Remove bloatware from a new prebuilt through Windows’ own Settings > Apps list, uninstalling each unwanted program individually using its proper uninstaller rather than deleting files manually. This is the safest method, since it removes registry entries and associated files the way the software itself is designed to clean up, rather than leaving orphaned data behind. Resist the urge to delete program folders manually, since that shortcut almost always causes more cleanup work later.
Not everything pre-installed is bloatware in the negative sense — your prebuilt’s own RGB or fan-control utility, if it has one, is often the only supported way to manage those specific features, and removing it can mean losing functional control over your hardware, not just decluttering. Take a slow, deliberate first pass through the full list rather than rushing to clean everything up on day one.
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Quick answer
Open Windows Settings, go to Apps, and review the full installed list. Uninstall trial software, unrelated third-party toolbars, and unrecognized bundled apps using the standard Uninstall button for each. Keep anything clearly tied to your specific hardware (RGB, fan control, driver utilities from your builder or component manufacturers) unless you’ve confirmed you don’t need it.
| Category | Typical action | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Trial software (antivirus, office trials) | Remove if unused | Background processes, notifications, no ongoing value once expired |
| Builder’s own RGB/fan control app | Keep, unless replacing with third-party tool | Often the only supported control method for that hardware |
| Manufacturer driver utilities (GPU, motherboard) | Keep | Required for driver updates and hardware-specific features |
| Unrecognized third-party apps | Research before removing | Confirm it’s not tied to hardware before uninstalling |
Identifying what’s actually bloatware
Open Settings, then Apps, then Installed Apps (or the equivalent list depending on your Windows version) to see everything currently installed. Go through the list and separate it mentally into three categories: software you clearly recognize and want to keep, software you don’t recognize at all, and software you recognize as bundled trial or promotional content you don’t need.
For anything you don’t recognize, search the exact app name before deciding — some builder-specific or component-specific utilities have names that aren’t immediately obvious but serve a real function, like a motherboard manufacturer’s driver update tool or a specific fan-control utility tied to your case’s included fans. A quick search almost always resolves the uncertainty within a minute or two. Removing these can mean losing functionality, not just freeing up space.
Common genuine bloatware categories include trial antivirus software (often set to nag with renewal prompts once the trial expires), trial productivity software bundles, browser toolbars or extensions installed alongside other software, and promotional game trials or launcher shortcuts unrelated to your own gaming library. Recognizing these patterns speeds up every future cleanup pass you do.
A practical way to triage a long, unfamiliar app list efficiently: sort it by install date if your Windows version’s Apps list supports that, since nearly everything relevant to bloatware cleanup will share the same install date as the system itself (the date the builder finished configuring the machine before shipping). Anything you personally installed afterward is obviously not a bloatware candidate at all and can be skipped in this pass, letting you focus your research time specifically on the factory-installed batch rather than re-evaluating your entire software library.
Uninstalling through Windows Settings
In the Apps list, click on the specific app you want to remove and select Uninstall, following any prompts the individual uninstaller presents — some programs offer additional options during uninstall, like removing saved settings or leaving certain files behind, worth reading rather than clicking through automatically.
Work through your list of confirmed-unwanted apps one at a time rather than trying to remove everything at once, since some uninstalls trigger a restart requirement, and running into an unexpected restart mid-batch can be confusing if you’ve lost track of what’s already been removed.
Restart your PC after uninstalling a batch of apps, since some cleanup only completes fully after a reboot, and starting fresh makes it easier to verify the apps are actually gone rather than just hidden from the current session’s list.
What to keep even if it looks unfamiliar
Your prebuilt’s specific control center app — whatever your builder uses for RGB lighting, fan curves, or overall system monitoring — is worth keeping installed even if you don’t plan to use every feature, since it’s frequently the only supported way to adjust certain settings on that exact hardware combination. If you decide later you don’t want it running constantly in the background, check its settings for an option to disable auto-start rather than fully uninstalling it, preserving the ability to use it again later if needed.
GPU and motherboard driver utilities (from NVIDIA, AMD, Intel, or your motherboard manufacturer) should generally stay installed, since they’re how you receive driver updates and, in some cases, access hardware-specific features and monitoring that aren’t available any other way.
