Remove apps for all users

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I’m looking for advice on how to remove built-in apps for all users. This may require PS commands, such as:

get-AppxPackage *zune*

…which will return info for Groove Music and Groove Video, the pertinent field being PackageFullName. For each of those, we can run:

remove-AppxPackage pkg-full-name

However, that “removes” the app only for the current user.

Some claim that this should remove the app for all users:

get-AppxPackage -allusers pkg-full-name | remove-AppxPackage

But for me, that doesn’t work.

The goal is to install the OS, then remove all or most of the built-in apps so that they do not appear for newly created users (or existing ones, for that matter).

Any advice is appreciated.

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See if this gets you started. https://www.howtogeek.com/224798/how-to-uninstall-windows-10s-built-in-apps-and-how-to-reinstall-them/

3 users thanked author for this post.

ch100, driftless, woody

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Thanks, but I see nothing about removal for all users.

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OK this one specifically mentions all users http://www.askvg.com/guide-how-to-remove-all-built-in-apps-in-windows-10/

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Yes, I saw that advice, but as mentioned in my original post,

get-AppxPackage -allusers pkg-full-name | remove-AppxPackage

. . . does not work.

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I’m assuming you are running an elevated PowerShell. Have you tried running it as the built-in Administrator?

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I have done/tried to/even wish to do what you want to do. In my travels, I believe on an MS video, I will try to find it there was a discussion about this. It was said that one needs to, Unregister/Unsubscribe in PS. If you try to find the Module in PS ISE, it is an easy way to see all of the cmdlets and their options/arguments/variables real easy.

--------------------------------------

1. Tower Totals: 2xSSD ~512GB, 2xHHD 20 TB, Memory 32GB

SSDs: 6xOS Partitions, 2xW8.1 Main & Test, 2x10.0 Test, Pro, x64

CPU i7 2600 K, SandyBridge/CougarPoint, 4 cores, 8 Threads, 3.4 GHz
Graphics Radeon RX 580, RX 580 ONLY Over Clocked
More perishable

2xMonitors Asus DVI, Sony 55" UHD TV HDMI

1. NUC 5i7 2cores, 4 Thread, Memory 8GB, 3.1 GHz, M2SSD 140GB
1xOS W8.1 Pro, NAS Dependent, Same Sony above.

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1 user thanked author for this post.

ch100

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I think that command is from Windows 8.

It is different in Windows 10, if I remember well the -AllUsers switch is no longer available.

As you probably noticed in my other post, I am not in favour of uninstalling for all users, although I played with those PowerShell commands a while ago.

You need to go to some Windows 10 Enterprise advice web sites and not to How To Geek or AskVG for the real thing.

 

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driftless wrote:

get-AppxPackage -allusers pkg-full-name | remove-AppxPackage

Simply write:

Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers | Remove-AppxPackage

Fractal Design Pop Air * Thermaltake Toughpower GF3 750W * ASUS TUF GAMING B560M-PLUS * Intel Core i9-11900K * 4 x 8 GB G.Skill Aegis DDR4 3600 MHz CL16 * ASRock RX 6800 XT Phantom Gaming 16GB OC * XPG GAMMIX S70 BLADE 1TB * SanDisk Ultra 3D 1TB * Samsung EVO 840 250GB * DVD RW Lite-ON iHAS 124 * Windows 10 Pro 22H2 64-bit Insider * Windows 11 Pro Beta Insider

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Unless you are preparing a SOE for an Enterprise, you have no reason for doing so.
There are also system apps which should never be removed, Enterprise or not.
For a home system, it is more than enough if you remove the per-user component of each undesired out of the box app.

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ch100 wrote:

Unless you are preparing a SOE for an Enterprise, you have no reason for doing so. There are also system apps which should never be removed, Enterprise or not. For a home system, it is more than enough if you remove the per-user component of each undesired out of the box app.

I was just replying to the OP :). When I was using W10 for a short period, I removed only those that I did not want (it’s about 90% of them :)) and only for me, for example I left the Calculator as there’s no Win32 version anymore in W10.

