Every PC, no matter where you purchased it, has these pre-installed Windows 10 apps and games. A new PC comes filled with links to Candy Crush Soda Saga, Minecraft and Solitaire. Microsoft also tries to improve Windows with pre-installed apps of its own. The Mail, Calendar, Photos, Groove Music and Movies & TV apps are fine if you’re looking a new app to handle your files and manage your apps. If you aren’t, they’re just hogging storage space on your PC and acting as placeholders in your Start Menu.
How easy a pre-installed Windows 10 app or game is to remove depends on who installed it. Virus scanners and utilities installed by your PC’s maker take just a few clicks to delete. Deleting apps that Microsoft added to Windows 10, like Mail or Calendar, are a lot harder.
Here’s how to remove pre-installed Windows 10 apps and games from your laptop, desktop or tablet.
How to Remove Apps & Games
To remove pre-installed Windows 10 apps and games from your PC, press the Start key on your keyboard or click on the Start button at the bottom-left corner of your screen. This should open the Start area.
With the Start area open. Type Add or Remove programs in the search box and press the Enter key on your keyboard.
Now find any app or game that you want to remove from your PC in the list. Click on its icon.
Now click on the Uninstall button to delete it from your system.
Wait a few moments for Windows 10 to remove the app. Keep scrolling down the list and removing apps and games you don’t want or need. Though you can uninstall them without harming your PC, avoid removing utilities that your PC’s maker installed to keep your system running. Apps you should keep include programs that allow you to change your PC’s settings, get help from support and install the latest drivers.
With that done, go back to Start by pressing the Start button your keyboard again.
Some PC makers don’t install an entire app or game on your system. Instead, they fill Start with links that take you to the Microsoft Store. Right-click on any app or game that’s on Start that you don’t think you will use. Inside the menu, click on Uninstall if you see it there. If you don’t see it there, click on Unpin from Start.
How to Remove Microsoft Apps in Windows 10
Removing Microsoft’s and apps and games from Windows 10 is more complicated. They appear in the installed apps and games list, but you can’t remove them. This is because Microsoft says features inside Windows 10 depend on these apps, and removing them would break those features.
Luckily, 10AppsManager exists. This free program allows you to remove pre-installed Windows 10 apps. Just remember, you may not be able to get these apps working again unless you refresh Windows 10.
Before you go any further, use Gotta Be Mobile’s How to Make a Full Back Up of Windows 10 guide to save a copy of Windows and all your files. Restore those files if something goes wrong with Windows after you remove the preinstalled apps.
Download 10AppsManager here. Look for a pop-up at the button of your screen. Click on Open instead of Save.
Once the download has finished and the folder opens, drag the 10AppsManager file out of the folder and to your Desktop.
Open the 10AppsManager folder on your desktop. Now double-click on 10AppsManager app. Windows 10 will ask you to confirm that you opened the app.
Click on all the pre-installed Windows 10 apps you want to remove from your PC. If you don’t want any of these apps installed, click on the Remove All button. In general, if you plan to use any apps from the Microsoft Store or keep your PC updated, do not remove the Store app. Also, some features now depend on updates from the Microsoft Store.
To reinstall any of these apps, open 10AppsManager again and click the Reinstall button at the bottom of the tool. If this doesn’t get the apps back, use this How to Reset Your Windows 10 PC tutorial to restore your PC to factory settings.
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