How to enable/disable apps using ViVeTool on Windows 11

Useful to remove apps with interdependencies.

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Key notes

  • Apps with interdependencies are those who can't function well without the other.
  • With this little registry tweak, however, you can enable/disable those apps through ViVeTool. 

Just like what Microsoft did with the WinAppSDK-powered look of File Explorer on Windows 11 Insider Build 25300, the tech giant is reportedly bringing out the feature to uninstall apps with interdependencies. 

As spotted by Windows enthusiast @PhantomOnEarth, the feature, which was available in Build 25169 (July 2022) but disabled in 25211 (September 2022), can be re-enabled in the latest Dev builds (25300) with a few registry tweaks on ViVeTool. 

Apps with interdependencies are those programs that won’t be able to run without another program. For example, games installed through Steam wouldn’t be able to run without the Steam app itself, and so on. 

Usually, those apps use a database to store information somewhere else, which resulted in how they perform, compute, interact, etc. 

However, with this feature, it seems like you’ll be able to do so, although we’re still curious how that will work. 

Read along to find out how to enable/disable apps using ViVeTool on Windows 11.

How to enable/disable apps using ViVeTool on Windows 11?

1. Make sure to have the latest Windows 11 Insider Build installed in your system. If not, head over to Microsoft’s download page for insider builds to do so. 

2. Head over to GitHub to download the latest version of ViVeTool.

3. Once downloaded, click Extract all, select the location where you want to extract it by clicking Browse, then hit Extract

In this case, we extract it at C:\Users\WindowsReport\Documents\Tools\ViVeTool-v0.3.2.

4. Hit ? on your keyboard, then type “cmd” and right-click on Command Prompt -> Run as administrator.

5. Type in cd + the directory where we extracted ViVeTool. In this case, it’s at C:\Users\WindowsReport\Documents\Tools\ViVeTool-v0.3.2, then hit Enter.

6. Type the following command then hit Enter.

vivetool /enable /id:38579715

7. Reboot the computer.

In the meantime, it’s still worth noting that being an insider-only feature that isn’t out for primetime yet, you may be running into some performance problems here and there, so, patience is a virtue.

What are your thoughts about this functionality? Let us know in the comments!

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