Microsoft really wants you to use its Microsoft Teams app that why the app is deeply integrated into Windows 11 as the native experience. Microsoft Teams is a free collaboration platform for audio and video calls, one-on-one chat conversations, group messaging, and synchronizing schedules, among other things.

When you login into your Windows 11 PC, you would see that the Microsoft Teams Chat app is integrated into your Taskbar (by default) and the Teams app is running in the background. Not everyone needs Microsoft Teams since most people are already using other services such as Zoom, Google Chat, Slack, or Skype.

Besides, Microsoft Teams icons can clutter your taskbar and system tray and the app will be running in the background every time you start the computer. If you are not a fan of Microsoft Teams and not going to use it, you can hide the Microsoft Teams icon from the taskbar and the system tray, stop it from starting automatically, remove the app from Startup or uninstall it completely from your Windows 11 computer.

Hide the Microsoft Teams Chat Icon from Taskbar

In Windows 11, you will see the Microsoft Teams Chat icon in the middle of the Taskbar whether you have use for it or not. Unlike other taskbar icons, you cannot remove the Chat icon simply by right-clicking on the taskbar and selecting ‘Hide from taskbar’.

If you want to hide the Teams Chat icon from the taskbar, you do it through the taskbar settings. To do this, right-click any empty area on the taskbar and select ‘Taskbar settings’.

This will open up the Taskbar settings page. Here, simply turn off the toggle next to ‘Chat’ under Taskbar items to hide the Teams Chat icon.

If you want to hide the Microsoft Teams icon from the taskbar corner near the tray area, follow these steps:

First, right-click anywhere on the taskbar and choose ‘Taskbar settings’ as you did above. Then, expand the ‘Taskbar corner overflow’ option in the Taskbar settings.

After that turn off the toggle next to ‘Microsoft Teams’ to remove the Teams icon from the Taskbar corner.

Stop Microsoft Teams from Running in the Background

Even when you are not using Microsoft Teams, the app would be running in the background consuming quite a resource. If you want to stop the Teams app from running in the background when you are not using it, follow these steps:

To start with, right-click the Start menu and select ‘Settings’ or press Win+I shortcut to open the Settings app.

On the Setting app, click on the ‘Apps’ tile on the left and select ‘Apps & features’ on the right.

Next, scroll down the list of apps and locate the ‘Microsoft Teams’. Then, click the vertical three-dot icon next to Microsoft Teams app and select ‘Advanced options’.

This will open up the Microsoft Teams app settings page. Here, you will find the ‘Let this app run in background’ drop-down under Background apps permissions.

Click on that drop-down and choose ‘Never’ to stop the app from running in the background.

This will prevent the Microsoft Teams app from running in the background when you are not actively using it. This will also turn off notifications or updates for the app when it’s inactive. Doing this can also help save power, free memory, and disk.

Disable Microsoft Teams Without Uninstalling it in Windows 11

Microsoft Teams is pre-configured to start automatically every time you turn on your Windows 11 computer and log in to your user account. If you don’t use Microsoft Teams often, you can disable it from starting automatically using Settings, Task Manager, or from within the app itself. Disabling Teams at automatic startup can significantly increase your system boot time and free resources to perform other tasks.

Stop Microsoft Teams for the Current Session

If you finished your chats and meeting for the day in the Microsoft Teams and close it, the application won’t stop instead it will run in the background unnecessarily eating up precious resources. If you only want to kill the app for the current session, here’s what you need to do:

First, locate the Microsoft Teams icon in the taskbar corner on the right. If you don’t see the Teams icon there, then click the ‘Show hidden icons’ up arrow (overflow area) and find the app icon there.

Then, right-click the Teams icon and select ‘Quit’ to kill the app immediately.

Prevent Microsoft Teams from Starting Automatically from Team settings

If you don’t want Microsoft Team to pop up on your screen unnecessarily, you can restrict the app from automatically starting up from the app settings. Follow these steps to do that:

First, open the Microsoft Teams app. To do that, search for ‘Microsoft Teams’ in the Windows search and select the app from the result or click on the Teams icon from the Taskbar corner or the overflow.

On the Microsoft Teams app, click the ‘Settings and more’ button (three-dot menu) on the Title Bar, and select ‘Settings’.

