Microsoft 365 Companion Apps Die December 16: Uninstall Them Now
Microsoft is killing its Microsoft 365 companion apps, Calendar, People and Files, barely a year after it started forcing them onto Windows 11 business PCs. They stop working by December 16, 2026, but the deadline that matters is now: security fixes have already stopped, so every copy is running unpatched. Your files, meetings and contacts are safe because they live in Microsoft 365, not in the apps. If IT manages your PC, they’ll handle it. If not, uninstall the apps yourself today. It takes a minute, and removing one removes all three.
Well, that didn’t last long. The Microsoft 365 companion apps, Calendar, People and Files are being killed off after only a year. Even by Microsoft’s standards that’s a very short life and a quick end.
All three Microsoft 365 companion apps, Calendar, People and Files, will stop working by December 16, 2026. At this time last year, Microsoft was getting ready to force these apps onto Windows 11 business PCs.
For many people, these apps appeared on their Windows taskbar without explanation.
The apps will stop functioning and will no longer be supported after mid-December, and Microsoft advises admins to remove them from devices in their tenant before then.
The bigger news is buried further down the announcement. Security updates for these apps have already stopped. Since the notice went out on September 18, 2026, Microsoft has stopped installing the apps automatically and no longer provides updates or fixes, including security fixes. Existing installs keep running until the cutoff date, but they are running unpatched from now on.
Microsoft’s own troubleshooting advice is blunt: if you hit a problem that needs a fix during the retirement period, the solution is to uninstall them. That is not a workaround. That is the whole support plan.
How the apps will end
If you work in a business or enterprise that uses Microsoft 365, and you see small Calendar, People or Files icons on your Windows 11 taskbar, those apps are dead. They will disappear or stop working within three months, either because your IT department removes them or because December 16 arrives.
You will not lose anything. Your files, calendar events and contacts live in Microsoft 365 services, not in the companion apps, so all your data stays fully available and nothing is deleted by the retirement. The apps were only a shortcut to information that already existed elsewhere.
If your PC is managed by an IT department, you do nothing. If your organization does not manage your device, you have to uninstall the apps yourself.
How to remove them yourself
There are two ways, and removing one app removes all three:
- Go to Windows Settings | Apps | Installed apps, search for Microsoft 365 companions, click the … menu, choose Uninstall and confirm.
- Type Calendar, People or Files into the Windows search box, right click the app when it appears and choose Uninstall. If the app doesn’t appear at the top of the results, switch to the Apps tab.
The apps may hang around until you close them or sign out, and some PCs need a restart before they are fully gone. That is expected behavior, not a failed uninstall.
What to use instead
Everything the companion apps did, other Microsoft software already does.
For calendar and people information, use Outlook and Teams.
For files, use the Windows Search Box, File Explorer, SharePoint, OneDrive, Word, Excel and PowerPoint.
Copilot is the other suggested option, especially when you only half remember what you are looking for.
For IT admins: watch the reinstall trap
The single most useful detail in Microsoft’s guidance is the one that will waste your afternoon if you miss it.
If the companion apps were deployed through Microsoft Intune, check the Microsoft 365 companion apps Win32 app entry for Required or Available for enrolled devices assignments and delete them first. Otherwise, Intune simply reinstalls the apps after you uninstall them.
There is a setting that’s not cleaned up for you. Microsoft’s change does not clear the Enable automatic installation of Microsoft 365 companion apps checkbox in the Microsoft 365 Apps admin center. Microsoft recommends you uncheck it yourself, under Device Configuration | Modern App settings | Microsoft 365 companion apps, to avoid confusion later.
Microsoft also supplies a ready made email template for announcing the retirement to staff, which is worth copying rather than writing your own.
The official notice is MC1474111, published September 18, 2026, with the admin detail in a Microsoft Learn article updated September 17, 2026.
The welcome kill switch
This is a kill switch on software that most people never asked for. Microsoft pushed these apps onto business PCs automatically, pinned them to taskbars, started them at login, wired Copilot into them, and then pulled the plug.
The practical damage is small, because the apps never held any data of their own. The real cost is the admin time: every IT department that let the automatic installation run now has to unwind it across every managed device, and every reference in every internal help document.
The lesson worth keeping is the one about defaults. When Microsoft announces that something will install itself unless you opt out, the safe answer is usually to opt out and wait. Organizations that unchecked the box in October 2025 have nothing to do now.
The remarkably short life of companion apps
Here is the part Microsoft would rather you skipped. These apps existed for about 21 months, and were force fed to business PCs for only fourteen of them.
March to June 2025. Microsoft introduced People, Files and later the Calendar app, first to Microsoft 365 Insider Beta Channel users with Enterprise or Business licenses. They were pitched as mini apps that work alongside Teams and OneDrive as flyouts from the Windows taskbar.
September 2025: Microsoft announces the forced install.
October to December 2025. Microsoft starts installing the apps automatically on Windows 11 PCs with Microsoft 365 desktop apps in late October, finishing in late December. The install is on by default, the apps start with Windows, and nobody is asked.
September 17 and 18, 2026. Retirement announced, security patches stopped.
December 16, 2026: The apps stop working.
The apps were not popular, to put in mildly. The automatic installation and appearance on the taskbar were widely seen as intrusive and rude. All three apps were memory hogs, consuming close to 500MB of memory just sitting in the background, for functions that were already one click away in Outlook or Teams.
What Else Microsoft Is changing in 2026
If you never worked out what these apps were meant to do, Microsoft 365 Companion Apps: People, Calendar & File Search Explained covers everything Microsoft promised. Our first, skeptical look in People and File Search apps coming to Microsoft 365 shows the warning signs were there from day one.
The same install first, ask later approach is now running through Copilot. Two Copilot Apps Become One: What Changes on Your PC and Phone explains the new icon arriving on your taskbar, and Microsoft 365 Copilot App vs Copilot App: What’s the Difference? sorts out which one you actually have.
Companion apps aren’t the only thing Microsoft is switching off this year. Microsoft Kills Free Meeting Insights: What Outlook Users Lose in September 2026 and Microsoft Kills Word’s Similarity Checker on October 3, 2026 have deadlines close enough to act on now. Microsoft Office Support End Dates 2026: The Complete Checklist keeps every date in one place.
Microsoft’s replacement for Calendar and People is Outlook, so read Understanding Outlook (New) for Windows: An Independent Guide before you get pushed to the new version. If the companion apps’ 500MB appetite bothered you, New Outlook Is Slow and a Memory Hog: More Reasons to Avoid It has worse news.
These apps started life with Microsoft 365 Insiders, which is where plenty of half finished Microsoft ideas get tested on paying customers. Microsoft 365 Insiders: Is It Safe and Worth Joining? explains the risks before you volunteer for the next one.