How To Safely Remove Apple Bonjour Service from Windows

Here's a guide on how to Remove Bonjour Service and associated files (mDNSResponder.exe and mdnsNSP.dll) so you can reclaim your internet.

By Tim Trott | Windows Tips and Tricks | August 15, 2010

Here's a guide on how to safely disable, remove or uninstall the Apple Bonjour service  and associated files (mDNSResponder.exe and mdnsNSP.dll). Just follow these few simple steps to reclaim your internet connection.

Apple Bonjour, also known as zero-configuration networking, enables the automatic discovery of computers, devices, and services on IP networks. It is installed automatically with Apple software and certain Adobe products with no way to uninstall. Apple Spyware. Use this guide to safely remove Bonjour Service from your Windows computer.

Apple Bonjour uses industry-standard IP protocols to allow devices to automatically discover each other without the need to enter IP addresses or configure DNS servers. The intention behind this is to allow software to automatically locate devices such as iPods, iPhones, printers, and other computers, and the services that those devices offer on a local network using multicast Domain Name System service records.

If you've installed software by Apple such as iTunes or Quicktime, or software by Adobe such as Photoshop CS2+ and Dreamweaver you probably already have Bonjour installed. This service starts automatically and runs a process named mDNSResponder.exe and cannot be ended by Task Manager.

If you do not want Bonjour to be on your computer and want to uninstall it, there are no uninstall programs, nothing in Add and Remove Programs and you cannot delete the files. Even if you delete the files in Safe Mode, when you reboot your computer you will have no network access.

iTunes and some other programs need Bonjour to function. If you use these programs, do NOT remove Bonjour!

Here is how you remove Bonjour safely without loss of connectivity. You will need to have administrator privileges before running these commands if you are running Windows Vista or later.

For 32-bit Systems:

  1. Go to [Start > Run] and type the following command and hit OK.
    "%PROGRAMFILES%\Bonjourm\DNSResponder.exe" -remove
  2. Go to [Start > Run] again and type the following command and hit OK.
    regsvr32 /u "%PROGRAMFILES%\Bonjour\mdnsNSP.dll"

For 64-bit Systems:

  1. Go to [Start > Run] and type the following command and hit OK.
    "C:\Program Files (x86)\Bonjourm\DNSResponder.exe" -remove
  2. Go to [Start > Run] again and type the following command and hit OK.
    regsvr32 /u "C:\Program Files (x86)\Bonjour\mdnsNSP.dll"

After you restart, test all your programs function correctly and can access the internet. If everything is OK you can rename or delete the Bonjour folder.

If there were problems, you can re-enable Bonjour by running mDNSResponder.exe -install, or you can download and reinstall Bonjour  from the Apple website.

Au Revoir!

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  1. BO

    On Monday 4th of January 2016, Bob said

    Thank you! Your instructions worked perfectly first time to remove bonjour from Windows 10!!!

    Thanks a million !!!

    :)