How To Uninstall Apps On Xbox One

How To: Properly remove XBOX GamePass / Windows Store Games and Apps if they don't uninstall correctly and keep eating space on Win10/11

Thread starter Skyfireblaze
Start date Aug 23, 2021

You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an alternative browser.

IMPORTANT INFO: As user flyinj noted this won't help you if your AppX database got corrupted. It will still reclaim space but likely not fix any installation issues! This guide is really just for these cases where you uninstall a game, it gets removed from the database and isn't listed anywhere anymore and yet you didn't get space back. Also please check the Threadmarks for other important posts!

Alright I figured I make this thread because alot of people seem to run into the issue of Win10/11 UWP games and apps not properly uninstalling and then they try various methods to fix the problem which in some cases make things only worse. I don't know why this problem happens but it's pretty easy to cleanly fix when it does if you know how to do it. These games are installed in the "WindowsApps" folder of any particular drive and can't be accessed in normal ways due to the way Windows permissions work.

Windows has three layers of permissions:

Layer 3: This is the User Layer, these are for files and apps that generally don't touch the system and belong to your own user-account in Windows, you can access and modify them freely.

Layer 2: This is the Administrator layer that you still have to specifically grant permissions for even if you User Account is set to be an Admin. This happens via UAC when you launch a program that has to access the system in a deeper manner and also applies to folders like C:\Program Files where you have to give extra permissions to modify files and folders.

Layer 1: This layer is called the Trusted Installer layer and used to protect the Windows folder, the WindowsApps folders on all drives and various other critical system files and folders and it's also the way Windows Update for example can modify the system.

Generally there is no way to access this level of permission by normal means and for a good reason as when you have Trusted Installer rights you can bypass most of Windows' self-protections and as such royally screw up your system.

What you DON'T want to do to fix the problem of games taking up space:

Do not mess with security permissions and the ownership of files and folders! Seriously don't, there is a chance it will go fine but it might also cause hard to diagnose problems later on. Windows has its permissions and ownership set for a reason and there's no need to mess with this.

How to get your space back cleanly:

Well we can't access the WindowsApps folder where the game that takes up our space is normally and we don't want to mess with permissions and ownership either so what do we do? We will temporarily give ourselves Trusted Installer rights and as such sidestep the issue in a super clean way. To do this download this tool: https://github.com/jschicht/RunAsTI

Click the green "Code" button then "Download as .zip" and then extract the archive and then just run "RunAsTI64.exe".

This will spawn a CMD with Trusted Installer rights, as said be careful what you enter here, Windows can't protect itself if you have this kind of power!

We'll start out in the directory "C:\Windows\System32", now just follow these steps:

- If the game you want to remove was installed to your C: drive, enter the command cd.. twice, this moves you back to the root of the C: drive

- If the game was on any other drive, enter X: where "X" stands for the drive-letter of the drive

- Then just type cd WindowsApps ("cd" stands for "Choose Directory") and then we are in the WindowsApps folder we couldn't access normally, if the game was on the C: drive the correct folder is cd "Program Files\WindowsApps" with the quotes.

- Enter dir this will list all folders inside the WindowsApps folder, from there it's time to identify the folder of the game you want to delete.

- WindowsApps game folder usually have long and crude names but they should be always easily identifiable with the exception of Forza Horizon 3 and 4

- From the top of my head FH3 has something with OpusPG in its name and FH4 is called SunriseBaseGame something in its name, in the worst case, look on Google

- Now when you identified what folder you want to delete enter this: rmdir /f /s FOLDERNAME (You don't have to type out the whole folder name, it's enough to type the first few letters and then press TAB to auto-complete but make sure it truly has the correct folder name!)

- Windows will as if you really want to do this, type Y to confirm. "rmdir" stands for "Remove Directory" and "/f" stands for "force" and "/s" for "Include all subfolders"

That's it, your space should be back and you can close the CMD and delete RunAsTI if you wish :)

If you need any help just ask here and I'll see what I can do!

