Uninstall

You can always leave BioKids; nothing locks you in. How to remove it depends on how you installed it.

Which case are you?

First: your family's backup (optional)

If you might install it again one day, use Settings → Back up and move → Download the backup in the panel to save the children's rules and history as one file, and copy it to a USB stick. The file is sealed with your family passphrase; it holds no PINs and no mail settings.

Remove BioKids, keep Debian

Even when installed from the ISO, BioKids sits on top of Debian as packages. Remove them and a plain Debian with the Xfce desktop is left. Sign in with your own account and open a terminal:

1. Delete the assistant's models (if installed)

   This deletes Ask Me's models, several GB of them.

   sudo apt purge biokids-ai

   Copy

2. Remove BioKids

   sudo apt purge biokids biokids-desktop biokids-core biokids-daemon biokids-panel biokids-shell biokids-voice

   Copy

   It asks one question: "Delete the stored BioKids data for this family?" The default answer is No, and the records stay on the computer. Answer Yes to delete everything: the rules, the history, the voice recordings and the downloaded natural voice.

   This also brings back Debian's usual boot menu.

3. Delete the children's accounts (if you want)

   The children's accounts on the computer, and their files (their drawings, for example), are left on purpose. To delete them, once for each child, with their username:

   sudo deluser --remove-home elif

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4. Clean up what is left

   sudo apt autoremove

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   If you turned on phone access, Tailscale was installed as well; remove it with sudo apt purge tailscale if you no longer need it.

Go back to Windows only

If the computer has both Windows and BioKids, you can delete BioKids' partitions and give the space back to Windows. These are Windows' own tools, not BioKids'; do it carefully and in order.

1. Start Windows

   Choose Windows Boot Manager in the boot menu.

2. Make Windows start first

   Type cmd in Start, right-click Command Prompt, choose Run as administrator and type:

   Command Prompt (administrator)

   bcdedit /set {fwbootmgr} displayorder {bootmgr} /addfirst

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   Restart: Windows should start directly, without the menu. If it does not, stop here and move Windows Boot Manager to the top of the Boot Order in the computer's settings (BIOS/UEFI).

3. Delete BioKids' partitions

   Right-click the Start button and open Disk Management. BioKids' partitions have no drive letter; recognise them by size: one as large as the space you freed for BioKids, and a smaller swap partition of a few GB next to it. Right-click each and choose Delete Volume.

   Disk 0

   EFI100 MB

   Windows (C:)197 GB

   Healthy (Primary Partition)~36 GB · delete

   swapdelete

   Recovery

   Windows' (leave alone)BioKids' (delete)

4. Grow C:

   Right-click C: → Extend Volume… → Next → Finish. The free space joins C:.

   If Windows greys this option out, the free space is not right next to C: (a Recovery partition may sit between them). Then right-click the free space and use New Simple Volume to make it a separate drive (D:).

5. Remove the debian folder from EFI (optional)

   So that an unused "debian" entry does not linger in the firmware's boot list, type these one by one in an administrator Command Prompt. Type the letters carefully.

   Command Prompt (administrator)

   mountvol S: /s
   rd /s /q S:\EFI\debian
   mountvol S: /d

   Copy

If BioKids is the only system

Two ways: go back to a plain Debian with the package steps above, or install another system (Windows, for example) from its own USB stick. Its installer erases the disk, so take your family's backup and your files first.

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