3 Ways to Hide Installed Programs on Windows 10 & 11

Tuck away those apps you want to keep private by hiding them

5 min. read

Updated onOctober 4, 2023

updated onOctober 4, 2023

Share this article

Improve this guide

Read our disclosure page to find out how can you help Windows Report sustain the editorial teamRead more

Key notes

It’s probably confusing why you would hide your installed programs instead ofuninstalling them. However, some people get annoyed when they can’t find their favorite apps in the Start Menu or Desktop because too many unnecessary apps are taking up space.

So how do you go about hiding installed programs on your Windows device? Here is an article that details all the different ways you can achieve this.

Why should I hide installed programs?

You’re probably wondering why anyone would download an app only to hide it. However, there are compelling reasons, such as:

How do I hide all Programs in Windows?

Before you start hiding apps, there are some preliminary steps you need to take first. Here’s what you need to do:

Also, if you want to declutter your space, you can delete the app icon from your Desktop, unpin it from the Taskbar or hide it from the Start Menu.

Otherwise, if you’re looking for more permanent ways to hide installed programs, follow the below steps.

1. Use the Group Policy Editor

The only downside with this method is that it hides all your installed programs. As such, if you experience any issues with an app, you cannot uninstall, change or repair the program.

Anyone who tries to access one of your installed apps will be hit with theYour system administrator has disabled Programs and Featuresmessage.

2. Use the Registry Editor

The app will only be hidden from the uninstall list in the Control Panel. However, you can search for it via the Search utility on the Taskbar if you need to access it.

While this is the method that can hide individual installed apps, editing the Registry is a very risky affair. Moreover, hiding many applications can be tedious, and you can easily make a mistake.

You must have created a backup orcreated a restore pointbefore. Otherwise, should anything go wrong, the results could be catastrophic, and your PC could be inoperable.

3. Use third-party apps

Seeing as the built-in methods to hide apps in Windows have their limitations, you may want to consider third-party apps. These apps offer many more features and have fewer steps than the two above.

When selecting an app to do this job, ensure it is from the Microsoft Store or at least a trusted site. For instance, theHide from Uninstall apporApphide. This way, you can make your computer more organized and clean without importing malware from these sites.

Some users also recommendedhiding the drive partitionwhere the installed programs are located. Still, if anyone was to discover that the drive partition is hidden and restores it, the apps will also reappear.

Elsewhere, you can alsohide your Taskbar iconsif you’re running low on RAM or want to declutter your screen.

That’s all we had for this article. Let us know your preferred method to hide apps and why in the comment section below.

3 Ways to Hide Installed Programs on Windows 10 & 11#

Why should I hide installed programs?#

How do I hide all Programs in Windows?#

1. Use the Group Policy Editor#

2. Use the Registry Editor#

3. Use third-party apps#