Don’t use Microsoft Teams and want to completely remove it from Windows 11 including the chat icon from the app tray? Here is the guide for you
The Windows 11 taskbar includes the Chat icon by default. Clicking the Chat icon brings up the Chat flyout, showing your recent individual and group conversations. Chat is provided by Microsoft Teams and is free.
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If you are a Microsoft Teams user, you may find the new chat convenient as you can quickly start and view conversations with your friends and family. In addition to clicking the chat icon, you can always view the chat flyout using the Windows + C keyboard shortcut.
However, if you use something else to text your family and friends, you may want to get rid of the chat icon to free up space and reduce clutter. Removing the chat icon from the taskbar is not easy especially since Microsoft has changed the way to remove it by making it more difficult.
In early builds of Windows 11, we could right-click the Chat icon on the taskbar and then click the Hide from Taskbar option, but not anymore. The option no longer appears when you right-click the chat icon. This also applies to the other default icons such as search, task view, and widgets.
The chat icon can be removed from the system tray via the Settings app. In addition to removing the Chat app, you can also completely uninstall the Microsoft Teams app from Settings. It is not necessary to start PowerShell to complete the procedure. Here’s how to do it.
Remove the chat icon from the Windows 11 taskbar
Step 1 Open Settings. On the left side of the Settings window, click Personalization. And on the right side, click on Taskbar.
Step 2 Now, on the right side, in the section Elements of the bar of the applications, deactivate the option Chat to immediately remove the chat icon from the taskbar in Windows 11 applications.
Now that you’ve removed the chat icon from your system tray, it’s time to uninstall Microsoft Teams.
Remove Microsoft Teams from Windows 11 startup
By default, Microsoft Teams loads with Windows 11. If you’re not using it, you can remove it from startup to improve startup time. Note that you can skip this if you are uninstalling Microsoft Teams.
Step 1 Go to Settings -> Apps -> Startup.
Step 2 From the list of startup apps, turn off the Microsoft Teams option to prevent it from loading with Windows 11.
Uninstall Microsoft Teams from Windows 11
Uninstall Microsoft Teams from Settings
Step 1 Open the Settings using Search or by pressing the Windows + I hotkey.
Step 2 In the left pane of Settings, click Apps. On the right side, click Apps & Features to view all installed apps.
Step 3 Scroll down the list of installed apps until you find the Microsoft Teams entry. Click on the three vertical dots (refer to the image below) next to its entry and click on the Uninstall option.
Step 4 Click the Uninstall button when the following confirmation appears to uninstall and remove Microsoft Teams from Windows 11.
Note that the chat icon will continue to appear on the Settings -> Personalization -> Taskbar page even after uninstalling the Microsoft Teams app. Currently, it is not possible to remove it from the Settings page.
Uninstall Microsoft Teams from the Start Menu
Step 1 In the Start menu search box, type Microsoft Teams to see its entry.
Step 2 On the right side, click the Uninstall option (refer to the image below) to remove Teams from your PC.
