How to Disable Windows 11 Bloatware Without Breaking Your PC

A fresh Windows 11 install includes Microsoft Teams (pinned to taskbar), Cortana, Xbox Game Bar, Clipchamp, Microsoft News, Weather, Tips, Get Started, and around 20 other apps you never asked for. Many run background processes even when you haven't opened them.

Removing them safely takes about 15 minutes and can free 1–3GB of RAM-loaded processes. For broader context on what Windows resources you can reclaim, see our guide on how to free up RAM on Windows 11. Here's how — and critically, what not to touch.

Safe to Remove: The Full List

These apps have no system dependencies. Removing them won't affect Windows Update, security, or other apps.

Remove via PowerShell (Run as Administrator)

# Microsoft Teams (chat stub — reinstallable from Store if needed)
Get-AppxPackage *Teams* | Remove-AppxPackage

# Cortana
Get-AppxPackage *Cortana* | Remove-AppxPackage

# Microsoft News
Get-AppxPackage *BingNews* | Remove-AppxPackage

# Weather
Get-AppxPackage *BingWeather* | Remove-AppxPackage

# Xbox app (not Xbox Game Bar — different app)
Get-AppxPackage *XboxApp* | Remove-AppxPackage

# Clipchamp (Microsoft's video editor)
Get-AppxPackage *Clipchamp* | Remove-AppxPackage

# Get Started / Tips
Get-AppxPackage *GetStarted* | Remove-AppxPackage

# Microsoft To Do
Get-AppxPackage *Todos* | Remove-AppxPackage

# Skype
Get-AppxPackage *Skype* | Remove-AppxPackage

# Mixed Reality Portal
Get-AppxPackage *HolographicFirstRun* | Remove-AppxPackage

# Mail and Calendar (if you use a browser for email)
Get-AppxPackage *windowscommunicationsapps* | Remove-AppxPackage

Remove via Settings

Go to Settings → Apps → Installed apps. Search for each and click Uninstall:

• Solitaire Collection
• Microsoft Advertising SDK
• Microsoft 365 (trials — not the full suite you pay for)
• TikTok (if pre-installed by OEM)
• Disney+ (if pre-installed)
• Any game trial from King or other publishers

Be Careful With These

These apps look like bloatware but have hidden dependencies or are harder to recover from removing:

Windows Store / Microsoft Store: Required to reinstall apps you've removed and receive updates for inbox apps. Don't remove it.

Xbox Game Bar (not Xbox App): Used by many games to detect your GPU and apply performance overlays. Removing it can break game detection in some titles.

Windows Security / Microsoft Defender: Never remove this. Even if you use a third-party antivirus, Defender provides the Secure Boot and TPM integration layer.

OneDrive: Can be safely removed if you don't use it, but do it via the installer uninstaller (winget uninstall Microsoft.OneDrive) rather than PowerShell AppX removal.

Never Touch These

These will break Windows if removed:

• Runtime C++ Redistributables (Microsoft Visual C++ 2022+)
• DirectX Runtime
• Windows Media Player (used by some audio and video drivers)
• Microsoft Edge (used by many Windows features as a rendering engine, even if you use Chrome)
• NET Framework packages

If PowerShell gives you an "access denied" or "deployment operation failed" error when trying to remove something, that's the system protecting a system-critical package. Don't force it.

Disable Startup Bloatware That Can't Be Removed

Some apps (Edge, Office stub loaders) can't be uninstalled but can be stopped from launching at startup:

# List all startup programs
Get-CimInstance Win32_StartupCommand | Select Name, Command, Location

Or open Task Manager → Startup apps and disable anything with "High" startup impact that you don't actively use in the first 10 minutes of boot. Trimming startup load is also one of the key steps in fixing slow Windows 11 startup.

Disable Background App Refresh System-Wide

Windows allows UWP apps to run in the background. For most installed apps you never open, this is wasted RAM.

Settings → Apps → Advanced app settings → Background apps — set to "Power optimized" or "Never" for all apps you don't use actively.

What to Expect After Debloating

On a fresh Windows 11 install with a mid-range PC:

• Background process count: 80–100 → 55–70
• RAM usage at idle: 4.2GB → 2.8–3.2GB
• Startup time: 30–40% faster

For a gaming PC, the RAM savings are the primary benefit — more available for your game and its texture cache. Combine this with the best Windows gaming settings guide to fully configure Windows for performance.

The Automated Option

Manually removing 15+ apps and disabling startup entries takes time. SageTweaks includes a safe bloatware removal module that handles everything above automatically — with a whitelist of protected system apps so you never accidentally remove something critical.

It also disables the background app refresh settings and startup entries in one pass, and documents every change so you can restore anything if needed.

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Start with the PowerShell removals above — those are the highest-RAM-consumption apps. Then work through startup apps in Task Manager. The whole process takes 15 minutes and the RAM savings are immediately visible.