Removing Windows 10 bloat with powershell ?

digitaldreams · 28 Apr 2020 at 22:36

The windows 10 faq above contains the following yet is missing some unwanted apps that have installed with my win10....

"Remove Lot's of the Bloatware / Spyware, Run In power shell as ADMIN

Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers -Name Microsoft.3DBuilder | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers -Name Microsoft.Getstarted | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers -Name Microsoft.MicrosoftOfficeHub | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers -Name Microsoft.MicrosoftSolitaireCollection | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers -Name Microsoft.SkypeApp | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers -Name Microsoft.WindowsMaps | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers -Name Microsoft.BingWeather | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers -Name Microsoft.Office.OneNote | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers -Name Microsoft.XboxApp | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers -Name Microsoft.ZuneMusic | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers -Name Microsoft.ZuneVideo | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers -Name Microsoft.BingSports | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers -Name Microsoft.BingNews | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers -Name Microsoft.WindowsPhone | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers -Name Microsoft.BingFinance | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers -Name Microsoft.WindowsSoundRecorder | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers -Name Microsoft.Windows.Photos | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers -Name Microsoft.WindowsCamera | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers -Name Microsoft.WindowsAlarms | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers -Name Microsoft.People | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers -Name Microsoft.MicrosoftEdge | Remove-AppxPackage"

What line do I need to enter to properly remove "Your Phone", "X Box Game Bar", Windows Store", "Connect" and "Messaging" ?. Quality answers only please !

Looking around the internet I find several different quotes/formats !?, for example....
Get-AppxPackage *windowsstore* | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage -name "Microsoft.WindowsStore" | Remove-AppxPackage

I also notice that after removing apps using powershell, re listing the apps via powershell still shows those you removed yet they DO vanish from the start button ?. That seems to imply the packages are NOT being uninstalled !

Thanks in advance

darael · 29 Apr 2020 at 00:44

If you want to get rid of as many of the metro apps as you can, these two commands should help you greatly:

Code:

Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppXProvisionedPackage -online | Remove-AppxProvisionedPackage -online

Django x2 · 29 Apr 2020 at 12:46

digitaldreams said:
I also notice that after removing apps using powershell, re listing the apps via powershell still shows those you removed yet they DO vanish from the start button ?. That seems to imply the packages are NOT being uninstalled !

Thanks in advance

This only removes the apps from the current mounted image, which means the next time you get a feature update, they'll be back, or can easily be re-installed by PoSH. What you want to do is remove the apps from an unmounted image (iso) and then use that to build your Win10USB image.

I'm not sure why it's really in the FAQ as it's a bit naff. It literally just hides the apps.

digitaldreams · 29 Apr 2020 at 15:16

Django x2 said:
This only removes the apps from the current mounted image, which means the next time you get a feature update, they'll be back, or can easily be re-installed by PoSH. What you want to do is remove the apps from an unmounted image (iso) and then use that to build your Win10USB image.

I'm not sure why it's really in the FAQ as it's a bit naff. It literally just hides the apps.

Darn....

darael · 30 Apr 2020 at 10:20

Django x2 said:
This only removes the apps from the current mounted image, which means the next time you get a feature update, they'll be back, or can easily be re-installed by PoSH. What you want to do is remove the apps from an unmounted image (iso) and then use that to build your Win10USB image.

I'm not sure why it's really in the FAQ as it's a bit naff. It literally just hides the apps.

The first tool that springs to mind and that I use, is MSMG ToolKit. Unfortunately I am not allowed to link to the site that discusses the development of this tool, so you'll have to Google it. As long as you pay attention to the ReadMe file, you will be fine.

Django x2 · 30 Apr 2020 at 22:00

digitaldreams said:
Darn....

I've tweaked some PoSH so you can do this now, for all users, for ever, from the WIM. It requires you have to access to a Win10 source media.

1. Create a folder on your current machine (for example C:\Mounted)
2. Extract the Win10 media (assuming your media is D:\ at a cmd or run prompt type xcopy D:\*.* /s /e /f C:\Mounted)
3. Save the code below as removeapps.ps1
4. Open PoSH as Administrator
5. Browse to where you saved removeapps.ps1 and type:

Code:

removeapps.ps1 -pathtowim C:\Mounted\Sources\install.wim -selectapps $true

6. This will open a console window and allow you to select each app you want to keep or remove. Additionally, in removeapps.ps1 you can whitelist apps, and choose -selectapps $false. It will then remove all apps except those in the whitelist. If you have a large Enterprise WIM, with multiple Win10 versions, I have added a WIM index parameter too, but this shouldn't be needed for home/pro users.

