Remove garbage from Windows 10

Even after years since initial publication, being mature and stable operating system right now, Windows 10 comes to your computer literally bloated with unnecessary stuff. And you need to clean it up by yourself. Certain things can be uninstalled “the normal way” (i.e. using Add/Remove programs panel). Some other requires more sophisticated moves.

Update! Note that this article, written in August 2018 and targeting Windows 10 1511 is now (October 2019) a little bit outdated. The general difference is that many things listed here as not removable the usual way in 1511 may be easily uninstalled using Add/Remove programs panel in Windows 10 1903.

The removal process

As in the introduction, start with the Add/Remove programs panel and remove as much as you want and can using the usual way.

Then run PowerShell as admin:

• Windows,
• type powers,
• right-click corresponding search result,
• select Run as administrator from context menu.

Uninstall those apps and features that you don’t need, by executing corresponding command in PowerShell. Note that you can copy these commands and paste them to PowerShell by right-clicking in its window. List items in bold are available in Windows 10 1903 while non-bold items are from Windows 10 1511:

• “3D Builder”: Get-AppxPackage *3dbuilder* | Remove-AppxPackage,
• “Alarms and Clock”: Get-AppxPackage *windowsalarms* | Remove-AppxPackage,
• “Calculator”: Get-AppxPackage *windowscalculator* | Remove-AppxPackage,
• “Calendar and Mail”: Get-AppxPackage *windowscommunicationsapps* | Remove-AppxPackage,
• “Camera”: Get-AppxPackage *windowscamera* | Remove-AppxPackage,
• “Get Help”: Get-AppxPackage *gethelp* | Remove-AppxPackage,
• “Get Office”: Get-AppxPackage *officehub* | Remove-AppxPackage,
• “Get Skype”: Get-AppxPackage *skypeapp* | Remove-AppxPackage,
• “Get Started”: Get-AppxPackage *getstarted* | Remove-AppxPackage,
• “Groove Music”: Get-AppxPackage *zunemusic* | Remove-AppxPackage,
• “Maps”: Get-AppxPackage *windowsmaps* | Remove-AppxPackage,
• “Messaging”: Get-AppxPackage *messaging* | Remove-AppxPackage,
• “Microsoft Solitaire Collection”: Get-AppxPackage *solitairecollection* | Remove-AppxPackage,
• “Mixed Reality Viewer”: Get-AppxPackage *Microsoft3DViewer* | Remove-AppxPackage,
• “Money”: Get-AppxPackage *bingfinance* | Remove-AppxPackage,
• “Movies & TV”: Get-AppxPackage *zunevideo* | Remove-AppxPackage,
• “News”: Get-AppxPackage *bingnews* | Remove-AppxPackage,
• “OneNote”: Get-AppxPackage *onenote* | Remove-AppxPackage,
• “Paint 3D”: Get-AppxPackage Microsoft.MSPaint | Remove-AppxPackage,
• “Phone Companion”: Get-AppxPackage *windowsphone* | Remove-AppxPackage,
• “Photos”: Get-AppxPackage *photos* | Remove-AppxPackage,
• “Sports”: Get-AppxPackage *bingsports* | Remove-AppxPackage,
• “Sticky Notes”: Get-AppxPackage *stickynotes* | Remove-AppxPackage,
• “Store”: Get-AppxPackage *windowsstore* | Remove-AppxPackage,
• “Voice Recorder”: Get-AppxPackage *soundrecorder* | Remove-AppxPackage,
• “Weather”: Get-AppxPackage *bingweather* | Remove-AppxPackage,
• “Xbox”: Get-AppxPackage *xboxapp* | Remove-AppxPackage,
• “WebP images extensions”: Get-AppxPackage *WebP* | Remove-AppxPackage,
• “HEIF imgaes extensions”: Get-AppxPackage *HEIF* | Remove-AppxPackage.

You will most likely be forced to repeat above steps after some Windows update in the future so consider automating above process.

The really “uninstallable” things

Following elements cannot be uninstalled this even (as of middle August, 2018) even thoug many sites claim something different (try for yourself, if you don’t believe):

• “Connect”: Get-AppxPackage *connect* | Remove-AppxPackage,
• “Contacts”: Get-AppxPackage *contacts* | Remove-AppxPackage,
• “Mouse Properties”: Get-AppxPackage *mouseproperities* | Remove-AppxPackage,
• “People”: Get-AppxPackage *people* | Remove-AppxPackage.

You must, unfortunately, learn to live with them, by i.e. hiding these elements (any method, i.e. put to some unused folder in Start Menu).

You may consider Do some cleanup after above operations…

…like using Ultimate Windows Tweaker or some other methods to remove Edit with Paint 3D item and other junk from context menu.

If you have messed up too much…

In case you make some mistakes and remove too much (i.e. Calculator), you can always reinstall missing application using Windows store (i.e. Calculator).

You need the Microsoft Store application in order to install any new application. If you also removed it with above instructions, you need to use PowerShell again (again as administrator) to reinstall missing Microsoft Store application:

Get-AppxPackage -allusers Microsoft.WindowsStore | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register "$($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml"}

That should help.

Keep in mind…

There are two things to remember:

• you must restart computer after above process, to actually see changes (i.e. to really see these apps uninstalled),
• even though you have to run PowerShell as an administrator, this solution most likely won’t work on non-admin accounts (i.e. you’ll see these damn apps still installed, even after restart).

The last one is really weird and frustrating. The only remedy that I’ve found for this problem is to temporally upgrade these accounts to admin ones, remove garbage and then downgrade them back to regular accounts.