ULTIMATE REMOVAL

Doing Windows your way means only including the applications you absolutely want, using Windows as a base for your operations, and often completely ignoring those apps that Microsoft doggedly protects unwitting users from deleting. We’re not suggesting they’re useless, and sometimes a core Windows app might be the best choice, but that’s for you to decide.

While the surface parts of Windows deny their removal, the deeper toolbox doesn’t. Fire up Powershell by rightclicking the “Start” button, and selecting “Windows Powershell (Admin).” Now run the command Get-AppxPackage (capitalization is important in Powershell) to list every core app that Windows has installed. Scroll through—it’s probably quite a long list—until you find the application you’re looking for, and seek out its full name, which is a longer string, including version numbers. Then just type “Remove-AppxPackage < full name>” to strike it from your drive.

One bit of caution here: Don’t, whatever you do, remove the Windows Store app. While most of these apps can be reinstalled relatively simply if you realize you’ve made a mistake, removing the Windows Store removes it permanently, and also does away with your ability to reinstall other core apps. Whatever you may think of the Windows app pool, the Store itself is getting at least a bit better these days, and you don’t have to use it. Just work around the fact that it’s still there. This may not be an entirely permanent exercise, either. Future updates are likely to reinstall packages that you’ve previously removed, and add a few stubborn newcomers to the mix along with them. But now you know how to remove them, you can just go through the process afresh when major new versions of Windows appear.