Sometimes you have apps on your Windows 11 computer that you use very little, but can’t just delete. Then a function such as being able to archive apps comes in handy, as it frees up space without completely removing the app. Archiving apps on Windows 11 works like this.
What exactly is archiving apps? Windows 11 may automatically archive certain apps on your system when it detects that you rarely use them. The app will then disappear from your system, but the important system files will remain.
When you need such an app again, Windows can install it immediately when you connect to Microsoft’s servers. This does mean that archiving apps only works with applications from the Microsoft Store. That doesn’t have to be a big problem, since that digital store has a large selection.
Archiving apps on Windows 11 therefore immediately provides extra disk space. This means you don’t have to use an external drive or cloud storage space as quickly. But another advantage is that those apps do not use bandwidth, so the internet connection is less crowded. Many apps use you in the background wifi network†so by archiving them, the internet can at least feel faster than before.
Archive apps on Windows 11
Would you also like to archive some apps on Windows 11? Which can. If all goes well, the function is activated immediately when you use Windows inappropriately. But if you want to check the settings or would rather not have the system remove apps, you can follow the steps below (and possibly disable the option).
- Open the Institutions on Windows 11
- Go to apps and then to Apps & Features
- Now click on the heading for advanced app settings
- This is where you will find the app archiving settings
- Click on that and you will see a slider
- When the slider is blue, the option is on
- You turn it off by moving the slider to the left, by clicking on it
Footnote
We would like to add one more caveat to this option. Because in theory this sounds like a nice balance between apps that you use little and available disk space for other things. However, if it turns out that such an app is no longer in the Microsoft Store, you cannot install it from the archived state with the push of a button.
This is something to keep in mind in the future. Microsoft can adjust, remove or add store options, and developers can always choose to get their apps from the Store.
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