Taking control over Win10’s native applications

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Field Notes

Taking control over Win10’s native applications

By Tracey Capen Windows 10 Anniversary Update (AU) has many worthy enhancements — such as scheduled updating and reboots — but some the changes can be simply annoying. For example, Microsoft has made Cortana a hard-to-remove fixture in Version 1607. My social life hasn’t sunk so low that I want to have a conversation with my computers. Win10 also comes with numerous “native” (aka universal, aka Windows) apps that many Windows users will never use. Unfortunately, some of that software is also difficult to remove. But there are ways to do so — and make other customizations to the Win10 desktop. Some of these changes work with both Win10 1511 and Win10 AU.

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The full text of this column is posted at windowssecrets.com/top-story/taking-control-over-win10s-native-applications/ (opens in a new window/tab).

Columnists typically cannot reply to comments here, but do incorporate the best tips into future columns.

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Has anyone had any luck removing these apps using Group Policy in an Active Directory Domain environment? The Powershell commands seem to be fine for one user but if, in a domain – another domain user logs on the apps are still available for that user.

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Jmatt,
Yes Group Policy from an Active Directory works with Windows 10.

Tracey,
The only problem by uninstalling these native apps is they are put back in the next time Microsoft does a rolling upgrade or some out update. You know the one that ends with “HI”.

I use gpedit.msc locally on my personal PC to disable a lot of them and they stay disabled.

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Tracey,
The only problem by uninstalling these native apps is they are put back in the next time Microsoft does a rolling upgrade or some out update. You know the one that ends with “HI”.

This will be fixed in a future release. In the current Insider Build Windows keeps track of which native apps you’ve un-installed and will not re-install them with an OS update.

--Joe

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Thanks for a great, informative, useful article. I also really enjoy your humor.

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Two utilities can be downloaded to help centralize many of the features in Windows 10 Anniversary Update which some users may want to alter safely and without the need for a Group Policy Editor or Power Shell commands.

O&O Software’s ShutUp 10 has been updated for the AU, and can be safely used. But ShutUp 10 can be used in ways which are dangerous to Win 10 stability. Read through at least one online tutorial before just making changes in ShutUp 10 beyond their Recommended (green checkmarks) privacy settings.

https://www.oo-software.com/en/shutup10

As with any tool which can change important Windows features, make a System Image Backup before messing with ShutUp 10. A Restore Point is no longer enough in Windows 10, especially if the Windows Store or UWP (Metro) Apps get messed up. (Make sure you have imaged all partitions needed to boot Windows. In UEFI Fast Boot systems this is not just the Windows Primary Partition.)

To get rid of any Windows 10 built-in UWP (Metro) App, it is still possible to use the CCleaner Uninstall menu item under Tools. This does the job which PowerShell would do, but will not reinstall these apps. Just don’t uninstall the Microsoft Store App itself!

https://www.thurrott.com/windows/windows-10/64488/windows-10-tip-remove-built-in-apps

The PowerShell method may be needed to get the apps back. Although, Microsoft has a tool which can fix the pre-installed apps all at once. You would end up with all of the default apps reinstalled if you use the Microsoft tool.

PowerShell or Create a New Account:
http://www.intowindows.com/how-to-reinstall-store-and-other-preinstalled-apps-in-windows-10/

Windows 10 has a local (inside of Windows) MS Store Apps Troubleshooter and a Run Command to do the wsreset routine (Run As Administrator). But these tools will not bring back deleted Default Windows Store Apps or the Store itself.

Microsoft Tool to restore the Windows Store and Apps:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/instantanswers/69e76f90-d54c-44cf-9851-c2d1542790db/run-the-troubleshooter-for-windows-apps

This Diagnostic Tool may not help in all cases.

A new user account can be created. A Restore Point can be used. A Reset can work, but all applications for all users would have to be reinstalled, and all settings reset.

Of course, if you make a System Image Backup before doing anything with CCleaner’s Uninstall feature, you can always return things to previous conditions.

The last resort would be a Repair Reinstall or full Windows Reinstall.

But if you’re careful about which Apps you uninstall, CCleaner shouldn’t make a mess.

These tools are for a single PC with one to a few users. Larger deployments would need other tools beyond the scope of my experience.

-- rc primak

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Also, in the latest Insider build, every app I tried including Groove can be uninstalled via right click so the How To Geek method mentioned is no longer required.

Jerry

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I’ll be continuing to use Classic Shell for a start menu as the AU updates have just made it worse.
Though I may have to reinstall it (again)
AU hasn’t shown up for either of my machines yet. But I have seen it on friends.