In W8.1 you can clear all of them out right away.

Fractal Design Pop Air * Thermaltake Toughpower GF3 750W * ASUS TUF GAMING B560M-PLUS * Intel Core i9-11900K * 4 x 8 GB G.Skill Aegis DDR4 3600 MHz CL16 * ASRock RX 6800 XT Phantom Gaming 16GB OC * XPG GAMMIX S70 BLADE 1TB * SanDisk Ultra 3D 1TB * Samsung EVO 840 250GB * DVD RW Lite-ON iHAS 124 * Windows 10 Pro 22H2 64-bit Insider * Windows 11 Pro Beta Insider

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@radosuaf

My reply was for the OP, not for you 🙂

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Try this one for an alternative calculator if interested

http://www.softpedia.com/get/Science-CAD/Windows7-Calculator.shtml

I posted the same URL here not long ago.

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driftless wrote:

Yes, I saw that advice, but as mentioned in my original post,

get-AppxPackage -allusers pkg-full-name | remove-AppxPackage

. . . does not work.

If the advise you have gotten so far has worked, great. If not, I believe they talk about about what you are trying to do is under “Windows 10 Enterprise Deployment”:
https://channel9.msdn.com/Events/Ignite/2016?sort=status&direction=desc&c=Michael-Niehaus&Media=true&term=

Also the Module is “DISM” a standard included Module. In PS ISE look at the ‘APPXprovision’ cmdlets in the list.

--------------------------------------

1. Tower Totals: 2xSSD ~512GB, 2xHHD 20 TB, Memory 32GB

SSDs: 6xOS Partitions, 2xW8.1 Main & Test, 2x10.0 Test, Pro, x64

CPU i7 2600 K, SandyBridge/CougarPoint, 4 cores, 8 Threads, 3.4 GHz
Graphics Radeon RX 580, RX 580 ONLY Over Clocked
More perishable

2xMonitors Asus DVI, Sony 55" UHD TV HDMI

1. NUC 5i7 2cores, 4 Thread, Memory 8GB, 3.1 GHz, M2SSD 140GB
1xOS W8.1 Pro, NAS Dependent, Same Sony above.

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The script function modifier “allusers” for “Get-AppxPackage” was broken in or around (I think) the November 2016 patch for build 1607.  We used to use it all the time, and now we have to run a similar script on first time login for each user on a new machine.

Also remember to disable the feature “Settings >> Personalization >> Start >> Occasionally show suggestions in Start” (formerly turn off microsoft consumer experience) . . .

 

~ Group "Weekend" ~

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Ok, ch100 might not agree and I welcome his comments about it but here is what I did with good success. Please note there is no warranty Microsoft won’t create things that depends on those crapps and doing this might break some functionalities. Use at your own risk.

This is for someone who really don’t want to use apps and would prefer just a conventional desktop like in Windows 7.

Here is my understanding. -allusers just lists the apps, but you can’t remove the apps for other users because you don’t have the rights or the command only removes your apps even if you list the apps of others. So the idea is to run the following command for all users by logging to each account separately. For me, not an issue, I only use one standard account in addition to the admin one and when I install the first time, there is only one account that will become the standard account when I am done installing everything and I create the admin account only at the end then remove the rights to the account I used to install and that I will keep as my standard account. Didn’t follow that part? It is not necessary, just remember you need to run the command for each user you have on the computer.

So basically for each user run the following command using powershell, hit ctrl-a to select everything in the list then click ok:

Get-AppxPackage | where-object {$_.name –notlike “*Microsoft.WindowsStore*”} | where-object {$_.name –notlike “*Microsoft.WindowsCalculator*”} | where-object {$_.name –notlike “*Microsoft.Windows.Photos*”} | Out-GridView –PassThru | Remove-AppxPackage

Please note I keep photos, the store, the calculator. That is why you won’t see them in the list. If you want to keep other apps, ctrl-click them in the list to unselect them before clicking ok. I like gridview because you see what will get deleted.

