How to uninstall pre-installed Windows 11 apps

The Windows 11 operating system has a number of built-in applications that help the user perform certain tasks. You can uninstall pre-installed apps in Windows 11 in several ways if you no longer need them.

Sometimes you may need to uninstall an application from your computer. For example, when you no longer need this software or it was pre-installed on your PC.

You bought a laptop with Windows 11 or installed the system on a stationary PC, and quite a lot of various applications are already preinstalled in the OS. This causes a problem called “bloatware” – bloated or redundant software.

When creating the Windows operating system, Microsoft focuses on users with different interests. Built-in applications expand the possibilities when working on a computer. At the same time, most users rarely use this software on their devices.

Most often, a user needs to uninstall Windows 11 mini apps in the following cases:

• to free up disk space;
• so that applications do not use system resources on low-powered computers;
• to restore the application by reinstalling it.

What apps can be uninstalled in Windows 11? You can uninstall the built-in standard Windows applications, as well as any other third-party software.

Regardless of the reason, Windows 11 has many options for uninstalling apps: using the Settings app, Start Menu, Command Prompt, or PowerShell.

From the instructions in this guide, you will learn how to remove an application from a Windows 11 computer using system tools, or using free third-party software.

If you need to remove apps in Windows 11, you can reinstall them on your PC from the Microsoft Store.

How to uninstall an app in Windows 11 through Settings

First, we will uninstall the Windows 11 app using the system’s Settings tool.

Go through several consecutive steps:

1. Press the “Win” + “I” keys.
2. The Settings application window will open on the desktop.
3. On the left panel, click on the Applications tab.
4. Click on the “Apps & features” option on the right side.

 

5. In the Application List section, select the application you want to uninstall.
6. Press the menu button (three dots) on the right, and then select the “Delete” button.

 

7. In the “This application and all its data will be deleted” window, click the “Delete” button again.

After completing these steps, the application is uninstalled in Windows 11.

Please note that some applications cannot be uninstalled using standard system tools. In this case, you can uninstall unnecessary software using other Windows tools or using third-party software.

Uninstalling an App in Windows 11 via the Start Menu

The operating system has a quick method for uninstalling applications directly from the Start menu.

To quickly uninstall an app in Windows 11, follow these steps:

1. Open the Start menu by left-clicking on it.
2. Click the All Apps button in the top right corner.
3. In the list of installed programs, right-click on the unnecessary application, and in the menu that opens, click on the “Uninstall” button.

 

4. In the “This application and related data will be deleted” window, click the “Delete” button.

 

After you complete the previous steps, the application will be removed from your computer. You can also right-click on an application in the “Pinned” section and select “Uninstall” to uninstall this software from your computer.

How to remove unnecessary applications in Windows 11 through search

You can use the Windows Search function to quickly remove unwanted software.

Do the following:

1. Click the search button on the taskbar.

You can also use the keyboard shortcut “Win” + “S” to open Windows Search.

2. Enter a name in the search field to find the application to uninstall.
3. Right-click on the application and select the Uninstall button.

 

4. In the window that opens, to confirm this operation, click on the “Delete” button.

After completing these steps, the program will be removed from your computer.

How to uninstall an application in Windows 11 using additional components

You can also uninstall built-in apps in Windows 11 known as “optional features” like Notepad, Paint, WordPad, Windows Media Player, and more.

Follow these steps to uninstall an app in Windows 11 optional features:

1. Right click on the start menu.
2. Click on “Settings”.
3. In the Windows Settings window, go to the Applications tab.
4. Click on “Additional Components”.
5. In the Installed Features section, select the app you want to uninstall.
6. Click the “Delete” button.

 

7. The OS will remove the selected application without further warning.

Uninstalling an App in Windows 11 at the Command Prompt

The system tool – Command Prompt (CMD.exe) is suitable for uninstalling Windows applications. With this tool, you can uninstall built-in apps and third-party programs.

To uninstall any application from Windows 11 using the command line, follow these steps:

1. Open the start menu with the right mouse button.
2. Click on “Windows Terminal (Administrator)”.
3. In the terminal window, select Command Prompt.
4. Type the following command to list all apps installed on Windows 11 and then press Enter:

winget uninstall

5. If you are running this tool for the first time, you will need to press the “Y” key to confirm the agreement before getting a list of applications.

 

6. Enter the following command to uninstall the application and then press “Enter”:

winget uninstall --id Application ID

In this command, change “Application ID” to the designation (in the ID column) that it has in this list. For example, the command to uninstall the Groove Music app is entered as follows:

winget uninstall --id Microsoft.ZuneMusic_8wekyb3d8bbwe

 

After performing this operation, the built-in application or software from the Microsoft Store will be completely removed from Windows 11.

Uninstall apps in Windows 11 via PowerShell

When uninstalling apps using Settings, you will notice that some built-in apps like Cortana, Camera, Clock, and others do not have an uninstall option. You can use PowerShell to remove them.

Do the following:

1. Right click on the start menu.
2. Select Windows Terminal (Admin).
3. In the terminal window, in the “Windows PowerShell” tab, run the command, after which you need to press “Enter”:

Get-AppxPackage | select Name, PackageFamilyName

If you want to see all the Windows 11 apps installed on your computer, type the following command and press the Enter key:

Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers | select Name, PackageFamilyName

 

As a result of executing the command, a long list of applications will be displayed in the terminal window. You need to know the names of the apps you want to uninstall. For example, if you want to uninstall the Camera app, then you will notice that it has the next system name in this list – “Microsoft.WindowsCamera”.

4. Type the following command to uninstall the application and press Enter:

Get-AppxPackage ProgramName | Remove-AppxPackage

5. In this command, be sure to replace “ProgramName” with the actual application name as above.

For example, this command uninstalls the Camera app on Windows 11:

Get-AppxPackage Microsoft.WindowsCamera_8wekyb3d8bbwe | Remove-AppxPackage

 

Once uninstalled, the app will no longer be available on your computer, but you can always reinstall it using the Microsoft Store.

Using this method, you can only uninstall Microsoft apps, you cannot uninstall third-party apps like Google Chrome and others. To uninstall third-party applications, you can use the Windows Package Manager at the command prompt, the Settings app, or the Control Panel.

How to uninstall a Windows application in CCleaner

CCleaner is a free program for optimizing the Windows operating system. CCleaner includes a program removal tool.

You need to go through the following steps:

1. In the main window of the CCleaner program, click on the “Tools” section.
2. Open the Uninstall Programs tab.
3. Select the unwanted application in the list of installed programs.
4. Click on the “Uninstall” button.

 

Uninstalling Apps with Geek Uninstaller

Geek Uninstaller is a free program designed to uninstall unnecessary software from your computer. This small application does not require installation on a PC.

Run the following in Geek Uninstaller:

1. In the Geek Uninstaller window, select the View menu.
2. From the drop-down menu, select Apps from the Windows Store.
3. Highlight an unwanted program in the application list.
4. Right-click on the application, and in the context menu, click on the “Uninstall …” button.

 

In this article, free programs have been used as an example, but you can use other similar applications to solve this problem.

Article Conclusions

Windows 11 comes with built-in apps to empower your PC. A significant part of users do not use this functionality. The user can remove redundant, unnecessary applications from Windows 11 in various ways: using system tools or using third-party programs.