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Good Article & Bobprimark too thanks.
IOBit uninstaller does a pretty comprehensive job of ditching all the pre-installed garbage, you need to be careful with its automatic update and installation of cleaner software which is just useless bloat.

I believe when I updated my test box to AU it disabled Classic Shell and I had to re-install it but worked fine after that. Have not had anything from the insider ring on fast track yet though, I had to force AU to update so not sure what’s going on there. Enterprise version has not had any updates beyond security cumulatives, turns out it is not meant to be updated for a while yet – that’s nice then!

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Thanks for the tips. I was able to cripple Cortina and *windowscamera* via PowerShell, but not Groove Music. Not sure the syntax was correct:
Get-AppxPackage *Groove Music* | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage *GrooveMusic* | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage *windowsGroove Music* | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage *windowsGrooveMusic* | Remove-AppxPackage

None of the above worked.

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Thanks for the tips. I was able to cripple Cortina and *windowscamera* via PowerShell, but not Groove Music. Not sure the syntax was correct:
Get-AppxPackage *Groove Music* | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage *GrooveMusic* | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage *windowsGroove Music* | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage *windowsGrooveMusic* | Remove-AppxPackage

None of the above worked.

For the Windows Camera App, try CCleaner. It can do the job.

-- rc primak

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Thanks for the tips. I was able to cripple Cortina and *windowscamera* via PowerShell, but not Groove Music. Not sure the syntax was correct:
Get-AppxPackage *Groove Music* | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage *GrooveMusic* | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage *windowsGroove Music* | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage *windowsGrooveMusic* | Remove-AppxPackage

None of the above worked.

In the latest Insider Build you can remove Groove simply by right clicking on its icon in the Start Menu and select uninstall. This should be available in the next General Release.

Jerry

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I also found a simple solution to disable Cortana

To disable Cortana and get the old search icon back, start regedit.exe, go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREPoliciesMicrosoftWindowsWindows Search, create a new 32-bit DWORD value here named AllowCortana and leave its value data as 0.

See http://superuser.com/questions/1109804/replace-cortana-icon-with-search-icon-in-windows-10-v1607/1127391#1127391

I had to create Windows Search key and add the DWORD value but it worked like a charm after rebooting.

I just have a magnifying glass beside the windows start. Performs local search

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I also found a simple solution to disable Cortana

To disable Cortana and get the old search icon back, start regedit.exe, go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREPoliciesMicrosoftWindowsWindows Search, create a new 32-bit DWORD value here named AllowCortana and leave its value data as 0.

See http://superuser.com/questions/1109804/replace-cortana-icon-with-search-icon-in-windows-10-v1607/1127391#1127391

I had to create Windows Search key and add the DWORD value but it worked like a charm after rebooting.

I just have a magnifying glass beside the windows start. Performs local search

And third party utilities like ShutUp 10 can also perform these changes, from a simple GUI interface.

-- rc primak

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Has anyone here tried installing GPEdit in W10 Home as referenced in the article? I was able to do it, but it seems like it is not the REAL GPedit. The window that starts is titled “Group Policy” instead of “Local Group Policy Editor”, and MANY of the policies are missing (e.g. the Search policy for knocking out Cortana).

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Has anyone here tried installing GPEdit in W10 Home as referenced in the article? I was able to do it, but it seems like it is not the REAL GPedit. The window that starts is titled “Group Policy” instead of “Local Group Policy Editor”, and MANY of the policies are missing (e.g. the Search policy for knocking out Cortana).

Part of your issue may be that the version of GPEdit you installed has old ADM Templates. This is an issue even with fairly recent downloads, as MS changed a lot of the Policies in the AU and subsequent CUs.

Now for the bigger picture:

There are a number of specific steps necessary to accomplish this. It seems to be necessary to have the Super-Administrator account enabled and to install GPEdit from that account. Several system areas need to be modified. Permissions are an issue when doing this. There are some reports that some or all Group Policy settings available in Pro are not available in Home even after installing GPEdit. Any MS Updates including the Anniversary Update, seem to risk clobbering the installation and any changes GPEdit has made. The AU or some subsequent CU may also prevent the installer from working, even with sufficient privileges. Probably not worth the effort to do this and to redo it over and over.

https://www.itechtics.com/enable-gpedit-windows-10-home/

And Comments below the article. While the article discusses 64-bit Windows 10 Home Version 1511, the Comments and other sources extend the discussion to 32-bits and the AU (Ver. 1607).

-- rc primak

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