WinGet is the free package manager built into Windows 11 that installs, updates, and removes apps straight from PowerShell or Terminal — no browsing to websites and clicking through installers. Open PowerShell, type winget search followed by an app name to find it, then winget install with the app’s ID to install it. A single command, winget upgrade --all, then updates every app on your PC at once.

Applies to: Windows 11 (23H2, 24H2, 25H2) and Windows 10 (22H2) | Last updated: July 11, 2026

Key Takeaways

• WinGet is Microsoft’s own package manager — it is built into Windows 11 out of the box and installs apps from official, trusted sources instead of random download sites
• Install any app with one line — winget install Brave.Brave downloads the official package and installs it without ever opening a browser
• Update everything at once — winget upgrade --all --include-unknown (short form winget upgrade -r -u) updates every app on your PC in one go
• Back up your whole app list — winget export writes every installed app to a single file, and winget import reinstalls the lot on a fresh Windows install
• Prefer clicking to typing? Tools like UniGetUI and Winhance run these same WinGet commands behind a graphical interface

Quick Steps:

1. Right-click the Start button and open Terminal (Admin) or PowerShell (Admin)
2. Confirm WinGet is installed with winget -v
3. Find an app with winget search brave
4. Install it by its ID with winget install Brave.Brave
5. Update every app at once with winget upgrade -r -u
6. Back up your app list with winget export -o C:\apps.json and restore it later with winget import -i C:\apps.json

What Is WinGet, and Why Should You Use It?

WinGet is Microsoft’s own package manager for Windows. A package manager cuts out the usual routine of opening your browser, hunting for the right official website, downloading an installer, and clicking Next over and over. Instead, you tell WinGet the name of the app you want, and it fetches it from a trusted source and installs it quietly in the background. If you have ever used a Linux package manager, it is the exact same idea, just for Windows.

That “trusted source” part is a big reason I like using it. When you install something with WinGet, you are not pulling a random file off a sketchy download site covered in fake download buttons — you are getting the official package from the official source. WinGet can pull from a few different sources, too: the main WinGet repository (a large, community-maintained repo), the Microsoft Store source, and a newer font source that Microsoft added for installing fonts.

These days I find myself reaching for WinGet whenever there is a single app I want to install, rather than going to a website to download the installer. It pulls from official sources, it is fast, and it can update everything in one command. The one honest downside: all of this happens in the terminal, in PowerShell, and plenty of Windows users do not live in the terminal. Typing commands can feel awkward at first — but if you can get past that, WinGet genuinely saves a lot of time and frustration.

Note: Not every app is on WinGet. For an app to appear, the developer has to submit it to the winget-pkgs community repository on GitHub and resubmit it every time they release an update. So every now and then you will go looking for something and it simply will not be there — that is completely normal, and you can still grab those apps the usual way.

If you want the full technical reference, Microsoft maintains the official WinGet documentation, which lists every command and option.

How to Check If WinGet Is Installed (and Fix It If It’s Missing)

WinGet is already built into Windows 11 and works on a fresh install. On Windows 10, it is best to check whether it is installed first, and install it if it is not. To open PowerShell, right-click the Start button and choose Terminal (Admin) or PowerShell (Admin). If those do not appear in the menu, just search for them in the Start menu instead.

A quick word on that “as admin” part, because it matters. If you are only searching for apps or checking what is already installed, you do not need admin at all. But the moment you start installing, updating, or removing apps, open the terminal as admin — a lot of apps install for the whole system, and without admin rights Windows will prompt you for permission on every single one, and some installs will just fail.

With PowerShell open, confirm WinGet is there by checking its version:

winget -v

If you get a version number back, WinGet is installed. The first time you run a command, you may be asked to accept some agreements — type Y for yes and press Enter. If instead you get a winget is not recognized error, do not worry. I have a full separate guide on how to install and fix WinGet on Windows 10 and 11 — sort that out first, then come back here.

Read the full written guide on how to install and fix WinGet on Windows 10 and 11 if the command is not recognized on your PC.

How to Search for and Install Apps with WinGet

Searching and installing is what you will do most often. Say you want the Brave browser. Search for it like this:

winget search brave

WinGet returns a list of results, and for each one it shows the name, an ID column, and the source it came from. Most results come from the WinGet source, and some come from the Microsoft Store source. That ID is the part to pay attention to, because app names can be very similar — if you install by name alone, WinGet might grab the wrong one or stop and ask you to be more specific. The safest way is to install using the exact ID.

winget install Brave.Brave

The quickest way to get the ID is to highlight it in the search results, copy it with Ctrl + C, and paste it after winget install with Ctrl + V (or a right-click). Press Enter, accept any package agreement if prompted, and WinGet downloads the official package and installs it — no browser required.

You will sometimes see people add --id and --exact to a command like this:

winget install --id Brave.Brave --exact

All that does is force WinGet to match that one exact ID and nothing else. It is handy when you are installing something with a common name and WinGet keeps returning several matches, but you do not have to use it — for most apps, giving WinGet the ID on its own is more than enough.

Install multiple apps with one command

Setting up a new PC? You do not have to install apps one by one, and you do not need any scripting. List them all in a single install command, separated by spaces:

winget install 7zip.7zip Nilesoft.Shell

WinGet installs 7-Zip first and then moves straight on to Nilesoft Shell, one after the other, all from that single line. You can add as many apps as you like this way — just keep adding a space and the next ID. This is also exactly where the silent flags in the next section earn their keep: add them once at the end and they apply to the whole batch, so you can kick it off and walk away.

How to Update Every App on Your PC with One Command

This is probably my favorite thing about WinGet. First, see everything installed:

winget list

You will notice this shows almost every app on your system — not just the ones you installed with WinGet — along with their version numbers. Normally, keeping all of that up to date is a chore, with every app nagging you to update on its own schedule. WinGet turns it into one step. Run winget upgrade to see a neat list of every app with an update waiting, then update them all at once:

winget upgrade --all

There is a small catch a lot of guides skip. Some apps show their version as “unknown,” and by default those quietly get left behind. So I always add --include-unknown to catch them:

winget upgrade --all --include-unknown

And if you want the shorter version that power users lean on, it is the same command with a lot less typing:

winget upgrade -r -u

Run updates silently, with no prompts

When WinGet installs or updates something, it can stop to ask you to accept an agreement, or the installer itself might pop up. To keep the whole thing quiet, add a few flags to the end of the command:

winget upgrade --all --include-unknown --silent --accept-package-agreements --accept-source-agreements --disable-interactivity

Here --silent runs each installer quietly, the two --accept flags stop it asking you to agree to anything, and --disable-interactivity tells WinGet not to pause for any prompts at all. A couple of these have short versions — --silent is just -h, for example — which is what power users chain together. The one thing WinGet cannot skip is the Windows User Account Control prompt asking for permission, so it is not 100% hands-off, but it is about as close as you will get.

winget upgrade -r -u -h --accept-package-agreements --accept-source-agreements --disable-interactivity

Stop specific apps from updating (pinning)

Sometimes you do not want everything updated — maybe an app needs to stay on a specific version, or it is a licensed app you would rather not touch. You can tell WinGet to leave it alone by pinning it:

winget pin add Brave.Brave

Now WinGet skips that app whenever you run “upgrade all.” To really lock it down so it will not update at all until you say so, add --blocking:

winget pin add Brave.Brave --blocking

How to Uninstall Apps with WinGet

Removing an app is just as simple — use the name or the ID:

winget uninstall Brave.Brave

There is one gotcha worth knowing. If an app was installed just for your user account and you try to uninstall it from an admin window, WinGet will not find it — an admin window runs as a different user, so it cannot see apps installed only for your account. The fix is simple: open a normal PowerShell window (not as admin) and run the same uninstall command there.

Tip: Uninstall an app from the same place you installed it. Anything installed just for your user, remove from a normal terminal; anything installed for the whole system, remove from an admin terminal. It is the one time in this whole guide you do not want the admin window.

Other than that, WinGet just runs the app’s own uninstaller, so it is the same as removing it from Settings — only quicker.

Where Does WinGet Install Apps? (and Can You Change It?)

A question I get a lot: where do all these apps actually get installed to? The honest answer is that WinGet does not really decide that. When you install something, WinGet just runs that app’s own installer, so where it ends up is up to the installer itself. Most bigger, system-wide apps go into the Program Files folder, and some smaller, user-only apps get tucked away in your AppData folder.

You do get a couple of flags to try to steer this. --scope lets you ask for either a user install or a machine-wide one, and --location (or -l for short) lets you try to point an app at a specific folder or even a different drive:

winget install Brave.Brave --scope machine --location "D:\Apps\Brave"

Here is the important part: both of those only work if that particular app’s installer supports them, and plenty of installers just ignore them. So you cannot reliably force every app onto, say, your D drive — and that is not WinGet being difficult, it is simply not WinGet’s call to make. A lot of you have asked me to build that kind of thing into Winhance, and this is exactly why it is not a simple switch to flip.

Back Up and Restore Your Entire App List with WinGet

This is genuinely one of the most useful WinGet tricks, and it is perfect for setting up a fresh Windows PC. Once your current PC is set up exactly how you like it, you can tell WinGet to write out a list of everything you have installed into a single file. Use -o for output, followed by the path where you want the file saved:

winget export -o C:\apps.json

Giving it a full path like C:\apps.json matters — if you only give a file name on its own, it saves into whatever folder your terminal happens to be in, which is easy to lose. Now you have one small file that describes your entire app setup. Next time you get a new PC or do a clean install of Windows, you do not reinstall everything by hand. Point WinGet at that file with -i for input:

winget import -i C:\apps.json

WinGet goes off and reinstalls your whole app list, one after the other. And the file does not have to live on the PC itself — drop it on a USB flash drive, and when you are setting up a fresh install (or a whole batch of PCs), plug the drive in and point winget import at the file right there on the stick. It just needs to be somewhere the PC can reach. Instead of losing an evening reinstalling everything by hand, it is one command and you let it run.

One common follow-up: can you point import at local installer files you have already downloaded, so you do not re-download everything each time? The honest answer is no. When you run winget import, it always downloads each app fresh from the source — it will not install from local files sitting on your USB. WinGet does have a separate winget download command that saves an app’s installer into a folder, but import still will not install from those. If what you really want is to set up PCs from installers you have already saved, you are looking at a small PowerShell or batch script that loops through the installers in a folder — and at that point it is not really a WinGet job anymore.

If deploying the same setup across several machines is your goal, I have a dedicated walkthrough on how to configure Windows once and deploy it to every PC with Winhance. And because everything here runs in PowerShell, it pairs nicely with these PowerShell commands every Windows user should know.

Prefer a Graphical Interface? Try UniGetUI or Winhance

If living in the terminal is not your thing, there are apps that give you the same power with a clickable interface. The main one I point people to is UniGetUI, and it is genuinely brilliant because it is not just a graphical interface for WinGet — it sits on top of most package managers out there, so WinGet, Scoop, Chocolatey, npm, and more are all managed from one place. It is really a full software manager for searching, installing, and keeping everything up to date, and under the hood it is running the same kinds of commands covered in this guide.

Read the full written walkthrough on using UniGetUI as a graphical package manager for Windows, or grab it from the UniGetUI GitHub page.

The other option is my own tool, Winhance. Winhance uses WinGet under the hood as its first source, with a fallback to Chocolatey if something is not on WinGet (it does not use Scoop, at least at the time of writing). But it is a different thing to UniGetUI — Winhance is not trying to be a full software manager. Its external software section is there to help you get a new PC set up quickly with the most common apps people actually need, from a curated list, rather than managing every single package on your system.

So the simple way to think about it: if you want an app to manage all of the software on your PC, UniGetUI is your friend; if you are setting up a fresh Windows install and just want the essentials in a couple of clicks, that is where Winhance comes in. You can download Winhance from winhance.net or the Winhance GitHub repository.

Even if the terminal really is not for you and you never touch any of this again, remembering just three commands — winget install, winget upgrade -r -u, and winget export — will already save you a serious amount of time the next time you are installing or updating apps on Windows.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is WinGet free, and is it safe to use?

Yes on both counts. WinGet is Microsoft’s own package manager and is free and built into Windows 11. It is safe because it installs the official package from an official source — the community-maintained WinGet repository or the Microsoft Store — rather than a random installer from a third-party download site.

