It's the nature of modern devices to come with a lot of software you don't really need. Windows 11 is no exception, and in fact, it's one of the worst offenders in this regard. There are a lot of apps included in Windows that have no business being preinstalled, and even the ones that make sense aren't always necessary.

With that in mind, here are 10 apps Windows comes with that you can uninstall without worrying.

12 Spotify, McAfee, and other third-party apps

These aren't even owned by Microsoft

Let's start with the obvious ones. Windows comes with some apps that aren't even made or owned by Microsoft. Apps like McAfee aren't actually installed in clean Windows installations, but we wanted to cover third-party apps in general here. Spotify is the most glaring example since it is included with clean Windows installations.

It's a music streaming service, and one that's not even owned by Microsoft, but due to certain business deals, it's forced onto us. Believe it or not, things actually used to be worse, as Windows 10 also includes a bunch of games by King, such as Candy Crush Saga. All things considered, Spotify isn't the worst since it is a fairly popular service, but still, it's completely unnecessary to be included with Windows, and a perfect example how companies are desperate to monetize everything, often at the expense of the user experience.

11 Solitaire Collection

I know it may seem essential, but you can live without it

Another obvious pick is, of course, the Microsoft Solitaire Collection. Card games have been included in Windows for a long time, and in the past, I don't think most people would have even thought about uninstalling them. They are fun and replayable games, but Microsoft has kind of ruined them with the modern iteration of these games, since they include a bunch of ads and are just too loud, both literally in terms of visuals.

Thankfully, the Solitaire Collection is now just a Microsoft Store app, and you can uninstall it without any repercussions. You can always reinstall it later if you find yourself missing the games.

10 Cortana

It's dead, anyway

Cortana has been nearly useless ever since Windows 11 launched, but that hasn't stopped Microsoft from including it with the OS for the past three years. Even when it was technically functional, it made no sense for the app to be here, and now that Microsoft has discontinued it altogether, there's absolutely zero reason to keep it.

Microsoft will likely remove the app in a future update anyway, but if you don't want to wait, you can go ahead and do it yourself.

9 Mail and Calendar (and Outlook)

There are better email clients

A set of apps included in Windows 11 is the collection of Mail and Calendar, which is being superseded by the new Outlook app. In fact, all these apps can be uninstalled without issue. Mail and Calendar are listed separately, but they're actually a single app, and that app is being killed off this year as the new web-based Outlook app replaces it.

But even the Outlook app is kind of worthless. It's far from the best email client you can get, so even if you do want easier access to your email, you can use other options, or just access the web versions of your email. It doesn't really do anything you can't do elsewhere.

8 Camera

Who takes pictures with their PC, really?

Camera is one of those basic apps that makes sense of devices like smartphones and tablets. but the vast majority of Windows PCs isn't either of those form factors. Even if you have a laptop, you don't use the webcam to take pictures of yourself or record videos. If you stream yourself on YouTube or Twitch, programs like OBS access your webcam just fine without the camera app.

If you have a tablet like the Surface Pro 11, the Camera app may be useful. But for most people, the Camera app is totally useless.

7 Weather

Useful? Maybe. But not necessary

Another app included in Windows 11 is the Weather app, and this too is a staple of mobile devices. This can be a fairly useful app, but on a PC, it's that much easier to access a website where you can see all the same information and then same. Even the Widgets panel in Windows 11 has its own weather information, which is disconnected from the app. It's just based on web technology anyway.

Weather is an app you can keep, but I basically never open this app whatsoever, and nothing is lost.

6 Maps

Are you really going to use it over Google Maps?

On a smartphone, having a navigation app is pretty important, so services like Google Maps and Apple Maps are totally warranted. Microsoft's Maps app was also useful when Windows phones were a thing, but these days, what's really the point? For one thing, it's almost guaranteed that whatever information is on the Maps app is probably going to be outdated compared to Google or Apple's offerings.

Plus, who's really going to use a Windows PC for navigation? If you need turn-by-turn directions in real time, you use your phone. The Maps app can technically be useful for just looking up information, but at that point, you can use Google Maps and get a lot more out of it.

5 News

Even the app's name is generous

A news app built into Windows doesn't necessarily have to be a bad idea, but it's definitely not needed. And it's made all the worse by the fact that the News app is, in fact, a terrible news source. The app is powered by Microsoft Start, which gathers "news" from all kinds of outlets — mostly translating to clickbait-y headlines and gossip that has very little to offer in terms of actual value as news.

Add to that the fact that this is essentially a web wrapper for Microsoft Start, which you can just access in your browser, and there's no reason to keep this app around. We'd even encourage you to delete it.

4 Microsoft 365 (Office)

I'm still not sure what the point is

Of course a Microsoft product like Windows will include some promotion for the company's other products, but the Microsoft 365 app is another strange one. It basically gives you access to the online Microsoft 365 portal (which you can access in any browser), and from there, you can open the web versions of apps like Word and PowerPoint.

But those web apps also open in your browser, so this dedicated app ends up being just the portal and nothing else. It's not any more convenient to use compared to opening the website yourself, so what's the point? You're completely fine just deleting it.

3 Clipchamp

Video editing isn't for everyone

Microsoft took a long time to finally offer a solid video editing program in Windows to rival Apple's iMovie. We finally got that with Clipchamp, and to the company's credit, it's a pretty good basic app for budding content creators. You can easily create some cool videos on it with multi-track support, effects, animations, and more.

The question is, do you want to? Not everyone is trying to make videos for YouTube or anything like that, so Clipchamp is safe to delete. It's not bad that it's included, it's just not for everyone, and maybe not even for most people.