Do you want to remove the People icon from your taskbar in Windows 10? Well, you are not the only one. Ever since Microsoft introduced the People app in Windows 10, many of us felt that the two people icon present on our taskbar was nothing but a waste of space. If you don’t use the feature either and want to remove the Windows 10 People icon to avoid cluttering your taskbar, this tutorial illustrates two simple ways to get rid of it:
The two people icon in Windows 10
The People icon (which actually looks like two people) lets you access the app with the same name, which was inflicted by Microsoft upon unsuspecting Windows 10 users in 2017, with the Fall Creators Update. We’ve already explored the People app and all its shortcomings, if you still need to make up your mind about it. In a nutshell, we feel it’s unreliable and buggy, but it can be useful if you want to pin contacts to the taskbar.
The good news is that Microsoft already put the People app on a deprecated features list, so it should be removed very soon. However, until then, you can avoid the feature and hide the People icon in Windows 10 using one of the two methods in this guide.
In Windows 10, remove the People icon using the taskbar's contextual menu
The People icon is immediately removed from the Windows 10 taskbar.
Access the Personalization Settings
Next, access the Taskbar tab, displayed at the bottom of the left column. This reveals a long list of taskbar-related settings on the right-hand side of the window.
Select the Taskbar tab on the left to see the list of settings on the right
TIP: Alternatively, you can reach this page by clicking or tapping on the Taskbar settings option from the taskbar’s contextual menu, as seen below.
Access Taskbar settings from the taskbar's contextual menu, discussed in the previous chapter
In the Taskbar settings, scroll down until you find the People section. Then, click or tap on the “Show contacts on the taskbar” switch to turn it Off.
In Windows 10, remove the People icon using the Taskbar settings
As soon as you flip the switch, the People icon is hidden from the taskbar.
First things first: Where is the People icon in Windows 10 and what is it for?
The Windows 10 People icon can be found on the right side of your taskbar, to the left of the system tray or Notification area.How to remove the People icon using the taskbar menu
The fastest way to hide the People icon is from the taskbar’s menu. Right-click or press-and-hold on the free space on your taskbar to open the contextual menu. Then, click or tap on the “Show People on the taskbar” option to uncheck it.How to remove the People icon with the Settings app
You can also use the Settings app to remove the People icon from your taskbar. First, open Settings and click or tap on Personalization.
Discussion (46)
Thank you for your help. your instructions were short and to the point. I learned a lot today from you.
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I do not use social media
Too easy to be have my privacy breached
It is fun to see what people have written.
When I talk like that to my wife, all I can see in her non-verbal is disapproval, she doesn’t like complaints and don’t understand why but she doesn’t have to make a computer work after a crash, she just have to use it and I’m the one who loses my life compensating for a bad product. I cannot single out one comment that is not true and I can feel all the frustration of each and every one of those who took the time to write a comment, because I’m one of them. When we click on the submit button, there is satisfaction of being able to put that frustration somewhere out of our body for some time, before it comes back to us.
There was a time when a computer was something to make a living with. And even if we add to reboot once in a while, windows 95 was “Efficient” for US not Microsoft. Today, Windows 10 in all versions, we spend more time dealing with BSOD (Blue Screen Of Death) than actually working with our tool. Mainly because Microsoft doesn’t care, at all, about our needs. Like LinkedIn, Google, Netflix, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, all that matters is to get where we are,, what we do, at what time to be able to sell something to us and sell that information to others, ending up using only 5% of our computer because, that’s the percentage of my 6 computers that I can rely on.
Do you know why I have 6 computers ?
I have one that goes to the internet.
Google, Chrome, GSuite for my company, I have 5 website domains.
I use AllWay Sync to sync to a NAS.
When that computer crashes, I use the second one that I bought for University
so, while I’m debugging, chatting, try some stuff, get back to the chat because it never worked because support is crap, I chat again with Google for GSSMO on GSuite, then Microsoft block me because they want to check my password so I cannot login until I do so, then I do and I get back to my problem, and the first thing you know, you spent 14 hours and the problem is not resolved.
You wake up the day after, then you slept on it and you’re the one who found a solution.
I have a 3rd one that never goes to the internet, other than Windows Update that I do once every 3 months, maybe more.
The 3 others are for my wife’s company, so redo the last paragraphe another time.
So to your question.
Why would I disable People App ?
I disable many useless app because they serves Microsoft, not me.
But no contacts are attainable by Microsoft, other than the ones I decide.
And even if it feels good to write about it, we all know that Microsoft doesn’t care so thanks for the opportunity to express my frustration.
Hello. I’m happy to have provided a solution and also a forum for venting and sharing your frustration.