Does WinGet work on Windows 10?

Yes. WinGet ships built into Windows 11, but on Windows 10 you may need to install it first. Check by running winget -v in PowerShell — if you get a version number, you are set. If you get a “not recognized” error, follow my dedicated guide on installing and repairing WinGet, linked above.

How do I update all my apps with WinGet at once?

Run winget upgrade --all --include-unknown, or the shorter winget upgrade -r -u. This updates every app with a pending update in one pass, including apps whose version WinGet reports as “unknown,” which are skipped by default without the --include-unknown flag.

Can I choose where WinGet installs an app?

Only sometimes. You can try the --scope and --location flags, but they only work if the app’s own installer supports them, and many installers ignore them. WinGet runs each app’s installer as-is, so the final install location is ultimately decided by that installer, not by WinGet.

What is the difference between WinGet and UniGetUI?

WinGet is the command-line package manager built into Windows. UniGetUI is a free graphical app that sits on top of WinGet (and other managers like Scoop and Chocolatey), giving you the same install-and-update power through a clickable interface. UniGetUI runs WinGet commands for you behind the scenes.

This post EVERY Windows User Should Know How to Use WinGet! (FREE Built-in Tool) first appeared on Memory's Tech Tips and is written by memory

To install or repair WinGet on Windows 10 or Windows 11, the easiest method is to install the App Installer package from the Microsoft Store, which includes WinGet. If the Store is not available, run Microsoft’s PowerShell bootstrap script to install and repair it, or install it manually from the winget-cli GitHub releases. WinGet ships and works on current Windows 11, but Windows 10 does not include a working WinGet by default.

Applies to: Windows 10 (version 1809 and later, including IoT Enterprise LTSC 2021) and Windows 11 (23H2, 24H2, 25H2) | Last updated: June 24, 2026

Key Takeaways

• WinGet (the Windows Package Manager) ships and works out of the box on current Windows 11, but Windows 10 — even Pro editions — does not include a registered, working WinGet by default.
• The simplest method is installing the App Installer from the Microsoft Store, which delivers WinGet. On Windows editions without the Store, you can install the Store from the Microsoft Store web page first.
• Method 2 is a single PowerShell script from Microsoft Learn that installs the Microsoft.WinGet.Client module and runs Repair-WinGetPackageManager — it both installs and repairs WinGet.
• Method 3 is a manual install from the winget-cli GitHub releases using Add-AppxPackage and Add-AppxProvisionedPackage with the license file — the most involved option, for when the others fail.
• Verify WinGet with winget -v. If it returns a version number, WinGet is registered and working.

Quick Steps

1. Check whether WinGet already works: open Windows PowerShell and run winget -v.
2. Method 1: Install the App Installer from the Microsoft Store — it includes WinGet.
3. No Microsoft Store? Download it from the Microsoft Store web page first, then install the App Installer.
4. Method 2: Run Microsoft’s PowerShell bootstrap script (installs and repairs WinGet in one go).
5. Method 3: Download the dependencies, the msixbundle, and the license file from the winget-cli GitHub release.
6. Install the dependencies with Add-AppxPackage, then the App Installer with Add-AppxProvisionedPackage.
7. Confirm it worked with winget -v.

Why WinGet might be missing or broken

On the latest versions of Windows 11, WinGet is already installed and working — open Windows PowerShell, type the winget command, and it just runs. Windows 10 is different. By default, even the Pro editions do not come with a working WinGet installed, so running the command returns an error that WinGet “is not recognized” because it has not been registered yet.

WinGet is part of the App Installer package, and it is only supported on Windows 10 version 1809 or later. According to Microsoft, WinGet will not be available until you have logged into Windows as a user for the first time, which triggers the Microsoft Store to register the Windows Package Manager as part of an asynchronous process.

WinGet can also become corrupted on both Windows 10 and Windows 11. If your install broke for any reason, the same three methods below will repair it. I recorded the walkthrough on Windows 10 IoT Enterprise LTSC 2021, which has no working WinGet and no Microsoft Store by default — so it is a good worst-case test for every method.

Tip: Check what you have before fixing anything. Open Windows PowerShell and run winget -v. If you get a version number, WinGet is already working and you do not need any of this.

Method 1: Install WinGet with the App Installer (easiest)

WinGet is delivered by the App Installer, so installing the App Installer is the easiest way to get WinGet on any Windows system. The App Installer is available from the App Installer page on the Microsoft Store. On a normal Windows 10 or 11 install, open that page, click Get or Install, and the App Installer downloads and installs — which also serves as the delivery vehicle for WinGet.

The catch is that this needs the Microsoft Store. On editions without the Store — such as IoT Enterprise LTSC — clicking Install does nothing, because there is no Store to open the link. You need to install the Microsoft Store first.

If you do not have the Microsoft Store

You can download the Microsoft Store from the Microsoft Store web page even when the Store is not installed on your system. On the Store’s web page, click Download to get the Microsoft Store installer, then run that executable. A Microsoft Store window opens, checks system requirements, and downloads the Store onto the system — even on a Windows 10 LTSC version that shipped without it.

This is not the only way to get the Store back. For the full set of options, including offline approaches, see my guide on how to install the missing Microsoft Store on Windows 10 and 11. If your Store is installed but will not launch, my guide on fixing the Microsoft Store when it won’t open covers that instead.

Once the Store is installed, go back to the App Installer page and click Install. It opens the Microsoft Store to the App Installer listing, and clicking Get downloads and installs the App Installer — and with it, WinGet. Give it a moment to finish, then confirm with winget -v in PowerShell. You should see the version number, which means WinGet is up and running. This is by far the easiest method for both installing and repairing WinGet.

Method 2: Install or repair WinGet with PowerShell

The second method is a PowerShell script published on the official Microsoft Learn page for WinGet, under the instructions for installing WinGet in Windows Sandbox. It installs the WinGet PowerShell module and then bootstraps WinGet, so it works to both install and repair the Windows Package Manager.

Right-click the Start button, choose Windows PowerShell (Admin), accept any prompts, then paste the script below and press Enter.

$progressPreference = 'silentlyContinue'
Write-Host "Installing WinGet PowerShell module from PSGallery..."
Install-PackageProvider -Name NuGet -Force | Out-Null
Install-Module -Name Microsoft.WinGet.Client -Force -Repository PSGallery | Out-Null
Write-Host "Using Repair-WinGetPackageManager cmdlet to bootstrap WinGet..."
Repair-WinGetPackageManager -AllUsers
Write-Host "Done."

The script first installs the NuGet package provider, then installs the Microsoft.WinGet.Client module from the PSGallery repository, and finally uses the Repair-WinGetPackageManager cmdlet to register WinGet for all users. The module install can take a minute or two and may look like it is stalling — if it does, press Enter once and it will continue. The blinking cursor means it is still working.

When it finishes, run winget -v to confirm. It returns the installed WinGet version, so the manager is registered and ready. From there you can use WinGet normally — for example, winget search brave. The first time you run a search you will be asked to accept the Microsoft Store source terms; press Y for yes and the results appear.

Method 3: Install WinGet manually from GitHub

The manual method is the most time-consuming and the most complicated, which is why it is last. Use it only if neither of the easier methods worked for you. Everything comes from the winget-cli repository on GitHub — go to the Releases tab and open the latest release.

Scroll to the Assets section at the bottom of the release and download three things: the DesktopAppInstaller_Dependencies.zip file, the Microsoft.DesktopAppInstaller msixbundle file, and the License1.xml license file. Your browser may warn that the desktop app installer could harm your device — that is a false positive, so choose to keep the file.

Step 1: Extract and install the dependencies

Open your Downloads folder, right-click the dependencies zip, and choose Extract All. Inside the extracted folder, open the folder that matches your architecture — almost always x64. To check your architecture, right-click the Start button, click System, and look at the system type (for example, “64-bit operating system, x64-based processor”).

Inside the architecture folder you will find three .appx dependency files. You cannot double-click these to install them, so open Windows PowerShell (Admin) and install each one with the Add-AppxPackage command. To get a file’s full path, select it, hold Shift, right-click, and choose Copy as path, then paste it into the command.

Add-AppxPackage -Path "C:\Users\YourName\Downloads\DesktopAppInstaller_Dependencies\x64\Microsoft.VCLibs.140.00_x64.appx"

Run that command once for each of the three .appx files, swapping in each file’s path. A quick way to repeat it: press the Up arrow to recall the previous command, backspace to remove the old path, then Copy as path for the next file and paste it before pressing Enter.

Step 2: Install the App Installer with the license

With the dependencies installed, register the Microsoft Desktop App Installer itself. This command is slightly different because it also needs the license file you downloaded. Use Add-AppxProvisionedPackage, pass the msixbundle to -PackagePath, and pass the XML to -LicensePath (use Copy as path for both).

Add-AppxProvisionedPackage -Online -PackagePath "C:\Users\YourName\Downloads\Microsoft.DesktopAppInstaller_8wekyb3d8bbwe.msixbundle" -LicensePath "C:\Users\YourName\Downloads\e53e159d00e04f729cc2180cffd1c02e_License1.xml"

This adds the App Installer for all users on the system, using the official license from the Windows Package Manager repository. Run winget -v afterwards and you will see the version of the package that was just installed, confirming WinGet is now working. It is the longest route, but it is reliable when the Store-based and PowerShell methods are not an option.

After WinGet is working: a GUI and a debloat tool

Once WinGet is installed, you can manage everything from the command line — but you do not have to. If you prefer a graphical interface for searching, installing, and updating apps through WinGet, take a look at UniGetUI, a free package-manager GUI for Windows that sits on top of WinGet and other managers.

WinGet also powers app installs and removals in my own free utility, Winhance, the Windows Enhancement Utility. A working WinGet is what lets Winhance install and reinstall apps cleanly, so getting WinGet sorted first makes the rest of your debloating and setup smoother.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Windows 10 come with WinGet?

Not in a working state by default. Even Windows 10 Pro does not ship with a registered WinGet, so the winget command returns a “not recognized” error until you install the App Installer. WinGet is supported on Windows 10 version 1809 and later.

How do I check if WinGet is installed?

Open Windows PowerShell and run winget -v. If WinGet is installed and registered, it returns a version number. If you get an error saying the term is not recognized, WinGet is missing and you can use any of the three methods in this guide to install it.

How do I repair a broken WinGet?

The fastest repair is Method 2: run Microsoft’s PowerShell script, which installs the Microsoft.WinGet.Client module and calls Repair-WinGetPackageManager -AllUsers to re-register WinGet. Reinstalling the App Installer from the Microsoft Store (Method 1) also fixes most broken installs.

Can I install WinGet without the Microsoft Store?

Yes. Method 2 (the PowerShell script) and Method 3 (the manual GitHub install) both work without the Store. The manual method downloads the App Installer’s dependencies, msixbundle, and license directly from the winget-cli GitHub releases and registers them with PowerShell.

Why does my browser warn that the App Installer could harm my device?

That is a false-positive download warning, not a real threat. The msixbundle comes straight from Microsoft’s official winget-cli repository on GitHub, so it is safe to keep and install.

This post How to Install or Fix WinGet on Windows 10 & Windows 11 (3 Ways) first appeared on Memory's Tech Tips and is written by memory

Windows 11 is adding built-in settings to move the taskbar to the top, left, or right of your screen, shrink the entire taskbar, resize and declutter the Start menu, and turn off Bing web and Microsoft Store results in search. These options currently live in Windows 11 preview builds behind feature flags, and they replace customizations that previously required third-party tools like StartAllBack or my own app, Winhance.

