Fed up with Microsoft’s default apps bloating Windows 11? We’ve got some good news
Microsoft is slowly giving users more ways to debloat Windows 11
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Windows 11is set to give you the option to remove more of its default apps if you wish tostreamline the operating systema bit.
The ability to uninstall more of these so-called ‘inbox apps’ (or core applications) is present in the latest preview build (25931) which has been released in the Canary channel (Microsoft’s earliest test builds).
As of that build, you can now uninstall the default Photos app, People app, and Remote Desktop (MSTSC) client, as well as the Camera app (which you could already remove since preview builds in March, asThe Verge, which spotted this, observes).
Furthermore, Cortana can now be dropped from Windows 11 following the official deprecation of the digital assistant,as we recently reported.
Cortana being swept away is part of preparing the ground for the arrival of the Windows Copilot AI –possibly later this year with the Windows 11 23H2 update– so that case is a little bit different.
Analysis: Expect more of this going forward
It’s useful to have the ability to trim away these default apps. Even though they aren’t huge in size, if you never use them, you can save a bit of storage space, and streamline your system in general. Also, you won’t have to look at pointless programs when scrolling through your lists of apps in Windows 11 menus.
It’s likely Microsoft will give users the choice to uninstall more of these core apps going forward, and you can already remove a fair few. Anything that isn’t system-critical should be fair game to be given the elbow in our book.
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Build 25931 doesn’t do a huge amount elsewhere – it’s mainly about porting over features from the Dev channel – but there are some interesting tweaks, such as a change toDynamic Lightingto allow you to match your Windows accent color with the RGB lights on the devices attached to your PC. Nifty.
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Darren is a freelancer writing news and features for TechRadar (and occasionally T3) across a broad range of computing topics including CPUs, GPUs, various other hardware, VPNs, antivirus and more. He has written about tech for the best part of three decades, and writes books in his spare time (his debut novel - ‘I Know What You Did Last Supper’ - was published by Hachette UK in 2013).
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