Windows 11 is a clean and efficient operating system, but there are some pre-installed apps that you might not want to use. It could be the weather app, Cortana, Mail, or even Photos or Your Phone — if you’ve found yourself a third-party alternative that you like to use.
Well, the good news is that while you can’t uninstall some of these system apps through traditional methods, you can remove them through Powershell or Windows Terminal. Of course, doing so might cause issues on your system, as these apps are sometimes critical for core functionality in Windows. But if you’ve accepted the risk, here’s how to completely uninstall and remove system apps in Windows 11
Open Windows Powershell (or Windows Terminal)
To begin, you’ll have to open Windows Powershell on Windows 11. Just right-click the Start Menu, and choose the Windows Powershell (Admin) option. From there, you’ll want to enter in the command winget list. After that, type Y and enter on your keyboard.
Enter these commands
After you follow the steps above, you should see a list of installed system apps in Windows 11. Note down the one you want to remove and then enter in these commands. winget uninstall nameofapp. Obviously, here, you replace nameofapp with the actual app. If the app is two words, it’ll have to go in quotes. In our example, we removed Your Phone with winget uninstall “Your Phone”
You can always re-install from the Microsoft Store
Once you remove one of these system apps, most can be re-installed from the Microsoft Store. Just visit the Store, and search for the app that you just removed. Removing these apps will free up some space on your system, but that’s just about it. If you found this guide helpful, let us know in the comments below.
