Microsoft put three apps on your taskbar. Now you have to take them off.

Calendar, People and Files appeared on Windows 11 taskbars in late 2025 without anybody asking for them. They stop working on 16 December, and on most home PCs nobody is going to remove them except you.

They were called Microsoft 365 companion apps: small WebView2 windows pinned to the taskbar for looking up a contact, a file or a meeting without opening the full application. They installed themselves on eligible Windows 11 machines carrying a Microsoft 365 or Office 365 licence, pinned themselves, and collected a fair amount of complaint at the time. Microsoft confirmed the retirement in mid-September, has already stopped new installations, and has offered no reason for killing them off after about a year.

The part worth acting on is in Microsoft's own guidance. Work machines managed by an IT department get the apps removed by an administrator. Everyone else is told plainly: "if your organization doesn't manage your device, you must remove them yourself." Nothing gets cleaned up automatically. Updates and fixes for the companion apps have already stopped, security fixes among them, which makes three dead WebView2 apps on your taskbar easier to remove than to ignore.

It takes a minute. Settings, then Apps, then Installed apps, search for Microsoft 365 companions, click the three dots and choose Uninstall. Removing one removes all three. Your calendar entries, contacts and files live in the Microsoft 365 service rather than in the apps, so nothing of yours goes with them. Tendvane's app-update step works through what winget can see and shows you the list as it goes, which is a decent moment to spot the things you never chose to install.