In the past, Microsoft used to bundle Windows with many programs to give users the best experience, however they changed the tact with Windows 7 by including only the critical programs, while offering others as a downloadable package called Windows Essentials.
Windows Essentials (formerly Windows Live Essentials) is a suite of applications that offers integrated e-mail, instant messaging, photo-sharing, blog publishing, and security services to Windows. As of writing, the following programs are included in the Essentials pack:
- Photo Gallery and Movie Maker
- Messenger
- Writer
- Family Safety
- Microsoft SkyDrive
These are utilities that serve important, but not absolutely critical, functions.
You can uninstall Windows Essentials all at once, or you can select individual programs to uninstall and keep only the ones you want. Here are the steps to do so:
- Go to Control Panel, and find Windows Essentials in the list of installed programs.
- After finding the program entry, either double-click on Windows Essentials or right-click on it and choose Uninstall/Change to launch the uninstall wizard.
- In the wizard, click on “Remove one or more Windows Essentials programs”.
- Then select the program(s) that you want to uninstall, and then hit the Uninstall button.
That’s it! Your chosen programs will be removed, leaving others as it is.
If you’re having trouble finding the program in ‘Programs and Features’ list, or if it’s listed but the Uninstall wizard doesn’t appear after clicking Windows Essentials in Control Panel, you can manually start the process by following these steps:
- Enter this path in the Windows Run (Win key + R) dialog:
- Windows 32-bit:
%programfiles%\Windows Live\Installer - Windows 64-bit:
%programfiles(x86)%\Windows Live\Installer
- Windows 32-bit:
- In the folder that opens, double-click on
wlarp.exeand continue with the above said steps.