Credit: Lucas Gouveia/How-To Geek

Whether you wanted to unarchive a file or take a screenshot, you had to install a third-party app for most of the actions you wanted to perform on Windows back in the Windows XP days.

Since then, Windows has evolved significantly and now offers built-in alternatives for nearly every action these apps were once used for. That said, here are some Windows apps that made sense years ago but whose main functionality is now built into Windows.

6 CCleaner

CCleaner was one of the first tools I used to install on every new Windows installation. I had this tool installed on my Windows 10 system until 2020, when I upgraded from Windows 10 to Windows 11.

The main purpose of CCleaner was to remove junk files stored on the system and create valuable space that could be used for other important items. The tool still exists, but unfortunately, it no longer makes much sense to install it since you can now achieve all of its functions using built‑in Windows tools like Storage Sense and Disk Cleanup.

The Storage Sense feature automatically deletes temporary files and data stored in the Recycle Bin to free up disk space. The best part about this feature is that you have control over when and where it operates. You can configure it to run every day or only when disk space is low. You can also specify which items you want Storage Sense to manage.

While the Storage Sense feature performs most actions automatically, the Disk Cleanup tool gives you more control over which items are deleted to free up space. From temporary internet files and DirectX shader cache to delivery optimization files, you can remove all the unwanted files taking up space on your drive. In short, the Disk Cleanup tool allows you to perform deep cleaning on your Windows system.

5 WinRAR

Yes, WinRAR has always been one of the best file compression tools, but these days, installing it on Windows doesn’t really make sense for *most *users.

You see, an average Windows user only needs to archive or extract files, and that can easily be done using the built-in Windows archive manager. Simply right-click on an archive file and select the “Extract” option that appears in the context menu.

Microsoft has also gradually expanded the number of file types supported by its archiving feature. It currently works with RAR, ZIP, TAR, GZ, and several other formats.

But if you are someone who works with lesser-known file formats like CAB, UUE, and others, you still need to install WinRAR on your system.

Furthermore, Windows has yet to introduce the split archive functionality in its built-in archiving feature. So, if you want to split a file into separate volumes, you’ll still need to install WinRAR on Windows.

In short, the built-in archiving feature of Windows handles all the basic tasks related to archiving files, but if you’re an advanced user, you still need to have WinRAR or another archiving software installed on your device.

4 CPU-Z

CPU-Z is one of the most popular hardware monitoring tools for Windows. You can use it to get detailed information about the installed motherboard, RAM, graphics card, and other components of your PC. But does it really make sense to have this program installed on Windows 11 these days? I don’t think so.

You see, most of the data that CPU-Z or other similar hardware monitoring tools display are of no use to an average PC user. I used to install this tool on my system to get detailed information about the CPU and memory load. Fortunately, Windows now shows all this basic information that most users care about right in the Task Manager.

Open the Task Manager, switch to the “Performance” tab, and you will find information about the CPU, memory, installed disks, storage, and more. However, if you want detailed information about the CPU model, architecture, clock speed, memory timings, and other highly technical aspects, you should definitely install CPU-Z or any other hardware monitoring tool.

3 PowerISO

PowerISO used to be one of the most popular tools for mounting and unmounting files on Windows. I still remember burning ISO files to DVDs using this tool. While the software still exists, since Windows 11 already supports ISO files natively, there’s really no reason to install it anymore.

If you want to mount an ISO file on Windows these days, simply right-click it and choose “Mount” from the menu that appears. It’s as simple as that.

However, there are still a few areas where PowerISO can be helpful, such as creating bootable USBs, editing ISO files without extracting them, or converting file formats. If you don’t find yourself needing these features, then PowerISO is just taking up space on your system, and you should uninstall it immediately.

2 Antivirus programs

Norton, Avast, McAfee—there were plenty of antivirus programs I used on my Windows PC to keep it safe from viruses and malware. Since security is a major factor for any user when choosing an operating system, Microsoft has worked on it extensively and made Microsoft Defender so strong that you really don’t need to install any third-party antivirus program on Windows nowadays.

Windows Defender offers all the features you would expect from an antivirus application, and that too, for free. You get real-time protection, regular system scans, timely updates, and most importantly, it uses very few system resources.

Furthermore, popular browsers like Chrome and Microsoft Edge also come with their own built-in security systems that can scan the files you download. If they identify anything suspicious, they flag it immediately. This ultimately eliminates another use case for third-party antivirus software—scanning downloaded files.

1 Lightshot

As a writer for How-To Geek, I often find myself taking a lot of screenshots on my Windows PC. While I’ve used plenty of screenshot-taking applications over time, Lightshot is the one I’ve used the most, and that’s because it’s lightweight and offers all the features I look for in an ideal screenshot tool.

However, I recently decided to uninstall it and start using the Snipping Tool instead. The Snipping Tool, if you aren’t aware, comes built into Windows and allows you to take screenshots. In addition to everything Lightshot offers, the Snipping Tool includes many other features as well, like screen recording, extracting text from images, automatically adding borders to screenshots, and much more. All these features make the Snipping Tool the best screenshot-taking app and eliminate the need to install a third-party tool for capturing screenshots.

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These were some of the apps that I think don’t make much sense on Windows these days. With how fast Windows is evolving day by day, it won’t be long before you no longer need to install any third-party app on your computer, as Windows will offer a built-in application for every action you want to perform.