Once all users got rid of the apps, you can deprovision them. It won’t deprovision if some user still have the app installed. What is deprovisioning? Well, you know, once you install an app, even if you delete it, it will still stay installed secretly and even waste bandwidth downloading updates in case someone would like to use it later. That is another reason to love apps. If you really want the apps out and not keep them updating and wasting space, you need to deprovision them. When you consult their status, they will be called staged. That means no user has them installed but they are still there.

So now, you only need an ADMIN command prompt, type powershell, and get rid of the bad apps. No need to do it for each user. Once they are gone, they are gone.

Get-AppxProvisionedPackage –online | where-object {$_.DisplayName –notlike “*Microsoft.WindowsStore*”} | where-object {$_.DisplayName –notlike “*Microsoft.WindowsCalculator*”} |where-object {$_.DisplayName –notlike “*Microsoft.Windows.Photos*”} | Out-GridView –PassThru | Remove-AppxProvisionedPackage –online

Some things won’t get uninstalled. Leave them like that and don’t worry, unless your are like Noel. ?

To see which apps are staged:
Get-AppxPackage –AllUsers | Out-GridView
Get-appxprovisionedpackage –online | Out-GridView
If nothing comes out, maybe it is because you succeeded and there is no easily uninstallable apps left.

The good thing about these is if you don’t want anything to do with apps, it removes also some of the manufacturer’s bloat apps like weird pdf readers and other, on top of the Windows one when you buy a new laptop. Enjoy your suddenly much more empty Start Menu. I have fun looking at the start menu seeing the items disappear one by one when I run the commands. I think the stuff left in the start menu, like games are just shortcut you can right-click to “uninstall”. I have no trick to automatically remove those shortcuts. I just hope there is nothing behind. That is what I don’t like about the start menu. You don’t know if something is an app, a driver kind of companion fake app or just a shortcut. Uninstalling from programs and features sometimes leaves messy parts in the start menu that don’t point to nothing anymore but are still there as icons. Baaad!

One last thing. If you regret doing that, there is a command to reinstall all those apps… or you can wait a few weeks and Microsoft will probably reinstall them all next feature update. For me, I keep those 2 commands in a text file to quickly copy-paste them after each feature update.

1 user thanked author for this post.

ch100

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@alexeiffel

Ok, ch100 might not agree and. welcome his comments about it but here is my what I did with good success. Please note there is no warranty Microsoft won’t create things that depends on those crapps and doing this might break some functionalities. Use at your own risk.

This is exactly why I might not agree 🙂

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I know that is why I wrote it! ?

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I am not too worried as they keep reinstalling the apps every feature update and if I end up with something not working on a later edition because of this, I just will adapt and do things differently then. Of course the challenge can be to know that something not working has been caused by that specific tweak. It is not the ´profesionnal’ way to do things I agree, but oh that feel goods to see this c*** go away!

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From what I remember, MS is listening to that complaint in W 10 1703, they will no longer get reinstalled… Check out the videos, at this point they are the only place that I know that it is documented. Hopeful it is or will be soon in writing.

--------------------------------------

1. Tower Totals: 2xSSD ~512GB, 2xHHD 20 TB, Memory 32GB

SSDs: 6xOS Partitions, 2xW8.1 Main & Test, 2x10.0 Test, Pro, x64

CPU i7 2600 K, SandyBridge/CougarPoint, 4 cores, 8 Threads, 3.4 GHz
Graphics Radeon RX 580, RX 580 ONLY Over Clocked
More perishable

2xMonitors Asus DVI, Sony 55" UHD TV HDMI

1. NUC 5i7 2cores, 4 Thread, Memory 8GB, 3.1 GHz, M2SSD 140GB
1xOS W8.1 Pro, NAS Dependent, Same Sony above.

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1 user thanked author for this post.

AlexEiffel

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Be very aware that if you break the Store, then you have a hard time bringing it back.
There are complex dependencies like C++ runtimes which need to be installed first and it all gets too messy to be posted here as a recommendation.

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That has always been my understanding and experience when ever MS has broken it. Also one never knows when one might want that one appx as well, like the ‘Calculator’. From what I remember they’re “ATTEMPTING” to make that a bit easier, but I don’t believe one can update appx without the Store.

