6 Windows 11 bloatware apps you’ll never use

Microsoft’sWindows 11 is one of the most popular operating systems on laptops and desktops because it’s packed with useful apps for most tasks. It can handle everything from browsing to emails and media playing, but includes many bloatware apps that don’t do much except take up space and clutter your system.

As a dedicated PC user, these are the six Windows 11 apps that I’d get rid of because of their mediocre functionality and overall user experience. I understand that there are fans of these apps, but that doesn’t change the fact that better options are available to perform the same tasks more efficiently.

1 Microsoft Clipchamp

Great in theory, but not in execution

Microsoft Clipchamp

Microsoft Clipchamp is a video-editing tool with templates, AI tools, and other features to make clips for social media sites like YouTube and TikTok.

Microsoft’s Clipchamp is a basic pre-installed video editing app for creating clips for social media and other platforms. It’s user-friendly, and the free version includes numerous templates and features like auto-captions, text-to-speech, and free background removal to make it appealing to beginners. For around $8 a month, you can get the premium version, which adds unlimited watermark-free exports, 4K resolution, and other features to justify its price.

So what’s the problem? Clipchamp works for basic jobs but is slow and prone to glitches. Professional video editing takes time, and restarting projects because of corruption and crashes can be frustrating. To make matters worse, Microsoft seems to acknowledge its shortfalls and advises users to close other tabs, use smaller input files, and more instead of fixing the problems. Most Windows users won’t use this app at all, while beginners might enjoy the free version, and professionals are better off with alternatives like Adobe Premiere Pro or Animotica.

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2 Sound Recorder

You’re better off using your phone

Microsoft/Pocket-lint

Sound Recorder

The Sound Recorder in Windows 11 can record voice notes and other sounds and share them with family and friends via email or Bluetooth.

Sound recorder, formerly Voice Recorder, is an easy way to record your voice and other sounds via an internal or external microphone and share them with family and friends via email or Bluetooth. It isn’t bad, but it serves little purpose in 2024 because of better options available on your phone.

Most phones come with built-in voice recording software, which includes modern features like speech-to-text, summarization, and translation functions to make things easier. They also offer better share options and can send recordings via messaging apps like WhatsApp or upload them to the cloud. Sending voice notes to people is far simpler via apps like WhatsApp and Google Messenger because they are recorded in your chat history and can be sent from anywhere without needing a PC.

3 Windows Notepad

The text-editing app that never dies

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Windows Notepad

Windows Notepad is a basic text-editing tool for writing simple documents. It also works for coders who want to create batch and script files to export into other programs.

At this point, Microsoft Notepad has been around for decades and is unlikely to be removed anytime soon. This simple text-editing app manages to march on despite stiff competition from its bigger brother, Wordpad, and is only practical for coders wanting to create batch files and scripts.

Notepad is too basic for most users who need formatting tools, font colors, and other useful features to get their jobs done. It doesn’t help that you can’t upload images and can only use one font for the entire document. Not being able to open most documents and Word or save in any format other than .txt makes it a niche program that 99 percent of users won’t use or take seriously.

4 Feedback Hub

Your feedback won’t make a difference

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Feedback Hub

Feedback Hub is a dedicated Windows 11 program that allows you to give Microsoft feedback about its software and recommendations about features you’d like to see in the future.

Imagine a world where Microsoft listened to your feedback to improve its products and let you decide which features you prefer. Well, the closest you’ll get is the Feedback app, which provides a platform to complain about your Windows problems and get help to solve support issues through the equally useless Tips app. You can also join the Windows Insider program and experience bugs and other software-related issues for free before anyone else.

It would be amazing if your feedback mattered and Microsoft made the changes to Windows 11 that users asked for. However, this isn’t the case, and the Feedback app is just a time-waster to give you the illusion that Microsoft cares about what you think and is willing to please you.

Outdated software with better options available

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Windows Media Player Legacy

Media Player Legacy is a preinstalled Windows 11 for playing music and videos, and you can also use it for burning CDs and DVDs.

Windows 11 includes two Media Player apps, with the Legacy version still available for users who still burn CDs and DVDs. The app hasn’t received any updates in years, which is probably good for its fanbase, who want to cling to the outdated interface, cheesy visualizations, and old MP3s instead of moving onto modern players and streaming platforms like Spotify or Tidal.

Some older programs were fantastic in their heyday. The same can’t be said for Media Player Legacy, which was fine for audio files but struggled with many video codecs, forcing people to use the superior VLC instead. It’s impossible to recommend Media Player Legacy in 2024 when the new and improved version installed in Windows 11 offers a modern interface and plays most video and audio formats.

6 Microsoft News

A cleaner interface with relevant news would make a difference

Pocket-lint

Microsoft News

Microsoft News displays popular articles from trusted media houses worldwide daily so you can keep up to date with headlines.

The pre-installed News app on Windows 11 routes you through Microsoft Start when looking for the latest headlines and stories from around the world. Having a new app is a great idea, but Microsoft’s offering fails because of its overwhelming interface that throws random content in your face in the hope of you reading it. You’d think it would be easier to read the news you want by

clicking on topics like money, sports, and more, but there’s just too much going on, especially with all the ads sprinkled in for good measure.

Most of us are busy and want streamlined interfaces with as little clutter as possible. Microsoft News provides the opposite with information overload. The app lets you personalize your newsfeed with topics like finance or entertainment. However, it makes little difference to experience because you still need to sift through junk to find what you’re looking for. Using Microsoft News will eat away at your valuable time, and better options are available if you want to catch the latest stories.