How To Delete An App On Windows 10

Out of all the software on your computer, how many programs do you actually use regularly? About people keep a off-white amount of unnecessary software installed on their systems. While some of these apps are just outdated, others are Windows bloatware, malicious software, or junk you tin remove from your figurer.

Hither are some mutual still unnecessary Windows apps you should uninstall.

How to Check Your Installed Programs on Windows 11 or Windows 10

It's easy to review the installed programs on your arrangement using either Windows 11 or Windows ten, since the process is identical. Open Settings and head into the Apps > Apps & features section. Here, you'll see a list of everything installed on your PC.

On Windows 11, click the three-dot push button and cull Uninstall to remove a program. On Windows ten, only click the entry to evidence the Uninstall button.

Those on Windows 8.1 or Windows 7 tin click on the Start button and search for Programs and Features. This volition open a similar list where you tin can review everything currently installed on your organisation and uninstall unneeded apps.

Depending on the software, the app might uninstall immediately or require you to advance through some dialog boxes. See our guide to uninstalling programs on Windows for more info.

Now, let's expect at what apps you should uninstall from Windows—remove whatever of the beneath if they're on your system!

1. QuickTime

QuickTime is Apple tree's video actor. While it's still a current program on macOS, the company hasn't supported the Windows version since 2016.

Shortly afterward Apple announced the deprecation of QuickTime for Windows, Tendency Micro appear that the software had a few critical vulnerabilities. Since Apple will never patch these, information technology's non safe to have QuickTime installed anymore.

Removing QuickTime shouldn't crusade whatsoever disruptions, as iTunes doesn't rely on it. If you need a replacement for QuickTime, use VLC, which will play pretty much anything.

2. CCleaner

CCleaner was in one case a trusted Windows app for cleaning junk, but its reputation went downhill after information technology was caused by Avast. Past bug include forced updates without permission, data collection that enabled itself even if you lot disabled the function, and the software distributing malware unknowingly.

When we looked at CCleaner in 2020, nosotros found that it had cleaned up its human action merely was even so largely unnecessary. You'll notice suitable cleaning tools elsewhere, including those congenital into Windows itself. Follow our step-by-footstep guide to cleaning your PC and you can say cheerio to CCleaner.

3. Crappy PC Cleaners

Many people have installed (or accidentally installed) a PC-cleaning app at some signal. The majority of these products range from useless to harmful, as registry cleaners don't improve the performance of Windows at all. If you find garbage like MyCleanPC or PC Optimizer Pro in the list of your installed apps, y'all should remove them.

Read our guide to cleaning mentioned in a higher place for a proper cleanup method. If your calculator feels slow, attempt some ways to make Windows faster.

4. uTorrent

uTorrent was once considered the gilded standard of torrenting software. Nevertheless, it'south had a host of issues over the years that brand information technology untrustworthy at present.

Aside from having ads crammed into the interface, uTorrent also includes offers for other software tools, which is annoying. Its worst offense came in 2015, when the app was found to bundle in cryptocurrency mining software without letting users know. This wasted your system resources in the background to make money for the company, which allegedly gave some to charity.

There's no reason to bother with uTorrent. We think qBittorrent is the best torrent customer, every bit it's free of all this nonsense.

5. Adobe Wink Role player and Shockwave Role player

Adobe Flash Histrion is no longer supported equally of January 2021. Though information technology'due south blocked in all modern browsers now, you should all the same uninstall local copies of Flash. This will keep you safe from any time to come security issues since Adobe isn't updating it anymore.

A like runtime plugin, Adobe Shockwave Player, was discontinued in 2019. The company no longer offers it for download, and you're extremely unlikely to notice a website that needs it.

Y'all should thus remove both Shockwave Player and Flash Actor. They're both relics of an era gone by and unnecessary today.

6. Java

Java is another media runtime, and it includes two components: Coffee on the desktop, and the Coffee plugin for browsers (which is notorious for having security problems). Though it was once fairly common, very few websites employ it nowadays. At the fourth dimension of writing, W3Techs shows that nether 0.02 percent of websites use Java.

Modernistic versions of Chrome and Firefox don't support it, which means that Java is less of a security problem than it once was. Unless you're an Android programmer or employ some specialized software that relies on Java, you should uninstall information technology. You'll probably never notice a difference.

