BEST UTILITIES By Deanna McElveen Managing privacy and removing bloatware in Windows are two of those important but annoying tasks for keeping a safe
[See the full post at: Freeware Spotlight — Bloatbox]
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Freeware Spotlight — Bloatbox
Home » Forums » Newsletter and Homepage topics » Freeware Spotlight — Bloatbox
- This topic has 26 replies, 14 voices, and was last updated 4 years, 9 months ago.
AuthorTopicTracey Capen
AskWoody MVPAugust 2, 2020 at 11:00 am #2285686Viewing 17 reply threadsAuthorReplies-
Nathan Parker
AskWoody_MVP -
Paul T
AskWoody MVPAugust 3, 2020 at 12:57 am #2285703This post has a PowerShell method.
https://gist.github.com/joshschmelzle/04c57d957c5bb92e85ae9180021b26dccheers, Paul
1 user thanked author for this post.
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Alex5723
AskWoody PlusAugust 3, 2020 at 1:02 am #22857051 user thanked author for this post.
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doriel
AskWoody LoungerAugust 3, 2020 at 4:38 am #2285731“XBox Game Bar”
Do you mean app used for recording videos from applications?
It is called “Xbox gaming overlay”.
If you remove package “Microsoft.XboxGamingOverlay” shortcut Win+G will not work anymore and windows will require downloading it from Store.
Dell Latitude 3420, Intel Core i7 @ 2.8 GHz, 16GB RAM, W10 22H2 Enterprise
HAL3000, AMD Athlon 200GE @ 3,4 GHz, 8GB RAM, Fedora 29
PRUSA i3 MK3S+
1 user thanked author for this post.
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geekdom
AskWoody_MVPAugust 3, 2020 at 6:46 am #2285764Would this get rid of the “XBox Game Bar”? I haven’t found a way to nuke it.
You might try Revo Uninstaller Freeware:
https://www.revouninstaller.com/revo-uninstaller-free-download/Use the “Windows Apps” tab to remove Microsoft “uninstallable” software.
On permanent hiatus {with backup and coffee}
offline▸ Win10Pro 2004.19041.572 x64 i3-3220 RAM8GB HDD Firefox83.0b3 WindowsDefender
offline▸ Acer TravelMate P215-52 RAM8GB Win11Pro 22H2.22621.1265 x64 i5-10210U SSD Firefox106.0 MicrosoftDefender
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anonymous
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Rick Corbett
AskWoody MVPAugust 3, 2020 at 6:12 am #2285753Would this get rid of the “XBox Game Bar”? I haven’t found a way to nuke it.
Don’t bother trying Debotnet to disable it. I tried as a test (using ‘Run as Administrator on a Win 10 Home 1803 install) and Debotnet claimed to have successfully disabled it…
… but didn’t.
2 users thanked author for this post.
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Rick Corbett
AskWoody MVPAugust 3, 2020 at 7:22 am #2285770Would this get rid of the “XBox Game Bar”? I haven’t found a way to nuke it.
I tried SharpApp as well (using ‘Run as Administrator’). It claimed to have disabled the Game Bar and – just in case – I restarted Windows.
I checked in the registry and, sure enough, the policy restriction had been written:
I also re-ran SharpApp and clicked on the Configured button. A window appeared, confirming that the Disable Game Bar policy had been applied.
And here’s what happened when I pressed Game Bar’s Win+G keyboard shortcut:
… the Game Bar overlay!
2 users thanked author for this post.
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Rick Corbett
AskWoody MVPAugust 3, 2020 at 8:42 am #2285793I think SharpApp will remove it. or 10appsmanager
Nope… 10AppsManager doesn’t disable or remove it either:
2 users thanked author for this post.
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Rick Corbett
AskWoody MVPAugust 3, 2020 at 9:29 am #2285812You might try Revo Uninstaller Freeware
I couldn’t get Revo Uninstaller Free to even display Game Bar and you cannot use Hunter Mode on the Game Bar overlay itself.
Geek Uninstaller didn’t show it either.
3 users thanked author for this post.
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Alex5723
AskWoody PlusAugust 4, 2020 at 1:15 pm #2286306Uninstalling/Removing the Game Bar : (this is no longer an option on any recent Windows 10 build)
But try Powershell / DISM
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MrChaz
AskWoody LoungerAugust 3, 2020 at 10:19 am #2285827My advice is – watch you don’t break anything with any freeware (tr)apps
illegitimi Non Carborundum2 users thanked author for this post.
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Deanna McElveen
AskWoody PlusAugust 4, 2020 at 6:19 am #2286169Well, it looks like you all found version 0.14.0 before I did. We’ve updated OlderGeeks.com to the new version: https://www.oldergeeks.com/downloads/file.php?id=3403
-Deanna
OlderGeeks.com2 users thanked author for this post.
