Windows Archives - Page 26 of 27 - Chipp.in Tech News and Reviews

O&O AppBuster: uninstall locked Windows apps

Posted on November 12, 2023November 12, 2023 by Martin Brinkmann

O&O AppBuster is a free application by O&O Software GMBH. The program enables Windows 10 and 11 users to uninstall apps that Microsoft does not want users to remove from the system.

While some apps are critical components of Windows, the same can’t be said for all locked apps. Apps like Photos, Phone Link, Game Bar or Tips can’t be uninstalled from the Settings app.

PowerShell has long been the primary option to remove locked apps on Windows 10 and 11. It is a great option for system administrators and experienced users. You may check out my guide on uninstall the Photos app on Windows 11 as an example.

Regular Windows users may not feel comfortable enough running commands from PowerShell.

O&O AppBuster comes to the rescue. It has an easy-to-use interface to remove locked apps. Other features include mass removal of apps, including third-party apps, and more.

Tip: check out our review of O&O ShutUp10++ as well. This free program may improve your privacy.

O&O AppBuster: an overview

You can run the application right after the download. An installation is not required. The application has a clean interface that lists all installed apps and programs immediately.

The program lists all applications with their name and publisher, installation date, status, storage and also the number of users it is available for. A click on a column header at the top allows users to sort the list accordingly.

This is a handy option to sort by installation date or storage.

The Desktop and Windows tabs at the top lead to filtered listings:

Desktop lists all user-installed programs.
Windows lists all native apps and Store-installed apps.

A search allows users to find specific apps next to these. The search matches the name and publisher, which is an excellent option to quickly find multiple apps.

Using the program to remove Windows apps

One of the main applications of O&O AppBuster is the removal of native Windows apps. While Microsoft is making progress in this regard, by unlocking more apps for removal, it continues to lock some.

It is a welcome change of course, but slow-paced and not complete. O&O AppBuster supports other features that make it a good choice. First, by supporting mass uninstalls. Second, through an optional safety feature that relies on System Restore.

Here are the required steps to remove native Windows apps:

Select Actions > Create a System Restore point to create a restore option.
Pick “yes” when asked whether you want to create a system restore point.
Switch to the Windows tab in the program interface.
Check any of the apps that you want to remove.
Activate the “Remove” button once done.
O&O AppBuster displays a prompt immediately afterwards with three options:
- Current user — removes the app(s) only for the logged in user
- All users — removes the app(s) for all users that exist consequently.
- Computer — removes the apps from the entire machine.
Select yes after you have made the selection.
At this instant, O&O may display a prompt to create a system restore point. This happens only if you have not created one previously.
Select Close to complete the removal.

Other features of O&O AppBuster

The program supports a number of other features furthermore. While the main focus is on the removal of Windows apps, it may also be used for other purposes.

You can use it to uninstall Win32 programs. This works a bit differently as the default uninstaller is spawned each time.

You need to be careful here, as some installers may prompt for a reboot.

Mass removal of apps and programs is a useful feature of the program. Just select all of them and hit the remove action afterwards.

Closing Words

O&O AppBuster is a useful program for Windows. It offers an elegant option to remove system apps from Windows as well as regular desktop programs.

Integration of System Restore ensures that you can go back to a previous state. Mass uninstalls is another useful feature, as it speeds up the process significantly.

Now You: do you keep or remove native Windows apps on your devices?

You may soon create 7-zip and Tar archives in Windows 11

Posted on November 9, 2023November 9, 2023 by Martin Brinkmann

Microsoft is working on adding support for creating 7-zip and Tar archives in Windows 11. The feature is in testing in the latest Canary build of Windows 11.

Microsoft expanded support for different archive types in its Windows 11 operating system in 2023. Previously, Windows users could only extract ZIP archives or compress files using Zip.

An update added extract support for formats such as Rar, Tar or 7z, but not support for creating archives other than Zip. The Moment 4 update for Windows 11 version 22H2 added several features, including Windows Copilot.

All features were included in the 2023 feature update for Windows 11, Windows 11 version 23H2.

Compressing and unpacking files in Windows 11

It is actually pretty easy to use the functionality. Right-click on a supported archive and you get the option to extract its contents on the device.

A right-click on any file displays the “compress to Zip file” option currently, even if the selection is already an archive.

As is the case with many native Windows features and tools, they are somewhat limited. While you can create archives, you don’t get options to configure advanced options.