Applies to: Windows 11 preview builds (Insider channels) | Last updated: July 6, 2026

Key Takeaways

• The taskbar can move again — Settings > Personalization > Taskbar > Taskbar behaviors now has a position option for bottom, top, left, or right, and the Start menu and notifications finally open aligned with it
• You can shrink the whole taskbar — a new Default/Small size option makes the entire taskbar smaller, not just the icons, and folds in the old “small taskbar buttons” setting automatically
• The Start menu is fully adjustable — set its size (Small, Automatic, or Large) and toggle the All, Recent, and Pinned sections, including finally removing the Recommended section without a group policy hack
• Search can stay local — Settings > Privacy & security > Search lets you switch off web (Bing) results and Microsoft Store suggestions so search only returns your own apps, settings, and files
• This is preview-only for now — the features are hidden behind feature flags in Windows 11 preview builds (currently enabled with ViVeTool) and are not on the stable channel yet, so they may still change

Quick Steps:

1. Move the taskbar: Settings > Personalization > Taskbar > Taskbar behaviors, then choose bottom, top, left, or right
2. Shrink it: in the same Taskbar behaviors area, set the taskbar size to Small
3. Align icons: set Taskbar alignment to Left if you prefer icons at the edge
4. Resize the Start menu: Settings > Personalization > Start and set the size to Small, Automatic, or Large
5. Declutter Start: turn off the Recent section and the Recommended items, and switch off Pinned if you only want an app list
6. Clean up search: Settings > Privacy & security > Search and turn off web results and Microsoft Store results

What Is New in the Windows 11 Taskbar, Start Menu, and Search

Microsoft is testing a group of customization settings in Windows 11 preview builds that give you native control over three things people have complained about for years: where the taskbar sits, how the Start menu is laid out, and whether search reaches out to the web. A lot of this is the exact functionality I have asked for in older videos and even built into Winhance.

There is one important catch. At the time of writing, these features are hidden behind feature flags, so they will not appear on a normal, up-to-date Windows 11 PC yet — not even on every Insider machine. Enabling them currently requires a community tool called ViVeTool, which flips the hidden flags on. Because this is all still being tested, the exact options and labels may change before they reach the stable channel.

Note: Treat this as a preview of what is coming rather than a permanent set of features. Some options may be renamed, moved, or pulled before the final release reaches the stable channel.

I have been hard on Windows 11 plenty of times, so it is only fair to give credit where it is due. This follows the pattern I covered when Microsoft promised to fix some of Windows 11’s biggest frustrations — except this time a lot of it is actually landing.

How to Move the Windows 11 Taskbar to the Top, Left, or Right

To move the taskbar, open Settings > Personalization > Taskbar, expand Taskbar behaviors, and use the new position option to place the taskbar at the bottom, top, left, or right of your screen. The change applies instantly, so you can try each position and keep whichever one you prefer.

The important part is that Windows finally handles this correctly. When you move the taskbar to the top, the Start menu and notification popups now open at the top too, right where the taskbar is. In the early days of Windows 11 you could force the taskbar to move with a registry tweak, but the Start menu and notifications would still open down at the bottom, which made it useless. This time the whole interface follows the taskbar.

You can also change where the icons sit. In the same Taskbar behaviors section, set Taskbar alignment to Left if you would rather have your icons at the edge instead of centered. I keep my taskbar at the top with the icons on the left so they sit right next to my browser tabs, which is quicker for me to get around — but that is personal preference. The point is that you finally get to choose, which you could not do before without third-party tools.

How to Make the Windows 11 Taskbar Smaller

Windows 11 now includes a taskbar size setting with two choices: Default and Small. Set it to Small and the entire taskbar shrinks, not just the icons on it. You will find this in the same Taskbar behaviors section as the position and alignment options.

This is a real improvement over the old behavior. Microsoft previously added a “small taskbar buttons” option, but that only shrank the icons while the taskbar itself stayed the same chunky height. Now, the moment you switch to the small size, that older setting grays out and Windows tells you the smaller icons come with it automatically. It sorts the whole thing out for you.

Note: Auto-hide only works when the taskbar is at the bottom of the screen — Windows tells you this directly in the settings. If you like to move the taskbar to the top and hide it like I do, that combination is not supported right now.

The one thing still missing for me is taskbar transparency. That is the single feature I keep StartAllBack installed for, because I do not think you can make the taskbar fully transparent natively yet. It is a minor thing, though. Once these updates reach the stable channel, I will likely uninstall StartAllBack and just use the built-in Windows settings.

How to Resize and Declutter the Windows 11 Start Menu

Open Settings > Personalization > Start and you can now set the Start menu size to Small, Automatic (the default), or Large. The small size is roughly what the Start menu was before the recent redesigns, while large takes up about half the screen. Pick whichever fits how you work.

Below that, Windows now splits the Start menu into sections you can switch on or off individually:

• All — your full apps list. Turn it off to hide the complete list, or leave it on to keep every app one click away.
• Recent — recently added apps, recent files, and the tips and recommendations. A single toggle turns all of it off.
• Pinned — your pinned app tiles. You can switch these off entirely if you only want a plain list of your apps.

The biggest win here is being able to remove the Recommended section completely. Until now you could not truly get rid of it. On Pro and higher editions you could hide it with a group policy key, but that interfered with other Windows settings and did not work on Home at all. The normal “hide recommendations” toggle just left the empty section sitting there staring at you. That group policy trick is the same method Winhance uses to hide the Recommended section, so having a proper built-in switch is genuinely great to see.

If you want the redesigned Start menu that these options build on, you can already get it in Windows 11 25H2. I have a separate guide on how to download, install, and enable the new Start menu.

How to Turn Off Web and Store Results in Windows Search

By default, when you search from the Start menu, Windows mixes in Bing web results and Microsoft Store suggestions alongside your own apps and files. To stop that, open Settings > Privacy & security > Search, find the new results section, and turn off the options for showing results from the web and the Microsoft Store.

With both switched off, a search only returns the apps, settings, and files on your own PC. The web toggle is the big one — this is exactly what people have been disabling with a registry tweak for years, and it is one of the tweaks built into Winhance. Being able to also turn off the Store suggestions is a nice bonus if you would rather the Store did not keep pushing apps at you. Search ends up cleaner, and it feels faster too.

While you are cleaning up search, you can also disable File Explorer’s search suggestions, which is a separate setting that clutters the search box inside File Explorer.

My Ideal Windows 11 Setup

Putting it all together, here is how I set Windows 11 up for myself once these options are available: the taskbar at the top with the icons on the left and set to small, the search box removed, and the extras I never use turned off — Task View, Widgets, and the new Resume feature.

I also unpin Copilot, Edge, and the new Outlook, which leaves me with basically just Start and File Explorer on the taskbar, plus a clean list of apps in the Start menu. That app list is usually much shorter on my machines because I have already removed the built-in bloat with Winhance. If Microsoft keeps improving Windows 11 like this, it is not impossible that you eventually will not need a tool like Winhance at all — and honestly, that would be a good thing.

Secure Your Connection with ProtonVPN

While you are cleaning up your PC, it is worth securing your internet connection too. I personally use ProtonVPN because it has a genuinely free tier with unlimited bandwidth and no logs, which is rare for a VPN provider. The free version automatically connects you to the fastest available server, so it is great for everyday private browsing or getting around basic blocks.

If you need to manually pick a specific country, for example for streaming, you will need their paid plan.

• ProtonVPN Free (Unlimited Data)
• ProtonVPN Plus (Special Deal)

The links above are affiliate links — if you start with the free version and later decide to upgrade, I earn a small commission at no extra cost to you, and it helps support the channel.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I move the Windows 11 taskbar to the top of the screen?

Yes. In Windows 11 preview builds, open Settings > Personalization > Taskbar > Taskbar behaviors and choose a position — bottom, top, left, or right. Unlike the old registry method, the Start menu and notifications now open aligned with the taskbar. This option is not on the stable channel yet.

Why can I not find these taskbar and Start menu options on my PC?

These settings are currently hidden behind feature flags in Windows 11 preview builds, so they do not appear on standard installs — or even on every Insider PC. Enabling them right now requires the community tool ViVeTool. Expect them to roll out more widely once Microsoft finishes testing.

How do I stop Windows search from showing web results?

Go to Settings > Privacy & security > Search and turn off the option to show results from the web, plus the Microsoft Store option if you want. Your searches will then only return apps, settings, and files on your own PC. On current stable builds, Winhance can apply the equivalent registry tweak for you.

Can I finally remove the Recommended section from the Start menu?

Yes. The new Start settings include a toggle that removes the Recommended section entirely, without the group policy workaround that previously only worked on Pro and higher editions. On current stable Windows, Winhance can hide it using that same policy method.

Do I still need StartAllBack or Winhance after these updates?

For most taskbar and Start menu layout changes, these built-in options cover what StartAllBack and Winhance were used for. The main thing still missing natively is full taskbar transparency. Winhance also does far more than layout tweaks — debloating, optimizing, and customizing Windows — so it stays useful well beyond these particular settings.

This post Microsoft Is FINALLY Fixing Windows 11 (Some of This Stuff I Built Winhance For) first appeared on Memory's Tech Tips and is written by memory

Microsoft Edge now includes an on-device AI feature called the Scareware Blocker. When a web page forces itself into full screen, a small computer-vision model running locally on your PC checks whether the page matches known tech-support scam pages. If it does, Edge drops you out of full screen, silences the fake alarm sound, and shows a warning. It is not Windows Recall, it saves nothing, and you can switch it off in Edge settings.

Applies to: Microsoft Edge on Windows 10 (22H2) and Windows 11 (23H2, 24H2, 25H2), and macOS | Last updated: July 8, 2026

Key Takeaways

• The Scareware Blocker is an on-device AI — a computer-vision model that runs locally on your PC. Microsoft says no screenshots or images are sent to the cloud.
• It only activates on full-screen pages — the exact trick scam pages use. It does not scan your normal browsing, banking tab, or email.
• It is not Windows Recall — it saves nothing and builds no history. It only asks one question in the moment: is this page a scam?
• It is on by default on most reasonably modern PCs (more than 2 GB of RAM and enough CPU cores), on both Windows and Mac.
• You are in full control — the toggle lives at Edge Settings > Privacy, search, and services > Security > Scareware blocker.

Quick Steps:

1. Open Microsoft Edge and go to Settings.
2. Select Privacy, search, and services in the left menu.
3. Scroll down to the Security section.
4. Find the Scareware blocker toggle.
5. Switch it on for protection, or off if you do not want any AI looking at full-screen pages.

What Is the Microsoft Edge Scareware Blocker?

The Scareware Blocker is a security feature in Microsoft Edge that detects full-screen scam pages using a small AI model that runs directly on your PC. Scareware is the type of scam that suddenly takes over your whole browser with a fake full-screen “your computer is infected” page, often with a loud alarm sound, to panic you into calling a number or paying for a fake fix.

When a page goes full screen, the computer-vision model looks at what is on that page and compares it against thousands of known scam pages. If it decides the page is one of those scams, Edge steps in: it drops you straight back out of full screen, cuts off the fake alarm sound, and shows a warning with a small thumbnail of the page so you can close it and carry on. The whole idea is to catch the scam before someone actually falls for it.

This is the part I genuinely appreciate. I ran a computer repair business for 10 years, and I lost count of how many people I saw fall for these full-screen scams — usually older folks who are not that tech savvy, who see a scary warning, believe their computer has been hacked, and end up phoning the number and handing a criminal remote access to their PC. A tool that stops that page before it can panic someone is a real win.

Why the Scareware Blocker Is Not Windows Recall

The Scareware Blocker is not Windows Recall, and it is not Recall quietly built into Edge either. This is where most of the confusion comes from, because on the surface they sound the same: both use AI, and both look at your screen. What they actually do could not be more different.

Recall is a Windows feature whose whole job is to remember. It takes snapshots of your screen every few seconds, saves them to your hard drive, and slowly builds a searchable history of everything you have been doing on your PC. The Scareware Blocker does none of that. It only ever looks at the one page on your screen, right there in the moment, while it is full screen — and it is only ever asking a single question: is this a scam, yes or no? It is a real-time scam filter that happens to use AI to do its job.

Is It Watching Everything You Do?

No. The Scareware Blocker only kicks in when a page goes full screen, which is exactly what these scam pages do to trick you. It is not sitting there reading your banking tab, your emails, or any of your other tabs during normal browsing.

Here is what Microsoft says: all of the analysis happens locally on your device, and no screenshots or images are sent to the cloud. The model runs on your PC, it does not save anything, and the only time a screenshot ever leaves your machine is if you choose to report a scam yourself to help block it for other people.

My take: It is still a model that looks at whatever is on that full-screen page, so we are taking Microsoft at their word that none of it leaves your device. The design itself is genuinely good, but it is fair to keep a healthy bit of doubt — and either way, whether it runs at all is completely your choice.

