Kevin’s Picks: Windows Toolbox
Windows 11 comes bundled with several Microsoft apps that you may not have any need for, and it's a real pain and can be very time consuming to either remove the ones they will allow you to remove, or to simply disable the others.
You can prevent many of them from being installed at all during a clean install of Windows 11 (NOT a reset), but that involves technical steps like partitioning you probably want to avoid.
The best alternative I've found so far is called the Windows Toolbox from Chris Titus Tech. It's $10US, but I consider that a very fair bargain for what it does.
Of course, this shouldn't have to be necessary if Microsoft could just gives users the CHOICE, but they don't, so we must do things like this.
I have used the Windows Toolbox many times now, and it works very well! It will open in Windows Power Shell first, but you'll quickly see an easy-to-use program with options. I mainly use the "Tweaks" tab.
Here are exactly the settings I change, and Windows Toolbox makes these changes in real time.
- Disable telemetry (tracking, reporting anonymous usage to Microsoft)
- Disable Hibernation
- Remove ALL MS Store Apps
- Remove OneDrive
- Set Classic Right-Click Menu
Under "Customize Preferences" on the right:
- Disable Bing Search in Start Menu
- NumLock on Startup
- Show File Extensions
- Disable Snap Assist Flyout
I leave the rest alone. Change other items if you'd like, but I recommend only changing items you recognize.
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