Google has been tinkering with Progressive Web Apps for several years and, despite very slow progress, still sees a great future in them – especially with a view to Chrome OS. A new feature is now being rolled out that is intended to make it easier to use web apps within Windows. More specifically, it’s about how to get rid of an installed app.
Installing, using and even uninstalling Progressive Web Apps is not a big deal. Everything can take place right in the Chrome browser, and ultimately these OS-level apps are just shortcuts into the browser. But Google announced a long time ago that it wants to integrate the apps more deeply into the operating system, especially under Windows. This has now been implemented with a new entry.
From Chrome 99 it is possible to uninstall the installed Progressive Web Apps directly from Windows. All you have to do is switch to the familiar “Apps & Features” menu in Windows and you should find the apps installed via the Chrome browser there. From there they can then be uninstalled directly, just like any other local app. In my tests, this worked without any problems, but there is a small catch.
Only apps installed from Chrome 99 appear in this list. All previously installed apps are not there because the Chrome browser has probably not previously registered them in the Windows system. It is quite possible that this can be corrected with one of the upcoming versions.