What the Scareware Blocker Will Not Catch

Because it only works on full-screen pages, the Scareware Blocker will not catch every scam out there. The smaller scam ads and fake pop-ups you get on some websites — the ones that do not take over your whole screen — are not what this is built for, so it will not stop those.

It is made specifically for the full-screen takeover type of scam, where a page hijacks your entire screen to panic you. Treat it as a useful extra layer, not a replacement for staying careful and keeping the protections you would normally have in place.

How to Check If the Scareware Blocker Is Running and Turn It Off

Microsoft says the Scareware Blocker is now switched on by default on most Windows and Mac machines, as long as your PC is reasonably modern — roughly more than 2 GB of RAM and enough CPU cores. You do not have to take anyone’s word for whether it is on, though, because you can check it yourself in a few seconds.

Open Edge and go to Settings > Privacy, search, and services, then scroll down to the Security section. You will see a toggle called Scareware blocker sitting right there — that is your control. If it is off and you want the protection, switch it on. If you would rather not have any AI looking at your screen at all, for whatever reason, switch it off and it is gone.

If you would prefer not to use Edge at all, that is also an option — here is my full guide on how to uninstall Microsoft Edge on Windows 10 and 11.

Should You Leave It On?

For most people, leaving the Scareware Blocker on is the sensible choice, and it is especially worth it if you set up or look after PCs for your parents or grandparents. If they use Edge, they are exactly the type of people these full-screen scams go after, and this is a quiet safety net that runs in the background without getting in their way.

For once, this is Microsoft using AI the way it should be used: running locally to protect the people most likely to get caught out, rather than another thing watching everything you do and sending it back to Microsoft. If you want broader control over the data Windows itself collects, my free tool Winhance lets you manage Windows privacy, telemetry, and bloat from one place.

A Note on Browsing More Privately

If privacy is on your mind, a VPN is a simple way to keep your connection private and get around basic blocks. The one I personally use is ProtonVPN’s free tier, which is rare in that it offers unlimited bandwidth and a no-logs policy at no cost. The free version auto-connects you to the fastest available server, so if you need to manually pick a specific country — for streaming, for example — you will want ProtonVPN Plus.

The links above are affiliate links — if you sign up through them, I earn a small commission at no extra cost to you, and it helps support the channel.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the Edge Scareware Blocker the same as Windows Recall?

No. Recall continuously snapshots your screen and builds a searchable history that is saved to your PC. The Scareware Blocker saves nothing and keeps no history — it only checks a single full-screen page in the moment to decide whether it is a scam.

Does the Scareware Blocker send my screen to Microsoft?

According to Microsoft, no. All analysis happens locally on your device and nothing is uploaded. The only time an image leaves your machine is if you manually choose to report a scam page to help protect other users.

Will it slow down my PC?

It should not be noticeable on most machines. The model is small, runs locally, and only activates when a page goes full screen. Microsoft enables it by default on reasonably modern PCs — roughly more than 2 GB of RAM and enough CPU cores.

Does the Scareware Blocker work on Windows 10?

Yes. It is a Microsoft Edge feature, so it works in Edge on Windows 10 (22H2) and Windows 11, as well as on macOS. It is tied to the browser, not to a specific version of Windows.

How do I turn off the Edge Scareware Blocker?

Go to Edge Settings > Privacy, search, and services > Security, then switch the Scareware blocker toggle off. It stops running immediately, and you can switch it back on the same way at any time.

This post Edge Now Has an AI That Can SEE Your Screen (Here’s How to Control It) first appeared on Memory's Tech Tips and is written by memory

Microsoft has extended free Windows 10 Extended Security Updates (ESU) for home users by another full year, pushing the consumer end date to October 2027. If your PC is already enrolled, you do not need to re-enroll — Microsoft rolls enrolled devices over to the new date automatically. ESU delivers critical and important security updates only, not new features, bug fixes, or technical support.

Applies to: Windows 10, version 22H2 | Last updated: July 2, 2026

Key Takeaways

• Microsoft extended consumer Windows 10 ESU to October 2027 — a free extra year of security updates — through a quiet editor’s note on an existing blog post, with no press release.
• If your PC is already enrolled, you do not need to do anything. Microsoft automatically moves enrolled devices to the new October 2027 end date.
• ESU covers critical and important security updates only. It does not include new features, general bug fixes, or free technical support.
• Microsoft 365 (Office) apps, Microsoft Defender, and Microsoft Edge keep getting security updates on Windows 10 into at least 2028 — separately from ESU, with no enrollment required.
• To enroll for free you need a Microsoft admin account and Windows 10 version 22H2. Turning on Windows Backup enrolls you at no cost; 1,000 Microsoft Rewards points or a $30 one-time fee also work, and the EEA gets it free with just an account.

Quick Steps: Enroll in Windows 10 ESU

1. Confirm your PC is on Windows 10, version 22H2 (Settings > System > About).
2. Sign in with a Microsoft account that has administrator rights — not a child account. One account covers up to 10 devices.
3. Open Settings > Update & Security > Windows Update and look for the “Enroll now” option under Extended Security Updates.
4. Pick your method: turn on Windows Backup (free), redeem 1,000 Microsoft Rewards points, or pay the $30 one-time fee. In the EEA, a Microsoft account alone enrolls you free.
5. If you enrolled before this extension, do nothing — your coverage now runs to October 2027 automatically.

What Microsoft Actually Changed

Windows 10 reached end of support on October 14, 2025. After that, the only way for a home user to keep getting security updates was the Extended Security Updates program, and the consumer version of ESU was originally set to run out around October 2026. Microsoft has now pushed the consumer ESU end date out to October 2027 — another free year.

What makes this odd is how quietly they did it. There was no press release and no real announcement. Microsoft simply went back to an existing blog post and added a small editor’s note to the top, moving the consumer ESU end date to October 2027. That was the whole thing, which is why a lot of people still don’t know it happened.

Do You Need to Re-Enroll? No

If you already enrolled your PC in ESU, you do not have to touch anything. Microsoft is automatically moving enrolled devices to the new October 2027 date, so your coverage simply continues. There is no second sign-up and no need to repeat the setup.

The only people who need to act are those who never enrolled in the first place. If that’s you, the short version is further down — or you can jump straight to the full walkthrough.

Tip: You can check your ESU status in Settings > Update & Security > Windows Update. An enrolled device shows that it’s receiving Extended Security Updates.

What Windows 10 ESU Actually Covers

ESU is security updates only. It delivers the critical and important patches that fix the holes attackers and malware use to get into Windows, and nothing more. Based on the comments on my past videos, this is where most of the confusion sits.

What you don’t get with ESU is new features, general bug fixes, or free technical support. So ESU keeps Windows 10 safe — it just doesn’t keep adding to it. For most people still on Windows 10, that’s exactly what they want anyway.

Office, Defender, and Edge Keep Updating Into 2028

Here’s the part a lot of people miss, and it’s worth knowing. There’s a common worry that the moment Windows 10 lost support, everything on it stopped updating — your apps, your antivirus, your browser. That’s not true. A few of the big ones run on their own separate timelines, completely apart from ESU:

• Microsoft 365 (Office) apps keep getting security updates on Windows 10 through October 2028.
• Microsoft Defender, the built-in antivirus, keeps getting security intelligence updates at least through 2028.
• Microsoft Edge continues to be supported on Windows 10 at least through 2028.

None of that needs ESU. So the real picture is a lot less scary than people think.

How to Enroll in Windows 10 ESU (The Short Version)

I’m not going to do the full click-by-click here, because I already put together a complete guide to enabling Windows 10 ESU that walks through it properly. Here’s the short version.

To enroll as a home user you need a Microsoft account with administrator rights — not a child account — and one account covers up to 10 devices. Your PC also needs to be on Windows 10, version 22H2, which most people already are.

To actually turn it on, you’ve got a few options, and one of them is completely free:

• Turn on Windows Backup so it syncs your settings to your Microsoft account — this enrolls you at no cost.
• Redeem 1,000 Microsoft Rewards points.
• Pay a one-time fee of $30 (USD).

If you’re in Europe, in the EEA, ESU is free with just a Microsoft account. Either way, there’s really no reason to leave a Windows 10 PC sitting there unprotected.

Why Microsoft Really Did This

I don’t think this is just Microsoft being nice. It’s real breathing room and a genuinely good thing for a lot of people — but there’s clearly some self-interest in here too.

There are still a huge number of PCs that can’t officially move to Windows 11 — not because people don’t want to, but because of Microsoft’s own hardware requirements: TPM, Secure Boot, and the supported-CPU list. Those checks can be bypassed unofficially, but Microsoft still doesn’t offer an official upgrade path for those machines, so a lot of perfectly good hardware gets locked out. Microsoft can’t really cut all of those users off and leave millions of PCs with no safe way to stay updated.

On top of that, Windows 11 adoption has been slow, and more and more people are talking about Linux as a way out. That’s the thing Microsoft doesn’t want — they’d much rather keep you on Windows, even Windows 10, than lose you to Linux. Another free year keeps you in their world and protects their market share. And it’s not just home users: plenty of companies are still running Windows 10 across the whole office and are in no rush to move.

There’s also the money side. The cost of computer parts and new PCs is pretty high right now, so if your plan was to just buy a new machine to get onto Windows 11, that’s more expensive than it was a little while ago. Another free year on the hardware you already own makes even more sense in that light.

What I’d Do With the Extra Year

What you should actually do comes down to where you’re at.

If you’re honestly happy on Windows 10 and it does everything you need, my recommendation is simple: stay on it. There’s no reason to rush anywhere. Just make sure you’re enrolled in ESU so you’re covered into 2027.

If you’re thinking it might be time for something new, my first pick is Windows 11 — but cleaned up properly. I’m not a fan of stock Windows 11 either; it’s cluttered, with Copilot and bloatware shoved in everywhere. That’s the whole reason I built Winhance, my free Windows enhancement utility — to strip that back out and give you the clean, responsive Windows 11 it should have been out of the box. It’s completely free; it’s just what I run. These days I don’t even daily-drive Windows 10 anymore — the only time I touch it is in a virtual machine to test Winhance. My daily machine is Windows 11 with Winhance, and it stays clean and out of my way.

And if you want off Microsoft completely, Linux is a fair option. It has come a long way, and for a lot of people it does the job now. It’s not for everyone and the switch isn’t always easy — I’ve written before about why I haven’t fully made the jump myself — but if that’s the direction you want, it’s worth a proper look.

Either way, you’ve got another free year on Windows 10 to decide what’s next.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I have to re-enroll in Windows 10 ESU for the extra year?

No. If your device was already enrolled, Microsoft moves it to the new October 2027 end date automatically. You only need to enroll if you never did in the first place.

Is Windows 10 ESU really free?

Yes, it can be. Turning on Windows Backup to sync your settings to a Microsoft account enrolls you at no cost, and redeeming 1,000 Microsoft Rewards points also works. There’s a $30 one-time paid option too, and users in the EEA get ESU free with just a Microsoft account.

What does Windows 10 ESU not include?

ESU provides critical and important security updates only. It does not include new features, general bug fixes, or free technical support — it keeps Windows 10 secure without adding to it.

Will my antivirus and Office apps stop working on Windows 10?

No. Microsoft Defender, Microsoft 365 (Office) apps, and Microsoft Edge run on their own support timelines and keep getting security updates on Windows 10 into at least 2028, separately from ESU. They don’t require enrollment.

Should I stay on Windows 10 or upgrade to Windows 11?

If Windows 10 does everything you need, staying on it and keeping ESU enrolled is perfectly reasonable through October 2027. If you want to move on, a clean Windows 11 setup — for me, Windows 11 with Winhance — is the strongest option, and Linux is worth a look if you want off Microsoft entirely.

This post Windows 10 Free Security Updates Extended to October 2027 first appeared on Memory's Tech Tips and is written by memory

When you uninstall Microsoft Edge using the EU Settings method that the Digital Markets Act requires, Windows removes the visible Edge browser but leaves the EdgeCore folder behind in C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft\. That folder still holds a fully working copy of msedge.exe that opens the Edge browser. To remove these leftover components, use Winhance, which clears EdgeCore, EdgeUpdate, and the related registry entries while preserving the WebView2 runtime.