On the Settings page, go to the ‘General’ tab on the left and deselect the ‘Auto-start Teams’ option under System.

Now, Microsoft Teams won’t start unless you open the Teams app or the Chat app from the Taskbar manually.

Disable Microsoft Teams from Startup using Settings

If you don’t want to completely remove Microsoft Teams app, you can remove it from the Windows Startup list to stop it from automatically loading every time you start your device. Here’s what you need to do:

Open the Settings app on Windows 11 and head over to the ‘Apps’ section on the left.

Then, select the option for ‘Startup’ on the right.

In Startup Settings, you’ll see a list of apps that start when you log in to your PC. Here, locate ‘Microsoft Teams’ and turn off the toggle to remove it from the startup apps. 

Disable Microsoft Teams from Startup using Task Manager

Another way to remove Microsoft Teams from the startup list is through the task manager. Here’s how:

Open Task Manager by right-clicking the Start menu and selecting the ‘Task Manager’ from the overflow menu or pressing Ctrl+Shift+Esc keys at the same time.

In the Task Manager, go to the ‘Startup’ tab and locate ‘Microsoft Teams’. Then, either right-click on the app and select ‘Disable’ or select the app and click the ‘Disable’ button at the bottom.

Now, Microsoft Teams will not run automatically when you turn on your PC.

Uninstall Microsoft Teams in Windows 11

In case you have other communication apps like Skype, Zoom, Google Chat, etc., and don’t want Teams around or you no longer need it, you can uninstall it from your system. There are three ways to go about this:

Uninstall Microsoft Teams using Settings

If you want to completely remove Microsoft Teams from your Windows 11 system, follow these steps:

First, open Settings by pressing Windows+I. In the Settings app, go to ‘Apps’ on the left navigation pane and select ‘Apps & features’ on the right pane.

Scroll down the list of apps and find ‘Microsoft Teams’. If you can’t find it, search for it in the search bar above. Then, click on the three-dot menu next to the app name and select ‘Uninstall’.

Then, click ‘Uninstall’ again in the pop-up to remove the app.

Now, the Microsoft Teams app is uninstalled from your PC.

Uninstall Microsoft Teams from the Start Menu

The easiest way to remove the Teams app from Windows 11 is from the Start menu.

First, click on the ‘Start’ menu icon in the Taskbar and search for ‘Microsoft Teams’. Then, right-click on the ‘Microsoft Teams’ app from the result and choose ‘Uninstall’ or select the ‘Uninstall’ option on the right. 

In the confirmation box, click ‘Uninstall’ again to fully uninstall the app.

Uninstall Microsoft Teams using PowerShell

You can also uninstall the Microsoft Teams app using Windows PowerShell. To do this, follow these steps:

First, open Windows PowerShell with administrative privileges. To do this, search for ‘PowerShell’ in the Windows search, right-click on the top result, and select the ‘Run as administrator’ option. Click ‘Yes’ to continue if you see the User Account Control window.

Type the following command or copy and paste the below command to PowerShell and press Enter:

Get-AppxPackage MicrosoftTeams* | Remove-AppxPackage

This will completely remove the Microsoft Teams application from your computer.

Reinstall Microsoft Teams on Windows 11

If you have a need for Microsoft Teams again after uninstalling the app, you can easily reinstall it with a single click. Even after uninstalling the app, the Microsoft Teams Chat icon will remain in the Taskbar unless you have hidden it using the Settings. Here’s how you reinstall the Teams app:

All you have to do is click the Microsoft Teams’ ‘Chat’ icon on the Taskbar and in the flyout window, click the ‘Continue’ button to reinstall the application.

Windows keeps the app packages of the default Windows apps in the system files. When you click the ‘Continue’ button, it will reinstall the app from the backup copy. It will take only a few seconds to reinstall the app.

If you don’t see the Chat icon on the Taskbar, it is probably hidden. To show the Teams ‘Chat’ icon, right-click on an empty on the taskbar and select ‘Taskbar settings’.

Then, toggle the slider in front of Chat to the ‘On’ position to show the icon on the Taskbar.

You can also download and install Microsoft Teams from the Microsoft website. If you want to use Microsoft Teams without installing the app on your system, you can sign in to https://teams.microsoft.com on your favorite browser.

That’s it.