I personally would hide ICONs, etc, BUT NEVER UNINSTALL THE STORE!!!

--------------------------------------

1. Tower Totals: 2xSSD ~512GB, 2xHHD 20 TB, Memory 32GB

SSDs: 6xOS Partitions, 2xW8.1 Main & Test, 2x10.0 Test, Pro, x64

CPU i7 2600 K, SandyBridge/CougarPoint, 4 cores, 8 Threads, 3.4 GHz
Graphics Radeon RX 580, RX 580 ONLY Over Clocked
More perishable

2xMonitors Asus DVI, Sony 55" UHD TV HDMI

1. NUC 5i7 2cores, 4 Thread, Memory 8GB, 3.1 GHz, M2SSD 140GB
1xOS W8.1 Pro, NAS Dependent, Same Sony above.

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1 user thanked author for this post.

ch100

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@PhotM

Crysta, I think there are ways to reinstall appx without a functional Store by copying folders from a known working installation after taking ownership of the C:\Program Files\WindowsApps and C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\AppRepository and changing the permissions of those 2 folders and using PowerShell after.
I know more about this stuff than I feel comfortable to post here because I don’t want anyone who is not technical enough to go through those steps and destroy their systems. Even knowing a lot about Windows, sometimes the only reasonable solution to restore the system is to reinstall in repair mode and I went through this procedure few times already in the earlier days of 1507.

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I understand what your saying. It has been awhile since I had to dance around with APPX.
The biggest problem as I remember it was, as it has been pointed out here, nothing seems to consistently work for one reason or another(unknown).

If I never have to deal with APPX ever again, it will be too soon….. Just Sayn’ 😥

--------------------------------------

1. Tower Totals: 2xSSD ~512GB, 2xHHD 20 TB, Memory 32GB

SSDs: 6xOS Partitions, 2xW8.1 Main & Test, 2x10.0 Test, Pro, x64

CPU i7 2600 K, SandyBridge/CougarPoint, 4 cores, 8 Threads, 3.4 GHz
Graphics Radeon RX 580, RX 580 ONLY Over Clocked
More perishable

2xMonitors Asus DVI, Sony 55" UHD TV HDMI

1. NUC 5i7 2cores, 4 Thread, Memory 8GB, 3.1 GHz, M2SSD 140GB
1xOS W8.1 Pro, NAS Dependent, Same Sony above.

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1 user thanked author for this post.

ch100

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That is why I keep the store if you look at the commands. It only removes what MS allows, It doesn’t remove the C++ librairies. I run this with no issues on many computers, but I don’t use any of the new Metro things.

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IMHO everyone should “break the Store”, so that Microsoft has to get back to the task of writing good operating system software, instead of trying to make money by skimming obscene percentages off other people’s software sales for doing nothing.

But we all know a few enthusiasts (some might say fanatics) aren’t going to change Microsoft’s course. Sigh.

-Noel

1 user thanked author for this post.

driftless

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Noel, Really, Really Truly, how dare you suggest such a thing…. lol :lo:

Now seriously, why would you just stop at the Store??? Wouldn’t it be nice if somebody made a real OS and call it W 11. A true OS “Utility” that would just work for everyone…. Concept 🙂
(OH Right…. no money in that 😥 )

--------------------------------------

1. Tower Totals: 2xSSD ~512GB, 2xHHD 20 TB, Memory 32GB

SSDs: 6xOS Partitions, 2xW8.1 Main & Test, 2x10.0 Test, Pro, x64

CPU i7 2600 K, SandyBridge/CougarPoint, 4 cores, 8 Threads, 3.4 GHz
Graphics Radeon RX 580, RX 580 ONLY Over Clocked
More perishable

2xMonitors Asus DVI, Sony 55" UHD TV HDMI

1. NUC 5i7 2cores, 4 Thread, Memory 8GB, 3.1 GHz, M2SSD 140GB
1xOS W8.1 Pro, NAS Dependent, Same Sony above.

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AH CH 100,

Here is where we do agree, You see it still happens 😆 However look at the Videos from above especially with Michael Neihaus. Microsoft is coming around, especially for enterprises. What @alexeiffel has laid out is what they were talking about. The videos would of course highlight any caveats that MS may or may not have. So some of this at least is being supported by MS. There are other videos(3) that I have D/Led but I will be darned it I can find the LINKs for them.