Applies to: Windows 11 (23H2, 24H2, 25H2) — the Settings-based Edge uninstall shown here is available only in the EU under the Digital Markets Act | Last updated: June 24, 2026

Key Takeaways

• Uninstalling Microsoft Edge through Windows 11 Settings (an option available only in the EU under the Digital Markets Act) removes the visible browser but leaves the Edge Core components in C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft\.
• The leftover EdgeCore folder contains a fully working msedge.exe that still opens Edge, even though the browser no longer appears in the Start menu, on the taskbar, or in your installed apps list.
• Microsoft keeps these components — especially the Edge WebView2 runtime — because Windows Widgets, the new Outlook, and Copilot all depend on them.
• The EdgeCore folder alone uses around 1.5 GB of disk space, and the EdgeUpdate folder and its scheduled tasks can silently reinstall Edge later.
• Winhance removes every leftover Edge component while keeping WebView2, and can save a removal script that re-removes Edge if a Windows update brings it back.

Quick Steps

1. Confirm Edge is gone from Settings > Apps > Installed apps after the EU uninstall.
2. Open File Explorer and go to C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft\.
3. Look for the leftover EdgeCore, EdgeUpdate, and EdgeWebView folders.
4. Open Winhance and find the Microsoft Edge app card (it still shows as installed).
5. Select Microsoft Edge and click Uninstall Selected Items, then confirm.
6. Optionally save a removal script so Edge stays removed after Windows updates.
7. To reverse it, select Microsoft Edge in Winhance and click Install Selected Items.

Why Microsoft Edge is still on your PC after you uninstall it

Microsoft was forced to make Edge uninstallable in the European Union as part of the Digital Markets Act. When you remove Edge through Settings > Apps > Installed apps in the EU, Windows uninstalls the Edge browser and the standard Edge folder disappears. The Edge Core components, however, stay behind.

This is the part most people miss. Edge vanishes from the installed apps list, the Start menu, and the taskbar, so it looks completely gone. Beneath the surface, a working copy is still sitting in your Program Files folder.

If you live anywhere outside the EU, the Digital Markets Act does not apply to you, so the Settings app does not offer an uninstall option for Edge at all. In that case, you need a tool to remove it — and I cover the full process in my guide on how to fully uninstall Microsoft Edge on Windows 10 and 11.

Where Windows hides the leftover Edge files

After the EU uninstall, open File Explorer and navigate to the Microsoft folder under Program Files (x86). This is where every Edge component lives.

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft\

On a default Windows 11 install with Edge present, this folder normally contains an Edge folder, an EdgeCore folder, EdgeUpdate, EdgeWebView, and a Temp folder. In some cases you may also see a Copilot folder. After you uninstall Edge the EU way, the Edge folder disappears — but EdgeCore, EdgeUpdate, and EdgeWebView are all still there.

What the leftover EdgeCore folder actually contains

Open the EdgeCore folder, then the latest version folder inside it. The files there look exactly like a full Microsoft Edge installation, including msedge.exe and even Microsoft Copilot. Double-clicking the MS Edge application launches a fully working Edge browser — the same browser you thought you removed.

So Microsoft does uninstall the Edge browser from your system, but it leaves the Edge Core components in place. The result is a fully working Edge browser that you simply cannot see on the surface. It is not in the Start menu, it is not on the taskbar, and it is not in your installed apps — but it still runs.

Why Microsoft leaves these components behind

According to Microsoft, the Edge Core components are needed — especially the Edge WebView2 runtime. WebView2 is what renders web content inside other apps, and several built-in Windows features rely on it.

If you remove the WebView2 component, those features break. Widgets stop working, the new Outlook app for Windows stops working, and Copilot stops working too. That dependency is the whole reason Microsoft keeps the Edge Core files on disk even after you uninstall the browser.

Are the leftover components safe to remove?

For a lot of people, none of those Edge-dependent features matter. If you do not use Widgets, the new Outlook, or Copilot, it is usually safe to remove the remaining Edge Core components as well. The EdgeUpdate folder is worth removing in particular, because its scheduled tasks keep all of the Edge components updated and are also responsible for getting Edge reinstalled on your system later.

There are two catches. First, you cannot easily delete these folders from the Windows interface. Second, some Microsoft desktop apps still depend on WebView2, so removing everything blindly can cause problems.

Warning: Removing the Edge Core components can cause system instability if you rely on Widgets, the new Outlook, Copilot, or other apps that use WebView2. I am not saying you must do this — I am showing what I do on my own PC. Proceed with caution.

One more reason to clean these up: space. The EdgeCore folder alone uses roughly 1.5 GB. If you uninstalled Edge the EU way, that folder is just sitting in the background using that space for a browser you cannot even see.

How to remove the leftover Edge components with Winhance

The cleanest way to clear the leftovers is Winhance, my free Windows enhancement utility. It removes all of the Edge components except Edge WebView2, so the apps that depend on WebView2 keep working. I have spent a lot of time fine-tuning these scripts so they strip out the unnecessary components but still leave your computer in a working state.

In the Winhance interface, find the Microsoft Edge app card. Even though you already uninstalled Edge the EU way, it still shows as installed, because the Edge Core components are still on the system. Hovering over the card shows a warning that removing the item may cause system instability — that warning exists because of the WebView2 dependency described above.

1. Open Winhance and select the Microsoft Edge application.
2. Click Uninstall Selected Items and confirm the removal.
3. Optionally choose to save removal scripts for continuous removal — if Edge is ever reinstalled by a Windows update, it will be uninstalled automatically.

The terminal output window shows exactly what is happening. Winhance uninstalls all of the Microsoft Edge components, including the old legacy Microsoft Edge that shipped with Windows 10 and is still present in Windows 11, and it does a thorough cleanup of the related registry entries. It takes a few minutes to finish.

When it is done, the Edge card no longer shows an installed badge. Checking the Microsoft folder again, only the EdgeWebView folder remains — about 800 MB. The files that were inside EdgeCore are now gone, and double-clicking the leftover MS Edge application no longer does anything. The hidden fallback browser is finally dead.

Tip: Winhance tries to keep the WebView2 components intact so dependent apps keep working, but a few users have reported issues even so. If something breaks, you can reinstall Edge to restore those components.

As a bonus, uninstalling Edge with Winhance also enables an open-web-search redirect. Any links that used to force-open in Microsoft Edge will instead open in whatever default browser you have set. If you want to keep going, you can use the same approach to remove other built-in Windows bloatware too.

How to reinstall Microsoft Edge if you change your mind

Removing Edge this way is reversible. The safest way to bring it back is Winhance: select Microsoft Edge and click Install Selected Items, then confirm the installation. Winhance downloads Edge via WinGet from the Microsoft Store and reinstalls it.

Once it finishes, Winhance detects Edge as installed again, and all of the folders return to their original state in the Microsoft folder — Edge, EdgeCore, EdgeUpdate, EdgeWebView, and Temp. You have a working Microsoft Edge browser again. You can also reinstall Edge from the web, but Winhance is the safer route because it restores the components cleanly.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does uninstalling Edge in the EU remove it completely?

No. The EU Settings uninstall removes the visible Edge browser and the main Edge folder, but it leaves the EdgeCore, EdgeUpdate, and EdgeWebView components behind. The EdgeCore folder still contains a fully working copy of Edge that you can launch directly from File Explorer.

Is it safe to delete the leftover EdgeCore folder?

It is usually safe if you do not use Widgets, the new Outlook, or Copilot, which depend on the WebView2 runtime. The safest approach is to let Winhance remove the components, because it keeps WebView2 in place by default and cleans up the registry entries instead of leaving them orphaned.

How much disk space do the leftover Edge files use?

The EdgeCore folder uses around 1.5 GB on its own. After removing Edge with Winhance, only the EdgeWebView folder remains, which is about 800 MB and keeps WebView2-dependent apps working.

Will removing Edge break Windows Widgets or the new Outlook?

It can if you remove the Edge WebView2 runtime, because Widgets, the new Outlook, and Copilot all rely on it. Winhance keeps WebView2 by default to avoid this, although a small number of users have still reported issues. If a dependent app breaks, reinstall Edge to restore the components.

Can I get Microsoft Edge back after removing it?

Yes. Open Winhance, select Microsoft Edge, and click Install Selected Items. Winhance downloads and reinstalls Edge via WinGet from the Microsoft Store, and all of the original Edge folders return. You can also reinstall Edge from the web, but Winhance restores the components more cleanly.

This post Microsoft Hides a Fully Working Edge Browser After You ‘Uninstall’ It first appeared on Memory's Tech Tips and is written by memory

Winhance lets you configure Windows one time and reuse that exact setup on any machine. Apply your changes to a live PC in normal mode, save them as a config file to import onto another running Windows install, or bake them into a custom autounattend ISO so a fresh installation arrives already configured. One setup, every machine.

Applies to: Windows 10 (22H2) and Windows 11 (23H2, 24H2, 25H2) | Last updated: June 18, 2026

Key Takeaways

• One configuration, three deployment paths — Winhance applies the same setup to a live PC (normal mode), to another running Windows install (config file), or to a fresh install (autounattend ISO).
• Normal mode applies changes instantly — app installs and removals, optimizations, and customizations take effect immediately on the PC you are using.
• Builder mode creates a config file — a portable snapshot of your settings and app choices that you can import and apply to any other Windows machine in minutes.
• The Windows Installation Media Utility (WIMUtil) bakes your setup into a custom Windows ISO using an autounattend.xml file, so the PC is configured the moment it reaches the desktop.
• Config review mode is optional — inspect every change a config file will make before applying it, or skip the review and apply immediately if you authored the config yourself.

Quick Steps:

1. Open Winhance in normal mode and configure your apps, optimizations, and customizations on a live PC.
2. To reuse that setup, enter builder mode, select the apps to include, and save a config file.
3. On another running PC, open config review mode, import the config file, and apply it — review first, or skip the review if you authored it.
4. For machines that need a fresh Windows install, open Advanced Tools > Windows Installation Media Utility.
5. Select your Windows ISO, extract it, then generate and add a Winhance XML (or add an XML you built in builder mode).
6. Optionally extract and add drivers, download the oscdimage package, then create your custom ISO.
7. Install Windows with that ISO — it boots to the desktop already configured.

The Winhance Ecosystem: One Setup for Every Machine

The idea behind Winhance that I do not think gets explained enough is this: you configure Windows the way you like it once, and then you apply that same setup wherever you need it. Everything starts from a live system — the PC in front of you — and from there it splits into the routes that fit your situation.

There are three ways to apply a configuration. You can change a running PC directly, you can save your setup to a config file and apply it to another machine that already boots Windows, or you can bake your setup into a custom Windows ISO for a machine that still needs Windows installed. Watch the full walkthrough above, or follow each method below.

Support Winhance’s Development

Winhance is free and always will be. If the ecosystem saves you time setting up machines, the best way to give back is on the store — you can support its development directly, or grab the Supporter Pack below and get a set of premium wallpapers along with it.

Winhance Supporter Pack

Winhance is free, forever. The Supporter Pack is a way to back its development and get something in return — 6 premium Winhance wallpapers, the latest installer, and a personal thank-you from me. It is a digital product, delivered instantly.

Get the Supporter Pack

Method 1: Configure a Running PC in Normal Mode

Normal mode is where it all starts, and it applies your changes to the current PC immediately. This is the standard way to use Winhance: open the app on a running system and start making changes that take effect right away.

In this mode you can uninstall the Windows apps you do not want, install external software that you do want, and work through the optimize and customize sections to set each feature to the state you prefer. Every change you make here applies to your live system as you make it. If configuring the PC in front of you is your only goal, you can stop right there — but Winhance can do much more.

Method 2: Save Your Setup as a Config File (Builder Mode)

A Winhance config file is a snapshot of all your settings and app choices that you can apply to another running Windows machine in minutes. Instead of spending an afternoon clicking through everything manually, you import the file and apply it. You create config files in builder mode, which was introduced in Winhance Release 27.

When you enter builder mode, the optimize and customize sections are already populated with the current states of the system you are on. If your computer already detects dark mode or specific transparency settings, Winhance reflects that automatically. What is not selected yet are the items in the software and apps section — that is where you choose which apps to save into the config file.

