Has anyone looked at C:\Program Files\WindowsApps?

Birk · Aug 28, 2023

On my system it's taking up 3.9 GB of actual space and contains loads of things I don't use and would like to delete. I'm talking about things like "Advertising", "Bing News", "Xbox", "Zune", etc. etc.

Can I delete stuff and not end up with endless BSOD's? Or do I have to leave it as is and back it up every time I make an image copy?

DigitalGoat · Aug 28, 2023

There are scripts you can use and instructions on how to remove plenty of those items from the WindowsApps folder using DISM, Command & PowerShell.
The issue is that no two people need the same items from that folder and some, like Zune, are used by certain media elements of Windows although the names of some items don't exactly give many clues as to where they apply.

There are probably a few good guides on what each entry relates to (Titustech comes to mind) but the majority of 'debloat Windows' resources tend to just claim it is all junk and needs to be removed for more fps, less tracking, will make you popular and help your clear your mortgage early....
There are guides on these forums on how to remove items from the WindowsApps folder, check the tutorials section at the top of every page.

So the short answer is yes you can clean out the ones you don't use/ need but I suggest making an image before removing items so you can go back if something breaks, and maybe only remove a couple of items at a time over an extended period of testing so that you are aware of any particular Windows breaking items, for your use case.

On a personal note I have removed a few items from WindowsApps without causing myself any issues but I tend to use DISM & PowerShell rather than 3rd party scripts/ utilities and I heavily research/ test the items before and after removal.

Ghot · Aug 28, 2023

Birk said:
On my system it's taking up 3.9 GB of actual space and contains loads of things I don't use and would like to delete. I'm talking about things like "Advertising", "Bing News", "Xbox", "Zune", etc. etc.

Can I delete stuff and not end up with endless BSOD's? Or do I have to leave it as is and back it up every time I make an image copy?

Just use REVO Uninstaller to trim that down. My WindowsApps folder is 2.17GB.
When you uninstall something with REVO, make sure to do the "scan for leftovers" to get all the... leftovers.

Download Revo Uninstaller Free - Remove unwanted programs easily

Download Revo Uninstaller Free helps you to uninstall software and remove unwanted programs easily. Remove all uninstall leftovers and traces

www.revouninstaller.com

ShamrockRig · Aug 28, 2023

3.6gb for me, Id do what ghot said and use revo, Also treefree is helpful for finding out where some weight lies. Personally it could have 10gb in there and i wouldn't bother, Not like i need the space!

Wynona · Aug 28, 2023

Ghot said:
Just use REVO Uninstaller to trim that down. My WindowsApps folder is 2.17GB.
When you uninstall something with REVO, make sure to do the "scan for leftovers" to get all the... leftovers.

Download Revo Uninstaller Free - Remove unwanted programs easily

Download Revo Uninstaller Free helps you to uninstall software and remove unwanted programs easily. Remove all uninstall leftovers and traces

www.revouninstaller.com

View attachment 69178

Thanks, @Ghot. I had it on my PC earlier but when I clean installed, I forgot about it.

RFS · Aug 28, 2023

Am I missing something here? Not that I need to recover any space, but on all 3 of my PCs the WindowsApps directory is empty.

BrianInEngland · Aug 28, 2023

RFS said:
Am I missing something here? Not that I need to recover any space, but on all 3 of my PCs the WindowsApps directory is empty.

It's a protected folder so will show as empty unless you have access permissions

Kees · Aug 28, 2023

RFS said:
...on all 3 of my PCs the WindowsApps directory is empty.

On my PC it is exactly the same.
I changed permissions on my test-environment (W11 home 22H2 on Virtual-Box):
- Without permissions it was indeed 0 kB
- With permissions changed it was 1.23 GB
Of course I left it unchanged, put back the last snapshot.

Birk · Aug 28, 2023

Thanks for all the feedback - it basically said what I was expecting. I do use DISM on a fairly regular basis ( Dism.exe /online /Cleanup-Image /StartComponentCleanup /ResetBase) but that does not find or delete the things I don't use or want. For uninstalling apps I use IOBit Uninstaller Pro, but that doesn't show any of the stuff I'm interested in deleting. I'll give Revo a try - although I did that about a year or so ago and it ended up taking out some stuff my system needed and I had to do a Windows reinstall. Maybe I made a mistake with Revo, so I'll be careful when I try again.

MitchAtHome · Aug 28, 2023

Just for grins I thought I'd take a look at that folder and was surprised to find 7.74 GB of files !
This dates back to the original install Dec 10 2022. The 1st one a MS NET native frame work and then a bunch for drop box OEM (don't know what that is) and many of windows feed back and OneDrive which I do not use.
I've only used the App uninstaller in windows thinking it was the best way to go, now I'm not so sure. Like Birk I also am afraid about taking out some stuff my system needs. So Revo (I have it) is a better way to delete unwanted items?

I will do a Macrium file folder B/U before any thing else.

I'm not a tech type user so I'm asking for input from knowledgeable forum users that can help.

