PSA: Removing Windows 10 'Bloatware'

jbartus went on a bit of a rant said Thu, Jul 28th 2016 at 2:28pm ET

I figured this probably warranted its own topic as many of the people likely to find it useful might not care to read the other Windows 10 thread.

With Windows 10 Microsoft included a large number of ‘features’ in the form of unsolicited apps, some can be removed (from your profile but not others) with a simple right click -> Uninstall whereas others cannot be removed so easily. Luckily, there is a way to remove most of these offending apps using the command line!

WARNING: Some of these are what some would describe as ‘core features’ of Windows like the Calculator, be sure to read over the various entries before removing them. One I would suggest keeping is the Store app (last in the script) as it’s the easiest way to get marketplace apps.

Removing Apps

To get rid of the bloatware, just do the following:

Open the Start Menu.
Type ‘PowerShell’ into the search.
Look for ‘Windows PowerShell’ (NOT ISE) and right click on it.
Run ‘Windows PowerShell’ as an Administrator
Copy and paste the following commands (you can paste it all at once and it will run them in sequence) into the PowerShell window.:

If you only want to remove a couple of these apps just paste the individual lines into PowerShell or paste the entire thing into Notepad and remove the lines you don’t want before pasting it into PowerShell

Get-AppxPackage -allusers *3dbuilder* | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage -allusers *getstarted* | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage -allusers *zunemusic* | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage -allusers *zunevideo* | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage -allusers *xboxapp* | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage -allusers *candycrush* | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage -allusers *solitairecollection* | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage -allusers *sway* | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage -allusers *onenote* | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage -allusers *officehub* | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage -allusers *people* | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage -allusers *windowsphone* | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage -allusers *messenging* | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage -allusers *messaging* | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage -allusers *windowscommunicationsapps* | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage -allusers *windowscamera* | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage -allusers *skypeapp* | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage -allusers *twitter* | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage -allusers *windowsmaps* | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage -allusers *bingnews* | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage -allusers *bingfinance* | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage -allusers *bingsports* | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage -allusers *bingweather* | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage -allusers *photos* | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage -allusers *soundrecorder* | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage -allusers *windowscalculator* | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage -allusers *windowsalarms* | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage -allusers *windowsstore* | Remove-AppxPackage

I have tried to group them logically by category and likelihood to be something you want to keep. Personally I kept the Calculator, Sound Recorder, Photos, Weather, News, and Map apps on most client machines.

Reinstalling Apps

You have two options for reinstall, individual or wholesale.

Individual:

Get-AppxPackage -allusers "windowsstore" | Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register “$($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml”

Just change “windowsstore” to the matching name from the list above for the app you want to remove.

Wholesale:

Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers| Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register “$($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml”}

This will reinstall all default apps.

That’s about all there is to it, I hope some of you found this helpful. If you have any questions ask them here and I will do my best to answer them.

The enterprising among you might realize from this that you can probably succeed with doing the following:

Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers| Foreach {Remove-AppxPackage}

I do not recommend trying this. I haven’t tried it because there are over fifty default apps and other than the ones that clutter the start menu up I haven’t got a clue what the rest of them do and the potential for breaking something is pretty high. My commands above remove the clutter for the most part, anything more than that is going to risk breaking Windows 10 in some manner.

7 comments, 22 replies
Comment

brhfl said Thu, Jul 28th 2016 at 2:51pm ET:

A calculator without RPN can’t possibly be considered a core feature of anything, right?

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- @brhfl the first time i saw RPN, i thought “this is Yoda’s doing!”
  
  carl669 said Thu, Jul 28th 2016 at 4:30pm ET
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- @carl669 lol
  
  I first used RPN on my HP-41C back in 1980 or so and since then have had problems using dainbread regular calculators.
  
  I was soooooo happy when I found RealCalc… it was the second app I paid for (Enjoy Soduku was the first.)
  
  baqui63 said Fri, Jul 29th 2016 at 12:35am ET
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- @baqui63 Likewise! Any time I have to use an infix calculator, I just stare at it for a couple of seconds like… wait, what do I do here? Much like how long it takes me to start a car w/ an automatic transmission…
  
  brhfl said Fri, Jul 29th 2016 at 9:36am ET
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- @brhfl HP-48GX FTW
  
  PocketBrain said Fri, Jul 29th 2016 at 2:59pm ET
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- @PocketBrain I have a G (not GX, unfortunately) hanging out here on my desk at work (alongside my 15C and 16C)!
  
  brhfl said Fri, Jul 29th 2016 at 3:07pm ET
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- @brhfl I got the 48G/X emulator for my PDA, back when smartphones were rare, then for every smartphone (I guess they call programs “apps” now). I had to dig out the old GX because the new job won’t allow us to bring phones in.
  
  PocketBrain said Fri, Jul 29th 2016 at 5:39pm ET
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- @brhfl I still regret not buying a 16c when they were readily available and not pricy collector items. But I still have my 41CV and still use it from time to time.
  
  duodec said Fri, Jul 29th 2016 at 10:30pm ET
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- @duodec While I don’t need most of the 16C’s features for my current job, it is still my favorite calculator for base conversions. I was granted access to a 41CX in elementary school, and while I already had some programming knowledge via a C64, I really think that little HP was key to my understanding of how to think with a machine. And with synthetic programming, my first insight into making use of exploits.
  