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Microfix
AskWoody MVPAugust 4, 2020 at 11:48 am #2286255Just ask yourself this before removing excess default baggage:
Have I backed up recently?
Have you considered this:
What if a feature upgrade goes awry in the future?
Utilities like this are likely the cause of problems for W10 on a full metal jacket installation.Windows - commercial by definition and now function...1 user thanked author for this post.
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Rick Corbett
AskWoody MVPAugust 4, 2020 at 2:03 pm #2286321Uninstalling/Removing the Game Bar : (this is no longer an option on any recent Windows 10 build)
But try Powershell / DISM
I think I’ve tried everything now – including PowerShell and DISM – even deleting all the Xbox services and deleting the Microsoft.XboxGameCallableUI app package itself.
I even deleted C:\Windows\System32\en-GB\GamePanel.exe… all to no avail.
It makes me wonder… why has Microsoft gone to such lengths to protect the Xbox ‘Win+G’ user interface from people with absolutely no interest whatsoever?
2 users thanked author for this post.
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Rick Corbett
AskWoody MVPAugust 4, 2020 at 2:17 pm #2286325Is there another incidence of the application in the User\AppData either Local or Roaming? Seems when I was playing with removing Apps, there was a backup somewhere in AppData.
I may be shooting in the wind.Yes – a C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.XboxGameCallableUI_cw5n1h2txyewy folder.
I deleted this as well. It made no difference.
I did a search for Xbox using voidtool’s Everything. I’m still wondering whether to continue looking at the remaining 719 file/folder locations that were found.
2 users thanked author for this post.
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Rick Corbett
AskWoody MVPAugust 4, 2020 at 2:27 pm #2286329Just ask yourself this before removing excess default baggage:
Have I backed up recently?
Have you considered this:
What if a feature upgrade goes awry in the future?
Utilities like this are likely the cause of problems for W10 on a full metal jacket installation.All good points…
A lot of the deletions have had to done under the auspices of TrustedInstaller… which is why I’ve been doing all my testing in a VM first (and snapshotting regularly).
2 users thanked author for this post.
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carpintero
AskWoody LoungerAugust 4, 2020 at 4:54 pm #2286351 -
Rick Corbett
AskWoody MVPAugust 4, 2020 at 5:25 pm #2286360I just tried the latest Bloatbox 0.14.1 release…:
Ummm… what?
So I tried it on a brand new VM to see if I could get rid of Microsoft’s now accursed Xbox UI invoked by Win+G…
Note that this is down to Microsoft, not Bloatbox… but still disappointing.
2 users thanked author for this post.
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geekdom
AskWoody_MVPAugust 4, 2020 at 6:23 pm #2286386Unless you actually know what you’re uninstalling, BloatBox is a blind trust program.
On permanent hiatus {with backup and coffee}
offline▸ Win10Pro 2004.19041.572 x64 i3-3220 RAM8GB HDD Firefox83.0b3 WindowsDefender
offline▸ Acer TravelMate P215-52 RAM8GB Win11Pro 22H2.22621.1265 x64 i5-10210U SSD Firefox106.0 MicrosoftDefender
online▸ Win11Pro 22H2.22621.1992 x64 i5-9400 RAM16GB HDD Firefox116.0b3 MicrosoftDefender-
This reply was modified 4 years, 9 months ago by
geekdom.
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This reply was modified 4 years, 9 months ago by
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Rick Corbett
AskWoody MVPAugust 4, 2020 at 6:30 pm #2286390Unless you actually know what you’re uninstalling, this is a blind trust program.
Unfortunately, isn’t that what consumers’ relationships are with Microsoft these days? Blind trust?
I believe people tinker with certain aspects of Windows because they have lost all trust in Microsoft…
… others tinker because they hark back to the time when Microsoft positively welcomed changes to Windows’ unique configurability.
1 user thanked author for this post.
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Nathan Parker
AskWoody_MVP -
Ken
AskWoody Plus -
geekdom
AskWoody_MVPAugust 5, 2020 at 3:51 pm #2286618In bloatbox.zip, make sure bloatbox.exe is highlighted.
Select Extract from the top menu bar, not Open.
On permanent hiatus {with backup and coffee}
offline▸ Win10Pro 2004.19041.572 x64 i3-3220 RAM8GB HDD Firefox83.0b3 WindowsDefender
offline▸ Acer TravelMate P215-52 RAM8GB Win11Pro 22H2.22621.1265 x64 i5-10210U SSD Firefox106.0 MicrosoftDefender
online▸ Win11Pro 22H2.22621.1992 x64 i5-9400 RAM16GB HDD Firefox116.0b3 MicrosoftDefender1 user thanked author for this post.
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