TIA

Kees · Aug 28, 2023

Birk said:
...and I had to do a Windows reinstall.

If you make images of your system drive, you don't need to reinstall Windows, but you just can restore the last image made before doing things with any de-installer (or any other program that has deep influence on the system).

There are many programs to make an image with. I use the freeware Clonezilla, but that's a rather user-unfriendly program if you're not used to it. Elsewhere in this forum many other programs to make images with are described and discussed. You can find a useful discussion here:

Acronis True Image 2021 or Clonezilla for Windows 11 Backup?

Which one should i use for Windows 11 Backup? Acronis True Image 2021 or Clonezilla?

www.elevenforum.com

Birk · Aug 28, 2023

Kees said:
If you make images of your system drive, you don't need to reinstall Windows

Yes, I am well aware. I use Macrium to image my boot drive on a pretty regular basis, but in that instance I figured why not do a complete Windows refresh. It didn't take that much longer that a Macrium restore.

Birk · Aug 28, 2023

MitchAtHome said:
Just for grins I thought I'd take a look at that folder and was surprised to find 7.74 GB of files !
This dates back to the original install Dec 10 2022. The 1st one a MS NET native frame work and then a bunch for drop box OEM (don't know what that is) and many of windows feed back and OneDrive which I do not use.
I've only used the App uninstaller in windows thinking it was the best way to go, now I'm not so sure. Like Birk I also am afraid about taking out some stuff my system needs. So Revo (I have it) is a better way to delete unwanted items?

I will do a Macrium file folder B/U before any thing else.

I'm not a tech type user so I'm asking for input from knowledgeable forum users that can help.

TIA

Birk · Aug 28, 2023

MitchAtHome said:
Just

I'm not a tech type user so I'm asking for input from knowledgeable forum users that can help.

TIA

It is always important to have a backup of your boot drive because you never know when something bad can happen that will make your boot drive unbootable. A system Restore Point is an easy way to have a pretty reliable backup of Windows, but it only backs up Windows and nothing else. Restoring from a Restore Point is easy and fairly quick and it has never failed for me.

The most robust backup is called an Image backup and it contains everything on your boot drive. It's literally a complete image of the drive. There are a number of backup programs that make image backups. The most common on is Macrium Backup. It does a lot more than just make image backups, but I only use it for that because an image gets everything. There's no question about what you've got after you do a restore from an image backup.

MitchAtHome · Aug 28, 2023

Thanks Birk and Kees - I do have a Macrium B/U of my Boot drive and images of both drives on my PC and image on a daily basis. It's saved my old fat a*s a number of times.
What gets me about the OP's topic is that when you try to delete a line like bing news / weather or zune I run into an error saying I don't have permission(s) I'm not a tech type and when I try to understand what to do it scares the hell out of me. ( I did try)
DigitalGoat says there are tutorials for this but after searching I can't find one about Windows Apps folder.

Maybe I'm just to stupid for this type of stuff .......

TM21 · Aug 28, 2023

Over the years, I've heard the old dodge "I don't need the space, so why delete those files?".
It's not just the space though, it's the internal bookkeeping that Windows has to go through, registering all those files in the registry, putting them all in directories, so they can be found, by Windows Explorer. Etc, etc, etc!
And if you do any scans at all, like AV or AS scans, every one of those files has to be accessed and scanned, over and over.
And what about backups. Those who never do backups are not affected, but for those like myself who do backups of the entire C: drive on a regular schedule, every extra file hurts. Backups can become bloated by unnecessary files.
So, my own feeling is, "if I don't absolutely need it, OUT it goes!"

Revo Uninstalled is a great way to clean house of unneeded apps, etc.
It even has a separate section, just for removing unwanted apps.

TM

MitchAtHome · Aug 28, 2023

Thanks for your input and wisdom Techno, much appreciated. I'll agree with everything you said except "Revo Uninstalled has a separate section, just for removing unwanted apps"

It cannot find C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\Microsoft.BingWeather_4.53.51922.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe - one of the ones I'd like to get rid of of the 7.74 GB

I'm not a techie type user so maybe cause it's (the link) is not an app so it can't find it. (Post # 10)

Birk · Aug 29, 2023

I used the "Take Ownership" tweak posted here to get control of Program Files/Windows Apps. After doing that I was able to delete things just like they were regular files.

hdmi · Aug 29, 2023

Choosing to manually delete items from the WindowsApps folder is asking for trouble.
Even if it appears to be fine, it can still wreak all sorts of havoc later on.
Removing certain built-in apps with PowerShell may cause unintended consequences or system instability also.

Uninstall Apps in Windows 11

This tutorial will show you how to uninstall apps in Windows 11. If you no longer want or use an app, then you could uninstall the app to remove it and free up space on the drive. Desktop apps are traditional programs installed by a user. These will not be an app from the Microsoft Store...

www.elevenforum.com

maffle · Aug 29, 2023

Open a cmd.exe as admin and type in the follow:

winget source reset --force
winget source update
winget list

now you can remove all you want with

winget uninstall "package name"

Has anyone looked at C:\Program Files\WindowsApps?

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