7. Microsoft Silverlight

Silverlight is a spider web framework, similar to Adobe Flash, that once enabled rich media content in your browser. Years agone, these plugins were necessary on a lot of websites. But now they're deprecated and no longer useful. Looking at W3Techs over again, we see that fewer than 0.03 percentage of websites apply Silverlight as of early 2022.

Mod browsers don't even work with Silverlight; Chrome and Firefox oasis't supported it for years, and it was never uniform with Border. Silverlight is only officially supported in Net Explorer, which Microsoft plans to retire in mid-2022. You won't lose anything by uninstalling Silverlight.

When y'all're wondering what else to uninstall from Windows x or 11, another obvious candidate is junk in your browser. While toolbars were once a far more prevalent trouble, modern versions of Chrome and other browsers take thankfully fought back and mostly eradicated them. However, spammy extensions are still in the wild.

Take a await in your programs list for toolbars similar the Bing Bar, Google Toolbar, Ask Toolbar, Yahoo! Toolbar, or the Babylon Toolbar. If yous detect whatever of them, uninstall them. Later that, review the installed add-ons or extensions in your browsers. Brand sure you recognize and review everything there, equally even trustworthy extensions can be sold to shady companies.

9. Coupon Printer for Windows

The purpose of Coupon Printer for Windows is to provide access to deals from Coupons.com. However, since this software is typically found bundled in with other programs, chances are you that you didn't want to install it in the start place.

If you're a diehard Coupons.com user, you tin get out this one installed so you can access its discounts. Everyone else should uninstall this program and apply another coupon site that doesn't crave installing annihilation.

10. Manufacturer Bloatware

Unless y'all're running a premium device like the Surface Pro, or you installed Windows from scratch on a new desktop, chances are your calculator came with lots of preinstalled junk from the manufacturer. Laptops from HP, Dell, Toshiba, Lenovo, and more than are prone to this issue.

Consider these unnecessary programs y'all should get rid of, equally none of them are required for Windows to part. Some of the preinstalled branded programs, similar photo apps, gaming tools, or anything that duplicates Windows utilities, are completely unnecessary. Others, such every bit driver/BIOS update utilities (like Lenovo System Update), are worth keeping around.

Of course, we can't annotate specifically on every slice of manufacturer software. To discover out most what you should delete from your system, it'due south a proficient idea to check out Should I Remove It?, which gives an overview of what each program does and how others have rated it.

When in doubt, anything from the manufacturer is probably not necessary. But it's e'er good to double-check.

11. Windows 10 and Windows 11 Bloatware

Having to remove manufacturer bloatware is annoying enough, but Microsoft includes a fair bit of its own in modern versions of Windows in the form of Store apps. Thankfully, you can uninstall near of these unnecessary programs without much hassle.

Some of the default Modern apps, like Xbox and Weather, are useful to some people but not others. Others, like Processed Trounce Saga, are junk you lot should remove. See how to get rid of this junk in our Windows 10 bloatware removal guide, or our overview of uninstalling bloatware in Windows 11.

12. WinRAR

While having a file extraction and compression tool around is certainly useful, WinRAR is not the best pick for the job. The app has get a bit of a punchline due to its quondam-school "shareware" license. You can download a "trial" of WinRAR for gratuitous, which asks y'all to pay after using it for some time. Notwithstanding, the app never locks you out, fifty-fifty if you don't pay, so you tin can use it indefinitely.

Despite this, there's really no reason to use WinRAR anyway. 7-Zip is a free and simple tool that covers most people's needs. Whatever you do, delight don't waste material money on WinRAR.

Uninstall These Programs From Windows

The above programs are unnecessary because they no longer serve whatever useful office. If you uninstall something and later find that y'all demand it over again, y'all tin can always reinstall it. Just be sure to install without any bundled junk when you do.

It's a skillful idea to practise regular cleaning on your system to remove former or junky Windows programs. Some might be "zombie apps" that pose a security risk.

Why You Need to Delete Zombie Apps You No Longer Use

Read Adjacent

About The Writer

Ben Stegner (1807 Articles Published)

Ben is the Editor in Principal at MakeUseOf. He left his IT job to write full-fourth dimension in 2016 and has never looked back. He's been roofing tech tutorials, video game recommendations, and more as a professional person author for over 8 years.