How to Disable Microsoft Teams in Windows 11

Microsoft has made many new upgrades to the new operating system, one of which is full integration of Microsoft Teams. The application is automatically installed and placed in your Taskbar when you update to Windows 11.

However, not everyone uses Teams. While the integration aims to let you use the app easily, its removal is confusing. Fortunately, unlike other pre-installed apps, Teams can be disabled or removed from your system.

Read on to see the full steps to help you do this.

How to Disable Microsoft Teams

If you want to prevent Teams from starting on its own and using your system’s resources or sending you notifications, the best option is to disable the app. It goes without saying that when you prevent Windows 11 from automatically launching the application when you sign in to your user account, you will no longer receive any notifications. However, if you start the app manually, you will receive notifications until you close it.

Stage 1: Right click on the Taskbar.

Step 2: Select Taskbar settings to open a configuration menu.

Stage 3: Expand the Taskbar items menu by clicking the corresponding down arrow symbol.

Step 4: To remove the Microsoft Teams shortcut from your taskbar, turn off the Chat option.

Step 5: Open the Settings app by pressing the Windows key and i at the same time.

Step 6: Select the Application settings category from the list on the left.

Step 7: Click Startup to see applications that start automatically when Windows 11 starts or logs into a new user account.

Step 8: Find Microsoft Teams in the list and toggle it off.

Note that it will not remove the application from your system. However, it will prevent Windows 11 from opening automatically when it boots. If you need to use Teams, you can find the app by clicking Start and typing Teams in the search bar.

When you start the application manually, it will remain active until you restart the computer, log out, or close it manually by right-clicking its icon in the lower left corner of the taskbar and selecting Quit.

Also, you can undo the changes without following any new steps. Turn on toggles in the taskbar settings menu and the Start menu. Yes, that’s all you have to do to use Teams again.

How to Uninstall Microsoft Teams

If you’re sure you won’t need to use the Microsoft Teams app anytime soon, you can also uninstall it from your operating system. Note that after uninstalling the app, you will need to redownload it from the Microsoft Store to use it.

Stage 1: Open Settings by clicking the Start icon, typing Settings in the search bar, and clicking on the application result.

Step 2: Select Apps from the list of settings categories on the left.

Stage 3: Click on Apps & Features to see a list of all the apps you have already installed.

Step 4: Find Microsoft Teams in the list of apps.

Step 5: Click on the three-dot icon corresponding to the app you want to delete.

Step 6: Select the Remove option.

Step 7: When the confirmation window is displayed, click Uninstall and the application will be removed from your computer.

Note that the first method will disable the Microsoft Teams app for the current user only. If more than one person uses the same computer, the changes are not applied to their accounts.

However, uninstalling the app is a general action that will affect the entire system. As a result, it will remove Microsoft Teams for all current and future user accounts.

Take Back Control of Your Computer

You can prevent Microsoft Teams from using your system resources unnecessarily by following the steps mentioned above. The application runs only in the background, taking up over 200 MB of RAM and starts as soon as your computer boots up. If you have 4-6 GB of memory, this may slow down your computer.

Also, uninstalling Teams will also free up a small amount of storage space on your computer.