For example, you might choose to remove Bing Search and Microsoft News and to install a browser of your choice for your clients. You select those items so they are saved to the config file, and any setting changes you make in builder mode do not touch your live system. Once you are happy, give the config a name and save it to a location of your choice.

Config Review Mode vs. Skip and Apply

Config review mode exists so you can inspect every change a config file wants to make before it touches your computer. You import the config, and the optimize and customize sections show as complete while the software and apps section lists the items waiting on your decision — install or uninstall. Reviewing does not run anything yet; it only shows you what will happen.

This is useful when someone else hands you a config file, or when you want to see exactly what the Winhance recommended config will change before applying it. But if you work in IT and authored the config yourself, you already know what it does — so you can choose the import-my-own-config option, skip the review, and apply it immediately.

Tip: When you apply a config that removes apps, Winhance can save a removal script for continuous removal. If a removed app is ever reinstalled by Windows Update or another process, it will be uninstalled again the next time the computer starts up.

This method is best for a machine that already boots Windows — a new laptop a client brings into your shop, a pre-installed PC you just bought, or a second home computer you want set up exactly like the first. You can almost treat the config file like a deployment file for any already-running Windows system.

Method 3: Bake Your Setup into a Custom Windows ISO (Autounattend)

If you have a bare machine with no Windows installed yet — or a PC that crashed and needs a clean reinstall — you can bake your setup straight into the Windows installer. This is the autounattend route, and you do it with the Windows Installation Media Utility (WIMUtil for short), found under Advanced Tools in Winhance.

Select a Windows 11 ISO, then extract its files so Winhance can modify them. Extracting unlocks the rest of the steps in the utility. From here you have two ways to add your configuration as an autounattend.xml file, and you can only add one XML at a time.

• Generate and add a Winhance XML — this snapshots your current selections in Winhance. Whatever you have set in optimize and customize right now (for example, User Account Control set to “Never notify”) gets baked into the new install, and you choose which Windows apps to remove.
• Select an XML file you built in builder mode — author an autounattend file with different settings than your own system, save it, then add it to the ISO. This is how you set, say, “Always notify” for your clients while keeping “Never notify” on your own PC.

The utility can also extract and add drivers from your current operating system, which is handy if you always install Windows on the same hardware. If you plan to install on machines with different hardware, skip the driver extraction so mismatched drivers do not clash. To finish, download the official Microsoft oscdimage package with one click, choose where to save your ISO, and create it.

Install Windows with that custom ISO and everything is configured the moment you reach the desktop — one ISO file for every PC you build, with nothing to do afterward except maybe install a little extra software. If you hit a Windows edition prompt during setup, I have covered the edition selection autounattend fix separately, and here is how to create a Windows installation USB from your finished ISO.

Which Method Should You Use?

Pick the method based on where the machine is starting from. Each path leads to the same result: a Windows PC configured exactly the way you want it.

• Configuring the PC in front of you — use normal mode and apply changes instantly.
• A machine that already boots Windows and needs to match your setup — save a config file and import it.
• A bare machine or one that needs a fresh install — build a custom autounattend ISO with the Windows Installation Media Utility.

If you set up multiple Windows machines the same way — in a business, a repair shop, or any IT role — config files and autounattend ISOs save a real amount of time. For even deeper control over answer files, my UnattendedWinstall project goes further than the built-in generator.

Closing the Loop: Back to a Live System

Once Windows is installed from your custom ISO, you are back to a live system — a configured PC that is ready to use. And the loop closes here, because you can run Winhance again on that running PC in normal mode whenever you want to change a setting, install software, or uninstall something.

That is the whole idea behind the Winhance ecosystem. No matter where you are starting from — a live system, a machine that needs Windows installed, or a second PC you want configured like the first — all of these scenarios are already covered by what is available in Winhance today.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I use the same Winhance config file on multiple computers?

Yes. A config file is a portable snapshot of your settings and app choices, so you can import and apply it to as many running Windows machines as you like. This is what makes it useful for IT work or for setting up a second home PC exactly like the first.

What is the difference between a Winhance config file and an autounattend ISO?

A config file applies your setup to a machine that already has Windows installed and running. An autounattend ISO bakes your setup into the Windows installer itself, so a fresh installation arrives already configured. Use a config file for booting machines and an autounattend ISO for bare machines or clean reinstalls.

Do I have to review a config file every time before applying it?

No. Config review mode is optional. It lets you inspect every change before it happens, which is helpful for a config someone else gave you. If you authored the config yourself, you can choose the import-my-own-config option, skip the review, and apply it immediately.

Does Winhance work on both Windows 10 and Windows 11?

Yes. Winhance supports Windows 10 (22H2) and Windows 11 (23H2, 24H2, 25H2). The normal mode, config file, and autounattend ISO workflows all apply across these versions.

Will removed apps come back after a Windows update?

They can, since Windows Update sometimes reinstalls apps. When you apply a config, Winhance gives you the option to save a removal script for continuous removal. With that enabled, any app that gets reinstalled is uninstalled again automatically the next time the computer starts up.

This post Configure Windows ONCE, Then Deploy It to EVERY PC (Winhance) first appeared on Memory's Tech Tips and is written by memory

Winhance never changes Windows settings on its own. Changes only happen when you apply recommended settings, reset a feature to defaults, or import and apply a config file. It uses the WinGet and Chocolatey package managers to install software, detects most existing settings through registry and system checks, and keeps changes reversible. Below are answers to the biggest questions and concerns I get about it.

Applies to: Windows 10 (22H2) and Windows 11 (23H2, 24H2, 25H2) | Last updated: June 18, 2026

Key Takeaways

• Winhance does not apply settings automatically — changes happen only when you apply recommended settings, reset to defaults, or import and apply a config file.
• Every setting is reversible — toggle it back, use “apply Windows defaults” on a card, or use a feature’s quick actions to reset it; Winhance also prompts you to create a System Restore point on first launch.
• Software installs use WinGet (with Chocolatey as a fallback), which is why you cannot choose the install location and why installs occasionally fail when a package manifest hash is out of date.
• Setting detection is built on registry values, power config, and scheduled-task checks, shown in the Technical Details banner under each setting card — but detecting every third-party installer is hard and can cause occasional false positives.
• The Windows Installation Media Utility (WIMUtil) builds a custom Windows 11 ISO that can bundle your drivers and skips the Windows 11 hardware requirement checks by default.

Questions answered in this guide:

• Does Winhance detect my current settings correctly?
• How do I report a bug or send logs?
• Can it build a Windows 11 ISO with my drivers and skip the hardware checks?
• Does Winhance change settings automatically?
• Can I disable Windows updates, choose install locations, or create presets?
• Will Windows 11 activate with my old Windows 10 license?
• Why does Winhance use package managers instead of direct downloads?

Does Winhance Correctly Detect My Current Windows Settings?

Yes. Winhance detects the current state of your settings based on what it finds on your system. For the software and apps section it uses multiple methods to check whether an item is installed, and for the optimize and customize sections the settings are mostly registry entries, power config commands, or scheduled tasks depending on the feature.

This is what the Technical Details banner below each setting card is for. Turn it on from the View menu at the top, then click the banner under any card to see the exact registry path and value Winhance reads to determine that setting’s state. For example, if you change the User Account Control level in Windows to “Never notify,” Winhance reads the registry value and reflects “Never notify” the next time you open that section.

Detection runs on every navigation between features — when you open a section, Winhance queries the system for what each toggle or combo box should show. If you find a specific setting that detects incorrectly, please report it with logs so I can look into it.

Support Winhance’s Development

Winhance is free and always will be. If it has saved you time, the best way to give back is on the store — you can support its development directly, or grab the Supporter Pack below and get a set of premium wallpapers along with it.

Winhance Supporter Pack

Winhance is free, forever. The Supporter Pack is a way to back its development and get something in return — 6 premium Winhance wallpapers, the latest installer, and a personal thank-you from me. It is a digital product, delivered instantly.

Get the Supporter Pack

How Do I Report a Bug or Send Logs?

Use the Bug Report button in the main Winhance window. It opens the Winhance GitHub issues page, where you can click New Issue to report a bug or suggest an improvement. You will need a free GitHub account to post.

Screenshots and logs make a report far more useful. To find your logs, click the More navigation button in Winhance and select Winhance Logs — this opens the folder containing your log files. Sort by Date Modified to grab the latest, then drag the log files straight into the screenshots/logs box on the GitHub issue to attach them.

Tip: If an app refused to uninstall, the log I need is the bloat removal log — that file records every app uninstall Winhance attempts, so it shows exactly why a removal failed on your system.

Can Winhance Build a Windows 11 ISO with My Drivers and Skip the Hardware Checks?

Yes to both. In Advanced Tools, open the Windows Installation Media Utility, select a Windows ISO, and extract it. Once extraction completes, you can add an autounattend.xml file to the image — and that file is what skips the Windows 11 hardware requirement checks. Whether you generate the autounattend with Winhance or use the UnattendedWinstall answer file, both skip the Windows 11 checks by default as of this recording.

For drivers, use the “extract and add drivers” option to pull the drivers from your current operating system into the image. This is recommended when you are reinstalling Windows on the same hardware, since it saves you redownloading everything. Once that is done, create the new ISO and use it to install Windows.

Does Winhance Change Settings Automatically?

No. Under no circumstances does Winhance change settings on your computer on its own. This matters, because one of the most common concerns is that the app “applied tweaks without prompting” and broke something. That is not how it works — a setting only changes when you click to change it.

What usually happened in those reports is one of two things. Either the user imported the recommended Winhance config file and applied it (which intentionally changes many settings at once), or they used a feature’s quick action to “apply all recommended settings.” For example, applying the recommended power and start menu settings will hide the Sleep and Lock options from the power menu, because those are recommended for performance.

If recommended settings are not to your liking, just change them back. Toggle the setting again, pick a different combo box option, or use “apply Windows defaults” on the card. You can also use a feature’s quick actions to reset everything in that section to Windows defaults. And because Winhance prompts you to create a System Restore point on first launch (and you can create one anytime from the Settings page), you always have a way back. If a setting genuinely does not return to its Windows default, report it on GitHub with logs.

Can I Disable Windows Updates or Store App Updates?

Yes. In the Optimize section, open Updates to find the Windows Update Policy. You can fully disable Windows updates, but that option is clearly labeled as not recommended because it is a security risk. The safer choices are to install security updates only, or to pause updates for a long period — both stop the aggressive update behavior without leaving you exposed.

If you specifically meant Microsoft Store apps updating themselves, there is a separate “Auto update Microsoft Store apps” setting in the same Updates section that you can turn off.

Will Windows 11 Activate with My Existing Windows 10 License?

In most cases, yes. A Windows 10 digital license activates Windows 11 as long as you install the same edition — so a Windows 10 Pro key should activate Windows 11 Pro. Because the license is tied to your motherboard (stored in the UEFI), it activates automatically once you connect to the internet on the same hardware.

If it does not activate on its own, sign in with the Microsoft account your license is linked to and it should activate. Since you are installing on the same motherboard, it should not ask you for a new key. If you need a hand confirming activation, see my guide on activating Windows 10/11.

Can I Choose the Install Location or Install Portable Apps?

When installing software, Winhance primarily uses the WinGet package manager (with Chocolatey as a fallback), and it disables the interactive setup prompts on purpose. That is the entire point: you select the apps you want, click install, walk away, and come back to everything installed — no clicking through Next, Next, Next on each one. If you specifically want those step-through installers, it is better to download those apps directly from their websites.

You cannot choose a custom install location for these apps, but that is a WinGet limitation, not a Winhance one — WinGet installs either to your AppData folder or system-wide to the C: drive, with no per-app destination. The developer who publishes the package to WinGet also decides whether it ships as an installer or a portable package, so that choice is out of Winhance’s hands too.

Winhance itself does offer both, though. When you download it from the Winhance website or run the PowerShell install command, you can choose a normal installation or a portable installation.

Can I Create Presets Like Gaming, Office, or Daily Use?

There are no preset buttons in the UI, and I do not currently plan to add gaming/office/home preset buttons. But you can already build your own presets using config files in builder mode, which is more flexible than a fixed set of presets.

To make a gaming preset, enter builder mode (nothing here applies to your live system), open Gaming and Performance, and apply the recommended gaming settings. For a settings-only preset, skip the software and apps section. Save the config with a name like “gaming.” Then, from normal mode, use config review, choose “import my own config,” skip the review, and apply it — only the gaming and performance settings change, because that is all the preset captured. Save as many config files as you want for different scenarios.