Happy viewing….

Update:

I finally found them on YouTube not MS Sites.

Enhance Windows 10 deployment: what’s new with Windows 10 deployment?
Microsoft Tech Summit
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMi5RE4cJQQ

Implement Windows as a Service: understanding how to do it
Microsoft Tech Summit
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPH_-9t5h20

Fix web app compatibility with Enterprise Mode
Microsoft Tech Summit
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBW-poYWDJw

--------------------------------------

1. Tower Totals: 2xSSD ~512GB, 2xHHD 20 TB, Memory 32GB

SSDs: 6xOS Partitions, 2xW8.1 Main & Test, 2x10.0 Test, Pro, x64

CPU i7 2600 K, SandyBridge/CougarPoint, 4 cores, 8 Threads, 3.4 GHz
Graphics Radeon RX 580, RX 580 ONLY Over Clocked
More perishable

2xMonitors Asus DVI, Sony 55" UHD TV HDMI

1. NUC 5i7 2cores, 4 Thread, Memory 8GB, 3.1 GHz, M2SSD 140GB
1xOS W8.1 Pro, NAS Dependent, Same Sony above.

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AlexEiffel wrote:

If nothing comes out, maybe it is because you succeeded and there is no easily uninstallable apps left.

There are things you may want to keep the Settings App for, which needs the Microsoft.Windows.ShellExperienceHost to run. See my screen grab down below.

-Noel

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Is this thread about the Win 10 pre-release?

Because if not, For the released Win 10 I’ve immortalized the commands that can take you on a one way trip to true removal of all but what’s necessary to run the Settings app in a thread here:

http://win10epicfail.proboards.com/thread/100/interested-participating-tweaker-development-test

Read carefully, especially the warnings! And the thread up above here. You are the ONLY one responsible for borking your system if you decide you didn’t really want all the Apps gone after all. This is VERY experimental! I suggest only doing it in a virtual machine, from which you can recover a working configuration easily!

NOTE THAT I HAVEN’T TESTED COMBINATIONS EXCEPT FOR ANSWERING ALL THE QUESTIONS YES.

I can assure you that Win 10 holds together as a pure desktop system without the Apps (which means without Cortana, without OneDrive, without cloud integration). And I imagine that Microsoft will install them all again when they do the in-place upgrade to the next release. They have every time so far.

I’ll be checking the included Apps and maybe browsing through the store again when Win 10 “Creator” releases but given that I’ve done it every time so far, probably I’ll end up figuring out how to make my re-tweaker script work again with it.

-Noel

1 user thanked author for this post.

AlexEiffel

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Ah Noel, here we are brothers again. I also made a big tweaker re-tweaker tool for the same reason. It consists of a bat file, a huge registry file with search and replace terms to activate or deactivate groups of features like the apps, location, powerusers settings… I also have lgpo files for the user and machine parts. All of this to quickly restore some sanity after feature upgrades and to speed up clean installs or help random people that gives me an ugly Windows 10 c*** PC to clean and make more useable.

1 user thanked author for this post.

Noel Carboni

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I would characterize it as for RTM’s, Noel, including 1703 when that happens. That is what the videos are about that I have posted. I don’t believe the original Poster has specified but it is not under the Beta Title….

