Uninstalling Built-in Apps in Windows 10 1

Uninstalling Built-in Apps in Windows 10

Windows 10 comes with loads of pre-installed apps, although not all of them are as popular as the ubiquitous Paint. Unfortunately Microsoft does not allow users to easily remove them all, but there is a workaround to this problem if you really want to get rid of all the junk that comes with your Windows PC. Without further ado, let’s get straight to the point and see how you can remove these ‘Universal Apps’ from your system, save some storage space and gain some control over a chaotic start menu:

Note: Before we begin, it’s important to understand that we must be careful before removing any of the Universal Apps because removing some of them can harm Cortana. For example, removing Bing News may impair Cortana’s ability to bring you news, and removing Alarms & Clock may make it harder for the digital assistant to set reminders.

Uninstall Windows 10’s Built-in Apps the Easy Way

  • Open the Start Menu by pressing the Windows Key on your keyboard and right click on the app you want to uninstall. With many apps in your Start Menu, you can ‘Remove’ option As you can see in the screenshot below, simply click on it to get rid of the unwanted app.

This is a quick and effortless way to remove pre-installed bloatware on your Windows PC, but does not work with every Universal App. You can uninstall Twitter, Skype, Money, News, Solitaire, and a few other apps this way, but you’ll have to resort to something more powerful to get rid of most of the other built-in apps that come as part of the package.

Uninstall Windows 10’s Built-in Apps via Windows PowerShell (Command Prompt)

  • First, hit Windows Key and X at the same time to bring up the ‘power user menu’. Click now ‘Windows PowerShell (Admin)’ option as seen in the screenshot below.

Uninstalling Built-in Apps in Windows 10

Note: On computers not yet updated with ‘Creators Update’, you will get Command Prompt options instead of ‘PowerShell’, so all you have to do is type ‘PowerShell’ in the start menu search box, right click on ‘Windows PowerShell’. ‘ and select ‘Run as administrator’.

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  • After opening the PowerShell window, copy/paste the following code if you want to uninstall 3D Builder:
    Get-AppxPackage *3dbuilder* | Remove-AppxPackage

Uninstalling Built-in Apps in Windows 10

  • To uninstall another application, simply replace the name in two asterisks depending on what you want to remove (don’t touch the stars). So if you are not in love with card games, you can easily get rid of Solitaire with the following code:
    Get-AppxPackage *solitairecollection* | Remove-AppxPackage

Uninstalling Built-in Apps in Windows 10

  • While this little trick will allow you to get rid of most of the bundled apps, it does not allow you to uninstall some critical apps built into the system like Cortana or Edge, as you can see in the screenshot below:

Uninstalling Built-in Apps in Windows 10

Note: While you won’t be able to completely remove apps like Cortana or Edge, you can disable them by going to ‘Turn Windows Features On or Off’ from ‘Control Panel > Programs’ or ‘Control Panel > Programs and Features’. ‘ depending on your settings.

Now that you have loads of built-in apps installed on your Windows 10 PC, what if you want to undo a few if you change your mind? Don’t worry, there is always a way to do this:

Reinstalling All Built-in Apps

  • To reinstall these apps again Open PowerShell window as described earlier in the article. Then copy/paste the following and press ‘Enter’:
    Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers| Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register "$($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml"}

Uninstalling Built-in Apps in Windows 10

  • You may get several error codes saying ‘app already installed’ or ‘newer version of app already installed’. These are normal, so ignore them and restart your PC.

That’s it folks! With a single move, you get back all the uninstalled built-in applications on your computer.

SEE ALSO: Microsoft Will Finally End Free Windows 10 Upgrades On December 31st

Uninstall/Reinstall Built-in Apps on Your Windows 10 PC

The only problem with executing the above code is that it doesn’t let you pick and choose which apps to reinstall, so you have to reinstall all uninstalled apps whether you want to or not. This means that you may need to diligently get rid of each unnecessary application one by one. Either way, now that you know how to get rid of all that bloat on your PC, give it a try and let us know how it goes because we love hearing from you.

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