This is a WORK computer…not a ‘social media’ center. Microsoft’s attempt to turn every desktop into the replica of a cellphone runs contrary to what businesses want.
My business uses Skype for Business which is fine for my current uses and I would like to reclaim my task bar for typical productive uses.
The people task on my Intel Core i5 is using 27% of the cpu resources and several of my programs seem to be taking rather long pauses in the middle of whatever they are doing.
I shut down people because I am leery of additions that I didn’t seek out. I like to guard my bandwidth, computing power, and privacy.
I use Windows just to run one app – Essential PIM organizer, which, unfortunately, shows exceptions under Linux’s Wine. The base system – Ubuntu.
Not a feature I would use
Please STOP trying to be so helpful
Want to hide it from my spouse
1.(a) My PC is for business, not friends. (b) My business isn’t B2C, it’s B2B, it’s not high-touch. (c) And my computer is only secondarily for communication, it’s mostly for computation. (Surprise, surprise.)
2. I have been doing this for many years, and interfering with my productivity (without even asking for my permission!) is VASTLY more expensive than whatever trivial efficiency improvements People can offer.
3. I fundamentally don’t trust MS (or Google, or FB, for that matter) to “manage” my data without using it to push products at me. If it’s not proprietary MS spyware already, it will be.
Even if this app required ZERO space on my hard drive, its icon and its management & customization options bloat the UI. Yes, it’s bloatware.
I work for a school district and we turned off the People App for all students. Violation of our policy to show pictures of students…
If I need a certain feature, I want to be able to install it. I don’t want to look everywhere trying to find out how to uninstall something that I don’t need, but someone else thought I should have.
I wanted to disable this feature as it was another one from the list “updates noone asked for”. Thanks for help!
If i could have used these contacts to send a group text I would have kept it.
Right click on task bar and settings? I thought this was a professional page. How do you get it out of your menu? Not just shut it off, but a complete uninstall. That would be worth writing about.
This is a work computer, used for programming stuff It’s not a social media feed.
Cause i need a computer..just a box making computer stuff.
And not a SPY
simple Reason
isn´t it?
nevertheless – thanks to you guy´s remembering us here and there “What kind of OS” win 10 is! I recomment to run from time to time the free spybot anti-beacon…yeaa also this will not be 100% sure…but better then nothing… WIN 10 is a spy
A bit late to add this comment, but as the People thing was just added to my computer, yeah, thought I’d chime in.
Basically, I removed it because I tend to keep in contact through means of Telegram, Discord, and other things in addition to Skype, with Skype becoming increasingly less used as more and more people migrate from it in protest of its decreasing quality. In terms of email, I rely on my phone to tell me when one comes in, and I don’t like my work on the computer getting interrupted to notify me that I have a new thing to respond to. So, there’s no real need for an additional communications app when I already have the ones that I need.
In addition, I have to agree that the current trend with Windows 10 to have these things forcibly installed and having to opt out after the fact is a pain and a half, so it’s a semi-protest against that sort of business practice. I’d much prefer to have these updates/new options offered as legitimate options, something to opt into rather than having to opt-out after the fact.
Like the contents of most updates, it is something I did not expect nor asked for.
It is very rude to force updates without consent.
Windows is merely a guest on my hardware.
It needs to act like one.
It’s just more invasive bloatware. Wish I could uninstall it completely.
Because I’m tired of Microsoft putting garbage on my computer without asking me.
I use a PC as a computer, imagine that. I just want a damn operating system. i don’t want MS forcing junk on me through updates and wasting my time.
Every time MS releases an update, I wonder what’s going to break on my computer and what new ways they will spy on people. Heads should have rolled for forcing Cortana on us and all of the personal data they’re allowed to mine. They should have rolled for every time MS breaks our computers, wastes our time, and then wants to charge money for fixing what they broke.
It should not be legal to sell a product to consumers and then change the terms after that sale, and the spying needs to stop.
I used to be able to hit the “remind me later button” to avoid these shitty updates for months on end, but it no longer works. I was using my computer when this shit-tastic update hijacked my computer and caused me to lose hours of work. Seeing “Hi” written in giant letters on the screen is a giant slap in our collective faces, and I pray for the day that Microsoft (and their global elitist agenda) goes down in flames for their rampant invasions of privacy, theft of intellectual property, and breaking anti-trust laws. I hope they take Facebook and Google down with them.