Hope that helps…

--------------------------------------

1. Tower Totals: 2xSSD ~512GB, 2xHHD 20 TB, Memory 32GB

SSDs: 6xOS Partitions, 2xW8.1 Main & Test, 2x10.0 Test, Pro, x64

CPU i7 2600 K, SandyBridge/CougarPoint, 4 cores, 8 Threads, 3.4 GHz
Graphics Radeon RX 580, RX 580 ONLY Over Clocked
More perishable

2xMonitors Asus DVI, Sony 55" UHD TV HDMI

1. NUC 5i7 2cores, 4 Thread, Memory 8GB, 3.1 GHz, M2SSD 140GB
1xOS W8.1 Pro, NAS Dependent, Same Sony above.

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I see you guys are worrying a lot. I suggest you try the commands in a VM and see what is left. Actually a lot of things are not uninstalled. It seems like it uninstalls mostly unnecessary apps, things that are showing up in the start menu, but not some essential components like the Ads components and I think that settings component (I don’t have the computer in front of me right now). I suspect MS blocks the uninstall of the more essential stuff. However I agree that if you do that, you must be a desktop only user and don’t care having to reinstall from scratch if it ever causes issues after some updates later.

However the fact that Enterprise can avoid everything entirely makes me think the dependencies must not be too messy or else they would cause issues with Enterprise users?

I don’t want to sound too assertive, I am making hypothesis here and I humbly defer to your knowledge.

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AlexEiffel wrote:

However the fact that Enterprise can avoid everything entirely makes me think the dependencies must not be too messy or else they would cause issues with Enterprise users?

Yes, VERY good observation. This is also why I believe it’s workable.

Even Microsoft, in their hearts of hearts, doesn’t believe Apps are important to the functional running of the operating system, since it’s business customers whom they still need to pay big $$$ for a working system. Upper management in Redmond desperately hopes businesses somehow to find Apps that THEY need too, by coining catchphrases like “Windows as a Service”, but it’s just not happening with the current model. Businesses actually need big, complex software packages that are developed over years or decades on a stable platform, and they need to control their systems.

-Noel

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ch100 wrote:

Try this one for an alternative calculator if interested http://www.softpedia.com/get/Science-CAD/Windows7-Calculator.shtml I posted the same URL here not long ago.

Luckily, in w 8.1 there is one built-in that suits my needs perfectly :). I do *, /, + and – only :).

Fractal Design Pop Air * Thermaltake Toughpower GF3 750W * ASUS TUF GAMING B560M-PLUS * Intel Core i9-11900K * 4 x 8 GB G.Skill Aegis DDR4 3600 MHz CL16 * ASRock RX 6800 XT Phantom Gaming 16GB OC * XPG GAMMIX S70 BLADE 1TB * SanDisk Ultra 3D 1TB * Samsung EVO 840 250GB * DVD RW Lite-ON iHAS 124 * Windows 10 Pro 22H2 64-bit Insider * Windows 11 Pro Beta Insider

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Same with W 10 except, it is now, APPX….

--------------------------------------

1. Tower Totals: 2xSSD ~512GB, 2xHHD 20 TB, Memory 32GB

SSDs: 6xOS Partitions, 2xW8.1 Main & Test, 2x10.0 Test, Pro, x64

CPU i7 2600 K, SandyBridge/CougarPoint, 4 cores, 8 Threads, 3.4 GHz
Graphics Radeon RX 580, RX 580 ONLY Over Clocked
More perishable

2xMonitors Asus DVI, Sony 55" UHD TV HDMI

1. NUC 5i7 2cores, 4 Thread, Memory 8GB, 3.1 GHz, M2SSD 140GB
1xOS W8.1 Pro, NAS Dependent, Same Sony above.

-----------------

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Having browsed throughout the whole thread: this starts to become a real joke. People love Android, iOS and Mac OS because it simply WORKS out of the box. OS should be “transparent” – you should not even think it’s there. In a car, you’re not wondering how body computer controls the engine, brakes, aircon and so on. You don’t do any updates. I remember lots of tweaking guides for Win XP. Win 7 worked straight out-of-the-box, with 8.1 you just had to do some basic tweaking. W10 looks like a permanent hassle. Isn’t the PC supposed to be a tool for running your 3rd party applications and get your job (fun) done, not a tool to be twinkering with your OS? 🙂

I see excitement with each W10 build that MS releases now every 3 days or so – I think a new group of PC users just appeared – the ones that have it solely (or mainly) for free beta testing for MS.

Seems that Insider Program is one of the biggest MS inventions since W7 :).