Code:

## Save me as removeapps.ps1 ##

param (
    [string]$pathtowim,
    [string]$selectapps,
    [string]$index="1"
    )

$Host.UI.RawUI.BackgroundColor = "Black"; Clear-Host
$startdate = (Get-Date).ToString()
$ProgressPreference=’SilentlyContinue’

$WhiteListedApps = @(
    "Microsoft.StorePurchaseApp"
    "Microsoft.WindowsCalculator", 
    "Microsoft.WindowsStore"
)

function CreateTempDirectory {
   $tmpDir = [System.IO.Path]::GetTempPath()
   $tmpDir = [System.IO.Path]::Combine($tmpDir, [System.IO.Path]::GetRandomFileName())
   [System.IO.Directory]::CreateDirectory($tmpDir) | Out-Null
   $tmpDir
   }
try {
    $pathworkfolder = CreateTempDirectory
    Write-Host "Start:" $startdate -ForegroundColor White
    Write-Host "Create temporary directory..." -ForegroundColor Green
    Write-Host "Temporary directory:" $pathworkfolder -ForegroundColor Green
    }

catch [Exception] {
    Write-Host "Error:" $_.Exception.Message -ForegroundColor Red; break
    }

try {
    Write-Host "Mounting Windows-Image..." $pathtowim -ForegroundColor Green
    Write-Host "Please wait..." -ForegroundColor White
    Mount-WindowsImage -Path $pathworkfolder -ImagePath $pathtowim -Index $index | Out-Null
    }

catch [Exception] {
    Write-Host "Mounting Windows-Image failed..." -ForegroundColor Red;
    Write-Host "Error:" $_.Exception.Message -ForegroundColor Red; break
    }
try {
    Write-Host "Remove the following Built-in apps:" -ForegroundColor Green 
    $apps = Get-AppxProvisionedPackage -Path $pathworkfolder  | ForEach-Object {

 if (($_.DisplayName -notin $WhiteListedApps)) {

    if($selectapps -eq $true) {
    $call = read-host "Do you really want to delete the following App:" $_.DisplayName "(Y/N)"

 if($call -eq "y") {
    Write-Host "Delete:" $_.DisplayName -ForegroundColor Green
    Remove-AppxProvisionedPackage -Path $pathworkfolder -PackageName $_.PackageName
    $call = ""
    }

 else {
    Write-Host "Skipped:" $_.DisplayName -ForegroundColor yellow
    }
    }

    else {
    Write-Host "Delete:" $_.DisplayName -ForegroundColor Green
    Remove-AppxProvisionedPackage -Path $pathworkfolder -PackageName $_.PackageName 
    $call = ""
    }

    }

    }
    }

catch [Exception] {
    Write-Host "Removing Built-in apps failed..." -ForegroundColor Red;
    Write-Host "Error:" $_.Exception.Message -ForegroundColor Red; break
    }

try {
    Write-Host "Dismount-WindowsImage..." -ForegroundColor Green
    Write-Host "Please wait..." -ForegroundColor White
    Dismount-WindowsImage -Path $pathworkfolder  -Save -CheckIntegrity | Out-Null
    Write-Host "Remove temporary directory..." -ForegroundColor Green
    Remove-Item $pathworkfolder -Recurse -Force | Out-Null
    Write-Host "Complete:" (Get-Date).ToString() -ForegroundColor White
    }

catch [Exception] {
    Write-Host "Error:" $_.Exception.Message -ForegroundColor Red; break
    }

After you've completed that step, move the install.wim back from C:\Mounted to your USB stick, replacing the install.wim that's there.

darael · 30 Apr 2020 at 23:46

@Django x2
Good effort, but I had to allow unsigned scripts to run this script and then had to adjust your command as below to launch it:

Code:

.\removeapps.ps1 -pathtowim C:\Mounted\Sources\install.wim -selectapps $true

Have yet to install Windows 10 from this trial, but I do believe it is a little more involved than you realise. Hence why people such as MSMG need to tweak their ToolKit every major Windows 10 release.

Django x2 · 1 May 2020 at 08:50

darael said:
@Django x2
Good effort, but I had to allow unsigned scripts to run this script and then had to adjust your command as below to launch it:

Code:

.\removeapps.ps1 -pathtowim C:\Mounted\Sources\install.wim -selectapps $true

Have yet to install Windows 10 from this trial, but I do believe it is a little more involved than you realise. Hence why people such as MSMG need to tweak their ToolKit every major Windows 10 release.

Nope, it works just fine and there are no UWP apps present and they don't come back. Sorry for the command, I assumed people used the tab button these days

The *only* downside I've seen is that it leaves a stubb to menu items where the start menu expects to see the app (you'll get a weird P~2323432234 tile instead), but that doesn't bother me as I swap out my layout.xml before logging in anyway for a custom start menu.

