Windows 11 uninstall preinstalled apps

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You can uninstall preinstalled apps in Windows 11 using one of the methods reviewed in this post. Windows 11 comes with a hefty list of stock apps some users may find completely useless. If you want to clean up your Start menu and get rid of unnecessary apps, this guide will show you how to remove stock apps in Windows 11.

You can remove some stock Windows 11 apps by right-clicking them, while others require executing a simple command in Windows Terminal. Either way, here is all you need to know about deleting default programs in Windows 11.

How to uninstall preinstalled apps in Windows 11

There are a number ways to uninstall apps that are included in the OS by default. You can remove an app right from the Start menu. Alternatively, you can use the Settings app. Some of the apps can't be removed from Settings, but there are PowerShell and winget tool. Both will help you to get rid of more apps.

Uninstall apps from the Start menu

  1. To remove a stock application in Windows 11, open the Start menu.
  2. Now click All apps.
  3. Find the app you want to delete and right-click it.
  4. Select Uninstall from the context menu.

Alternatively, you can uninstall preinstalled apps Windows 11 from Settings.

Uninstall preinstalled apps in Windows 11 Settings

  1. Press Win + I to open Windows Settings. You can also use a shortcut in the Start menu or any other method you like.
  2. Go to the "Apps" section, then click "Apps and Features."
  3. Find the app you want to remove and click a three-dots button next to it.
  4. Select "Uninstall."

Be aware that you cannot remove all apps using the methods above. Here is the list of stock Windows 11 apps that Microsoft allows removing from the Settings app.

Preinstalled apps you can remove in Windows 11 Settings

  • 3D Viewer.
  • Feedback Hub.
  • Groove Music.
  • Microsoft News.
  • Microsoft Solitaire Collection.
  • Microsoft Teams.
  • Microsoft To-Do.
  • Mixed Reality Portal.
  • Movies and TV.
  • OneNote for Windows 10.
  • Snipping Tool / Snip and Sketch.
  • Sticky Notes.
  • Voice Recorder.
  • Windows Terminal.
  • Xbox Console Companion.

If you want to delete non-user-removable stock apps in Windows 11, proceed to the next part of the article.

Uninstall apps with winget

Unlike Windows 10, where deleting non-removable default apps requires knowledge of long and complicated commands, things are much easier in Windows 11.

Windows 11 has a built-in package manager called winget. It supports uninstalling apps, including stock ones, even those that Microsoft does not allow to delete.

To uninstall Windows 11 apps with winget, do the following.

  1. To begin, open Windows Terminal. Right-click the Start button and select Windows Terminal. No need to run it as an Administrator.
  2. Now enter the following command: winget list. It will return the list of allapps you have currently installed on your machine. The list includes a name, id, and version number for each program. Note that your PC might take several minutes to gather a list of apps. The more apps you have, the longer it will take.
  3. Find the app you want to remove and type this command winget uninstall XXXX. Replace XXXX with a name of a program. Here is an example: winget uninstall cortana.
  4. Important! If you want to delete stock Windows 11 apps with two or more words in their names, use quotation marks in the command: winget uninstall "Your Phone". Without quotation marks, winget will return an error.
  5. Once you removed the app, proceed to the next one from step 3.

Finally, you uninstall stock Windows 11 apps using PowerShell.

Uninstall Windows 11 apps in PowerShell

  1. Open Windows Terminal as Administrator by pressing Win + X and selecting Windows Terminal (Admin).
  2. If it doesn't open to PowerShell, Press Ctrl + Shift + 1 or click the arrow-down button next to the new tab button.
  3. Type Get-AppxPackage | Select Name, PackageFullName in the PowerShell console. For your convenience, you can save the output to a file by modifying the command as follows. Get-AppxPackage | Select Name, PackageFullName >"$env:userprofile\Desktop\myapps.txt".
  4. Now, you can use this list to remove individual apps using the following command: Remove-AppxPackage "PackageFullName".

To save your time, you can use the following list of commands.