Fractal Design Pop Air * Thermaltake Toughpower GF3 750W * ASUS TUF GAMING B560M-PLUS * Intel Core i9-11900K * 4 x 8 GB G.Skill Aegis DDR4 3600 MHz CL16 * ASRock RX 6800 XT Phantom Gaming 16GB OC * XPG GAMMIX S70 BLADE 1TB * SanDisk Ultra 3D 1TB * Samsung EVO 840 250GB * DVD RW Lite-ON iHAS 124 * Windows 10 Pro 22H2 64-bit Insider * Windows 11 Pro Beta Insider

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The Insider Program borrows heavily from the old “marketing beta” approach. It’s very well done, and has no doubt kept Windows alive.

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I’m grateful for all these responses. I have to agree with radosuaf, while possibly substituting “train wreck” for “real joke.”

Whether you’re running one PC or a handful at home, a few dozen in a small business or thousands in an enterprise, you should be able to manage what applications or utilities are available systemwide, perhaps with a UI in appwiz.cpl  > Turn Windows Store apps on and off, with corresponding GPOs and reg settings.

All this screams “Windows 10 = home OS.” I’ve said it before: 8.1 was the last adult version.

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Note this GP: Admin Templates > Windows Components > Store

Among the options:

Disable all apps from Windows Store

Turn off the Store application

 

I enabled these, but they appear to do nothing other than to create the illusion that they might perform a useful function.

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I wonder if Deepfreeze is something that would be helpful to you:

http://www.faronics.com/

I’ve never used it, but many years ago a friend of mine did, and he seemed to really like it.

The primary purpose of Deepfreeze is to keep users from making changes to the computers, because as soon as you reboot, you’re back to where you were before the changes were made.

Deepfreeze (and the other Faronics products) offer a lot more than that, based on what I read on their website.

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server

1 user thanked author for this post.

driftless

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For now I’m just testing; almost all our PCs are still on Win7 and will probably stay there.

If MS happens to be curious about why 10 hasn’t gotten much traction in business fleets, they might want to think about some of the manageability and privacy decisions they’ve made.

I worked up a PS script to nuke a lot of app froufrou, and came up with this:

remove-appxpackage Microsoft.ZuneMusic_10.16102.10341.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe
remove-appxpackage Microsoft.ZuneVideo_10.17012.10301.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe
remove-appxpackage Microsoft.3DBuilder_12.0.3131.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe
remove-appxpackage Microsoft.MicrosoftOfficeHub_17.7608.23501.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe
remove-appxpackage Microsoft.Office.Sway_17.7870.45131.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe
remove-appxpackage Microsoft.WindowsCalculator_10.1702.312.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe
remove-appxpackage Microsoft.WindowsCamera_2017.125.40.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe
remove-appxpackage Microsoft.BingNews_4.18.41.0_x86__8wekyb3d8bbwe
remove-appxpackage Microsoft.BingSports_4.18.37.0_x86__8wekyb3d8bbwe
remove-appxpackage Microsoft.BingWeather_4.18.37.0_x86__8wekyb3d8bbwe
remove-appxpackage Microsoft.BingFinance_4.18.37.0_x86__8wekyb3d8bbwe
remove-appxpackage Microsoft.MicrosoftSolitaireCollection_3.15.2140.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe
remove-appxpackage Microsoft.SkypeApp_3.2.1.0_x86__kzf8qxf38zg5c
remove-appxpackage Microsoft.Messaging_2.15.20002.0_x86__8wekyb3d8bbwe
remove-appxpackage Microsoft.WindowsMaps_5.1611.3341.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe
remove-appxpackage Microsoft.People_10.2.431.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe
remove-appxpackage Microsoft.WindowsPhone_10.1609.2561.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe
remove-appxpackage Microsoft.CommsPhone_1.10.15000.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe

Package names are from 1511; some have changed in 1607 and thus would need to be refreshed. For PS newbies (me, for example) note that an elevated PS prompt is needed to enable script execution:

set-executionpolicy unrestricted

…and that the script should be run with standard privileges:

PS c:\Users\username> script-path-and-filename.ps1

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