Components
Remove Windows components with dependency analysis and safety warnings.
This page contains a list of detected removable Windows components for the loaded image. To queue a component for removal, uncheck the checkbox on the left.
Most components are color-coded, indicating a member of the template in the menu.
Categories
Components sit in categories that sort alphabetically, with the user-facing groups first and the system and critical ones last. Two landmarks moved: Enterprise is now Organizations, and Command-Line Utilities is grouped under Productivity. Apps are no longer a separate list either, each one sits in the category it belongs to.
Show Filter
The Show drop-down on the filter row narrows the tree to one view, alongside whatever the search box is matching:
- All - the full tree, the default.
- Checked / Unchecked - what is kept, or what is queued for removal.
- Apps - only apps, each still under its own category.
- Privacy, General, Lite - what each template would target, so a template can be reviewed before it is applied.
- Drivers-Exportable - only the drivers you can export.
A view expands the categories holding a match, so nothing stays buried under a collapsed parent, and the active view shows as a tag on the filter row. Clicking that tag returns to All and restores your own collapse state, rather than leaving the tree fully expanded.
Templates
Menu in the toolbar, unchecks sets of components for each level (Privacy → General → Lite), with Lite removing the most.
Component checkbox color labels reflect each template:
- Green - Privacy template
- Blue - General template
- Orange - Lite template
- Red - Not recommended to remove
Compatibility
Opened from the toolbar, these options help you protect the needed components from removal for a given feature set.
Enable those that you want protected; that will automatically lock the tied components from unchecking, and thus removal. Especially useful in combination with Templates.
Protection reaches the tied services as well, not only the components: with an option enabled, the service rows that feature depends on are locked on the Settings page too, so a protected feature cannot be broken from the other side. Turning the option back off releases both.
Windows Security is enabled by default, covering the whole security surface: Windows Security itself, Defender, Code Integrity, Smart App Control, Device Guard and their supporting pieces. Untick it only if removing the security stack is what you are after.
Security Components
The security surface groups under Windows Security, with Code Integrity (CI) and, nested under it, Smart App Control (SAC) removable on their own.
Code Integrity here is the application-control side of it, the policy surface that Smart App Control and WDAC rules run on. The signature checking Windows needs in order to boot is not part of what a removal takes.
Removal and Tied Settings
A queued component removal takes its dependent settings with it. The tweak, visual-effect and event rows that only exist because of that component leave the Settings page and the Apply page as soon as the component is unchecked. Services and scheduled tasks tied to it stay listed instead, greyed and reading Removing, since they go with the component rather than being settings you still choose.
Order no longer matters. Changing a setting first and queuing its component for removal afterwards used to leave a setting on the Apply page that could not apply, and now the setting leaves with the component either way.
App removal mode
Dropdown in the toolbar that controls how Windows apps (Microsoft Store / provisioned packages) are removed. Applies only to apps, not to other component types on this page.
DISM is the normal mode, using the standard Windows servicing API to unregister and stage the app for removal. This is the default and the safest choice.
DISM + Custom adds extra cleanup steps on top of the DISM removal, stripping additional traces left behind. The trade-off is that in some cases this also removes support for the app, so reinstalling it later from the Store may not work. Choose this when you want a more thorough cleanup and do not plan to bring the app back.