Pre-installed or system apps, such as Cortana, Microsoft Photos, Microsoft Edge, and the People app, are essentially impossible to uninstall from Windows 11. These apps cannot be uninstalled using the Control Panel or Settings.

 

But if you're a more experienced user, you can use Windows PowerShell to remove any system apps from your Windows 11 installation. Here are the steps for removing system applications on Windows 11 using PowerShell.

 

How to remove Windows 11 System Apps using PowerShell?
How to remove Windows 11 System Apps using PowerShell?

 

To remove Windows 11 system apps using PowerShell, you can use the following steps:

  1. Open PowerShell as an administrator. You can do this by pressing the Windows key + X and selecting "Windows PowerShell (Admin)" from the menu.
  2. Use the command "Get-AppxPackage" to list all of the installed apps on your system. You can also use "Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers" to list all apps installed for all users on the system.
  3. Find the package name of the app you wish to remove. The package name will be listed in the "Name" column of the output.
  1. Use the command "Remove-AppxPackage" followed by the package name of the app you wish to remove. For example, "Remove-AppxPackage Microsoft.WindowsCalculator" to remove the Calculator app.
  2. Press enter and the app will be removed from your system.
  3. Repeat steps #4 - #5 for each app you want to remove.
  4. Once you've removed the apps you want to remove, restart your computer for the changes to take effect.

 

 

Note: Please keep in mind that removing system apps may cause issues with your system, so proceed with caution and ensure that you are only removing apps that you no longer need or want.

 

Also do note that some apps can't be removed by "Remove-AppxPackage", those apps are called provisioned apps. You can remove them using the command "Remove-AppxProvisionedPackage -PackageName <package name> -online".

 


Kunal Chowdhury

About the Author

Solution Architect & Former Microsoft MVP

Kunal Chowdhury is an enterprise solution architect and former multi-year Microsoft MVP. He is the author of three technical books: Windows Presentation Foundation Development Cookbook, Mastering Visual Studio 2017, and the Mastering Visual Studio 2019.

He publishes technical and non-technical articles on .