DISCLAIMER: I take no responsibility if you mess up your system with wrong commands, as they say: "With great power comes great responsibility!" :P

Last edited: Aug 23, 2021

After looking at all of that, I think I'll just not bother using the Windows store.

Would this be able to be verified by way of testing and being reported as to have worked often enough to be recommended?

I'd be keen to try this if it were covered by a tech or games news outlet, but I agree you still have to exercise some caution as you point out.

: Oct 25, 2017

: 12,121

: Seoul

Thanks I have a no man's sky install that vanished last year

It is fucking WILD that we have to run DOS in 2021 to properly remove games when MS is handling things...

WTF are they doing?

Would this be able to be verified by way of testing and being reported as to have worked often enough to be recommended?
I'd be keen to try this if it were covered by a tech or games news outlet, but I agree you still have to exercise some caution as you point out.

Technically, this is nothing more than a command prompt that has the proper rights to delete the folders. There's nothing super in depth to "test" about it.

It's still absolute shit that we have to resort to this. At one point I just completely nuked my SSD because I couldn't remove or fix a game.

After looking at all of that, I think I'll just not bother using the Windows store.

that's the best solution

I'll give this a try. My current workaround has been to install them on a separate GamePass drive, and just wipe the drive entirely once a year or so.

Technically, this is nothing more than a command prompt that has the proper rights to delete the folders. There's nothing super in depth to "test" about it.
It's still absolute shit that we have to resort to this. At one point I just completely nuked my SSD because I couldn't remove or fix a game.

Agreed, and I've done that circa early 2020 across three separate drives on my system inc. SSD - I'm going to attempt a more exact solution now I've found about 30gb from uninstalled games recently.

I still actually enjoy the service.

It is fucking WILD that we have to run DOS in 2021 to properly remove games when MS is handling things...
WTF are they doing?

It's not DOS, it's a command line terminal.

Isn't it C:\Program Files\WindowsApps, not C:\WindowsApps? Installs on other drive might put it under root-folder though (if installing on other drives is even possible with Store apps).

After looking at all of that, I think I'll just not bother using the Windows store.

First post nails it.

MS should work on this to make it easy for users…

How have MS still not sorted this shit out

I've never had an issue like this and I hope I never do, but I've saved and bookmarked this post just in case because I'm paranoid it'll happen one day. Thank you OP!

I have Game Pass stuff installed on a different SSD. Haven't had any problems yet, but if I did I will just nuke the drive.

MS makes it really hard for me to want to re-sub to GamePass with this still being an issue. And I don't see GP moving away from the Windows Store any time soon.

If this works cleanly without problems down the line... cool. But it boggles my mind how this is much different than any of the attempted fixes in the other gamepass storage issues thread.

I noped out of gamepass the first month after an installed game was having issues updating then reinstalled itself, but I hope this can help users.

The only time I've had problems with the store was after I had taken ownership of the WindowsApps folders, back in 2016. So yes, don't do that. In my case, games deleted themselves after patching and all that was left was the patch files themselves. The permission rights should revert to default when updating Windows 10 to a newer major version, so I didn't have problems when I used the store last year.

Stil, this would all be better if games installed normally like any other program installed outside the store. At this point on my new PC I'm not sure I want to risk it, so I'd actually buy a series X as a GamePass machine right now.

MS should stop being obtuse and install their games normally like other devs. There's no benefit to this system.

All it does is cause issues and punish users who want to access the installation folder for their games. PC as a platform should be open and not closed off like consoles.

It's insane that this isn't fixed yet

Gotta love the PC. If there is an issue, then you best believe you can fix it yourself.

Goes without saying that the Windows team should really address this problem.

Threadmarks Interesting info about Delivery Optimization

Thanks for taking the time to write this up - though I'd hope there's a better way than doing it via the command line, as that's not easy for most people.
It's very frustrating when people say: "just take ownership of the WindowsApps folder" and then complain later about how the Microsoft Store doesn't work anymore.