If you’re unsure whether a specific pre-installed app is essential, disabling it from starting automatically (rather than uninstalling it outright) is a safer middle-ground first step — you get the background-process and startup-time benefit without the risk of losing functionality you might need later.
Disabling startup apps instead of uninstalling
Open Task Manager and go to the Startup Apps tab (or Startup tab on older Windows versions), which lists every program configured to launch automatically when Windows starts, along with an estimated impact rating for each. Disabling an app here stops it from launching automatically without uninstalling it entirely, which is a reasonable middle step for software you’re not certain you want to remove completely.
This is particularly useful for legitimate hardware utilities you want available but don’t need running constantly in the background — you can launch them manually when needed while freeing up the startup-time and background-resource cost the rest of the time. It’s a low-risk middle ground worth defaulting to whenever you’re genuinely unsure, since it costs nothing to reverse later if you change your mind about a specific app.
Checking the impact after cleanup
After removing or disabling unwanted software, check Task Manager’s Performance tab or Startup Apps impact ratings to get a rough sense of the difference, and compare your system’s boot time before and after if you want a more concrete before/after comparison. The improvement from bloatware removal alone is generally modest — freed-up background resources and faster startup — rather than a dramatic gaming performance change, since actual gameplay performance depends much more on your CPU, GPU, and driver configuration than on background bloatware.
If you were hoping bloatware removal would resolve a specific performance problem in games and it doesn’t, that’s a sign the real bottleneck is elsewhere — worth investigating through benchmarking and monitoring rather than assuming further cleanup will fix it.
A concrete way to measure the before-and-after difference rather than relying on a subjective impression: note your Task Manager-reported memory and background process count at idle immediately before starting cleanup, and check the same figures again after a fresh restart once cleanup is done. A meaningful reduction in idle background processes and memory use is a genuine, measurable sign the cleanup accomplished something real, even if it doesn’t translate into a dramatically different in-game frame rate.
Removing bloatware safely
- Open Settings, then Apps, and review the full installed list.
- Sort by install date if available, focusing on the batch that matches the system’s original build date.
- Research any unrecognized app name before deciding to remove it.
- Keep your builder’s own RGB/fan-control utility and manufacturer driver tools.
- Uninstall confirmed trial software and unrelated bundled apps one at a time using the standard Uninstall function.
- Restart after a batch of uninstalls to complete any pending cleanup.
- For software you’re unsure about, disable auto-start in Task Manager instead of uninstalling outright.
- Compare boot time and background resource usage before and after as a rough check on the impact.
Handling software that resists standard uninstallation
A small number of bundled applications, particularly some trial security suites, install themselves with their own dedicated removal tool separate from the standard Windows uninstaller, specifically because they hook deeply into system-level processes (like network filtering for a security product) that a generic uninstaller isn’t equipped to fully unwind. If the standard Windows uninstall option for one of these apps fails, errors out, or leaves obvious leftover behavior, check the software publisher’s support site for a dedicated removal tool built specifically for that product, rather than resorting to manually deleting files, which risks leaving broken system-level hooks behind.
This is a genuinely different situation from ordinary bloatware, and treating it the same way (a simple uninstall click) can leave a partially removed security product actively interfering with network traffic or system performance in ways that are hard to diagnose later. Recognizing this specific category before you start cleanup, rather than discovering it mid-process, saves a second round of troubleshooting.
When bloatware removal doesn’t help
If your actual concern is gaming performance rather than clutter or boot time, bloatware removal is unlikely to be the fix — check your GPU and CPU drivers, power plan, and in-game settings first, since those have a much larger effect on frame rate than background pre-installed software typically does.
A full clean Windows reinstall removes bloatware more thoroughly than individual uninstalls, but it also removes manufacturer-specific drivers and utilities you may still need, and requires reinstalling your own software from scratch. This is a more disruptive option best reserved for situations where individual cleanup genuinely isn’t sufficient, rather than a default first step.
Some deeply integrated manufacturer software can be difficult to fully remove through the standard uninstaller alone, occasionally leaving background services running even after the visible app is uninstalled — check Task Manager’s processes list after uninstalling to confirm nothing related is still running.