There is no option to password protect files, change dictionary sizes, create recovery files or change the compression level. Similarly, extracting files is limited to selecting a target location.

Another issue that users of third-party archivers may have noticed when using the native extraction and compression functionality is that the performance is slower. It takes longer to extract files and also longer to compress them.

This may not be a problem for many Windows 11 users. If you use the functionality once or twice a week, you may not have a problem with its performance.

It is convenient after all that the functionality is baked in.

Creating Tar and 7z archives

The latest Windows 11 Canary build introduces support for creating Tar and 7z archives. Microsoft revealed the new functionality in the official release notes:

[ADDED] We’ve added support for creating 7-zip and TAR archives in addition to ZIP.

Microsoft changed the “Compress to Zip file” in File Explorer to “Compress to”. Selecting this option displays all supported formats: Zip file, 7z file and Tar file.

These work identical. Select the desired format and then wait for Windows to create the archive in the same directory.

Rar support is missing, notably, from the list of supported formats. Microsoft did not mention why it did not add support for the format.

Microsoft uses the open source libarchive for the functionality. This library does not support rar writes, which may explain the absence.

Closing Words

Microsoft is making the handling of archive formats comfortable on Windows 11. Users may now extract lots of formats without installing third-party software. Support for compressing files to 7z and Tar is also a welcome addition.

The functionality won’t keep advanced users from installing and using third-party apps. These offer better functionality and performance. Also, support for formats is still limited in comparison.

Is security a problem? More users may find the option to extract archives, which may tempt malicious actors to spread malware using archive formats.

It is a possibility and it will be interesting to see how Microsoft will react to potential threats.

Now You: native or third-party, how do you like your compression software?

BleachBit Review: free up disk space by deleting temp files

Posted on November 7, 2023November 7, 2023 by Martin Brinkmann

BleachBit is a free program for Microsoft Windows and Linux devices that helps users delete temporary files to free up disk space. Often compared to CCleaner, BleachBit has not gone down the route of commercialization.

The program is free and does not contain locked tools that need to be unlocked with a purchase. Users on Windows may download and run a portable version, if they prefer that.

BleachBit serves several purposes: from freeing up disk space to removing traces of files for privacy.

This review looks at the features and functionality, but also how the software compares to CCleaner, which is still the most popular cleaner on Windows.

BleachBit: the interface

BleachBit’s interface is streamlined. The app may take a moment to load. Once loaded, it displays supported cleaning locations in a sidebar on the left. This includes, usually, one or more web browsers, the operating system and some other apps.

A click on an entry expands the selection. You can select any category or entry to get a description; useful, in case you are unsure if you should delete found data.

Selecting an entire category may sometimes include sensitive or important information. When you select a browser, BleachBit informs you that passwords may also be removed. The option to ignore certain data types is provided.

One useful feature of BleachBit is its preview option. Select preview to check the selected locations for temporary files without running any cleanup operations. BleachBit returns the number of files and the disk space that it will free when you run it for real.

All files are listed by the app, which can be intimidating at first. A click on clean deletes the selected files and frees up the disk space.

BleachBit features

BleachBit’s main focus is web browsers, the operating system, and several core apps, e.g., Windows Defender or Explorer on Windows.

Before you run the program, you may want to open the Settings with a click on the BleachBit icon and the selection of preferences. There, you find several interesting options:

Enable overwriting file contents to prevent recovery.
Disable confirmations before deleting.
Disable Dark Mode.
Download and use community cleaners using winapp2.ini. Note that you need to restart the application to include the extra cleaners.
Add custom cleanup files or folders.
Whitelist files or folders to avoid deletions.

It is highly recommended to enable the winapp2.ini option, as it extends BleachBit significantly.

A click on the BleachBit icon displays additional options. These include options to delete files or folders permanently, wipe free disk space, and to display system information.

Comparison to CCleaner

BleachBit lacks many of the extra tools that Avast added to CCleaner. While some users may miss those options, others may like the program’s focus on cleaning. With winapp2.ini loaded, BleachBit does not have to hide behind CCleaner when it comes to the cleaning part.

Free users especially may like the approach, as they won’t run into “please upgrade to use this tool” messages when they use the application.

To sum it up, if you are just interested in the cleaning bits, then you may prefer BleachBit because of its lack of fluff.

Closing Words

BleachBit is a useful tool to delete temporary files on supported operating systems. Its effectiveness increases with the addition of additional cleaners, but it does get more complex at the same time.

