How to Remove Preloaded Apps From Your PC

Ever wondered why your brand new PC came pre-loaded with so many apps that you'll never use? If yes, then the simple answer is that it is one of the few ways in which branded PC manufacturers make money. Pre-loading apps is one of the few sources of revenue for them, so they do it even though you, the buyer, will never use most of them.

But why should you remove these apps? After all, some of them might be useful. While that's a popular assumption, most people never use any of the apps that are pre-loaded on their branded computers. These apps occupy a lot of space and some of them start when your computer starts, which slows down the machine. A few of them even throw up annoying advertisement banners which are very hard to disable permanently.

For all these reasons, it's a good idea to just remove all these useless apps, popularly known as bloatware, from your computer. Here's how to identify and remove bloatware from your PC.

1. If you know which apps you want to remove, then you can easily go to Control Panel > Programs and Features, select programs you don't need and click Uninstall.

2. But if you don't know whether a certain app is useful or not, you should install an app that tells you whether the programs on your PC are useful.

3. There are many such apps, but the one we liked the most in called Should I Remove It. You can download it here.

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4. Once you have installed the app, it will show you a list of apps installed on your PC. It displays a rating for each app (based on feedback from those who use Should I Remove It and a "group of power users") and shows the percentage of people who remove the app in a neat horizontal coloured bar.

5. Apps that have a green bar next to them are safe to keep on your PC, but those marked red can easily be removed.

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6. Should I Remove It makes it easy for you to find out what any installed app does. Just click the name of the app and then click What is it? for an app description.

7. To remove apps, click the name of the app and then click Uninstall.

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This works well for desktop apps, but those who use Windows 8's Modern UI apps can follow these instructions to remove bloatware.

1. Go to the Start Screen in Windows 8. Just tap the Windows key to get there.

2. Right click any app you don't need and click Uninstall.

It's easy to remove bloatware from your PC, but did you manage it successfully? Let us know via the comments. For more tutorials, visit our How To section.