  Listing all the HPs I currently own would be truly embarrassing. But I still own that 41CX. And, here’s one of my favorites:
  
  A 48SX with the 41CV emulator card. The emulation is slow as molasses, but it’s neat — you can see all four stack positions as well as lastx. You can program it via strings in 48 mode, and transfer programs over IR from a 42S or genuine 41*.
  
  Only feel a little guilty about derailing this thread. Not so guilty that I won’t cc @PocketBrain.
  
  brhfl said Fri, Jul 29th 2016 at 11:31pm ET
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bigtom67 said Thu, Jul 28th 2016 at 3:25pm ET:

Thanks for the info… I found a stop windows 10 spying program on one of my sites, It pretty much does the same thing. Pretty sure lots of peeps will find this helpful in keeping ( THE MAN ) out of there on-line affaires…

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carl669 said Thu, Jul 28th 2016 at 4:29pm ET:

“zunemusic” and “zunevideo”? da fuck?

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- @carl669 zune… no no no its Groove now man!!! Groove!!! Groove is more hip…
  
  thismyusername said Thu, Jul 28th 2016 at 4:33pm ET
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- @carl669 the internal app names for Groove Music and Movies & TV Shows IIRC.
  
  jbartus said Thu, Jul 28th 2016 at 7:48pm ET
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- @carl669 its just like android when you update the app, the internal file name stays the same
  
  communist said Thu, Jul 28th 2016 at 8:16pm ET
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- @communist @jbartus that still doesn’t make it right.
  
  carl669 said Thu, Jul 28th 2016 at 10:11pm ET
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- @carl669 what makes it wrong?
  
  jbartus said Thu, Jul 28th 2016 at 11:05pm ET
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- @carl669 Don’t be a hater. Zune was the best!
  
  ELUNO said Fri, Jul 29th 2016 at 11:03am ET
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PurplePawprints said Thu, Jul 28th 2016 at 4:48pm ET:

Thanks for this. I just ran it, and other than a few things that failed to be removed, and my idiocy of hitting ctrl V more than once, it seems to have worked well.

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- @PurplePawprints failure to remove can happen if you’ve already right click removed stuff. Even though it has the -allusers flag a user can only remove an app, even for all users, when they themselves have it installed.
  
  jbartus said Thu, Jul 28th 2016 at 7:49pm ET
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dashcloud said Thu, Jul 28th 2016 at 6:11pm ET:

As an add-on to @jbartus’s excellent post, here’s an extended decrappifier script that covers even more stuff (there’s definitely duplicates between the two):
https://community.spiceworks.com/scripts/show/3298-windows-10-decrapifier

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- @dashcloud a lot of that stuff is only going to apply for Windows 10 Pro users which is why I didn’t include it in my tips. I figured if someone really wanted OneDrive or Cortana gone I could tell them in-situ.
  
  jbartus said Thu, Jul 28th 2016 at 7:50pm ET
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Lotsofgoats said Fri, Jul 29th 2016 at 9:45am ET:

hmmmm I’ll give this a go when I get home, but I’m definitely keeping the xbox app since it lets me record all of my amazing trash plays in rocket league

http://gfycat.com/ZanySpicyAchillestang

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- @Lotsofgoats whoa, nice tactic with going after their goalkeeper!
  
  jbartus said Fri, Jul 29th 2016 at 3:41pm ET
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PocketBrain said Fri, Jul 29th 2016 at 5:45pm ET:
Sooo…
```
Get-AppxPackage -allusers *metro-interface* | Remove-AppxPackage
```
??
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- @PocketBrain I’d make a system image first in case you break something critical, so you can restore easily (and not have to depend on the system restore/refresh features working correctly here), and then try it and tell us what happened.
  
  dashcloud said Fri, Jul 29th 2016 at 9:45pm ET
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- @PocketBrain wishful thinking much?
  
  jbartus said Fri, Jul 29th 2016 at 10:20pm ET
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- @jbartus Yes, I am constantly befuddled by MicroSoft’s attempts to import a 4" touchscreen operating system to my multi-monitor setup. Perhaps they will give us the option to convert Windows back into a useful OS at some point.
  
  PocketBrain said Fri, Jul 29th 2016 at 11:50pm ET
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- @PocketBrain Windows 10 isn’t nearly so bad as all that. It’s gotten rid of the single biggest problem 8 had which was the start screen. What tile functionality they preserved is actually well regarded by most of the first-time 10 users I’ve been introducing to the OS in the last month or so. Maybe you’re carrying a bit of bias?
  
  jbartus said Fri, Jul 29th 2016 at 11:57pm ET
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- @PocketBrain
  Yes, that bothers me. I pretty much always have a smartphone nearby.
  
  Hey, MS, remind me one more time: Why, exactly, do i want my laptop/desktop to act like a shitty and incredibly inferior smartphone?
  
  For some reason i keep forgetting the answer to that question.
  
  f00l said Sat, Jul 30th 2016 at 12:03am ET
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