Still, if you want to delete temp files quickly, BleachBit is an excellent option for that job.

Now You: do you use a cleaner?

RSS Guard: open source RSS Reader review

Posted on October 30, 2023October 30, 2023 by Martin Brinkmann

RSS Guard is may RSS reader of choice. I have used quite a few RSS readers in the past decades: from Google Reader and FeedDemon to QuiteRSS, to name just a few major ones.

I like QuiteRSS, but development has more or less ceased. RSS Guard is an open source RSS reader that comes with an impressive list of features and options. The program does have a few quirks, but it is probably only a matter of time before these are sorted out by the developer.

You may download RSS Guard from the project’s GitHub repository. It is available for Windows, Mac and Linux devices.

Initial Setup

You can import a list of RSS feeds into RSS Guard. It is a straightforward process. The program separates Accounts from Feeds.

Accounts — RSS feeds are supported as well as other types, including Feedly, Nextcloud News or Tiny Tiny RSS.
Feeds — individual RSS feeds, can also be podcasts and any other type of service that uses RSS / RDF / ATOM / JSON.

To get started, it is necessary to create an Account first. Select RSS when prompted. From there, you may add RSS feeds manually or by importing them.

RSS Guard supports multiple accounts, which you may utilize to separate feeds from one another.

The application displays feeds sorted by accounts and folders in a sidebar on the left side. You can drag & drop feeds around, and create folders to separate content. Apart from

Each feed is listed with its name and the number of unread items. A click on a feed or folder displays all feeds on the right side.

The feeds listing displays article titles, read status, author, date of publication and other information. Right-click on a column to get the list of supported data columns. Note that it depends on the feed if these are supported.

Settings

Select Tools > Settings to open the preference You find quite a few options of interest there. Here is a short selection of settings that I find useful:

User Interface — switch between dark and light mode, different icon themes and styles.
Notifications — enable or disable them, or modify their location and style.
Keyboard Shortcuts — check all existing shortcuts and add new mappings, e.g. for adding new feeds or categories.
Feeds & Articles — set feed fetching and automatic feed checking intervals, modify the appearance of the feed and articles list.

Other options include changing the size of fonts or configuring external web browsers for opening content.

Using RSS Guard

Usage is very simple once you have set up everything. My instance checks for updates automatically when I start it. Unread articles are highlighted in the interface and it is easy enough to browse them to check what is new.

Articles that you select are marked read. You may use the integrated labels feature to mark certain articles.

Left-clicking on an item opens it in the internal viewer. You may switch to the external viewer by right-clicking on items and selecting the option. An option to always open hyperlinks in an external browser is available in the options. A double-click may, for example, launch the article in the default system browser automatically.

There is also a Newspaper View, which displays new articles chronologically.

RSS Guard quirks

While I like RSS Guard for the most part, it does have a few issues. You may notice, for instance, that you can’t manage RSS feeds when the program checks for updates.

A click on the stop button breaks the process, so that you may add, edit or remove feeds.

Another issue is that updating feeds may be slow. It depends largely on the processor. Either, updates blaze through in a matter of seconds, or, it seemingly takes minutes to check all feeds for updates.

Another option that is missing is the ability to save searches. A search, say for Windows 11 or Steam, would return all matching feed items.

Last but not least, syncing is not as straightforward as it could be. While select online services are supported, there is no direct option to sync feeds across devices.

Verdict

RSS Guard is a mighty open source RSS Reader. It is a useful tool to stay up to date almost effortlessly. It feels a bit clunky here and there, and it has some quirks.

Still, it is an excellent program that helps me stay up to date throughout the day without having to visit hundreds of sites manually to do so.

Now You: which RSS feed reader do you use?

O&O ShutUp10++ review: tame Windows’ data hunger

Posted on October 25, 2023October 25, 2023 by Martin Brinkmann

O&O ShutUp10++ is a free tool for Microsoft’s Windows operating system to improve privacy. Designed initially for Windows 10, the program is now also available for Windows 11.

While its main focus is on blocking the operating system’s data hunger, it is also a helpful tool for managing other Windows settings.

First, the basics. You can download the free tool from the official project website. Just run the program after download, an installation is not required. Note that elevated privileges are required to modify settings on the system.

The main interface looks like this on start.

O&O ShutUp10++ groups settings for better recognition. You may disable that under View > Group by Categories if you prefer a long list. There is also a search to find settings that match search terms quickly.

