Uninstall Apps in Windows 10  

Hello ! Thanks for your quick answer and greetings !

Bree said:

I've just clicked and dragged the Weather tile from Start and dropped it onto the Desktop to create a link. The link works and can be renamed. This is in the latest 20H2, build 19042.630.

I am actually able to do that without problem, but it's not exactly what I was looking for, maybe I didn't explain it correctly, sorry.

In his post, user Edwin said:

Edwin said:

I've found if you 'uninstall' all packages running: Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers | Remove-AppxPackage in a Power Shell Admin it removes the links for the use of the Apps, not necessarily uninstalls them, leaving System Apps only, hidden and unhidden:

...

However, before doing so, if you open shell:appsfolder from a run box first and create shortcuts for all apps and put them in a folder somewhere, you can go back to that folder and click on the blank icons of the removed packages to reinstate them, including the Store

The bolded part doesn't work for me, once apps are uninstalled, their shortcuts don't do anything.



On this video (timestamp 1:11), you can see the Start Menu shortcuts are all renamed, both for personal apps and the few windows that you can't rename otherwise (like calc, and paint). Except Systems which is impossible to rename apparently, that's okay. There's also no "hidden" letters on this start menu, if calc or Paint is installed on my machine, it will appear under "C" or "P" letters, no matter what I do...

That's what I want to achieve, rename how UWP / Microsoft Store apps appears in the start menu, by any way, using customs shortcuts or hiding the actual links of installed apps if it's impossible to directly rename them. I do know how to do that for user applications, but not UWP ones.



Is this something you can achieve right now ? (I do have the same Windows version / update as you, 20H2, build 19042 630.

Thanks again, hope this is clearer ! I saw there was a specific thread about renaming Start Menu apps, but couldn't find the answer I was looking for in it, Edwin mentionned exactly what I wanted to do here so I just replied here. I'll post the eventual results in the other thread if there's a way to do it.

PhobosAnomaly said:

I am actually able to do that without problem, but it's not exactly what I was looking for, maybe I didn't explain it correctly, sorry.

Once you have a renamed shortcut on your desktop you can copy and paste it into your Start menu folder(s).

Add or Remove Items for All Apps in Start menu in Windows 10

PhobosAnomaly said:

...Clicking the shortcuts after uninstalling the apps doesn't do anything for me.

Yeah, that method doesn't work anymore! Sorry, it's an old video!

PhobosAnomaly said:

There's also no "hidden" letters on this start menu, if calc or Paint is installed on my machine, it will appear under "C" or "P" letters, no matter what I do...

I've named most of the shortcuts with 'Bullet' then the name, (Alt+7), that way they all end up in the & category only!

You can create a UWP shortcut as @Bree instructed but you'll have two links in the Start Menu, and, if you invoke an instance using the custom UWP shortcut, it will have a blank Taskbar icon...

Oh, glad to see you answering me so fast after my mention of a more than five years old post !

So that's what I thought, some things have changed, what was once possible, is not anymore or at least not the same way...

I understand it is also not possible to hide the original shortcuts for the UWP apps then, if these are still installed ? ('cause on your original video, there's only the shortcuts appearings with the bullets, no multiple links when your scroll down... Also on your screenshot, Camera is using a shortcut (?), so you just have the original one placed under "C" on your start menu if you scroll down, if I understand correctly, right ?

It's better than nothing, and way better than how it used to be anyway, so I'll go this way.

I wanted to add - I'm very new to Windows 10 after using 7 since so many years, trying to get things sorted the best possible way after a fresh install, the tutorials available on tenforums are really useful for this and comprehensive, I'll definitely keep an eye around for any question I could have in the future.

Great community !

PhobosAnomaly said:

...I understand it is also not possible to hide the original shortcuts for the UWP apps then, if these are still installed ? ('cause on your original video, there's only the shortcuts appearings with the bullets, no multiple links when your scroll down... Also on your screenshot, Camera is using a shortcut (?), so you just have the original one placed under "C" on your start menu if you scroll down, if I understand correctly, right ?

Correct!

Correction, after more testing: with -allusers at the end it removes an app from the other accounts, but not from the current account, whereas without -allusers at the end it only removes it from the current account.
So from what I can see, there's no way to remove an app from all accounts at once.
FWIW: I only tested with two accounts.
(Oh and the People app can't be removed.)