The Web applications they have become tools whose usefulness is out of the question. And some of today’s major web browsers have taken a major step toward making it easier to manage. Such is the case of Google Chrome and Microsoft Edgewhich now allow uninstall them from Windows as if they were native software.
This feature was released with the arrival of both programs at version 99. This means that if you have updated Chrome or Edge, you will be able to take advantage of it. However, it is also important to mention that there is a small catch behind this new feature. This is nothing serious, but it can be a nuisance for those who have been using various web applications for quite some time.
If you are wondering what it means that web apps or PWAs (Progressive Web Apps) can now be uninstalled as natively installed software on Windows 10 or 11, the answer is simple. It means that now you can remove them directly from the Apps & Features sectionjust like any other program that runs in the conventional way on the Microsoft system.
This is a very interesting option because it unifies the management of applications, regardless of whether they are web or conventional. In this way, in addition, we will no longer have to carry out the uninstall procedure from within Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge.
Uninstall web applications as if they were native Windows software
To illustrate how this new feature of Chromium-based web browsers works, we will use the Twitter web application. If we already have it installed on our Windows PC, getting rid of it will now be easier than ever. We just have to go to Settings > Apps and Features.
There we will see the list with all the software on our computer, including web applications. If we click on the one we want to delete, the buttons will appear Move and uninstallwhich are the same ones displayed in natively installed programs like Spotify, Photoshop, Word, etc.
With a simple click we can start the uninstallation, which will not take more than a couple of seconds.
And ready. As you will see, this new function that has arrived with Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge is as simple as it is practical. In fact, the integration of web applications with Windows also allows you to uninstall them from the Start menu. To do this they just have to locate the icon, right click on it and choose uninstall.
If you are wondering if web applications can also be uninstalled from the old Windows Control Panel, the answer varies depending on the experience of each user. In our tests we got inconsistent results; is that, in some cases, PWAs are included in the list of installed software, but in others they are not. What is a reality is that, if they appear, you can also uninstall them from there.
What is the catch?
We have already talked about the practicality of web applications and this new feature that comes with the most recent changes applied to Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge. What surely many find negative about this function is that only works with web apps installed after updating those browsers to version 99.
This means that all those used from older editions cannot be uninstalled as if they were native Windows software. It is true that this is easily solved: uninstalling the web applications from the browser and reinstalling them after the update. However, it is still a nuisance that basically goes against what this new feature proposes.