Using O&O ShutUp10++ to improve Windows Privacy

All tweaks use a color coding to indicate whether a feature is enabled or disabled. Each setting has a toggle to turn a feature on or off. A short description and a recommendation is also displayed.

Note that you may hover over any description and click with the left mouse button to display additional information. Excellent if you need to know more about a setting.

Many options are self-explanatory, but some may require additional research. “Disable People icon in the taskbar” is quite clear, but “disable input personalization” or “disable automatic receipt of updates” may not.

You can modify individual options with a click on the switch next to a setting. The program prompts you to create a system restore point, which you should accept. It allows you to restore the system to the previous state. The settings do not have the capacity to break the system, but it is still better to have a restore option.

The Actions menu at the top lists bulk options for the most part. You may use them to apply all recommended settings among other things. These are safe changes that should not impact usability on the device.

Options to apply “somewhat recommended” or all settings are also available, but this is not recommended. It is better to go through the remaining settings manually to make changes.

The two other options let you reset everything to factory defaults and to create a system restore point manually.

Administrators may also switch between the user and machine tabs. User settings apply only to the logged-in user, machine to all users on the system.

Verdict

O&O ShutUp10++ is a useful tool for Windows users. It is easy to use, free for personal use and includes major privacy settings. The settings don’t have the capacity to break a system, but some of the advanced options may impact certain settings or features on the device. It is easy enough to restore these, should you ever run into any issues in this regard.

All in all, O&O ShutUp10++ is an excellent program that every Windows user should run after installation and major upgrades. O&O Software updates the program frequently to include new options, which is another major plus.

WinRAR 7 Beta: new features and backwards compatibility

Posted on October 23, 2023October 23, 2023 by Martin Brinkmann

RARlab released WinRAR 7 Beta today. This new version of the popular archiver comes with important changes, some of which affect backwards compatibility.

Note: the new version is released as beta. Don’t install and run beta software on production systems. Beta releases are ideal for testing purposes.

With that out of the way: you may download WinRAR 7 from the official website. The graphical user interface version is available for Windows; Linux and macOS devices may use a command line version.

Existing users may download and install the latest WinRAR over an existing installation.

Selecting Help > About WinRAR displays the current version.

WinRAR 7.0: Dictionary Size changes

The new release improves the handling of dictionary sizes in WinRAR. The new limit is 64 gigabytes, but it depends on the physical available memory on the device WinRAR is run on.

Any dictionary size may be selected in the new version, which means that you are no longer limit to certain values.

Dictionary sizes play a role when creating archives. Larger dictionary sizes may improve the compression rate “for large files with distant repeat blocks” according to the developers. Files like virtual disk images or collections of similar large files may benefit from this.

The new options introduce a backwards compatibility issue. Only WinRAR 7.0 can unpack archives with 4 GB or higher dictionary sizes.

This is an issue under certain circumstances, as users may need to upgrade to the new version to extract certain formats. Windows 11’s RAR extraction capabilities may not support this either in the beginning.

WinRAR displays a prompt to the user if the dictionary size exceeds the “Maximum dictionary size allowed to extract” preference. Select Options > Settings to change the value, which is set to 4 GB by default. There you may also set the sizes you want to see in the create archive menu.

The Command Prompt version, furthermore, blocks unpack events if the dictionary size exceeds 4 GB. The use of the parameters -md and mx allow the unpacking. MD and MDX allow setting the dictionary size; the latter is applied to the extraction only.

Other changes in the new WinRAR

Exhaustive Search and Long Range Search in WinRAR 7.0.0

The changelog lists other changes besides those already mentioned.

Another change that affects backwards compatibility is that WinRAR 7.0 can’t create RAR 4.x archives anymore. Compression is not affected and most users may not need to create this type of archives specifically.

New search algorithms may help improve the compression ratio for certain data sets. WinRAR’s compression ratio may improve for “big text files” when the feature is turned on. Downside is that it will increase memory usage and may reduce the compression speed.

In addition, exhaustive search may improve the compression ratio even further, but at the expense of speed.

WinRAR users may turn these features on or off under advanced compression parameters. Exhaustive search depends on Long Range Search, which means that it activates automatically.

Another useful feature is giving users control over “Mark of the Web”. This feature adds security zone information to files, which Widows and software may use for security purposes. Files may for instance load read-only, if they have the mark.

This functionality is found under Settings > Security.

