# Removing an npm installed local test node on Windows 10

**URL:** <https://discourse.nodered.org/t/removing-an-npm-installed-local-test-node-on-windows-10/907>\
**Category:** Dashboard\
**Created:** [19 June 2018 06:58 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/removing-an-npm-installed-local-test-node-on-windows-10/907 "2018-06-19T06:58:03Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![cymplecy](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/cymplecy/32/2773_2.png) [@cymplecy](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/cymplecy)\
**Post date:** [19 June 2018 06:58 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/removing-an-npm-installed-local-test-node-on-windows-10/907/1 "2018-06-19T06:58:03Z")

</div>

Just a mild query (as I’ve sorted it out by deleting manually so I’m not stuck) but…  
I am playing around with a copy of the mqtt node (set up a test-cymplecy-temp folder with a package.json and modified versions of 10.mqtt.js and 10.mqtt.html)

I got it working OK in a git cloned test enviroment and decided to try it out in my normal install

I installed them by cd ing into my c:\users\Simon.node-red and running `npm install pathtomyfolder\test-cymplecy-temp` - refresh browser - my test nodes appear - all good

Decided to remove it so googled - found [https://stackoverflow.com/questions/13066532/how-to-uninstall-npm-modules-in-node-js](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/13066532/how-to-uninstall-npm-modules-in-node-js) tried em all - node still in editor

Manully editied `c:\users\Simon\.node-red\package.json` and removed reference to it - made no diff

Finally got rid of it my deleting `c:\users\Simon\.node-red\node-modules\test-cymplecy-temp` folder

Is this normal on Windows or am I just unlucky?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![TotallyInformation](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/totallyinformation/32/31_2.png) [@TotallyInformation](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/TotallyInformation)\
**Post date:** [19 June 2018 11:38 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/removing-an-npm-installed-local-test-node-on-windows-10/907/2 "2018-06-19T11:38:00Z")

</div>

Never tried to be honest. What I do is to create a symbolic link from the dev folder to `~/.node-red/node_modules` (or wherever you have your userDir).

Then you can simply remove the link when you are done. Also means that you can run `npm install` in the dev folder to install all dependencies and do any required compilation. No need to actually `install` under the Node-RED userDir folder.

You could also use `npm link` but I found that to be unnecessarily complex as it creates an extra copy in your global cache, not terribly useful.