One of the most criticized aspects of Windows 10 has been the large number of apps and services (bloatware) that Microsoft has forced into its operating system: from its email client to OneDrive, going through, of course, a large number of apps and services designed for games and integration with Xbox . If we usually play on the computer, these apps cannot be useful. However, if we only use the computer to work and navigate, nothing to play, then these gaming apps are unnecessary. And Microsoft doesn’t exactly make it easy for us to delete them.
Xbox apps are a series of services that allow us to connect Windows 10 with the Xbox Live cloud, in addition to the other Microsoft console services. These services allow us to do practically everything, from connecting with and playing with our friends, to unlocking achievements, managing the Microsoft console remotely and even playing it.
What do we lose when deleting apps
The first thing we lose when deleting these apps is the integration of the operating system with the entire Xbox platform in the cloud . Among other functions, we will stop being able to chat with our friends, take captures of the games, record the games and the remote game, among other functions.
The games that we can install from platforms like Steam will continue to work without problems. They may even do better by having more free resources after deleting these apps. However, Microsoft Store games , especially those that are part of the Xbox Play Anywhere, will not work because you cannot access the company’s services.
If we have the Game Pass for PC, deleting these apps is the worst mistake we can make. Although, luckily, it is reversible.
Remove Xbox apps
These apps are part of Windows 10’s own programs, therefore, they cannot be removed from the Settings menu like any other program. Therefore, to carry out this process we will need to resort to the well-known PowerShell commands that allow us to uninstall blocked apps from the operating system.
The process is safe, so there is no need to worry. Also, if we regret it, we will be able to easily recover these apps again.
The first thing to do is open a PowerShell window with Administrator permissions . To do this, we click on the Windows 10 search engine and look for this program, checking the option to run with Administrator permissions.
The first command that we are going to execute is the following:
Get-AppxPackage Microsoft.XboxApp | Remove-AppxPackage
This command will allow us to remove the main Xbox app from Windows 10 , with all its functions and all the processes that run on the system because of it. In an instant, the app will be deleted from Windows 10, although it is not the only one installed on the system.
If we want to leave our Windows 10 clean, we must also remove other apps related to Xbox services from our computer. For example, Game Overlay, Identify Provider, and Speech To Text Overlay. These apps are responsible for enabling certain Xbox Live services in Windows, such as the Game Bar or the functions to check the connectivity of the PC with the console servers.
The commands that we must execute to eliminate these services from Windows 10 are:
Get-AppxPackage Microsoft.Xbox.TCUI | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage Microsoft.XboxGameOverlay | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage Microsoft.XboxGamingOverlay | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage Microsoft.XboxIdentityProvider | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage Microsoft.XboxSpeechToTextOverlay | Remove-AppxPackage
Each of them will take care of removing a different app from Windows 10. We can run them in the order that we want, since they do not depend on each other and we will not have problems. What we do recommend is that if we eliminate one we eliminate all, since we are not interested in having a service or functionality halfway.
When we finish deleting all the packages, we simply have to restart the computer. When it starts, as we can see, we will not have anything related to Xbox in our Windows 10. We can now use our PC normally, without bloatware that bothers us.
We can now do a search in the Windows 10 search engine to see that, indeed, there is nothing related to the Microsoft console.
And if we try to use any function, such as the Game Bar, we will see an error that will indicate that the program is not installed, along with the possibility of searching for it within the Microsoft Store.
Reinstall Xbox apps
In case of repentance, the entire previous process is totally reversible. All we have to do in this case is open the Microsoft Store and reinstall the Xbox apps we find from there.
In addition, Microsoft will reinstall all these apps every time we install a new version of the operating system, of which they are published every 6 months. Being native apps that are part of the Windows 10 experience, the updates take advantage to install the new versions of them and, therefore, having deleted them, they will be installed again.
If we do not want to have these apps in Windows 10 after updating, then what we should do is delete them after each update.
Other bloatware apps and games to delete
Xbox services aren’t the only part of bloatware that Windows 10 brings . In the operating system we can find a large number of pre-installed apps and games that, in most cases, we will not need. Many of these apps can be easily uninstalled from the Settings menu, but taking advantage of the fact that we have a PowerShell window open with Administrator permissions, we can take advantage of deleting them by running the following commands:
Get-AppxPackage *3dbuilder* | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage *officehub* | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage *skypeapp* | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage *getStarted* | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage *zunemusic* | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage *bingfinance* | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage *bingnews* | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage *OneNote* | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage *personas* | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage *bingsports* | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage -Name king.com.CandyCrushSaga | Remove-AppxPackage
After deleting these packages, we restart Windows 10 and, when it boots, we will be able to see how the operating system is much cleaner and free of the unwanted software that Microsoft is trying to force through. Of course, some of these apps will be automatically reinstalled after updating Windows, so we should save these commands to have them at hand.