Groove Music is the default music player or media player in Windows 10. The Groove Music app is the revamped version of Xbox Music introduced with Windows 8. The new Groove Music app in Windows 10 is relatively impressive and allows you to purchase music from the Store as well.
Groove Music in Windows 10
Considering the limited number of universal apps available in the Store, without a doubt, Groove Music is one of the best music player apps out there for Windows 10. Microsoft has been adding new features to the app with each update, but many users still are not impressed with Groove Music.
Since Groove Music is the default music player in Windows 10, many users have set the classic Windows Media Player as the default music player in Windows 10 just to avoid using Groove Music.
Over the last few months, quite a few users have asked us if it’s possible to completely uninstall and remove Groove Music from Windows 10. If you’re one of those users who prefer to have a third-party software or WMP as your music player in Windows 10, you can uninstall and remove Groove Music from Windows 10 with ease.
In this guide, we will see how to completely uninstall Groove Music app from Windows 10.
Method 1 – Uninstall Groove Music via Settings
Method 2 – Uninstall Groove Music from Windows 10 using PowerShell
Method 3 – Reinstall Groove Music in Windows 10 using CCleaner
Method 1 of 3
Uninstall Groove Music via Settings
Unlike before, Groove Music can now be uninstalled right from the Settings app. Here is how to do that.
Step 1: Navigate to Settings > Apps > Apps & features.
Step 2: In the installed apps list, look for Groove Music entry. Click on the entry to see the Uninstall button.
Step 3: Click on the Uninstall button and then click the Uninstall button again when you get the confirmation dialog.
To install the Groove Music app again, open the Store app, search for Groove Music, and then install the same.
Method 2 of 3
Uninstall Groove Music via PowerShell
NOTE: If you’re not comfortable using PowerShell, you can use the popular CCleaner program to uninstall the app. Please refer to instructions in Method 3 (scroll down to see) to uninstall Groove Music using CCleaner.
Step 1: Close Groove Music, if it’s running.
Step 2: Open PowerShell with admin rights. To do so, type PowerShell in Start menu or taskbar search box, right-click on PowerShell entry, and then click Run as administrator option.
Click Yes button when you see the User Account Control dialog.
Step 3: In the elevated PowerShell prompt, type the following command, and then click Enter key to execute the command.
remove-AppxPackage (Get-AppxPackage –AllUsers|Where{$_.PackageFullName -match “ZuneMusic”}).PackageFullName
If the above command does not work, follow the next three steps.
Step 4: Type the following command and press Enter.
Get-AppxPackage –AllUsers
Step 5: Scroll down, locate the Zune Music (yes, Zune Music) and copy the PackageFullName of ZuneMusic using selecting the text next to PackageFullName and using Ctrl+C hotkey.
Step 6: Finally, execute the following command to completely uninstall Groove Music from your Windows 10 account.
remove-AppxPackage PackageFullName
In the above command, replace PackageFullName with the PackageFullName of Groove Music that you copied in the previous step. Press Enter key to execute the command. The command should execute without any errors.
That’s it!
Method 3 of 3
Uninstall and remove Groove Music using CCleaner
Step 1: Download CCleaner and install the same, if it’s not already installed. Please make sure that you have 5.11 or later versions.
Step 2: Launch CCleaner.
Step 3: Click Tools and then click Uninstall to view all installed apps as well as traditional desktop programs. If CCleaner is not loading or showing installed apps, please wait for a while with patience.
Step 4: Right-click on the Groove Music app and then click the Uninstall button. Click the Yes button when you see the confirmation prompt. That’s it!
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Peter Fusco says
First suggestion, worked perfectly, thanks very much. Groove Music was constantly malfunctioning, hanging the system. Will stick with VLC.
Delgado, Ledwys says
This is a superlatively tutorial.
MICHAEL BROWNSEY says
can I remove groove with ccleaner without losing my music files on player-also does groove create duplicates of music files, in other words is groove making me use twice the storage
Ray Dawson says
Wonderful! CCleaner took it off in a flash.
