Win11Debloat questions, answered

A free, open-source PowerShell script that removes preinstalled apps and turns off unwanted Windows features such as Copilot, Recall, telemetry, ads and Bing in search. It can also change the taskbar, Start menu and File Explorer. It has a wizard and a command line, and installs nothing. Overview.

Raphire makes it, on GitHub at Raphire/Win11Debloat, with community contributors. It is not made by Chris Titus Tech, whose tool is WinUtil, a separate project. Talon is a third tool that runs Win11Debloat as one of its steps. The name is sometimes misspelled “Rapphire” or “Sapphire”, and CTT (Chris Titus Tech), LeDragoX and Winhance are other, unrelated projects. Who makes what.

Yes. It is open source under the MIT license, with no paid version, account or ads. The project accepts optional donations.

2026.08.24, released August 24, 2026. Versions are named by date. See what changed in each one, and what is coming next, on releases.

No. win11debloat.dev is an independent guide. We test Win11Debloat on real Windows and explain it, but we do not make it. The official project is on GitHub. About this site.

The official script is open source, so every change can be read, and it saves a registry backup and a restore point before changing anything. The real risks are in what you choose to remove, and in copies from other sites. Full safety review.

The official script is not malware. Some antivirus tools and online sandboxes flag it because it downloads a script, asks for administrator rights and edits policies, which is also what malware does. A Win11Debloat .exe is never official. Why it gets flagged.

No. It contacts GitHub to download itself, and WinGet's sources when it removes Copilot, Edge or OneDrive. It has no tracking or telemetry of its own. What it connects to.

Default mode is designed to be safe for almost everyone. On our Windows 11 test PC, everything applied except two attempts to remove the Copilot app through WinGet. Trouble comes from optional removals: the Microsoft Store, Windows Terminal, Xbox sign-in components or Edge. The real risks, ranked.

No. It removes apps and changes settings. Your documents, photos and other files are not touched. The -ClearStart tweaks remove pinned shortcuts from the Start menu, not files.

Run the official one-line command in PowerShell, or download the release ZIP from GitHub and run Run.bat. There is no installer. Download page with hashes.

No. Win11Debloat is a PowerShell script. As of October 30, 2026 there is no official package in winget, Scoop, Chocolatey or the Microsoft Store, and the project has never shipped an .exe.

Start it, choose Default mode or pick your own apps and tweaks in the wizard, and apply. Restart the PC afterwards. Step-by-step guide with screenshots.

Yes. The one-liner and Run.bat ask for administrator rights themselves.

Usually one to three minutes. On our Windows 11 test PC, Default mode took 108 seconds. Removing apps is the slow part.

It is strongly recommended. Policies and some other changes only take full effect after a restart.

Yes. It is safe to run again, and the wizard's Detect applied tweaks shows what is already in effect. -RunSavedSettings repeats your last selection.

It makes a restore point, removes 84 apps that are safe for almost everyone, and applies 16 tweaks, among them telemetry, ads, Copilot, Recall, Bing in search and Widgets. It does not remove Edge, OneDrive or the Store. Everything Default mode does.

141 apps, each rated safe, optional or not recommended, including HP, Samsung and other OEM apps. You choose which. Full app list.

Default mode turns off Copilot, Recall and Widgets. Edge and OneDrive are kept unless you choose them. See Copilot, Recall, Edge, OneDrive and Widgets.

It lowers it to the minimum Windows allows: the policy it sets means "required diagnostic data only", and it turns off the advertising ID, tailored experiences, activity history and 8 telemetry scheduled tasks. Windows itself does not allow switching diagnostic data off entirely on Home and Pro. Privacy tweaks.

It does not touch Defender, and it changes one service: the Windows AI service no longer starts by itself. Everything else is registry settings, app removal, and 8 telemetry scheduled tasks. What we measured.

A little at most. It is mainly a clean-up: fewer apps, no ads, no Copilot. On our test PC it freed 803 MB of app files. We do not publish speed or RAM claims we could not measure fairly, and you should be wary of anyone who does. Our test results.

Some tweaks work through Windows policies, and Windows shows that message whenever a policy is set, even on a home PC. It is harmless. Which tweaks cause it and how to clear it.

Yes, on Windows 10 22H2. Tweaks for Windows 11 features are skipped in the wizard and Default mode, and -Sysprep does not work there. Win11Debloat on Windows 10.

Yes. Those are its main targets, and our tests run on Windows 11 25H2. Most tweaks have no upper version limit, so newer builds run it too, but check the releases page for fixes.

Arm: yes, we tested it on Windows 11 Arm64. Windows Server 2025 runs it, but has no System Restore, so answer Yes to continuing without a restore point. LTSC has few preinstalled apps, so app removal has little to do. Compatibility table.

Run it again and untick the tweak in the wizard, restore its registry backup, import the tweak's undo file, or use the restore point. Reinstall removed apps from the Microsoft Store. Undo guide and undo builder.

There is nothing to uninstall: it is a script, not an installed program. Deleting its folder does not undo its changes. With the one-liner, its settings, logs and backups stay in %TEMP%\Win11Debloat.

Monthly updates keep your settings. Major feature updates can bring some apps back and reset some settings. Run it again afterwards with -RunSavedSettings.

Most come back from the Microsoft Store or with one winget install command. Our app list gives the link or command for each one. Getting apps back.

App removal can pause for a minute or two, and WinGet removals have a 120-second limit each. If the window closes at once, the administrator prompt was declined or PowerShell is blocked. Troubleshooting, by error message.

A few people report this, and it has not been traced to a single tweak. The likeliest suspects are the Bing and Store search tweaks; reinstalling WebView2 fixed it for one user. Troubleshooting covers the known reports.

A confirmed bug on fresh Windows 11 installs, where OneDrive is installed for your account only. Uninstall it from Settings instead; the fix is in the next release. Details.

In the Logs folder next to the script, as Win11Debloat.log. With the one-liner, that is %TEMP%\Win11Debloat\Logs.

Yes. Add -Silent, and when running as SYSTEM add -Sysprep or -User, or it refuses to run. Check the log rather than the exit code. Automation guide.

Apps, yes: by default they are removed for all users. Per-user settings need one run per account with -User, plus -Sysprep for accounts created later.

Yes. Export a config file from the wizard's menu and run it elsewhere with -Config. Config files and checker.

No. It changes an installed Windows. For images, run it with -Sysprep in audit mode before capturing, or use an ISO builder such as tiny11. Win11Debloat vs tiny11.

Win11Debloat removes more apps and is simpler; WinUtil also installs software and changes services. Full comparison.

It depends on the job: Win11Debloat for cleaning the Windows you have, tiny11 for building a smaller ISO, O&O ShutUp10++ for privacy switches only. All alternatives compared.

Yes, partly: uninstall apps in Settings and turn off options one by one. Each of our guides shows the manual way too.