If you are sitting at a Windows computer and reading this article, then various system processes have helped you. They helped you boot your computer, create a graphical user interface that allows you to log into Windows, connect to the Internet, open a web browser, etc.
Windows has various system processes and applications, but most of them are probably not familiar to you. One process that you may not have heard of is yourphone.exe. Unlike other system processes like svchost.exe, yourphone.exe is a new system process introduced in Windows 10. Here’s everything you need to know about it.
What is Yourphone.exe, and should you disable it?
If you see yourphone.exe (or similar) process running in Windows Task Manager, then you are running Windows 10 and the Your Phone app is running in the background.
The Your Phone app is a relatively new Windows feature that lets you sync your Windows device with an Android smartphone or tablet running Android 7 or later. It allows you to read your device’s notifications, including incoming messages, without looking directly at your Android device.
If you are an iPhone or iPad user, you can still use the Your Phone app, but you are restricted from a link in your browser and no other features are available at this time. To do this, Microsoft Edge must be installed on your iPhone or iPad.
You can also exchange files and pictures between your devices, reply to text messages from your computer, and more. This is a Microsoft application, so you can safely continue to run it on your PC.
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However, if you want to disable it, you can. You can manually stop the yourphone.exe process in Windows Task Manager or prevent it from running in the background in Windows Settings. You can also uninstall it completely using Windows PowerShell
How to manually stop Yourphone.exe process
If you think yourphone.exe is running on your computer and want to stop it, you can do it manually using the Windows Task Manager.
- To do this, you need to open the Windows Task Manager by right-clicking the taskbar at the bottom of the screen. On the options menu, click Task Manager. Or press Ctrl + Shift + Esc on your keyboard to open it manually.
- In the Windows Task Manager window, find the Your Phone process. If the application is open, it will be displayed as “Your Phone”. If it is running in the background, it may appear as “Your Phone”.
- To stop the Your Phone or Your Phone process, right-click it and select End Task.
This will complete the current process until the next reboot or until you manually open the Your Phone app. If you are using your phone’s features, this will prevent the application from running in the background. You will not receive notifications or messages synced from your Android device until you open the app again.
Disable the Your Phone app in Windows 10
Ending the yourphone.exe process will stop the application from running until it restarts. If you want it to not automatically load in the background when you restart your computer, you need to disable it in the Windows settings menu.
- To open Windows Settings, right-click the Start Menu icon and click the Settings button.
- From the Window Settings menu, click Privacy> Background Applications. From here, a list of applications that can run in the background will be listed. Find the Your Phone app by scrolling down the list on the right. To turn it off, click the slider next to it to the Off position.
Once disabled, the Your Phone app will no longer run in the background. The next time you restart your computer, the application will no longer appear in the Windows Task Manager process list until you open it yourself.
If you never use an app, it will never appear until you open it. This will leave it disabled, but ready to use if you change your mind in the future.
Remove Your Phone Application (Yourphone.exe) using Windows PowerShell
Disabling the Your Phone app by stopping it from running in the background will disable it, but you can still open it manually. If you want to remove it completely, you will need to use Windows PowerShell to do so.
Although it is generally not recommended to remove built-in Windows components, you can uninstall this application. It is not the main component of the system, so it should not affect other functions. After removing it, you won’t be able to sync your Android device with Windows, but you can reinstall the app from the Microsoft Store later.
- To uninstall yourphone.exe, you need to open a PowerShell window. with administrative access. To do this, right-click the Start menu and select the Windows PowerShell option.
- In a Windows PowerShell window, you can run a command that will stop the components used for your phone (including yourphone.exe). To do this, enter Get-AppxPackage Microsoft.YourPhone -AllUsers | Remove-AppxPackage and press Enter.
- You will not see any confirmation that the Your Phone app has been removed. If the command is successful, the response in the PowerShell window will not be written. After that, you may also need to delete the installation files for the Your Phone app. You can access these files by opening the C: Program Files WindowsApps folder in Windows Explorer.
- In the C: Program Files WindowsApps folder, find an additional folder that starts with Microsoft.YourPhone (for example, Microsoft.YourPhone_1.20081.117.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe). The folder name will change depending on the version of the application installed on your PC. There might be multiple folders in the list with the Microsoft.YourPhone tag, so look for the folder that contains the system architecture tag (e.g. x64).
- To delete a folder, right-click it and click Delete. This will delete all files in the Your Phone application, including yourphone.exe.
- You may need to click “Continue” in the “Access Denied” pop-up window to grant permission to delete the folder.
- If the folder is not deleted, you can force it to be deleted using a Windows PowerShell command. To do this, enter Remove-Item -path “C: Program Files WindowsApps Microsoft.YourPhone_1.20081.117.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe” and press Enter. First, replace the path Microsoft.YourPhone with the correct path for your PC, depending on the version of the application. After executing the command, press Y to confirm the deletion.
If the command is successful, the folder (and all the files it contains) should be deleted. If the command returns an error, make sure the Your Phone app is not already running, then use the -Force tag at the end of the command to have Windows delete all of your phone’s files.
Understanding Basic System Operations in Windows 10
Other system processes, such as msmpeng.exe, are considered vital components of your Windows 10 installation, and stopping or removing them can cause Windows to stop working. Luckily, the Your Phone app isn’t that important, so if you really want to uninstall it, you can, although it’s best to just turn it off and leave it in place.
If you are worried about processes in Windows Task Manager that you are not familiar with, you should probably run a malware scan to make sure your PC is still safe. If you don’t have antivirus protection installed, you can use many free antivirus removal tools, including the built-in Windows security tool.
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