if you want to uninstall the Snake game, you should type this: adb shell rm data/app/Snake.apk

That's it. Now you can install the Snake again :)