When Building an Autounattend ISO, Do I Select Apps to Keep or to Remove?

You select the apps you want to remove. In builder mode, the ribbon above the Windows apps section states it clearly: the checked apps will be removed from the Windows image during installation. So if you check MS 365 Copilot, that app ends up in the autounattend file for removal. Microsoft Edge has its own dedicated removal script that gets added separately.

One limitation to know: you cannot currently pick and choose which optimizations and customizations go into the autounattend file. All of the optimize and customize settings are included by default — you only control which state each one is in when it is written to the file.

If you are worried about side effects from debloating, use the search bar in the Optimize and Customize sections. Each setting card documents its side effects. For example, searching “emoji” surfaces the Touch Keyboard and Handwriting Panel Service, whose description warns that disabling it breaks the Windows + Period emoji panel and other virtual keyboard input. I made it a recommended setting anyway because that service is a resource hog once the emoji panel is opened — I covered exactly how much it uses in my Winhance Release 24 walkthrough. Read each card’s description, and if a setting is not to your liking, change it — Winhance never locks you out of reverting.

Will Winhance Conflict with Other Tools Like Chris Titus Tech’s WinUtil?

You can use both at the same time without issues, as far as I know — I have not had any reports of conflicts between Winhance and Chris Titus Tech’s WinUtil. They are separate tools doing similar jobs, and running one does not break the other.

Can I Set a Dark Start Menu with Light File Explorer?

Not yet. In Windows, the “Choose your mode” setting has a Custom option that lets you set the Windows mode (taskbar, Start menu) and the app mode (File Explorer and apps) independently. In Winhance, those two are currently lumped into a single dark/light choice. I get the request for more granular control to match Windows behavior, and I will look at improving it in a future update.

Will Winhance Add Windows Defender Removal? And Where Did the UnattendedWinstall File Go?

The preset answer file is part of UnattendedWinstall, a separate project of mine. It was temporarily removed from GitHub, and I will be releasing an updated version in the near future.

On adding Windows Defender removal: I am not planning to add it to Winhance for live systems. The code that strips or disables Defender tends to get flagged by antivirus software, which gives Winhance a bad reputation and gets it falsely reported as a virus — that already happened with an early version that included those tweaks. There are plenty of open-source scripts on GitHub that can do this if you really want to, though I do not recommend it. If I ever include the option, it would only be when creating a fresh Windows ISO with an autounattend file, so the choice is deliberate rather than something a millions-of-users live system does silently.

Why Does Winhance Use Package Managers Instead of Direct Downloads?

This is the root of two common issues: apps that are not detected as installed, and installs that occasionally fail. Both Winhance and tools like UniGetUI rely on WinGet and Chocolatey to install software, and package providers like Mozilla publish packages to those managers. The catch is that the installer on a vendor’s website is not always the exact same build the package manager serves.

Take Firefox: running winget search Firefox returns many packages — the standard Mozilla Firefox, a Microsoft Store version with a different ID, an MSIX build, language variants, ESR, and beta. Winhance hard-codes the IDs it uses (the standard en-US build and the Store version as a fallback) and tries to catch every install method with multiple detection checks. But covering every possible installer for every app is a big task, and it can lead to the occasional false positive in the interface.

Installs sometimes fail when a new app version ships before WinGet updates its manifest. Each installer has a security hash, and the package manager refuses the download if the hash does not match the manifest — which protects you, but means the install fails until the manifest is updated, usually within a few days. The official WinGet packages repository routinely has over a thousand open pull requests for new versions, so this lag is common.

So why not just hard-code direct download links? Because those URLs are usually versioned. If I hard-code a Firefox 152 link today, it breaks the moment Firefox 153 ships — users either get an error or an outdated version until I manually update the link, and that is not realistic across 200-plus handpicked apps. Package managers exist precisely to handle versioning and to add the hash and manifest security checks. The system is not perfect, but it is the right trade-off.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Winhance change my settings without asking?

No. Winhance only changes a setting when you click to apply it — whether that is toggling a single setting, using a quick action to apply recommended settings, or importing and applying a config file. It does not modify your system in the background.

Are Winhance changes reversible?

Yes. You can toggle any setting back, apply Windows defaults on an individual card, or reset an entire feature to Windows defaults with its quick actions. Winhance also prompts you to create a System Restore point on first launch, and you can create one anytime from the Settings page before making changes.

Does Winhance work on Windows 10?

Yes. Winhance works on Windows 10 (22H2) and Windows 11 (23H2, 24H2, 25H2). Features like disabling app updates, building config files, and creating a custom ISO all apply on Windows 10 as well as Windows 11.

This post You Asked, I Answered Your BIGGEST Winhance Questions & Concerns first appeared on Memory's Tech Tips and is written by memory

Winhance Release 27 adds a new Builder Mode that lets you create a Winhance config file or an autounattend.xml from the app’s interface without changing anything on the PC you are using. The same release adds a Sponsors & Supporters page, a Change History file that records every change Winhance makes, and a fix for startup crashes on older Windows builds. You can download Winhance Release 27 free from winhance.net.

Applies to: Winhance Release 27 (v26.06.12) on Windows 10 (22H2) and Windows 11 (23H2, 24H2, 25H2) | Last updated: June 12, 2026

Key Takeaways

• Builder Mode creates Winhance config files and autounattend.xml files from the settings in the UI without applying anything to your live system.
• A startup crash that mostly hit older Windows builds like Windows 10 LTSC — a window that never appears, a fail fast exception, or a KERNELBASE.dll error in Event Viewer — is worked around in Release 27.
• The new Sponsors & Supporters page replaces the old exit donation dialog and shows business sponsors and individual supporters, fetched live from the Winhance GitHub repo.
• A new ChangeHistory.txt file (More > Change History) records every change Winhance makes on your computer from Release 27 onward.
• App icons now come from a single GitHub repository instead of multiple Microsoft servers, and the status icons are colored Fluent UI icons that are much easier to read.

Quick Steps: Build a Config Without Touching Your PC

1. Download and run Winhance Release 27 from winhance.net.
2. Click the Builder button at the top of the main window and read the explainer dialog.
3. Pick Config or Autounattend with the radio buttons in the Builder Mode ribbon.
4. Change any settings in Optimize and Customize, and tick the checkboxes for the apps you want included — nothing is applied to the PC you are on.
5. Click Save Config (or Save Autounattend) and use the file on any other computer or Windows image.

Winhance Would Not Launch for You Before? Try Release 27

Before getting into the new features, this one matters if Winhance simply did not work for you in the past. Some users would start the app and nothing would appear, or Event Viewer showed a fail fast exception or a KERNELBASE.dll error. That was a Windows bug, and Release 27 ships a workaround for it.

The crash mostly hit older Windows builds, like LTSC installations that have not received recent updates. If that was your experience, give Winhance another go — the affected systems should launch normally on Release 27.

Winhance Now Has Modes: Normal, Builder, and Config Review

Release 27 introduces a mode switcher at the top of the main window with three modes. Normal mode is how Winhance has always worked — changes apply to the PC you are working on immediately. Builder Mode and Config Review Mode are where it gets interesting.

With these mode buttons in place, the old Save Config and Import Config buttons next to the Windows version filter are gone. The Builder and Config Review buttons replace them.

How Builder Mode Works

Builder Mode lets you create a Winhance config or an autounattend file from the settings in the UI without changing anything on the PC you are using. When you enter Builder Mode, a dialog explains the feature, and a ribbon confirms the app is in Builder Mode with two radio buttons: Config and Autounattend.

Your current Optimize and Customize settings are pre-filled with the state of the PC you are on. From there, anything you change only changes the file you are building. For example, if I switch the Windows theme from dark mode to light mode in Builder Mode, my PC stays in dark mode — but the saved config will apply light mode wherever it is imported.

Apps are not included automatically. In Config mode, you tick the checkboxes for the apps you want in the file under Windows Apps & Features and External Software, and you decide whether to install or uninstall them at import time. The normal app actions are turned off while Builder Mode is active, so you cannot accidentally modify the system you are sitting at.

Note: Builder Mode was requested by a user on GitHub a long time ago. If you deploy or service multiple Windows machines, this is the feature that turns Winhance from a tweak session into a deployment tool.

Why Config and Autounattend Are Separate

In Autounattend mode, selected apps can only be removed from the Windows image during installation — you cannot install apps that way, which is why the choice does not exist there. The External Software tab is locked in Autounattend mode for now; including external apps in an autounattend file is a planned feature that has not shipped yet.

The split also leaves room for what is coming. Some options only make sense for unattended installs — settings from the Windows onboarding phase, or automating partition creation and deletion during setup. Those do not fit the Optimize and Customize catalog, so a dedicated autounattend page with more generation options is planned for a future release.

Once you save your autounattend.xml, exit Builder Mode and open Advanced Tools > Windows Installation Media Utility to add the XML to a Windows ISO, so it runs during Windows installation. If you want to go deeper into unattended installs, my UnattendedWinstall answer files cover the same territory with pre-built configurations.

Config Review Mode

Config Review Mode is not new, but it now has its own button at the top of the main window. It shows the import window where you select a config file, then walks you through every change that config wants to make before anything is applied. That review matters when someone shared a config with you, or when you want to inspect what the recommended Winhance config does.

For config files you created yourself, skip the review and apply immediately — you still choose what happens with software and apps (install, uninstall, or just select them in the UI), whether the theme’s default wallpaper is applied, and whether to clean the taskbar and Start menu.

The New Sponsors & Supporters Page

Winhance is free, and I want it to stay free — no paywalls, no locked features. What keeps it that way is the people and businesses that support the project, and Release 27 finally gives them proper recognition. Clicking the Support Winhance button opens a dedicated Sponsors & Supporters page inside the app, which also replaces the old exit donation dialog.

Businesses and individual supporters are shown separately. Business sponsors have tiers with different perks — company logo and name in the app, contact details, and an outbound link to their website on the higher tiers. Individual supporters who give $5 or more and tick the supporters box at checkout get listed on the supporters wall. The data is fetched live from the Winhance GitHub repo when there is an internet connection, with an offline fallback bundled into each release.

The Support Winhance button takes you to the Winhance sponsors page on my new store. It is a ladder that starts with individual supporters and moves up through business tiers, with a PDF invoice on every payment — for businesses, sponsorship is typically tax-deductible as a marketing expense, which was never possible with the old Ko-fi donations. Business sponsor cards also appear in a new section on the winhance.net download page.

Support unlocks nothing. Winhance stays identical for everyone — recognition is the only perk.

The Winhance Supporter Pack

Separate from the supporter and business tiers, there is a new Winhance Supporter Pack on the store. It does not change the application at all — you get the latest Winhance installer, a personally signed thank-you PDF from me, and the real value: a six-design Winhance wallpaper pack in 4K and ultrawide.

The designs range from the Winhance rocket on a grid to a white logo with a gold halo, and my personal favorite — the WINHANCE wordmark with the A replaced by the rocket icon. These wallpapers are exclusive to the pack and are not available anywhere else. It is a one-time purchase that directly helps the development of Winhance.

Change History: A Record of Everything Winhance Does

Click the More button at the bottom of the window and you will find a new Change History option. It opens a text file saved on your computer that records every change Winhance has made on that machine since Release 27 — every setting change and every app install or removal.

If you ran Winhance before Release 27, history starts now — earlier changes were not recorded. This was another GitHub user request: an easy way to keep track of exactly what you have done with Winhance on a specific computer.

Faster App Icons and Clearer Status Indicators

All the app icons for Windows optional features and external software now come from a single package-icons GitHub repository. Winhance no longer contacts the Microsoft Store or individual app websites to fetch icons — it reads them from your system or downloads them from that one repo, so it only contacts one server. Windows capabilities and optional features that have real icons, like legacy Notepad, Windows Media Player, and legacy Paint, now show them too.

The status icons got a rework as well, after a user reported it was hard to tell whether an app was installed. They are now colored Fluent UI icons: a green check mark for installed, a red cross for not installed, a blue-green check for items that can be reinstalled after removal, and a red flag for removals that are permanent. The feature icons in the sidebar — Software & Apps, Optimize, Customize, Advanced Tools, and the More menu — are colored now too.

