I uninstalled these apps and just use them in the browser — my PC has never been snappier

Modern OSs are pretty bloated — just the stock version is enough to chip away at your system's performance, which is why I recommend de-bloating ASAP. That said, I was unknowingly making things worse for my already slow system by downloading unnecessary desktop programs, whereas I could’ve used those apps in the browser with no downsides.

In fact, their browser version runs just as well, and oftentimes, I found them to be more usable. Here's the list of every app that I deleted from my system and instead started using on the web, and trust me, I regret not doing it any sooner.

WhatsApp as a desktop program is pointless

Meta basically shipped a browser bookmark

WhatsApp is my go-to communication platform, and since I spend much of my time on my PC, it was only natural for me to download the WhatsApp desktop app, but I was wrong to do so. The WhatsApp desktop app is a web wrapper, which essentially means that it's just a web page running in an app shell. This is why the application is so notorious for consuming a major portion of your RAM.

Switching to the web version is no different, and even beyond performance, I found that it had other upsides like treating audio files better and converting any type to WhatsApp's native format. Profile picture viewing is also much crisper, and the copy-paste function is also much more reliable, whereas on the native app, it felt glitchy at times. From a texting perspective, I can also translate texts, spell-check in different languages, and much more.

Discord on desktop isn't worth the overhead

A decade of system resources wasted

Before, I had been using the Discord app on my PC for nearly a decade, and sure, it took up a lot of my system resources, around 300–500MB RAM usage sitting idle and a slight GPU usage doing nothing since it combines Chromium and app shell elements, but I felt that it was a bitter pill to swallow.

That was until I moved to the web version, which improved performance across RAM, GPU, and CPU since it avoids the heavy Electron framework that the desktop program is based on. The most surprising part was that my voice sounded a lot clearer on the web, and for some reason, the native app seemed to compress it. Other upsides I noticed were that it also protected my privacy, as the desktop program would automatically download every file to my computer, while the web version gave me control over what to keep. The web version also allowed me to block API requests through AdBlock extensions.

Spotify web player is slept on

The web version is just as good

Sure, the Spotify app is clean, but I've found it to be unresponsive and buggy at times. There are multiple reasons to start using the web player, but the main ones are avoiding those occasional delays and hiccups and, of course, improving my system performance. The Spotify desktop is an Electron app, another web wrapper, but it uses a hybrid approach of Chromium elements. However, the downsides of high system resource use remain.

The web version had a noticeable impact, and beyond performance, the UI is consistent across both web and desktop, so you're not missing out on much. It's better to pick up the web version, which is more favorable in terms of performance.

Shifting Slack to the web turned out to be more productive

Electron strikes again?

I have been using Slack for nearly half a decade now, ever since I started my writing career, and throughout that span, the desktop app has been slowing down my PC. It wasn't until recently that I realized that the Slack desktop app has provided me with practically zero uplift over the web version.

Slack is another instance of an app based on Electron, and, as if I haven't emphasized it enough already, it is an inefficient app that isn't friendly to your system resources, since these kinds of apps are built on a web-based foundation. Moving to the web version made my system smoother and faster, and since my browser is always open, the performance overhead of opening one more tab was minimal compared to opening an entirely different app. Moreover, this way I can also switch between workspaces in different tabs, whereas in the desktop application, that wasn't possible.

Zoom's PC client is dead weight to me

Completely optional

Since COVID, Zoom has become an essential part of most people's lives, whether it's for attending classes or work meetings. It's become the new norm for online meetings. The desktop application was essentially junk to me, and it cluttered an already massive barrage of software installed on my setup. When you install the Zoom program on your PC, even if startup is disabled, it runs a couple of background processes: ZoomOpener, which consumes resources to get ready to join meetings as soon as possible, and an auto-updater.

The desktop app is occasionally laggy because it's CPU-intensive, which doesn't make sense considering Zoom isn't really a demanding application. I started using the web version and limited Zoom's control by running it within the browser sandbox. Aside from performance, I found audio configuration, workflow, and leaving/attending meetings much faster when using the web version.

Office 365 online is all you need

Microsoft accidentally made the web version too good

Now hear me out on this one: I started using Office 365 online recently, and I can promise I would never go back to the desktop version. To be fair, Office 365 includes a barrage of productivity applications, but the core ones include: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook. This created so much clutter on my desktop and slowed down the entire PC. Since the new Office 365 is based on a collaborative platform, the apps feature web components, and there's continuous real-time syncing in the background that constantly eats up your system resources.

In my case, my workload is pretty light, but it does involve using Office 365 daily, mostly for writing. Switching to the web version helped me free up a few GB of my precious storage, and the online version works just as well for me, at least. I can log in to Office 365 anywhere, and collaborative work is now snappier than on the desktop, where it used to lag.

The Netflix PC app is practically useless

They removed downloads, so I removed the app

Just like most applications on this list, Netflix is also a web wrapper, and the desktop app provides no incentive, which is why I highly encourage removing it from your PC. The cache, updates, and app size make it a heavyweight — taking up the majority of storage, not to mention the high RAM usage.

Using the web version provides more control via browser extensions (theme adjustment, ad blocking, etc.) and the ability to use keyboard shortcuts to control playback. Netflix also removed offline downloads from the desktop app in 2024, effectively removing any reason to download it.

Most desktop clients are redundant at this point

By now, we've reached a point where most programs for most apps are redundant and function the same in a web browser, if not better. This specific list I compiled came from the apps I was using, and most of them are web wrappers — essentially opening a separate browser tab, unlike true native desktop apps that are compiled code. Switching to the web version provided a performance boost because my browser stays open for the entire duration, and the tab where they're opened enters a low-power state, further unburdening my PC's resources. Moreover, these programs took a few seconds to start, and most of them were configured as startup apps, making my PC's initial boot incredibly slow. Opting for the web version, I noticed that my system got much snappier and more responsive, and multitasking also greatly improved because I can juggle these services in a single browser.