Microsoft app uninstall is anything but !?

Monanore

I wonder if any of you clever people can explain something to a simpleton.

I wanted to have a look at MS “ToDo”. I downloaded it ( the first time I have installed an MS app from the MS store on my windows 11 laptop ). After looking at it I decided I didn’t want it and ‘uninstalled’ it.

The first disconcerting thing was the install.  Unexpectedly, alongside the app installation, some other process was invoked whose progress panel referred to ‘updates’ and took quite a while.

The main mystery, however, was that uninstall was instantaneous with no notifications.  After it, all of the software remained in place.  Furthermore, reinstall then took seconds – obviously because all its files were still there. 

So my idea so far is that the first install pulled down some sort of environment in which to run downloaded MS apps ( needed separately from what runs preinstalled apps - ? ), and that ‘uninstall’ is actually ‘disable’ !

Why would Microsoft do this ?

Vitor

By running the Microsoft Store app, you probably saw it updating other apps which usually happens periodically in the background.

Windows and the Microsoft Store app maintain numerous caches of app package files which is why a reinstall after removal would be nearly instant.

The management of UWP (Universal Windows Platform) like ToDo is very different from old school apps which you'd install from a setup.exe

Monanore

@Vitor

Thank you.  I'll have a look at UWP. 

forgotmyname

Bugs me the way it sneaks stuff onto your PC, I removed the phone feature a long time ago and normally that would
get block from reinstalling but I created a new user account in a rush and didn't set permissions and I got another
app in it's place called myphone which I promptly uninstalled and blocked.