Something I want to point out for people, though:

the very first step you should take is to run Disk Clean-Up.
Most of the time, when that disk space is "missing," what is happening is that it's been cached by the Delivery Optimization service so that it can be easily reinstalled or installed on another computer on your local network without having to download it again.
That space should clear up automatically if you run out of storage and the system needs to use it, but running Disk Clean-Up will force it to happen immediately.
And I believe that someone here has also said that disabling the Delivery Optimization Service prevented it from happening again on their system - though I have not confirmed it myself.

As an example, I downloaded Quantum Break, and then deleted it.

42.3 GB when "missing" when I did this.
But running Disk Clean-Up shows 42.3 GB being used by the Delivery Optimization service:

It should clear out itself if the disk was running out of space, but there was still 349.9 GB free.
If you really need the space or want to clean it out for peace of mind, running the Disk Clean-Up would clear it for you without having to do anything else.

And I don't mean to derail, but I find it extremely difficult to read large amounts of text when you're hitting enter twice after every line. I've noticed that a few posters here seem to do that.
I thought it was bad enough when people double-spaced after a period.

Alright I figured I make this thread because alot of people seem to run into the issue of Win10/11 UWP games and apps not properly uninstalling and then they try various methods to fix the problem which in some cases make things only worse.
I don't know why this problem happens but it's pretty easy to cleanly fix when it does if you know how to do it.
These games are installed in the "WindowsApps" folder of any particular drive and can't be accessed in normal ways due to the way Windows permissions work.
Windows has three layers of permissions:

Layer 3: This is the User Layer, these are for files and apps that generally don't touch the system and belong to your own user-account in Windows, you can access and modify them freely.

Layer 2: This is the Administrator layer that you still have to specifically grant permissions for even if you User Account is set to be an Admin. This happens via UAC when you launch a program that has to access the system in a deeper manner and also applies to folders like C:\Program Files where you have to give extra permissions to modify files and folders.

Layer 1: This layer is called the Trusted Installer layer and used to protect the Windows folder, the WindowsApps folders on all drives and various other critical system files and folders and it's also the way Windows Update for example can modify the system.

Generally there is no way to access this level of permission by normal means and for a good reason as when you have Trusted Installer rights you can bypass most of Windows' self-protections and as such royally screw up your system.
What you DON'T want to do to fix the problem of games taking up space:
Do not mess with security permissions and the ownership of files and folders! Seriously don't, there is a chance it will go fine but it might also cause hard to diagnose problems later on. Windows has its permissions and ownership set for a reason and there's no need to mess with this.

How to get your space back cleanly:
Well we can't access the WindowsApps folder where the game that takes up our space is normally and we don't want to mess with permissions and ownership either so what do we do? We will temporarily give ourselves Trusted Installer rights and as such sidestep the issue in a super clean way. To do this download this tool: https://github.com/jschicht/RunAsTI
Click the green "Code" button then "Download as .zip" and then extract the archive and then just run "RunAsTI64.exe".
This will spawn a CMD with Trusted Installer rights, as said be careful what you enter here, Windows can't protect itself if you have this kind of power!

We'll start out in the directory "C:\Windows\System32", now just follow these steps:

If the game you want to remove was installed to your C: drive, enter the command cd.. twice, this moves you back to the root of the C: drive

If the game was on any other drive, enter X: where "X" stands for the drive-letter of the drive

Then just type cd WindowsApps ("cd" stands for "Choose Directory") and then we are in the WindowsApps folder we couldn't access normally

Enter dir this will list all folders inside the WindowsApps folder, from there it's time to identify the folder of the game you want to delete.

WindowsApps game folder usually have long and crude names but they should be always easily identifiable with the exception of Forza Horizon 3 and 4

From the top of my head FH3 has something with OpusPG in its name and FH4 is called SunriseBaseGame something in its name, in the worst case, look on Google

Now when you identified what folder you want to delete enter this: rmdir /f /s FOLDERNAME (You don't have to type out the whole folder name, it's enough to type the first few letters and then press TAB to auto-complete but make sure it truly has the correct folder name!)

