Skip to main content

You can finally purge your PC of default Windows apps

A new piece of EU regulation is forcing tech companies to make some drastic changes to policy. To stay compliant with the Digital Markets Act, Apple is being forced to adopt RCS for iPhones and Microsoft will now let you uninstall the Edge browser from your Windows 11 PC.

Microsoft published a blog post with all the details on how it will stay compliant, but the biggest change is the ability to uninstall default apps. Edge is chief among them, but you’ll also be able to uninstall Camera, Cortana, and Photos. You can even uninstall Bing from Web Search.

The news feed in the Windows 11 panel.
Microsoft

This is important because, even if you’ve chosen a different browser as your default, there are some situations where Windows 11 will force you to use Edge — although this has changed in Europe recently. Being able to uninstall Edge solves this problem. But it’s also a reversal on how Microsoft has handled default apps in general, especially given how hard Microsoft has pushed adoption of the Edge browser on Windows 11 PCs in particular. Just go ahead and try to change your default browser or search for “Google Chrome” in Bing Search and see what happens.

Recommended Videos

There’s a catch to these changes, though. The ability to uninstall Edge and Bing in particular ia reserved for only PCs sold in the European Economic Area (EEA). While that includes nearly every country in Europe, it does not include PCs sold in the U.S. — or anywhere else in the world, for that matter. So, while you’ll be able to uninstall Camera and Photos, the two big applications are left off the table for non-EEA PCs for some reason.

The other big change for EEA PCs is to the Widgets Board. You’ll be able to turn off the Microsoft News and ads feed alongside your widgets. Again,this is not a change that seems to be available for PCs sold outside the EEA.

These changes (and more) will be rolled out to the Release Preview Channel for Windows Insiders as update version 23H2. The changes will also be coming to Windows 10 (versions 22H2 and 23H2) in the EEA by March 6 of 2024.

All this is being done to comply with the Digital Markets Act, a piece of legislation that’s meant to ensure users have choices and that large companies don’t abuse power over competition.

Luke Larsen
Former Senior Editor, Computing
Luke Larsen is the Senior Editor of Computing, managing all content covering laptops, monitors, PC hardware, Macs, and more.
Razer lets you stream your PC games on mobile, and you can try it out right now
Razer PC Remote Play visual.

Originally announced at CES in January, Razer's new PC Remote Play platform has now officially launched. Designed to let you borrow the processing power of your desktop PC while playing on a separate device, the service is compatible with smartphones, tablets, Windows PC gaming handhelds, laptops, and even other desktop PCs.

In terms of operating systems, you'll need Windows 10 or 11 on your PCs or on mobile, iOS 18 or Android 14 and up. You can also pair your device with any iOS or Android-compatible controller, or with any mouse and keyboard. If you use one of Razer's own Kishi Ultra controllers, you'll also benefit from some fancy haptic feedback.

Read more
Windows 11’s controversial AI Recall feature is coming to your Copilot+ PC very soon
The Surface Pro 11 on a white table in front of a window.

As AI strides on, it inevitably finds its way onto our personal devices, with tech giants announcing new features that rely on accessing our private information and media to serve us better. While some might find this useful, others are bound to find it creepy, and one such feature is Microsoft's controversial AI Recall, which takes screenshots of everything you do on a Copilot+ PC so it's easier to trace back your steps and find something specific later. After being announced last year, and then witnessing a few delays, Recall is finally rolling out to a broader group of Windows 11.

Microsoft recently announced Recall is coming to Windows 11 with the latest Release channel update with build 26100.3902 (KB5055627). The feature's availability in the Windows 11 Release Preview channel, which succeeds the Beta channel in the Windows Insider program, means it is in the initial phases of being available to a wider audience of folks who own Copilot+ PC. This category of PCs currently includes a whole wide range of laptops with specialized hardware in the form of a neural processing unit (NPU) dedicatedly for running AI tasks, though we might see desktops joining the club soon.

Read more
3 open source AI apps you can use to replace your ChatGPT subscription
Phone running Deepseek on a laptop keyboard.

The next leg of the AI race is on, and has expanded beyond the usual players, such as OpenAI, Google, Meta, and Microsoft. In addition to the dominance of the tech giants, more open-source options have now taken to the spotlight with a new focus in the AI arena.

Various brands, such as DeepSeek, Alibaba, and Baidu, have demonstrated that AI functions can be developed and executed at a fraction of the cost. They have also navigated securing solid business partnerships and deciding or continuing to provide AI products to consumers as free or low-cost, open source models, while larger companies double down on a proprietary, for-profit trajectory, hiding their best features behind a paywall.

Read more