Here is a short list of other important changes:

Option to enable Attributes column under Settings > File List > Columns.
Benchmark command supports exact number of threads and results copying to Clipboard.
New “remove redundant folders from extraction path” option in Settings > Paths.
Comments support Word Wrap now.
Maximum path length is now 65535 characters.
The archive formats .bz2, .lz, .tar.bz2, .tar.gz, .tar.lz, .tar.zs show dictionary sizes now.
The new switch -ol blocks archiving and extracting symbolic links.

You can check out all of the entries here.

Closing Words

WinRAR 7.0 is a major new release. It improves the handling of dictionary sizes, but this may lead to some backwards compatibility issues.

Now You: do you use WinRAR?

Disable OneDrive’s Back up folders on this PC feature

Posted on October 19, 2023October 19, 2023 by Martin Brinkmann

Microsoft Onedrive’s back up up folders on this PC feature may transfer files from system folders to Microsoft cloud servers automatically.

OneDrive is integrated natively into Windows 11. Users who sign-in with a Microsoft account, which Microsoft encourages, get access to OneDrive. File Explorer lists a OneDrive folder and there is an icon in the system tray.

One of the integrated features is the option to back up files to OneDrive automatically. This feature is limited to system folders — Documents, Pictures, Desktop, Music and Videos — similarly to what the new Windows Backup app offers.

These folders are protected when backed up to OneDrive, according to Microsoft.

Tip: the easiest way to stop this is to sign-in to Windows with a local account.

Problems related to OneDrive’s automatic backup feature

In an ideal world, backups would only happen automatically when users give their ok. User reports on the Internet suggest that OneDrive’s backup feature may transfer files without user consent sometimes.

I confirmed this behavior on one of my PCs. I only noticed it because OneDrive’s occupied storage increased from less than 1 Gigabyte to nearly 25 Gigabytes over night. Never enabled automatic backups on the Windows 11 version 22H2 system.

Another issue is related to this. Automatic updates may push files in the cloud that OneDrive may flag. This does not necessarily have to be illegal content; false positives happen, and they may lead to temporary or permanent account bans.

How to manage OneDrive folder backups

Here is a step-by-step guide to manage automatic folder backups:

Right-click on the OneDrive icon in the System Tray area of Windows.
Select the Help & Settings icon and then Settings from the menu.
Under Sync and backup, select Manage backup.
OneDrive lists the five system folders in the window that opens.
Toggle one of the folders to Off to stop automatic backups.
OneDrive displays a “where do you want to keep your files” prompt afterwards. Select “This computer only” and then continue.
Select OK to confirm the change when the prompt appears.

Selecting this computer only stops automated backups of the selected folder to OneDrive. Repeat the process for all other folders that are set to backup at the time.

The Sync and backup menu’s preference “save photos and videos from devices” lists another automatic backup option. It transfers photos and videos from connected devices, e.g. cameras or smartphones, to OneDrive when enabled.

There is also “save screenshots I capture to OneDrive”, which transfers screenshots to OneDrive.

Closing Words

It appears that OneDrive may sometimes upload files to the cloud automatically on Windows 11 devices. This is a problem as it may lead to all kinds of issues.

Windows 11 users who sign-in with a Microsoft account may want to check the sync settings regularly because of that.

Is Windows 11 a Flop?

Posted on October 18, 2023October 18, 2023 by Martin Brinkmann

Microsoft released its Windows 11 operating system in late 2021 to the public. Internal data, viewed by Windows Central, suggests that the operating system passed the 400 million monthly active devices mark this year.

Microsoft has not released information on monthly active users to the public. Third-party sites such as Steam’s hardware survey or Statcounter show a slow rise of Windows 11 since its release.

Windows 11 rose from 13.61% in September 2022 to 23.64% in September 2024 on Statcounter. Windows 10, on the other hand, nearly kept its commanding market share lead. The operating system dropped from 71.88% to 71.62% in the period.

Things look a bit better on Steam. Windows 11 has a share of about 37%, but it is still trailing Windows 10’s 57%.

Most of Windows 11’s gains appear to come from Windows 7 and Windows 8/8.1. Microsoft ended support for both operating systems in January 2023 and both have tanked since then.

Windows 11’s rise compared to Windows 10’s

It took Windows 11 two years to reach 400 million devices. While that would sound impressive for many systems, it is not, when compared to Windows 10.

Windows 10 managed to reach that number in a year’s time and it even managed to cross the 1 billion devices mark in 2020.

