How to Uninstall Xbox Apps and Game Bar From Windows 11

The Xbox stack, piece by piece

What looks like one Xbox app on a clean install is actually a small family of packages. The main Xbox app (Microsoft.GamingApp) is the storefront and Game Pass launcher; Xbox Game Bar (Microsoft.XboxGamingOverlay) is the overlay you summon with Win+G for widgets, captures and performance stats. Around them sit the legacy Console Companion (Microsoft.XboxApp), the speech-to-text overlay for party chat transcription, and the runtime pieces that games themselves call into.

Two members of that family are infrastructure rather than apps. Xbox Identity Provider (Microsoft.XboxIdentityProvider) handles Xbox and Microsoft Store sign-in inside games, and Gaming Services (Microsoft.GamingServices) is what installs, licenses and launches Store titles including Game Pass games. Removing either one is what actually breaks games — not removing the Xbox app or the Game Bar — so the safe rule is to uninstall the visible apps and keep the plumbing.

• Xbox (Microsoft.GamingApp) — the storefront app and Game Pass launcher; safe to remove
• Xbox Game Bar (Microsoft.XboxGamingOverlay) — the Win+G overlay with widgets and captures; safe to remove
• Xbox Console Companion (Microsoft.XboxApp) — the legacy companion app; safe to remove
• Xbox Speech-to-Text Overlay — party chat transcription; safe to remove
• Xbox Identity Provider (Microsoft.XboxIdentityProvider) — sign-in plumbing for games; keep it
• Gaming Services (Microsoft.GamingServices) — installs and licenses Store and Game Pass games; keep it

Uninstalling via Settings — the safe route

Open Settings > Apps > Installed apps and type Xbox in the search box to filter the list. Click the three dots next to an entry and choose Uninstall, then repeat for each app you want gone — the Xbox app, Game Bar and Console Companion all go quietly this way. Removing Game Bar also removes its keyboard shortcuts, so Win+G stops opening the overlay and Win+Alt+R stops recording clips; if you occasionally record your screen, plan on installing OBS Studio or using another recorder first.

If you would rather keep Game Bar installed but out of the way, you can tone it down instead of removing it. Settings > Gaming > Xbox Game Bar has the controller shortcut toggle, and the capture settings inside the bar itself let you turn off background recording. Anything you uninstall here can be reinstalled later from the Microsoft Store — search for the app by its plain name, and you get the current version back within a couple of minutes.

Bulk removal with PowerShell — and the two to keep

For a one-shot cleanup, right-click Start, open Terminal (Windows PowerShell) as administrator and run Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers *Xbox* | Remove-AppxPackage — with a filter that excludes Identity Provider: Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers *Xbox* | Where-Object {$_.Name -ne 'Microsoft.XboxIdentityProvider'} | Remove-AppxPackage. Note that the wildcard *Xbox* does not match the current Xbox app, whose package is Microsoft.GamingApp, so remove that one separately with Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers Microsoft.GamingApp | Remove-AppxPackage. If a game later complains about sign-in or Game Pass titles refuse to launch, reinstall Xbox Identity Provider and Gaming Services from the Store before blaming anything else.

Feature updates can bring inbox apps back, so recheck the list after every major upgrade. If you would rather not repeat this chore by hand, Kleaner PRO's app cleanup does the same removals in bulk and lets you pick exactly which of the built-in apps stay. For a gaming PC, though, the honest advice is the opposite: uninstall only the pieces you have actually opened and never used.

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