Installing & Managing Software
Windows 11 Fundamentals
Chapter 6 · Installing & Managing Software
Chapter 5 introduced the Apps category's own Installed apps, Optional features, and Default apps pages without going deep on any of them. This chapter is that depth — three genuinely different ways software actually arrives on a Windows 11 machine, how default file-type associations really work, and how to remove software cleanly rather than just "delete the folder and hope."
The Microsoft Store — Sandboxed by Design
Store apps are packaged as MSIX, a format built around a real sandbox — each app runs with its own isolated storage and a specific, declared set of permissions, rather than the broad, largely unrestricted system access a traditional installer's own program gets by default. Store apps also update automatically in the background, and uninstall cleanly by design: no leftover registry entries or orphaned files, since the sandbox boundary that limited the app's reach while running also bounds exactly what has to be removed.
winget — Windows's Own Package Manager
winget (the Windows Package Manager) installs, upgrades, and removes software entirely from the command line — previewed here, with PowerShell itself covered in Chapter 10. It's a genuinely useful point of comparison against Installing and Configuring Linux 10's own package-manager coverage: both solve the same underlying problem (find a package by name, fetch it, install it, track what's installed for later updates), though winget's own catalog is a curated list of installer/MSIX manifests rather than a single distribution-maintained repository the way a Linux package manager's own repos work.
Traditional Installers — MSI and EXE
.msi packages are run through the Windows Installer service, a standardized format that provides built-in rollback (an interrupted or failed install cleanly reverts) and a genuine repair option (reinstalling only what's missing or corrupted, without a full fresh install). Plain .exe installers, by contrast, are just ordinary programs that happen to install something — there's no format-level guarantee of a clean rollback or a standard, predictable uninstall behavior; whatever the installer's own author built in is all there is.
| Sandboxing | Update mechanism | Uninstall guarantee | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Microsoft Store (MSIX) | Full sandbox, declared permissions | Automatic, background | Clean by design — no leftovers |
| winget | Depends on what it's installing (MSIX or a traditional installer underneath) | Manual, via winget upgrade | Depends on the underlying package type |
| MSI | None — standard system access | Manual | Format-guaranteed rollback/repair, but not sandboxed removal |
| EXE | None — standard system access | Manual, or self-updating if the app builds it in | Entirely up to the installer's own author |
Default Apps — File-Type & Protocol Associations
Settings > Apps > Default apps controls which program opens a given file type (.pdf, .jpg) or protocol (http://, mailto:) by default. Windows 11 made a deliberate, publicly documented change here from Windows 10: there's no longer a single "Set as default browser" button that reassigns every relevant file type and protocol at once. Each file type and each protocol must be set individually, one at a time.
.htm, .html, http, and https individually — a real, deliberate friction point (widely reported as a response to antitrust scrutiny over steering users back toward Edge), not a bug or a missing feature the user simply hasn't found yet.
Clean Uninstalls
Settings > Apps > Installed apps provides uninstall for most software, regardless of how it was originally installed. Traditional MSI/EXE installers, per the format distinction above, don't universally guarantee every file and registry entry is removed — some leftover data is common and, for most users, harmless clutter rather than a real problem. Chasing down every last leftover registry key by hand is exactly the kind of task Windows 11 Troubleshooting & Administration's own Registry chapter is built for, once real diagnostic need (not just tidiness) calls for it.
winget list gives a quick, complete inventory of installed software winget can see, in one command — useful for auditing a machine's software before troubleshooting, without opening Settings and scrolling through the Installed apps list by hand.
Hands-On Exercises
Explain why a Microsoft Store app uninstalls without leaving behind leftover files or registry entries, while a traditional EXE installer offers no such guarantee.
📄 View solutionA user just switched their default browser and is frustrated that some links still open in their old browser. Using this chapter's own explanation, describe what's actually happening and what they need to do differently.
📄 View solutionExplain how winget's own approach to installing software is similar to, and different from, what Installing and Configuring Linux 10 covers for a Linux package manager.
📄 View solutionChapter 6 Quick Reference
- Microsoft Store (MSIX) — sandboxed, auto-updating, clean uninstall by design
- winget — command-line package management, previewing Chapter 10's own PowerShell coverage
- MSI — format-guaranteed rollback/repair; EXE — no such guarantee, entirely author-dependent
- Windows 11 requires setting default apps per file type/protocol — no single "set as default browser" button, unlike Windows 10
- Leftover files/registry entries from traditional installers are common and usually harmless — real cleanup is a Course 2 topic
- Next chapter: Networking on Windows 11