How to Disable and Uninstall Phone Link on Windows 11

By Ajoy Kumar Add a Comment 7 Min Read
How to Disable and Uninstall Phone Link on Windows 11


Although the idea behind the Phone Link app is fantastic, you can download and install it on your Android and iPhone to get access to your phone calls, notifications, and text messages on your PC. Using the Windows PC, you can accept phone calls and reply to text messages. However, there are still several flaws that need to be resolved. When you link your phone with the Phone Link app, it bombards you with too many notifications on your Windows PC screen, which is annoying and distracting. The app also does not hide sensitive messages. The Phone Link app also keeps running in the background, consuming too many system resources.

Instead of using your system resources for the Phone Link app, you can disable and uninstall Phone Link from your Windows PC and improve your system’s performance. It is better to allocate your system resources to productive tasks and manage your phone calls and text messages directly on your phone. So, without further ado, let’s discuss how to disable and uninstall the Phone Link app on Windows 11.

If you don’t want to disable the Phone Link app, it is better to unlink your smartphone from the Phone Link app. To do so, first, you need to sign out of the Link to Windows from your mobile. Then remove the device from the Phone Link on your PC. Please note that this will work for both Android and iPhone.

For that, you can follow the step-by-step guide below:

1. Open the Link To Windows app that you have downloaded on your smartphone.

2. Tap on the Gear icon located in the upper right-hand corner of the screen.

3. Now, on the next screen click on the Sign out of Link to Windows option and click on the Unlink button.

Unlinking Smartphone from the Phone Link app

4. Open the Phone Link app on your Windows PC.

5. Click on the Gear Icon to access the settings of the Phone Link app. 

Phone Link Settings

6. By opening the settings of the Phone Link app, you can access the My Devices tab.

7. Once there, click on the three-dot menu icon located next to your phone, and then choose the Remove button to unlink your device.

Removing Device from Phone Link App

After unlinking your smartphone from the Phone Link app, you will not receive any calls, notifications, or text messages on your Windows system. However, the Phone Link app will still run in the background and consume your system resources.

To address this, you can disable and terminate the Phone Link app from running in the background. To do so, follow these steps:

1. In the Windows search bar, type Settings and open it to access the Windows settings.

Opening Windows Settings from the Search bar

2. On the left pane, choose the Apps option, and on the right, click on Installed Apps to modify the background permission settings of the Phone Link App.

Installed Apps Settings

3. On the next screen, search for Phone Link in the search bar. After that, click on the three-dot icon next to the Phone Link and select Advanced Options from the menu that appears.

Advanced Options of Phone Link App

4. By default, the background apps permission is set to the Always option. However, you can restrict it from running in the background.

Background Permission Set to Always

5. To do so, click on the drop-down arrow and select Never from the menu that appears.

Restricting Phone Link to Run in Backgroud

6. After this, scroll down a little until you reach the Terminate section. Press the Terminate button here to immediately terminate the Phone Link app and its related processes.

Terminated the Phone Link App

That’s it! This is how you can disable your Phone Link app from running in the background on your Windows 11 device.

Windows 11 comes with a few first-party native apps, such as Phone Link, that are deeply integrated into the Windows operating system.

As a result, there is no direct uninstall button to remove it from your system. However, there is a way to uninstall it using Windows Terminal.

To do so, follow the steps mentioned below:

1. Press the Windows key to open the Start Menu and then type Terminal into the search bar.

2. Next, locate the Terminal app in the search results, right-click on it, and choose the Run as administrator option from the context menu.

Opening Terminal as Administrator

3. After that, allow the User Access Control permission by clicking the Yes button.

4. It will open up the Windows PowerShell with Administrator permission. Now, copy and paste the following command to uninstall the Phone Link App from your system.

Get-AppxPackage Microsoft.YourPhone -AllUsers | Remove-AppxPackage
Phone Link App Uninstall Command

PowerShell will now begin the uninstallation process for the Phone Link application from your computer. Please wait for the process to complete. Once it is finished, the app will be successfully removed from your system.

However, the application is not completely removed from your system; it will likely be re-installed when the next feature update is pushed to the system or when you update your Windows operating system.

Conclusion

That’s it! By following the above-mentioned methods, you can disable and uninstall the Phone Link app for your Windows operating system. However, if you wish, you can reinstall it from the Microsoft Store.

But our suggestion would be to avoid the Phone Link app on your Windows 11 PC until it provides a flawless experience to its users. We hope you found it useful. Moreover, if you have any doubts, you can leave them in the comments below.

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He is a prominent tech writer with over six years of experience and the founder of TheCoderWord. He delivers high-quality content revolving around troubleshooting and how-to guides for Windows, Linux, macOS, Chrome, and more.
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