Prevent removed apps from reinstalling

hannelius said:

edit: i found out if you use classic shell
you can uninstall all of these...
even the store...
just by right clicking

and you get a nice start menu too...

Yeah but you have to logout/login to find that they come back. You have to kill them also at the package repository level.

illonus said:

Hi, first I would like to say thank you so much for this, it worked for me. What I wanna ask is how do I add a line for an additional $apppath within this code?
For example if I wanna have $appPath="$Env:LOCALAPPDATA\Packages\$app*" and also $appPath="C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\$app*"

Well, you shouldn't have to delete from WindowsApps as the Remove-AppxProvisionedPackage command does that (at least for me in 14393 build ).

If it isn't (and I remember sometime in the past it wasn't) and you want to do it manually it would be like this...

Note that you can delete from %appdata% easily enough as your user owns it. You don't have authority to WindowsApps so you need to take ownership and grant yourself authority first or the Remove-Item will fail. This means you can't just duplicate the last 2 lines and stick them at the end of the foreach loop.

See below in red. I've also updated the list of apps from GitHub - W4RH4WK as there are more these days. This script was taken from that project in the first place.

Code:

$apps = @(
    # default Windows 10 apps
    "Microsoft.3DBuilder"
    "Microsoft.Appconnector"
    "Microsoft.BingFinance"
    "Microsoft.BingNews"
    "Microsoft.BingSports"
    "Microsoft.BingWeather"
    #"Microsoft.FreshPaint"
    "Microsoft.Getstarted"
    "Microsoft.MicrosoftOfficeHub"
    "Microsoft.MicrosoftSolitaireCollection"
    #"Microsoft.MicrosoftStickyNotes"
    "Microsoft.Office.OneNote"
    #"Microsoft.OneConnect"
    "Microsoft.People"
    "Microsoft.SkypeApp"
    #"Microsoft.Windows.Photos"
    "Microsoft.WindowsAlarms"
    #"Microsoft.WindowsCalculator"
    "Microsoft.WindowsCamera"
    "Microsoft.WindowsMaps"
    "Microsoft.WindowsPhone"
    "Microsoft.WindowsSoundRecorder"
    #"Microsoft.WindowsStore"
    "Microsoft.XboxApp"
    "Microsoft.ZuneMusic"
    "Microsoft.ZuneVideo"
    "microsoft.windowscommunicationsapps"
    "Microsoft.MinecraftUWP"

    # Threshold 2 apps
    "Microsoft.CommsPhone"
    "Microsoft.ConnectivityStore"
    "Microsoft.Messaging"
    "Microsoft.Office.Sway"

    # non-Microsoft
    "9E2F88E3.Twitter"
    "Flipboard.Flipboard"
    "ShazamEntertainmentLtd.Shazam"
    "king.com.CandyCrushSaga"
    "king.com.CandyCrushSodaSaga"
    "king.com.*"
    "ClearChannelRadioDigital.iHeartRadio"
    #"TheNewYorkTimes.NYTCrossword"
)

foreach ($app in $apps) {
    Write-Host "Removing " -noNewLine; Write-Host $app -f white

    # Need to hide the progress bar as otherwise it remains on the screen
    $ProgressPreference = "SilentlyContinue"

    Get-AppxPackage -Name $app -AllUsers | Remove-AppxPackage
    $ProgressPreference = "Continue"

    Get-AppXProvisionedPackage -Online |
        where DisplayName -EQ $app |
        Remove-AppxProvisionedPackage -Online
            
    $appPath="$Env:LOCALAPPDATA\Packages\$app*"
    Remove-Item $appPath -Recurse -Force -ErrorAction 0
    

    $appPath = "$apppath = "C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\$app*"

    # take ownership
    takeown /f "$appPath" /r 
	
    # Grant full rights to current user
    icacls "$appPath" --% /grant "%USERDOMAIN%\%USERNAME%":(F) /t

    # Delete directory
    Remove-Item $appPath -Recurse -Force -ErrorAction 0
}

I've not tried this updated code as I've already uninstalled all my apps and the directories in WindowsApps were removed automatically for me. Let us know if it works OK or not...

illonus said:

Yup I am aware of WindowsApp's permissions tweaking as I done it manually. Haha I've alrdy removed the directories by changing the $apppath in the first script you provided before I asked this, so I don't know if the new script would work either.