Granted, the underlying situation was different. Microsoft pushed Windows 10 with free upgrade offers from Windows 7 and Windows 8/8.1 devices. Users could upgrade their devices for free. Not all did, but the free upgrade offer certainly helped push the new operating system into the market.

Microsoft failed to reach the ambitious 1 billion device goal.

When Microsoft released Windows 11, it still let users upgrade for free to the new operating system. Initially, users of Windows 7, 8, 8.1 and 10 could upgrade to free. This changed recently, when Microsoft eliminated the option for Windows 7 and 8/8.1 systems and product keys.

What kept Windows 11 back from rising as quickly as Windows 10 was a change in system requirements. Microsoft changed the operating system’s minimum requirements, which meant that older systems could not upgrade to Windows 11 directly.

More or less any device purchased before 2018 could not be upgraded to Windows 11 using official means.

The end of Windows 7 and 8/8.1

End of Windows 7 and 8/8.1 support in January 2023 benefitted Windows 10 and 11 similarly. Windows 7 and 8/8.1 devices were upgraded to Windows 10, which was still possible at the time.

New devices, bought by Windows 7 and 8/8.1 users benefitted Windows 11 more than it helped Windows 10.

The vast majority of Windows devices are sold with Windows 11 nowadays.

Microsoft believes that Windows 11 devices will reach the 500 million mark in 2024.

Windows Central cites unnamed sources at Microsoft that said the the company’s expectations regarding Windows 11 were “set rather modestly” and that these have been surpassed consistently.

2025 is the year decisions need to be made

Windows 10 will reach end of support in 2025, at least for consumer editions. It will be interesting to see what users will do then. Some may upgrade their devices to Windows 11, or Windows 12, if the rumors of a new operating system are correct.

Many users may not be able to upgrade, because of the system requirements. It is unreasonable to assume that all of these will purchase new Windows devices in 2025.

Some may continue to run Windows 10, even though the operating system is no longer supported by Microsoft. It is unlikely that Microsoft is going to introduce Extended Security Updates for consumers. It has not done so when Windows 7 reached end of support.

Windows 10 users could migrate their devices to Linux. It is a chance for the open source operating system, but solutions need to be created to make the migration as painless as possible.

Verdict: Flop or not

Microsoft may have had higher hopes for Windows 11, but this is disputed in the internal document according to Windows Central. The company has been tight lipped about sales and monthly active devices, and that often means that things are not as good as hoped.

400 million devices is a sizeable number on the other hand. All of these will likely get the option to upgrade to Windows 12, if the operating system is released.

In closing, Windows 11 is not a flop, but it is not a hit either.

Now You: do you run Windows on your devices?

Why are some Apps System Components in Windows 11?

Posted on October 16, 2023October 16, 2023 by Martin Brinkmann

Native applications on Windows 11 will soon be divided into apps and system components. Microsoft introduced the change back in July in Insider builds and it looks as if it is going to roll out soon to stable versions of the operating system.

Windows 11 ships with a large number of apps. Some of these are classic apps, such as Paint, Notepad or Calculator. Others, including Game Bar and Phone Link, aren’t nearly as old. New apps are also introduced regularly.

Current versions of Windows 11 list all of these apps in a single listing under Settings > Apps > Installed Apps. Soon, some of these apps are moved to another location instead. It is located under Settings > System > System Components.

Microsoft announced the change back in July 2023. Back then, the company’s message focused on the Start Menu. It said:

Under All apps in the Start menu, Windows 11 system components will now show a “system” label. This change is beginning to roll out and so not all Insiders in the Dev Channel will see it right away.

System Components in Windows 11

The following apps are tagged as system components in future versions of Windows 11.

Game Bar
Get Help
Microsoft Store
Phone Link
Tips
Windows Security

Twitter user Techosaurusrex discovered this and published two screenshots of the new menu.

Microsoft does not explain why it made the decision to separate this assortment of apps from the rest. Some of them fit the definition of a system app, for example, Get Help or Windows Security.

Others, especially Game Bar and Phone Link, look somewhat out of place here. What makes them a system component and apps like the Feedback Hub or Remote Desktop Connection not?

Clearly, Microsoft wants to distinguish this particular assortment of apps from the rest. Maybe, and this has not been confirmed by Microsoft, it is an attempt to make it difficult to remove these apps from the system. Or, at least highlight to users that these apps are more important than others, even if that may not be true for all of them.