Worth noting too, that, as for now, 1903 was the last big kernel update (not change since 1607) so feature updates from 1903 are small tweaks rather than large overhauls.

Relentless81 · 1 May 2020 at 09:39

If I remember rightly this one removes everything other than whats specified, I use it on MDT Deployments but its been a while and cant remember the finer details -

Set-ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted
Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers | where-object {$_.name -notlike "*Microsoft.WindowsStore*"} | where-object {$_.name -notlike "*Microsoft.WindowsCalculator*"} | where-object {$_.name -notlike "*Microsoft.Windows.Photos*"} | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxProvisionedPackage -online | where-object {$_.packagename -notlike "*Microsoft.WindowsStore*"} | where-object {$_.packagename -notlike "*Microsoft.WindowsCalculator*"} | where-object {$_.packagename -notlike "*Microsoft.Windows.Photos*"} |Remove-AppxProvisionedPackage -online

Django x2 · 1 May 2020 at 13:15

Relentless81 said:
If I remember rightly this one removes everything other than whats specified, I use it on MDT Deployments but its been a while and cant remember the finer details -

Set-ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted
Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers | where-object {$_.name -notlike "*Microsoft.WindowsStore*"} | where-object {$_.name -notlike "*Microsoft.WindowsCalculator*"} | where-object {$_.name -notlike "*Microsoft.Windows.Photos*"} | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxProvisionedPackage -online | where-object {$_.packagename -notlike "*Microsoft.WindowsStore*"} | where-object {$_.packagename -notlike "*Microsoft.WindowsCalculator*"} | where-object {$_.packagename -notlike "*Microsoft.Windows.Photos*"} |Remove-AppxProvisionedPackage -online

This will only work until a feature upgrade is released. It doesn't actually remove the apps from the image.

Relentless81 · 1 May 2020 at 13:35

Django x2 said:
This will only work until a feature upgrade is released. It doesn't actually remove the apps from the image.

Seems to be ok on 1809 and 1909 but yes I do recall it being version specific now that you mention it

Maybe the source has updated it, Deployment Ninja rings a bell, might be wrong though. Sorry if its good but thought it worth mentioning

Django x2 · 1 May 2020 at 14:34

Relentless81 said:
Seems to be ok on 1809 and 1909 but yes I do recall it being version specific now that you mention it

Maybe the source has updated it, Deployment Ninja rings a bell, might be wrong though. Sorry if its good but thought it worth mentioning

It's possible, since 1809 that this will now stick as that was the last large feature upgrade MS promised (pinch of salt). I prefer to make it stick with whatever new WIM I am using rolled up with the latest CU

ED209 · 1 May 2020 at 15:37

I will be getting a new NVME SSD 1TB in the next week or so.

What would be the best way to remove all the bloat from Windows 10 before doing this?

I have downloaded the ISO and extracted it to a folder using the W10 media creation tool.

This gives me a install.esd, I am using Windows 10 Pro

darael · 2 May 2020 at 08:55

ED209 said:
I will be getting a new NVME SSD 1TB in the next week or so.

What would be the best way to remove all the bloat from Windows 10 before doing this?

I have downloaded the ISO and extracted it to a folder using the W10 media creation tool.

This gives me a install.esd, I am using Windows 10 Pro

I would opt for using MSMG ToolKit. You've plenty of time to explore the menus and see which options suit you - be sure to test in a VM where possible.

sja360 · 2 May 2020 at 09:35

Does anyone feel this makes a noticeable difference to windows ?

Deleted member 77746 · 2 May 2020 at 10:03

I think some of the installs are unique and they have ID's different from PC to PC. There is a command that you can run to get all apps installed and it should be in that list somewhere as mentioned in post #2

Code:

Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers

VaderDSL · 2 May 2020 at 10:20

sja360 said:
Does anyone feel this makes a noticeable difference to windows ?

For me it's a placebo, but I feel happier when I've got rid of all the stuff I'll never use or need

For performance, probably makes no difference.

ED209 · 2 May 2020 at 10:42

darael said:
I would opt for using MSMG ToolKit. You've plenty of time to explore the menus and see which options suit you - be sure to test in a VM where possible.

I have been trying this but when removing certain apps I get errors appear and when I recreate the ISO file and try in a VM windows doesnt work very well

darael · 2 May 2020 at 10:43

ED209 said:
I have been trying this but when removing certain apps I get errors appear and when I recreate the ISO file and try in a VM windows doesnt work very well

Which errors do you get and from the ToolKit or Windows?

sja360 · 2 May 2020 at 10:47

VaderDSL said:
For me it's a placebo, but I feel happier when I've got rid of all the stuff I'll never use or need For performance, probably makes no difference.

Does it save on space much? I can agree it would be great to get rid of cortana, Microsoft store, etc as if I wanted to use it I'd go out my way to install rather than being left with it always there.