Building the habit of doing a light cleanup pass roughly once every few months, rather than treating it as a one-time task done only right after purchase, keeps a system from slowly accumulating new trial software and browser extensions bundled in with legitimate driver or game updates over time. A quick recurring check of the Apps list and Task Manager’s Startup tab takes only a few minutes and prevents the kind of gradual buildup that eventually justifies a much larger, more disruptive cleanup effort down the line.
Troubleshooting
Symptom: RGB lighting or fan control stops working after removing an app. Cause: the removed app was the control software for that specific hardware feature. Fix: reinstall the app if it’s still available from the manufacturer’s site, since you may have removed a functional utility rather than true bloatware.
Symptom: An app keeps reappearing after being uninstalled. Cause: some software reinstalls itself through a scheduled task or a background updater service that wasn’t removed along with the main application. Fix: check Task Scheduler for related entries, and check Task Manager’s Startup Apps tab for anything still associated with the removed software.
Symptom: System feels the same after removing bloatware. Cause: the removed apps weren’t consuming significant background resources to begin with, or the actual performance concern is unrelated to background software. Fix: check Task Manager’s Performance tab and consider whether the real issue is drivers, settings, or hardware rather than pre-installed software.
Symptom: Uninstalling a driver utility broke GPU or motherboard functionality. Cause: some monitoring or driver-update utilities are more tightly integrated with hardware function than they appear. Fix: reinstall the manufacturer’s driver package directly from their official site to restore proper functionality.
Symptom: Idle background process count and memory use look identical before and after a cleanup pass. Cause: the removed apps weren’t set to auto-start or run in the background in the first place, so their removal had little effect on idle resource usage. Fix: check Task Manager’s Startup Apps tab specifically for anything still configured to launch automatically, since that’s the more direct lever for reducing idle resource use than uninstalling apps that were already inactive at idle.
When to just leave something alone
Not every unfamiliar-looking entry needs a decision made about it immediately. If something is unrecognized, isn’t causing any obvious performance or annoyance issue, and your quick research turns up no clear answer either way, it’s reasonable to leave it installed and disabled from startup rather than force a removal decision on incomplete information — a cautious middle ground beats guessing wrong on something that turns out to matter.
Frequently asked questions
Is it safe to remove every pre-installed app on a new prebuilt?
No. Some pre-installed software, particularly the builder’s own RGB, fan control, or monitoring utilities, is functional and sometimes the only supported way to control specific hardware features. Trial software, third-party toolbars, and unrelated bundled apps are generally safe to remove; anything tied to a hardware component you actually use is worth checking first.
Will removing bloatware improve my gaming performance?
It can help modestly, mainly by freeing up background CPU cycles, memory, and startup time from processes that were running unnecessarily. Don’t expect a dramatic FPS increase from bloatware removal alone — the bigger performance factors are your actual hardware and driver setup.
What’s the safest way to remove pre-installed software?
Windows’ built-in Settings > Apps list, using the standard uninstall function for each app individually, is the safest method since it uses each program’s own proper uninstaller rather than deleting files manually, which can leave broken registry entries or incomplete removals.
Should I do a full clean Windows reinstall instead of removing bloatware individually?
A clean reinstall does remove all pre-installed software at once, but it also removes any manufacturer-specific drivers and utilities you may need, and requires reinstalling everything else from scratch. Individual removal is more targeted and less disruptive for most people.
How do I know if a pre-installed app is actually bloatware or something the PC needs?
If you don’t recognize the app’s name or purpose and it isn’t clearly tied to a specific piece of your hardware (RGB lighting, fan control, a driver utility), it’s likely safe to research and potentially remove. If in doubt, search the exact app name before uninstalling rather than guessing.
Marcus Reilly evaluates pre-installed software on review units in his two-bench test lab before benchmarking, since leftover trial software can skew results if left running in the background. For related setup steps, see how to upgrade a prebuilt gaming PC and how to check if a prebuilt has bottlenecks. If you’re deciding whether to keep or replace your builder’s bundled software entirely, worst gaming PC brands to avoid covers some patterns worth knowing before your next purchase.