Commands to uninstall Windows 11 apps

App Removal command
AV1 Codec Get-AppxPackage *AV1VideoExtension* | Remove-AppxPackage
News app Get-AppxPackage *BingNews* | Remove-AppxPackage
Weather Get-AppxPackage *BingWeather* | Remove-AppxPackage
PowerShell Get-AppxPackage *PowerShell* | Remove-AppxPackage
WebP image support Get-AppxPackage *WebpImageExtension* | Remove-AppxPackage
HEIF image support Get-AppxPackage *HEIFImageExtension* | Remove-AppxPackage
Windows Terminal Get-AppxPackage *WindowsTerminal* | Remove-AppxPackage
Music app Get-AppxPackage *ZuneMusic* | Remove-AppxPackage
Movies and TV Get-AppxPackage *ZuneVideo* | Remove-AppxPackage
MS Office Get-AppxPackage *MicrosoftOfficeHub* | Remove-AppxPackage
People app Get-AppxPackage *People* | Remove-AppxPackage
Maps Get-AppxPackage *WindowsMaps* | Remove-AppxPackage
Help and tips Get-AppxPackage *GetHelp* | Remove-AppxPackage
Voice Recorder Get-AppxPackage *WindowsSoundRecorder* | Remove-AppxPackage
Notepad Get-AppxPackage *WindowsNotepad* | Remove-AppxPackage
MS Paint Get-AppxPackage *Paint* | Remove-AppxPackage
Sticky Notes Get-AppxPackage *MicrosoftStickyNotes* | Remove-AppxPackage
PowerAutomate Get-AppxPackage *PowerAutomateDesktop* | Remove-AppxPackage
Xbox and related apps Get-AppxPackage *Xbox* | Remove-AppxPackage
Feedback Hub Get-AppxPackage *WindowsFeedbackHub* | Remove-AppxPackage
Microsoft To-Do Get-AppxPackage *Todos* | Remove-AppxPackage
Calculator Get-AppxPackage *WindowsCalculator* | Remove-AppxPackage
Alarms and Clocks Get-AppxPackage *WindowsAlarms* | Remove-AppxPackage
Teams/Chat Get-AppxPackage *Teams* | Remove-AppxPackage
Microsoft Edge Get-AppxPackage *MicrosoftEdge* | Remove-AppxPackage
Your Phone Get-AppxPackage *YourPhone* | Remove-AppxPackage
Spotify Get-AppxPackage *SpotifyAB.SpotifyMusic* | Remove-AppxPackage
Screen & Sketch/Snipping tool Get-AppxPackage *ScreenSketch* | Remove-AppxPackage
Solitaire Collection Get-AppxPackage *MicrosoftSolitaireCollection* | Remove-AppxPackage
Photos Get-AppxPackage *Windows.Photos* | Remove-AppxPackage
OneDrive Get-AppxPackage *OneDriveSync* | Remove-AppxPackage
Skype Get-AppxPackage *SkypeApp* | Remove-AppxPackage

How to remove an app for all user accounts

To remove an app from all user accounts, modify the above command as follows:

Get-AppxPackage -allusers *PackageName* | Remove-AppxPackage

This will uninstall preinstalled Windows 11 apps for all user accounts.

How to remove an app from new user accounts

To remove an app from new accounts created in future, modify the desired command as follows:

Get-AppxProvisionedPackage –online | where-object {$_.packagename –like "*PackageName*"} | Remove-AppxProvisionedPackage –online

Replace the PackageName portion with the desired app name.

Now you know how to delete stock apps in Windows 11. If you want to restore those apps, open Microsoft Store, find the programs you need, and install them as any other third-party application or game.

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Author: Sergey Tkachenko

Sergey Tkachenko is a software developer who started Winaero back in 2011. On this blog, Sergey is writing about everything connected to Microsoft, Windows and popular software. Follow him on Telegram, Twitter, and YouTube.

12 thoughts on “Windows 11 uninstall preinstalled apps”

  1. Thanks so much for this. I have wasted so much time trying to set Irfranview as the default viewer for images in Windows 11 Pro. So now I just uninstalled MS Photos following your instructions and all works as I want it.

  2. The information about WinGet and uninstalling apps via that have been very useful. Thank you. I need one more piece of follow-up information: How can I delete the folders and contents of the uninstalled apps from the WindowsApps folder. Some folders can be deleted but others may have a few png files or fonts and will not delete.

    Thank you again.

  3. None of the terminal commands worked; the winget list command returns an error and bringing up Windows Terminal (Admin) with the listed programs and subsequent commands needs better clarification. Do you type the program with and asterisk as shown in your table, or quotation marks? Either case didn’t work. Red errors across the board, apps still show up in Start Menu.

  4. Hi. Thank you for your detailed instructions.
    I used the Window Terminal, I typed the command winget list, and here’s the response I received: “The term winget is not recognized as the name of a cmdlet, function, script file, or operable program. Check the spelling of the name…..
    I know your instructions are correct & they worked for others; I believe Microsoft has done something to counter this ability to remove their forced fed apps! I detest them!

  5. When building a desktop from scratch, to be used by many users (e.g. in a school computer lab), does it make sense to follow the package removal for “new users” rather than “all users”?

    Thanks in advance, and for your very helpful site!

    1. It depends on your tasks.
      Removing it for all users should remove the apps from all existing accounts.
      The “new users” snippet will prevent them from coming in accounts that you will create in the future.

      1. Thank you! Just installed and tested winget for this. Is there a switch or parameter for it to uninstall for all/new users as with PowerShell? When I build a new desktop, clone it and join to domain, all users will be new and I want to prevent them from seeing the unneeded bloatware.

  6. Thank you for clear instructions about removing stubborn unwanted INSTALLED programs that appear on the Win 11 Start menu. However, at least on my new HP laptop, there were at least three app icons in the All Apps portion of the Start menu that did not point to any installed program, and thus there was no way to get rid of them and their associated programs by any of your methods. “Amazon.com”, and “Adobe offers” were two of the icons like that. The reason that uninstalling did not workth is simple: the programs that these icons pointed to are not installed. They are simply added to the Program Files directory. So to clean up the Start menu, without worrying about actually getting rid of the programs associated with these icons, the easiest approach I could find was this:

    Right click on the unwanted icon, and choose “More”. Choose “open file location”, and that should result in getting a list of Start menu icons, with the offending icon highlighted. Just delete it.

    If you want to actually get rid of the program that the icon points to, before deleting the icon as above, go to the Target file that the icon points to, and delete the exe file found there. Then go back and delete the icon from the list of Start menu icons, as above.

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