If you want the full story on how the icons system started, the Release 26 post covers the card view and the first round of app icons.

Quality-of-Life Changes in Release 27

• UI zoom — hold Ctrl and scroll, or press Ctrl and + / – on the main keyboard (not the numpad), to zoom the Winhance UI like a browser.
• Explorer customizations — new settings for showing desktop icons, icon cache size, automatic thumbnail cache cleanup, and showing folders like Documents and Downloads inside This PC (the Windows 10 default that Windows 11 removed).
• Start menu — a new setting for the Windows 11 Start menu’s All apps view: list, grid, or category.
• New external apps — additions in the Gaming section, PowerShell 7 under Development, and the Helium browser in Browsers, all by user request.
• Alphabetical sort — a new sort dropdown in Software & Apps lets you sort items alphabetically regardless of installation status.

There are more changes than these — the complete changelog is in the Winhance Release 27 release notes on GitHub. The two biggest by far are the new modes and the sponsor and supporter recognition. To everyone who has supported Winhance and my work so far, and everyone who uses the app and shares it — thank you. More updates are coming.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Winhance still free?

Yes. Winhance is free with no paywalls and no locked features, and supporting the project unlocks nothing extra — the app is identical for everyone. Sponsorships and the Supporter Pack exist to fund development, not to gate features.

Does Builder Mode change anything on my PC?

No. In Builder Mode, every change you make is recorded into the config or autounattend file you are building, and the normal app actions are disabled. Your live system is only modified if you later import and apply that config on it.

Winhance never launched on my PC — will Release 27 fix it?

If the window never appeared, or Event Viewer showed a fail fast exception or a KERNELBASE.dll error, then very likely yes. Release 27 works around the Windows bug behind those crashes, which mostly affected older builds like Windows 10 LTSC. Download the new version and try again.

How do I get listed on the supporters wall?

Support Winhance with $5 or more on the store and tick the supporters box at checkout. Your name appears on the supporters wall, which the app fetches live from the Winhance GitHub repo. Listing is opt-in only and amounts are never shown.

Can I use my autounattend file from Builder Mode on a Windows ISO?

Yes. Save the autounattend.xml in Builder Mode, then open Advanced Tools > Windows Installation Media Utility and add the XML to your Windows ISO. The file then runs automatically during Windows installation, removing the apps you selected from the image.

This post Build Your Perfect Windows Setup WITHOUT Touching Your PC (Winhance Release 27) first appeared on Memory's Tech Tips and is written by memory

You can give a free, open-source AI agent full control of a Windows PC by installing opencode and letting it run PowerShell commands for you. It can check Event Viewer for crashes, clean up disk space, remove bloatware, fix a broken audio device, and optimize startup services — all from plain-English prompts. Because the free models train on your data, run this inside a virtual machine, not on your main computer.

Applies to: Windows 10 (22H2) and Windows 11 (23H2, 24H2, 25H2) | Last updated: June 4, 2026

Key Takeaways

• opencode is a free, open-source AI coding agent that runs in your terminal and can execute PowerShell commands on Windows from natural-language prompts
• It works with a completely free model (opencode zen) with no account or payment required — you do not need a Claude or ChatGPT subscription to start
• Install it with Node.js and one npm command: npm i -g opencode-ai, then launch it by typing opencode
• It handled real maintenance tasks in seconds — Event Viewer crash analysis in 36 seconds, full disk cleanup that freed 1.38 GB, removing 26 bloatware packages, and re-enabling a disabled audio device
• The free models train on whatever you type, so do this in a virtual machine with no personal data — never on your main PC

Quick Steps:

1. Set up a clean virtual machine running Windows 11 for testing
2. Install Node.js and tick the box to install the additional tools during setup
3. Open Terminal as admin and run npm i -g opencode-ai
4. If scripts are blocked, run Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned, then install again
5. Launch it by typing opencode and confirm the free opencode zen model is selected
6. Type a plain-English task and let it write and run the PowerShell commands

What Is opencode, and Why Use It Instead of Claude Code?

opencode is an open-source AI coding agent that runs in your terminal. It is built for agentic coding — creating and editing software projects — but because it operates from the command line, you can also point it at your Windows system and have it write and run PowerShell scripts for you. That is exactly what makes it useful for PC maintenance and optimization.

I previously did the same kind of experiment with Claude Code, where I gave it full access to a fresh Windows 11 install and let it set the machine up from a task list. It nailed the job, but Claude Code is a paid tool, which puts it out of reach for some people. opencode solves that problem. Everything in this guide was done with a free model, so the method is accessible to anyone. You can read the original write-up and grab the exact prompt I used in my Claude Code Windows 11 debloat and setup guide.

Note: This is not a “you should do this” tutorial. It is a demonstration of what becomes possible when you give a large language model control of a terminal. If you want a safe, purpose-built tool to debloat and optimize Windows without handing control to an AI, use my own app, Winhance, instead.

Run This in a Virtual Machine, Not Your Main PC

The free models in opencode are trained on the data you put into them. Whatever you type into the chat is most likely going to be used to train the next version of the model. That is the trade-off for free access, and almost every AI provider does the same thing in some form.

For that reason, I run everything inside a virtual machine that is completely separate from my main computer and contains no personal data. A VM also means that if the AI runs a command that breaks something, the damage is contained to a disposable test environment. Giving any AI free rein over a terminal carries real risk — a virtual machine is the sensible place to experiment with it.

How to Install opencode on Windows

opencode installs through npm, so you need Node.js first. Download it from the official Node.js website and run the Windows installer. During setup, tick the checkbox that automatically installs the additional tools needed to run Node.js apps — this saves you trouble later.

Once Node.js is installed, open Terminal as an administrator and run the install command from the opencode website:

npm i -g opencode-ai

You may hit an error saying that running scripts is disabled on this system. This is a default PowerShell security setting. To fix it, run the following command, which requires any PowerShell script to be signed with a certificate (the npm and Node scripts are signed, so they will run):

Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned

Press Enter, then run the install command again. Once it finishes, launch the agent by typing opencode in the terminal and pressing Enter.

Choosing a Free Model in opencode

When opencode opens, it starts in Build mode, meaning it expects to create apps. For PC tasks you do not need to change anything — it will simply write PowerShell scripts and run them instead of building a project.

Next to the mode you will see the model, served through opencode zen. This is a completely free model, and you do not even need to sign in to use it. To see the full list, type /models and press Enter. You will find other free options as well as paid providers — you can plug in a ChatGPT subscription, an Anthropic API key, Google, and more. For this guide I stuck with the free model so the method stays accessible to everyone.

Tip: To add a second task on a new line without sending the prompt, press Ctrl + J. This lets you queue several instructions in one message before pressing Enter.

Real Windows Tasks the Free AI Handled

Once opencode is running, you talk to it in plain English and it works out the PowerShell commands. Here are the actual tasks I gave it, with the results. Every one of these ran on the free model.

Checking Event Viewer for crashes

I asked it to go through the Event Viewer logs and flag any crashes that needed my attention. It immediately ran PowerShell commands to pull and filter the most recent events, and in 36 seconds it reported three blue screen crashes with their bug-check codes, listed some minor issues, and gave a recommendation on what to investigate. Manually digging through Event Viewer for the same information usually takes 5 to 10 minutes.

Emptying the Recycle Bin and running Disk Cleanup

Next I asked it to empty the Recycle Bin, which it did with a single PowerShell command. Then I asked it to run Disk Cleanup non-interactively on the C drive. It ran the cleanup, then suggested a more thorough pass with every category enabled — temp files, Recycle Bin, and delivery optimization files. I told it to go ahead, and the full cleanup freed about 1.38 GB in roughly 31 seconds. If you would rather clear space manually, I have a full walkthrough on how to clean your C drive in Windows 10 and 11.

Troubleshooting a broken audio device

To test its diagnostic ability, I disabled the High Definition Audio device in Device Manager, then told opencode that my audio had suddenly stopped working and asked it to check. It ran a series of PowerShell commands, found that the audio device was disabled, re-enabled it, and verified that it was working again — exactly the fix a technician would apply.

Removing Windows bloatware

I asked it to uninstall all of the AppX packages except Calculator and Notepad while keeping the system essentials — effectively a “remove the Windows 11 bloatware” command. It listed the installed packages, built a removal script, and stripped out 26 of them in one minute and 21 seconds, with only one package failing to remove. If you prefer to do this yourself with no AI involved, see my guide on removing Windows bloatware without third-party software.

Disabling startup apps and unnecessary services

I asked it to make the PC run as fast as possible without breaking Windows by disabling startup apps and background services that do not need to run constantly. It disabled the OneDrive setup startup entry and set services like SuperFetch, the search indexer, and the telemetry service to Manual rather than disabling them outright. That way they still start if something genuinely needs them, but they do not launch automatically on every boot.

Researching error codes online

I did not know whether the free model had internet access, so I asked it to research the specific error codes we found in Event Viewer. It confirmed it has web-search capability, looked up the codes, and gave advice tailored to this exact machine — it correctly identified that this is a VMware virtual machine and that the hardware errors were coming through the virtual hardware layer, rather than handing me generic “reseat your RAM” advice.

It also set a high-performance power plan, created a new standard user account, ran a deeper temp-file clean (covering the WinSxS folder, the driver cache, and delivery optimization files), and produced a performance baseline report. Throughout, it was clear how much of this comes down to knowing the right PowerShell command — which is exactly where an AI agent that knows the entire command set has the edge. If you want to build that knowledge yourself, start with my list of PowerShell commands every Windows user should know.

Giving opencode the Full Windows Setup Prompt

To finish, I gave opencode the exact same prompt I had given Claude Code in my previous experiment — a complete debloat-and-setup task list for a fresh Windows install. You can copy that prompt from my Claude Code Windows 11 setup guide and try it yourself.

It built its own task list and worked through everything in 6 minutes and 15 seconds. It completed every item, then added a few extras on its own — setting DNS to Cloudflare and disabling Sticky Keys, which is actually more than Claude Code did the first time. It even saved the script file to the desktop as I asked, so the same setup can be rerun on another machine later. For a specific prompt like this, the free model genuinely felt on par with the paid tool.

When you are done, type /exit to close the session, and use /sessions the next time you launch opencode to jump back into a previous chat.

opencode vs Claude Code: Which Should You Use?

I have used Claude Code for more than a year, and for actually developing and running software it is still the clear winner. It is also expensive. For the kind of PowerShell-driven PC tasks shown here, the free models inside opencode completely held their own, which was a genuinely pleasant surprise.

Two things are worth remembering, though. Both opencode and Claude Code are built for agentic coding, not system administration — using them this way is creative, not their intended purpose. And these models run in the cloud, so your data is not private. That is the whole reason this belongs in a virtual machine. My next project may be a local, offline, portable version of this idea, so the same automation can run without sending anything to the cloud.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is opencode really free?

Yes. opencode is open-source, and it ships with a free model served through opencode zen that requires no account and no payment. You can optionally connect paid providers such as a ChatGPT subscription, an Anthropic API key, or Google, but you do not need any of them to get started.

Is it safe to let an AI run commands on my PC?

Not on your main computer. An AI agent with terminal access can run any command, including destructive ones, and the free models train on whatever you type. Run it inside a virtual machine that holds no personal data so any mistakes stay contained. For safe, predictable Windows optimization without an AI, use a purpose-built tool like Winhance instead.

Do I need to know how to code to use opencode?

No. You give it instructions in plain English and it works out the PowerShell commands itself. opencode is designed as a coding agent, but for the maintenance tasks shown here you only need to describe what you want, such as “empty the Recycle Bin” or “remove the bloatware.”

How do I install opencode on Windows?

Install Node.js from the official website, open Terminal as administrator, and run npm i -g opencode-ai. If you get a script-execution error, run Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned first, then install again. Launch it by typing opencode.

Will the free model send my data somewhere?

Yes. The free models are trained on the data you put into them, and they run in the cloud, so anything you type may be used to improve the next model. This is why you should only use a test environment with no sensitive information when experimenting with the free tier.

This post I Gave a FREE AI FULL Control of My Windows PC (Didn’t Expect These Results…) first appeared on Memory's Tech Tips and is written by memory