Many thanks
Euler's Ghost says
Removed Groove Music via PowerShell, thank you for sharing, took less than a minute.
Jordan says
@John Worrell and after you’ve set your music player to something else, it’s only a matter of time before Windows decides to RESET all your file associations and put all the audio media back on Groove, all the images back on the new Pictures app, all the PDF files to Edge (because why should Adobe Reader open it’s own proprietary format?) and all the htm[l] files to Edge as well!
Uninstalling this crap saves me one step every time Windows 10 decides to fuck-up my file associations so they can impose their stuff over my preferences.
Jay Crow says
Thank You! Used first method.
John Worrell says
From the start button go to settings, default apps and change the default music player to your choice. At the bottom of the main menu page there is link to “Set default by app”. This brings up a list of all installed applications, choose the player you want and select the file types you need it to play. Once you have carried out this procedure you should find you have overridden the lovely Groove music.
Obviously this will not uninstall it but it will allow you to select the default of your choice.
Paul says
If you want PowerShell, you can make this way easier: after starting PowerShell as instructed above (as admin), just type in the following command:
Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers -name microsoft.zunemusic | remove-AppxPackage
Lefty says
Groove is useless to me, other then it plays my music, l cant do what l was able to do with windows media player 11, if l do the uninstall of groove music will l get back my old version of windows media player back, if not what do l have to do to get it, l want windows media player 11 back after l uninstall of groove, not a third party player l have ALC player as a back up to play my music.
MP says
Thanks!
Willie Huggan says
How do I get rid of groove it’s awful?
patrice says
will I lose all my music that it stole from my personal files, and put them in groove music,
I can’t get them out of there either, it stole them and I want them back in my personal places
that I left them …………groove is not groovie. ( I write and create my own music, GROOVE takes, but does it keep once =uninstalled????)
David Garner says
Apparently, Microsoft doesn’t want you to know that groove uploads your personal music and tags it online as unknown author in the public domain. It also uploads your paid for mp3’s. Just uninstall any app that uploads to the cloud or get ripped.
David Garner says
Caution: If you write and record music in mp3 format on your personal computer, then groove is no respecter of your rights. Groove uploads your personally made mp3’s and tags them as unknown artist (even if you use authoring software which clearly identifies you as copyright holder.) I recommend uninstalling any app/program which is seemingly great and fully functional yet steals your paid for mp3’s and personal works of art. Use at your own risk… apparently communism or reverse piracy prevails at Microsoft.
Don Bakke says
Thanks for the tip. It worked flawlessly using the PowerShell method. Just a friendly note: at the top you write “reinstall” when I think you meant “Uninstall” for the Method 2 line.
For the record, I like Groove Music but it crashes quite often on my new PC. The other posts that explain why they dislike Groove are either vague or seem to misunderstand how Groove and the Music Store work. I have no problems getting my music to play outside of Groove. In fact, I’m using VLC as a fallback…no restart required.
Sam says
It really works. Fantastic…..
AdobeJules says
I don’t like the fact that after you exit Groove and try to use another player sometimes you can’t without restarting your PC. That really stinks.
Scott says
I got tired of Groove graying out many of my songs from my personal library, saying I needed a Groove pass. Not to mention that I can’t get my songs out of Groove. I don’t like being rip off. It looks like MS is trying to corner the marked on music.
Lloyd says
I did it the long way with PowerShell, thanks for the tip. I do like Groove but had to uninstall/reinstall as it was crashing randomly, let’s hope this fixes it!
Harry says
GROOVE PLAYER S U C K S !!!!!!!!!!
Chuck says
Sadly, you need Groove music if you purchase any music from the Microsoft store.
anon says
Thx too You :)
admin says
Yes, it can be reinstalled with ease. Will post about it soon.
@LtCmdrKeene says
After removal, can it be re-installed?