Deleting programs on Windows 10 is a little more complicated than the old method of “dragging it to the recycle bin and hoping it goes away.” If you’ve got Windows apps that need to go, here’s how to uninstall a program in Windows 10, along with automated methods of making sure everything really is gone.
Difficulty
What You Need
A PC running on Windows 10
A third-party uninstaller
An app or apps you want to uninstall
Option 1: Uninstall specific programs
Windows provides a Settings option that allows you to go in and remove individual programs that you do not want. This method is useful if there’s an app or two that are causing trouble (taking up too much space, not working, etc.) and you want to get rid of them entirely. This helps keep Windows 10 efficient and uncluttered, but it works best if you already know the program you want to uninstall. For uninstalling many programs at once, check out Option 2.
Step 1:Head to yourStart Menuin the lower left-hand corner and open it up. You should see the option forSettingsin the primary sidebar, with a gear icon beside it. Select it. If you can’t findSettingsin the sidebar, search for it in the search box, and it should pop up.
Step 2:Look at theSettingsicons and select the one that saysApps, denoted by a list-like icon. This should open up theApps & Featureswindow.
Step 3:TheApps & Featureswindow lists all the programs currently downloaded onto your computer. The most recent versions of Windows 10 features a search bar, aSort byoption, and filtering options.
These are useful tools for finding exactly what apps you want to delete. Yes, you could scroll through the whole list, but if you have downloaded many programs, this could take too long. If you know the program name, search for it with the search bar. If you want to filter programs byhow much spacethey take up, installing them, or by where they are located, use the filter options.
Step 4:Select the specific app you want to uninstall. This will show you how much space the app is taking up, who made the app, and when it was downloaded: It will also bring up a large gray button toUninstallthe program (next to the move option). SelectUninstallto confirm the process. Windows will then remove the program from your operating system.
Note: Sometimes, theUninstallbutton will be grayed out. That means the program is a system app that is too important for Windows to delete. If you see this, double-check that you have picked the right app. If something goes wrong with this program, you need to explore updatesor repairsinstead of deleting it.
Option 2: Batch uninstall bloatware
Sometimes Windows 10 can get bogged down with too much bloatware or too many casually downloaded apps: When they start creating slowdowns or storage issues, it’s time to remove them. The Windows 10 tool isn’t well designed for finding and deleting multiple apps. Fortunately, there are many “uninstallers” you can download online to help out (anti-virus softwarecan also be useful here).
Use an uninstaller when you aren’t sure how many apps you want to remove or when Windows 10 fails to uninstall an app because of internal issues. If you download a lot of apps, as a matter of course, you should keep a quality uninstaller handy on Windows 10. Here are a couple of our favorite free picks:
For larger problems, you may want to think aboutreinstalling Windows 10completely. For more on apps that you don’t want to delete, check out thebest starter appsfor your Windows 10 machine!