Reasons why I want the People thing gone: 1. I didn’t ask for it 2. I don’t want anyone to know anything about me that I did not voluntarily tell them 3. I did not give this company permission to collect information about me in aggregate, and it does 4. It may not violate my rights as a citizen (yet) but just wait until the morons lose my data. (Think Yahoo, Verizon, OPM, Equifax.) You can only do so much to protect your own identity. It’s already to the point that these greedy, faceless criminals are completely empowered to collect whatever data they want to inflict whatever capricious, malicious harm on whoever they desire. It’s like the Taliban said to Margret Thatcher: they only have to get it right once. (And my resources are considerably less sophisticated than hers.) I hate you ** every time you mass produce another google glass, phone with the camera coyly placed on the opposite from the receiver, every thumbprint reader, every little “spy” thing you come up with, thinking it’s so very clever. I hate it.
Value added features should not be part of an operating system.
I like Microsoft operating systems, just don’t like the fluff.
Can’t wait for Polaris or “Windows Core OS” (WCOS)
I do not want information given UNLESS I GIVE IT. I do not trust apps that want to have access to my documents, pictures, etc.. and as always in there disclosure documents, things change or get added without them telling you they did.. like i said, if i didn’t give it, then i didn’t want you to have it.
I hate Microsoft adding shit to my computer. It is bad enough that they hack into it all the time with there so called updated.
The “People” feature is not something I need or want, personally I believe this should have been an optional update and not a blanket update for everyone. I understand how this would be great for other people, but currently it is just a wasted use of space on my computer.
I don’t have a cell phone, and rarely use my home phone. I don’t need to be in contact with everyone I know 24/7, and there are already enough ways to communicate with the few whom I do occasionally. The extra icon on the taskbar was simply distracting and unnecessary. Thank you for the removal instructions!
Happy to help. In your case, it is a good idea to turn off this feature. 😉
I only want what I choose to put on my computer. I don’t need a never ending supply of social media apps clogging up my screen / hard drive / processor / etc forced into my computer through automatic updates. All while Cortana the spy tries to resurrect herself, so she can send all my personal info to her corporate overlords.
Will never need it
Just clutter, and slows my computer boot, if not the entire computer down.
It’s annoying to have MSFT keep thinking I have to have something I didn’t ask for. I use a portable app for my mail, I don’t store any contacts in Windows. I don’t skype. Basically this serves absolutely zero function except to use resources. I would love to dig into my system and delete pretty much every service that is not essential to either using my browser, using the applications that I installed, or otherwise just taking up space with no benefit to me.
Annoying white window always there on taskbar.
I don’t need it, I don’t want it since I don’t want to open my contacts. It takes additional space on my task bar.
I profoundly distrust any and all apps that are auto-installed by Microsoft, Google, Facebook, or anybody else, when they purport to add access to my system(s) while protecting “privacy”. What nonsense!
I removed it because features like this slow down your computer. I prefer to have a faster more responsive computer than a computer full of gadgets. I’m not a lazy person; if I need to contact someone I will start the appropriate application. I don’t need unnecessary shortcuts such as these.
Windows 10 has taken away the ability to trivially control when and what updates are applied.
The system is now even more unreliable, insecure and can not be trusted. A bad update can render any/all functions inoperable at any time.
So I do not use Windows for anything other than playing games.
Reasons why I want the People thing gone: 1. I didn’t ask for it 2. I don’t want anyone to know anything about me that I did not voluntarily tell them 3. I did not give this company permission to collect information about me in aggregate, and it does 4. It may not violate my rights as a citizen (yet) but just wait until the morons lose my data. (Think Yahoo, Verizon, OPM, Equifax.) You can only do so much to protect your own identity. It’s already to the point that these greedy, faceless criminals are completely empowered to collect whatever data they want to inflict whatever capricious, malicious harm on whoever they desire. It’s like the Taliban said to Margret Thatcher: they only have to get it right once. (And my resources are considerably less sophisticated than hers.) I hate you ** every time you mass produce another google glass, phone with the camera coyly placed on the opposite from the receiver, every thumbprint reader, every little “spy” thing you come up with, thinking it’s so very clever. I hate it.
thank you for the comprehensive feedback. 😀
I don’t use the peopleapp, so I don’t need it wasting space on my taskbar.
In my experience, the Metro/Win10/Universal/Store/App are flaky. I can’t depend on them to work, and the various methods of reseting, deleting, re-installing them is not a consistent way get them working again.
Since I can’t depend on them to work consistently I avoid them.
The Weather app worked for a while, then it didn’t, now it’s back. It’s just this week that the Win 10 Feedback Hub has worked for me.
As well, I’ve seen enough complaints about the limited functionality of theseapplets. They are typically fast and dirty, simple cludges that do not recreate the fuctionality of “real” applications that they are supposedly “replacing”.