Installed Apps Windows 11: can't uninstall

Note that the listed apps can’t be uninstalled in the Settings app even on today’s systems. Only Advanced Options are displayed when users select the three-dots menu next to these apps.

Microsoft could make more apps System Components in the future. Some of the apps listed as System in Start are not included (yet) in System Components in Settings. This is the case for instance for Get Help and File Explorer.

Not Microsoft’s only attempt to protect apps

The recently launched Windows Backup app is another example of a new approach to releasing apps for Windows. This app, which is not a real backup app by any definition, is not listed as an app.

When you try to uninstall it, you will notice that it is not listed in All Apps in the Settings. Microsoft made the decision to integrate it into an Experience Package. While it is possible to remove that, doing so will also remove other apps and features from the system.

Others have noticed this as well and no one seems to be particularly happy about this change.

To be fair, Microsoft announced plans in August 2023 to drop the blocking of uninstalls of several apps. These apps — Camera, Cortana, People, Photos and Remote Desktop — aren’t system components. Cortana is on its way out, but the other four apps remain a part of Windows in the foreseeable future.

Windows Backup is not a “real” backup solution

Posted on October 9, 2023October 9, 2023 by Martin Brinkmann

Microsoft developed a new app for Windows 10 and 11, called Windows Backup, which is rolling out to systems that install the latest updates for these operating systems.

Previous backup options, such as File History, remain available for now.

The backup application uses Microsoft OneDrive to save some data. While that sounds like a good feature on paper, it is far away from that.

Windows Backup: the functionality

Windows users may run Windows Backup from the Start Menu. Open the Start Menu, type Windows Backup and select the result.

The application opens after a brief moment. It displays the “Let’s back up your PC” screen on start. The app lists the various backup elements in the middle, the estimated storage space on OneDrive, and back up and cancel buttons.

Apps, Settings, and Credentials are automatically transferred if the user is signed-in with a Microsoft account. Only the content listed under Folders is not.

Windows Backup lists just the special folders for backup there: Desktop, Documents, Pictures, Videos and Music. The app may omit some folders, especially if they don’t contain any user files. There is no option to select a custom folder for backup.

Each supported folder is listed with its size and a toggle to remove it from the task. A click on back up transfers the files to OneDrive.

The length of the process depends on the number of files in the selected folders. There is no option to restore files directly from the app. You need to open OneDrive, either on the local system or online, to access the files and restore them to the local system.

The “other” sources that backup uses

Windows Backup supports backing up information about apps, settings and credentials.

Remember installed apps and pinned app preferences.
Remember Windows settings and preferences: accessibility, language preferences and dictionary, other Windows settings, personalization.
Remember Wi-Fi networks and other passwords.

Here is what’s wrong with the Backup app

Windows users may only use the app if they sign-in with a Microsoft Account. Additionally, it can’t be used if Enterprise or Education accounts are used to sign-in.

If there is one point to criticize, it is the lack of backup options. Windows Backup supports backing up just the special folders. There is no option to select custom folders, let alone back up an entire drive.

Windows users who want to back up these folders can do so already using OneDrive, which is also available on Windows PCs.

Even File History, which remains available, supports backing up any folder to local drives or network drives.

The Windows Backup app lacks any option to restore files using it in addition. While Windows uses the backups on new PC setups or resets, it is the extent of the feature.

Not surprisingly is the focus on OneDrive as the only backup location, at least currently. All Microsoft account users get some OneDrive storage free of charge, but it is only 5 gigabytes. Microsoft charges a monthly subscription fee if users require more storage. Since OneDrive is the only option, there is little that users can do about that.

Manage Backups

Windows users may open Start > Settings Accounts > Windows Backup to control the backups. There, they may deselect the syncing of preferences and also add or remove folders from the backup process.

Note that these settings are specific to the active PC. There is no option to manage the backups of other Windows PCs from the Settings.

How to remove Windows Backup

Windows Backup is a system component. As such, it is not possible to remove it from the Windows device according to Microsoft.

A better backup alternative

There are quite a few free backup solutions available for Windows. The one that I use is Paragon Backup & Recovery, which ticks all the right boxes. Free, lets you back up files, folders, disks and the operating system, schedule backups and includes recovery options.

It is a full backup solution for Windows. You do need a second hard drive or optical disk device for the backups though, as cloud backups are not supported by it.

Now You: which backup application do you use?