Tag: Windows 10

2018-10-13: Updated for Windows 10 version 1809

Microsoft Windows 10 Enterprise and Microsoft Windows 10 Pro ship with a number of provisioned app packages. Whenever a user signs into a computer for the first time, Windows will register (read: install) all each provisioned app in the newly created user profile.

For listing the provisioned app packages on your computer or an offline image, use the PowerShell Cmdlet Get-AppxProvisionedPackage.

# Get all provisioned app packages on your computer
Get-AppxProvisionedPackage -Online | select DisplayName | sort DisplayName

# Get all provisioned app packages in an offline image
Mount-WindowsImage -ImagePath .\Windows-10-ISO\sources\install.wim -Path .\mountpoint\ -Name "Windows 10 Enterprise"
Get-AppxProvisionedPackage -Path .\mountpoint\ | select DisplayName | sort DisplayName

For remove provisioned app packages from your computer or an offline image, use the PowerShell Cmdlet Remove-AppxProvisionedPackage.

# Remove a provisioned package from your computer. This does not remove the app from existing user profiles.
Remove-AppxProvisionedPackage -Online -PackageName microsoft.windowscommunicationsapps_16005.10730.20053.0_neutral_~_8wekyb3d8bbwe

# To remove a provisioned app AND also remove it from each user profile, add the `-AllUsers` parameter.
Remove-AppxProvisionedPackage -Online -AllUsers -PackageName microsoft.windowscommunicationsapps_16005.10730.20053.0_neutral_~_8wekyb3d8bbwe

# Remove a provisioned app from an offline image.
Mount-WindowsImage -ImagePath .\Windows-10-ISO\sources\install.wim -Path .\mountpoint\ -Name "Windows 10 Enterprise"
Remove-AppxProvisionedPackage -Path .\mountpoint\ -PackageName microsoft.windowscommunicationsapps_16005.10730.20053.0_neutral_~_8wekyb3d8bbwe

Continue reading “Provisioned App Packages in Windows 10 Enterprise / Windows 10 Pro”

Updated on 24th November 2017: This article applies to version 1607, 1703, 1709.

With the Windows 10 Pro version 1607 update – also know as the Anniversary Update – Microsoft further strips small and medium businesses from important Group Policy settings. This iteration of the operating system makes it really tedious to provide a clean desktop to my customers and their users, unless they upgrade to the Enterprise edition. This is not financially viable for the majority of them, but that is another matter …

In this article I will focus on the options you have to keep your Windows 10 Pro edition from showing or even installing unwanted apps. If you ever wondered how to keep Candy Crush and other Windows Apps out of your business, or why your methods won’t work with the Anniversary Update anymore, this article is for you.

Continue reading “How Windows 10 Pro installs unwanted apps (Candy Crush) and how to stop it”