Remove a program you never use

Take off the things that came with the machine, and the ones that arrived uninvited, without breaking anything.

A new machine arrives with a trial antivirus, three games, two photograph programs and something that keeps offering to speed things up. None of it was your idea.

Removing a program is called uninstalling. It is a normal, everyday action, and it always asks before it does anything.

Key points

• Remove a program from Settings, then Apps, then Installed apps
• Sort by size and by date to see what is worth taking off
• Leave anything with an engineer’s name on it — Intel, Realtek, Redistributable
• Find and remove a browser extension, which never appears in the list of programs

What to remember

• Sorting by size shows you what is worth removing. Sorting by date shows you what you have never opened.
• The rule is simple: if it has a name a person would choose, it is probably safe. If it has a name an engineer would choose, leave it.
• These are called extensions. They live inside the browser, not in the list of programs, which is why hunting in Settings never finds them.

Try this

Open Installed apps on your own computer and sort by size. You do not have to remove anything. Have a look at what is up there at the top.

Practice: Remove a program you never use. Your first lesson is free, with no account or card; the rest are part of a Lantern plan. Interactive lessons require JavaScript.

Related guides

• A home screen with six things on it
• The home screen, and where things actually live
• Add the few apps worth having, and clear the rest
• A browser whose home page has changed by itself
• Say what an extension is