“By how much?” is the inevitable follow-up question. Do you really need to manage all this stuff on your own?įortunately, the answer to this question is a solid “No.” In this story, I describe and explain multiple sources of automated relief that should lighten this load considerably. When you stop to consider that somebody has to keep all these applications up to date, somehow, these numbers can seem daunting. IDGįigure 2: Note the item count at lower left (329) is considerably higher than the Figure 1 count. This produces a File Explorer window with a total count field at the lower left corner, as shown in Figure 2. Inside the Run box, type shell:AppsFolder. The second method uses File Explorer to count subfolders in the Windows Apps hierarchy, which includes built-in Windows tools and utilities, plus items from the Program Files and Program Files (x86) folders. This opens the Settings app’s “Apps & features” pane, which provides a count of all executables on the target PC.įigure 1 shows the output from my production desktop which is heavily populated with apps and applications (201 in all, in fact): IDGįigure 1: The list of installed apps in “Apps & features” begins with a total count at the top of the list. The first method is to press Windows key + R to launch the Windows Run box, then type ms-settings:appsfeatures into the box. For Windows 10 and 11, there are two ways to get a handle on a PC’s application count, including both. Counting what you’ve gotįirst, it’s helpful to understand just how many apps you have installed. In this story, I will offer some tools to help you streamline this process, along with some instructions on how to put them to work to help you keep your apps and applications current and safe. Why? Because many updates involve security patches and fixes that block potential attacks and prevent unauthorized and unwanted access to applications and their data (and sometimes, the host OS and the PCs they run on). In general, it’s considered good security practice to keep apps and applications up-to-date.

Such numbers are quite typical, if my online research is at all accurate. On my local fleet of 10 PCs, the range for applications is from a low of 24 to a high of 120 for Store apps, it ranges from 49 to 81. Whether it’s running Windows 10 or 11, chances are that it’s running at least a couple of dozen Windows applications (.exe files), and at least four dozen Microsoft Store apps.

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