How to uninstall Windows 10 built-in apps

There are plenty of things you can do using Windows 10. The apps library is filled with numerous super useful applications, and you can always download some more from the Microsoft Store App. There are pre-installed or built-in apps but they might not be of use for you. With such apps on your device, you would certainly start thinking that they are consuming a lot of space and if you are not using these, you should get rid of them. Though they may not be so much hefty, you still can utilize that space by uninstalling the Windows 10 built-in apps that are of no use to you.

See also: How to update apps on Windows 10

Uninstalling Windows 10 Built-in Apps:

Windows 10 genuinely does not allow its users to uninstall the built-in apps. But there are some technical methods that you can opt for and remove the apps. Before you uninstall a built-in app, do mind its consequences as they may not be considered before they are removed, but later they may cause an inconvenience. Like if you remove the clock and the alarms it would surely disable all the digital support like the reminders and events. Keep in mind that there are some system apps, such as the Cortana, Edge and Contact Support that cannot be uninstalled.

Moving ahead to the uninstall process, make sure that you have the administrative rights and no other app or program is running, besides the Windows PowerShell. Once all is confirmed and is ready, click on the search field right next to the Start menu icon on the system tray and type Windows PowerShell in the search field. In the search results, Windows PowerShell will appear with its description as Desktop App. Click it and a dialogue box of User Account Control will open asking permission to make changes to the device. Click “Yes” to grant the permission and to move further.

The Windows PowerShell would appear as the Command Prompt with a blue background.

If you have used the versions before Windows XP, you may know how the DOS Editor looked like. The PowerShell screen looks much like that. Well, on the screen you will see the cursor blinking in front of the script “PS C:\windows\system32>”.

You will have to type the removal command, which is “Get-AppxPackage *Package full Name of the App* | Remove-AppxPackage”.

In the syntax we have written above, there is a value mentioned between the wildcards (*). The name of the app that you have to enter is not the one that you see in the start menu or under the Microsoft Store App. Instead, there is a specific value assigned to each built-in app that you would need to get before uninstalling a particular app. For that, type the following syntax in the power shell:

Get-AppxPackage | Select Name, PackageFullName

It will bring a long list into the display, showing the name of the app and its package name. Now, copy the package full name of the app you wish to delete, by selecting it and pressing Enter key. Let’s suppose the Voice Recorder is the app you want to remove. The package full name that you extracted would look like this, “windowssoundrecorder”. Put that value in the removal command and hit enter to execute it:

Get-AppxPackage *windowssoundrecorder* | Remove-AppxPackage

Similarly, if any other app is to be removed, its value would be entered between the wildcards. In case you executed the command and it returned an error, you would have to restart the device and repeat the process. Using this command, you can only remove the app from the present user profile. For all the user you will have to use:

Get-AppxPackage -allusers *Package full Name of the App* | Remove-AppxPackage

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