by Dan Kukarsky
Windows 10 comes with a variety of built-in apps that are accessible from the All Apps view in the Start menu. Although these apps don’t take up too much space on your computer, you might want to remove some of them just for the sake of decluttering your Start menu.
Some of the built-in apps, such as Money, News, Sports, Phone Companion, Get Skype, Get Office and Get Started, can be removed in the usual way by simply right-clicking on an app and choosing the Uninstall option. However, other apps are a bit more tricky to uninstall.
Here’s how you can remove the default Windows 10 apps from your device and reinstall them, if needed.
Uninstall built-in Windows 10 apps with PowerShell
- Open PowerShell and select the Run as administrator option.
- Copy and paste the following command into the PowerShell prompt and then press Enter to uninstall an app (replace the appname placeholder with one of the app names listed below): Get-AppxPackage *appname* | Remove-AppxPackage
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Complete list of the built-in Windows 10 apps that can be removed:
- onenote
- windowsalarms
- windowscalculator
- windowscommunicationsapps
- windowscamera
- windowsmaps
- windowsphone
- windowsstore
- zunemusic
- zunevideo
- xboxapp
- skypeapp
- bingnews
- bingfinance
- bingweather
- soundrecorder
- photos
- people
Note that you cannot uninstall the most important default apps, such as Microsoft Edge, Cortana and Contact Support.
Reinstall default Windows 10 apps with a single PowerShell command
If you decide to put the removed apps back into the Start menu, you can easily reinstall them with a single PowerShell command.
- Open PowerShell and select the Run as administrator option.
- Type in the following command and hit Enter: Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers| Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register “$($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml”}
Restart your machine if nothing happens – the apps should appear in your Start menu upon signing back into the system.
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