We'll just have to wait until they come back with the next upgrade :)

illonus said:

So if I run this new script, by right it should remove the directories from both folders right? Thanks again for your help

You're welcome and yes - that's the idea... The Remove-Item line just means "delete the folder with whatever the name $apppath has" and the takeown and icacls lines are a pretty standard (if old fashioned) way to give yourself authority.

illonus said:

Hi, first I would like to say thank you so much for this, it worked for me. What I wanna ask is how do I add a line for an additional $apppath within this code?
For example if I wanna have $appPath="$Env:LOCALAPPDATA\Packages\$app*" and also $appPath="C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\$app*"

If anyone could enlighten me I would be grateful, thank you!

First off, many many thanks! Preforming a thread resurrection here to update the code:

$appPath="$Env:LOCALAPPDATA\Packages\$app*"
Remove-Item $appPath -Recurse -Force -ErrorAction 0


$appPath = "$apppath = "C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\$app*"

# take ownership
takeown /f "$appPath" /r

the red section needs 'code'" instead of "code" in order to run.

So like this:

$appPath="$Env:LOCALAPPDATA\Packages\$app*"
Remove-Item $appPath -Recurse -Force -ErrorAction 0


$appPath = "$apppath = 'C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\$app*'"

# take ownership
takeown /f "$appPath" /r

lx07 said:

Right click uninstall only uninstalls for current user. You may want to uninstall the AppxProvisionedPackage as well as the AppxPackage. So for 3d builder, from powershell:

Code:

$app="Microsoft.3DBuilder"
Get-AppxPackage -Name $app -AllUsers | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppXProvisionedPackage -Online | where DisplayName -EQ $app | Remove-AppxProvisionedPackage -Online

if you want to remove more just delete the ones you want to keep from this code (or comment them with a #) then copy/paste into administrator powershell window and press enter:

Code:

$apps=@( 	
	"9E2F88E3.Twitter"
	"ClearChannelRadioDigital.iHeartRadio"
	"Flipboard.Flipboard"
	"king.com.CandyCrushSodaSaga"
	"Microsoft.3DBuilder"
	"Microsoft.BingFinance"
	"Microsoft.BingNews"
	"Microsoft.BingSports"
	"Microsoft.BingWeather"
	"Microsoft.CommsPhone"
	"Microsoft.Getstarted"
	#"Microsoft.Messaging"
	"Microsoft.MicrosoftOfficeHub"
	"Microsoft.MicrosoftSolitaireCollection"
	"Microsoft.Office.OneNote"
	"Microsoft.Office.Sway"
	"Microsoft.People"
	"Microsoft.SkypeApp"
	"Microsoft.Windows.Phone"
	"Microsoft.Windows.Photos"
	"Microsoft.WindowsAlarms"
	#"Microsoft.WindowsCalculator"
	"Microsoft.WindowsCamera"
	"Microsoft.WindowsMaps"
	"Microsoft.WindowsPhone"
	"Microsoft.WindowsSoundRecorder"
	"Microsoft.XboxApp"
	"Microsoft.ZuneMusic"
	"Microsoft.ZuneVideo"
	#"microsoft.windowscommunicationsapps"
	"Microsoft.MinecraftUWP"
	"ShazamEntertainmentLtd.Shazam"		
)

foreach ($app in $apps) {	
	Get-AppxPackage -Name $app -AllUsers | Remove-AppxPackage
	Get-AppXProvisionedPackage -Online | where DisplayName -EQ $app | Remove-AppxProvisionedPackage -Online
			
	$appPath="$Env:LOCALAPPDATA\Packages\$app*"
	Remove-Item $appPath -Recurse -Force -ErrorAction 0
}

Then as @TairikuOkami says they'll only come back if you do an upgrade or restore.

I know I'm using Windows 10 but am struggling with this persistent reinstall

eddyf said:

I know I'm using Windows 10 but am struggling with this persistent reinstall

They shouldn't be reinstalling.

The persistent reinstall stopped after build 14926 in 2016 although MS still add new unwanted apps with each release.

What version are you using?