If you have been a Xiaomi, Realme, POCO or any such smartphone user which comes with loads of pre-loaded bloatware, you know how annoying it is. Sadly, it is not just limited to your Android phones and knowing how to remove bloatware from Windows and Mac is important too. Yes, both these leading operating systems also come pre-loaded with bloatware.
Now, for both Mac and Windows systems, removal procedures for bloatware are obviously different. However, you don’t have to worry about a thing. We will take you through the entire process step-by-step. Before that, let us take a quick look at what bloatware exactly is and whether it poses any sort of threat to your PC.
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What Exactly Is Bloatware?
Bloatware refers to unnecessary applications that take up space on your PC right out of the box. In other words, these apps either come pre-loaded or are accidentally injected into your system through suspicious websites. Whatever the case may be, getting rid of bloatware is key to keeping your PC healthy.
But, are all the bloatware that come pre-loaded, bad? The answer is no. Some are very useful and can come really handy. Moreover, most of such bloatware can be easily uninstalled. However, the other kind of bloatware may pose a serious threat to your PC.
These are loaded into the system by clicking on links on malicious websites. They can also come bundled with software packages, especially if you are pirating one via torrent.
How To Detect Malicious Bloatware?
Fortunately, there are some tell-tale signs that your PC is infected with malicious bloatware. Let us take a look at the signs. If you have been facing any of these, it is time to uninstall some bloatware from your system.
- The application is way more difficult to uninstall than others
- You get spam notifications on your desktop for no reason all of a sudden
- You don’t recognise the application that has been installed as bloatware
- Your PC is slowing down and crashing miserably
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How to Remove Bloatware from Windows?
How to remove bloatware from Windows using a regular uninstall?
Removing bloatware from Windows is easier than it may sound. For most pre-loaded bloatware, you can simply opt for a regular uninstall. If you are not familiar with the standard uninstall procedure of apps on Windows 10 and Windows 11, check out these steps:
Step 1: Press the Windows Key + I key shortcut on your keyboard.
Step 2: You will see an option called Apps & Features. Click on this.
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Step 3: Search for the bloatware that you want to uninstall.
Step 4: Select the application and hit Uninstall.
How to remove bloatware from Windows using PowerShell?
Now, in some of the bloatware apps, the uninstall button may be greyed out. This means that such applications can’t be uninstalled via the regular method. For such apps, you need to use Windows PowerShell to force them to uninstall. Here’s how to do it:
Step 1: Hit the Windows + X shortcut keys
Step 2: You will see a popup list
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Step 3: Select Windows PowerShell (Admin) from the list
Step 4: Now, use the command Get-AppxPackage. This will show you a list of bloatware that come pre-loaded.
Step 5: Type Remove-AppxPackage after mentioning the bloatware you want to uninstall. For example: “Get-AppxPackage -name “Microsoft.BingWeather” | Remove-AppxPackage”
How To Remove Bloatware From Mac?
Now that you know how to remove bloatware from Windows systems, let us shift our focus to Mac. As Mac is way more secure than Windows and does not really allow you to easily install third-party applications, there are limited ways for it to get infected with bloatware. Pre-loaded applications are not going to inject your system with malware. However, they do take up a lot of memory and space. This may slow it down unnecessarily.
There are two primary sources of bloatware on Mac. These are:
- Pre-installed applications
- Browser extensions
How to remove pre-installed applications on Mac?
If you know how to uninstall bloatware from Windows via regular uninstall, it is pretty straightforward on Mac too. Follow these steps:
Step 1: First things first, click on Finder from your Mac Dock.
Step 2: In the sidebar, look for Applications. Click on it.
Step 3: Select the bloatware application that you want to uninstall.
Step 4: Right-click on it and select Info.
Step 5: At the very bottom, find the Lock icon and click on it.
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Step 6: Then, Enter your password.
Step 7: Head over to Sharing and Permissions and change the settings to Read & Write For Everyone.
Step 8: You should now be able to uninstall pre-loaded bloatware from your Mac.
How to remove browser extensions on Mac?
When you are on Mac, chances are that Safari is your go-to browser. Keeping that in mind, let us take a quick look at how to remove browser extensions on Safari:
Step 1: Launch Safari on your Mac system.
Step 2: Hit the Command + Coma Key shortcut to open Safari Preferences tab.
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Step 3: Head over to the Extensions tab.
Step 4: Take a look at all the installed extensions and click on Uninstall to get rid of the malicious ones.
How To Remove Bloatware From Windows & Mac – Final Thoughts
Often, we tend to not double-check the authenticity of websites that we visit or apps that we install. It is always important to be picky about installing apps into your system. This is primarily because all it takes is just one super malicious app to take your PC down.
The threat becomes tenfold on Windows systems as there is no limit to what you can install. We do hope that if you are facing such an issue and your PC is giving you unnecessary problems, you can try the above-mentioned methods and get rid of bloatware.
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