Windows will as if you really want to do this, type Y to confirm. "rmdir" stands for "Remove Directory" and "/f" stands for "force" and "/s" for "Include all subfolders"

That's it, your space should be back and you can close the CMD and delete RunAsTI if you wish :)
If you need any help just ask here and I'll see what I can do!
DISCLAIMER: I take no responsibility if you mess up your system with wrong commands, as they say: "With great power comes great responsibility!" :P

How have MS still not sorted this shit out

Most of the time it's not even a problem, except for people that constantly worry over how much free disk space they have, for some reason.

Last edited: Aug 23, 2021

Someone's gonna follow this and remove system32 instead lol

How have MS still not sorted this shit out

This.

Insane that this is still a thing years later

If I like to royally screw up my system, then let me do that. I shouldn't have to resort to these kind of solutions to access things on my drive.

Thanks. Putting this in my bookmarks.

How have MS still not sorted this shit out

Has MS even acknowledged that this is a problem? I've only ever seen people on Era talk about it

It continues to be absolutely baffling how terrible the integration of Microsoft's own products is on PC.

Everyone else has been happily installing and uninstalling stuff for years (with the odd fuckup like that time uninstalling EvE Online would also delete your System32 folder) yet Microsoft's own store has to do some cryptic bullshit and leave the user to jump through hoops when it goes wrong.

I geunuinely don't get how this is still a problem. It makes no sense.

i wish ms would cut a deal with ea to host game pass on origin too

Can't you simply go to the storage option in settings and remove the game files there ?

Windows Store, not even once

I have a weak old PC so I never game on it but I thought the Windows Store was redone recently?

People have said that even if I have a dedicated drive for gamepass it will instill download some stuff to my main windows drive.

Any idea on how the check that out?

Anyway, great thread OP I'll bookmark it.

Now This makes total sense why the stuff becomes inaccessible since users dont have the trusted installer rights.

Doesn't work for me. Github just downloads a 0 byte zip. I'm having no issues on my end with net stuff and can download other github stuff just fine.

Has MS even acknowledged that this is a problem? I've only ever seen people on Era talk about it

Good question, I'd like to know what percentage is impacted by all of this? I have used Game Pass for quite some time and only have a 500GB SSD with Windows on it. I've had other issues with the Windows Store but not this.

Note to self, don't go anywhere near MS Store/Gamepass on PC.

How have MS still not sorted this shit out

small indie company

I have Game Pass stuff installed on a different SSD. Haven't had any problems yet, but if I did I will just nuke the drive.

That is what i'm doing too: i have a separate SSD for gamepass, and haven't had any issues since i started installing them this way.

And i can always format it and not risk hurting my windows installation if any problems arise.

After looking at all of that, I think I'll just not bother using the Windows store.

Yep. I'll stick to Steam when I get my Steam Deck. I don't care how good Gamepass is, it's not worth all that.

While I appreciate the tutorial, isn't this bug ancient? Like, I remember reading about Windows Store games not uninstalling back in 2019 or something. Microsoft never fixed this shit? Seriously?

I haven't used the Store in forever, and when I did I had trouble getting games to even start downloading, so eventually I just gave up. Knowing this bug is still around will be yet another reminder to not bother with this shit, and I'm saying this as a GP Ultimate subscriber lol

After looking at all of that, I think I'll just not bother using the Windows store.

Until this and tons of other problems are sorted out on PC, I won't sign up for XGP. The most basic functionality of a game launcher should be to install and uninstall a game. And MS can't even get that right

After looking at all of that, I think I'll just not bother using the Windows store.

Agreed.

I have an issue that started last week where i was downloading humankind and noticed an update for sea of thieves popped up but gave me error 0x80070005 which is apparently a permissions issue. Now it seems that there are about 10% of gamepass games that will not install to two of my SSDS but will install to my OS drive and my mechanical drive. Apart from a few exceptions they all appear to be games that i have installed previously and/or have installed on my series x.

I am very close to doing a clean install but keep telling myself no when i realise how much hassle it is going to be to get my pc setup how i want it afterwards.

: Oct 25, 2017

: 33,177

: Boise

Thanks for this. I have some pc GamePass stuff installed and so far haven't noticed any issues, but if I do get them I'll consult this.

uhhhh I'll continue to never use the MS store / gamepass, thanks