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Hidden Apps

Hidden apps are Windows apps that exist on your PC but do not appear in the Start menu or on the Windows Apps & features page. O&O AppBuster hides them by default and identifies them as Windows App (hidden) when you display them.

Why an app is hidden​

Windows distinguishes between an app being present on the machine and an app being installed for a user account. An app can be the first without being the second. That happens when:

  • Windows or the PC manufacturer provisioned the app on the machine but the provisioning never applied to your account.
  • The app was installed for a different user account on the same PC.
  • You removed it for your account only, which leaves the package on the machine.
  • The app is a component that Windows keeps on hand without exposing it in the Start menu.

These states do not indicate a problem. The app package is available but is not registered for your user account.

Making them visible​

Hidden apps are not shown by default, because most people open O&O AppBuster to remove things rather than to inspect standby packages.

To see them:

  • Click the Hidden Smart View chip, if it is present, or
  • switch on View → Show installable Windows apps to include apps that are available for installation in the normal list.

Hidden apps that are in the list stay visible regardless of other filters — including Show Microsoft apps — so a hidden app never disappears on you unexpectedly once you have gone looking for it.

What you can do with them​

Install for your account​

This is the main reason to look at hidden apps: it is how you get an app back that you removed earlier, and how you activate an app that Windows shipped but never enabled for you.

Select the app and click Install. It is installed for the current user only.

➡️ Installing apps

Remove from the PC​

If you are certain no account needs the app, you can remove it. Since it is not installed for you, the meaningful scope is All users or Entire PC — including files, which also frees the disk space its package occupies.

➡️ Removing apps

Hidden apps and disk space​

A hidden app costs disk space even though nobody uses it. On a manufacturer-imaged laptop, the provisioned-but-unused apps can add up to a noticeable amount.

Sort by Storage while the Hidden Smart View is active to see which of them are worth removing.

Removing the provisioning

Removing a hidden app with the Entire PC scope also removes it from the machine's provisioning, which means new user accounts created afterwards will not get it either. That is usually what you want when setting up a PC for someone else.

Hidden apps are not malware​

The word "hidden" invites suspicion, so to be explicit: a hidden app in this sense is a perfectly ordinary Windows app in an ordinary state. O&O AppBuster shows them because Windows does not, not because there is anything wrong with them.

If an entry in this category genuinely puzzles you, open its properties — publisher, version, install location and size will usually identify it in a few seconds.