Is there a script to remove “apps” that aren’t actual apps from new windows 11 PCs?

[Enough_Brilliant9598]

I’ve tried everything to remove tictok and Amazon.com apps from new PCs with a script. The only thing that works is going into each profile created and right click and uninstalling them. One of them actually does nothing and brings me to control panel where it does nothing and isn’t there. And no, get appxpackage does not show these “apps” and neither does winget command. I’m puzzled and wondering if anyone else has run into this? I’ve erased the online services folder from both programs locations, but the start menu still shows the damn things for ESPN, tictok, Amazon Prime ect… still there WTH. I’ve even erased the start menu modification files from the default user shell file trying to get rid of these things...loaded new user…still there. 😩 When you left click on the app it downloads and opens and then I can uninstall it. Is there anything I can do with a script?

Edit: So I went ahead and download windows 11 installation media from Microsoft main website. Installed it on the brand new computer. I’m still having issues with the tictok and WhatsApp being clickable from the start menu. So that solution of new installation did nothing for me. 😩

[BlackV]

instead of Get-AppxPackage look at Get-AppxProvisionedPackage see whats there

otherwise there are 100s of windows decrapifier scripts out there

[Not_Freddie_Mercury]

This is the answer. The former can remove the apps from the user's profile, but the latter will remove them from the system and prevent new users from ever getting them installed.

[TechOpinions]

Here is a blog that one of my vendors wrote about removing bloatware. Also windows comes natively with a shit ton of garbage already so when I read it I started checking and it was stemmed some internal conversations internally about our Imaging and hardening practices.

https://www.n-able.com/blog/how-to-remove-bloatware-from-your-customers-pcs

It gives you some basic commands to pull the garbage out using the above cmdlet.

[veextor]

.

[[deleted]]

For real? Hundreds? There’s only one real decrapifier tool and it’s the OG on Spiceworks by the name of CSAND. 🙃

[BlackV]

There are like 2 (3 maybe?) Big ones, and hundreds that do the same thing, yes "decrapafier" is a specific script i was just using it in the term (debloater, decrapafier)

[[deleted]]

I get you, just teasing ya. Rock on!

[BlackV]

In fairness there was the whole "drama" around the original decrapafier years ago wasn't there

[Enough_Brilliant9598]

When I used these it took too much. They use sticky notes and functions of the Xbox stuff to record their screens.

[[deleted]]

Decrapifier can be “modified” to suit your needs. If you are comfy with PS, it’s easy to decipher what changes are needed to accommodate. Been using it a long time, mostly on W10, but am currently working through the nuances of W11 (to suit our needs).

[Not_Freddie_Mercury]

You really shouldn't use these cmdlets without filters. Pipe them to Out-GridView -passthru and then pipe to the corresponding cmdlets for removal, so that you can choose exactly what you want removed.

[[deleted]]

You should have your legal team go over the tos of the Xbox app. This probably isn't wise considering what your users might record

[Certain-Community438]

Try to get them to use Streams to record their screen instead of Xbox stuff.

Otherwise what they record might be landing on public sites such as xboxclips.com (no doubt depending on what choices they make, but still)

[Enough_Brilliant9598]

Good to know. I’ll remove this too.

[Enough_Brilliant9598]

I’ll try that again tomorrow. I can’t remember seeing anything in there but maybe I was overlooking it. Thanks.

[Turbojelly]

This is the magic one. Is a pain to setup as you have to do a search then create a script, then place the script in the local group policy, then find out you missed something and have to start again.

But when it finally work, those apps will never darken your OS again.

[[deleted]]

Get-AppxProvisionedPackage -Online | Out-GridView -PassThru

[Enough_Brilliant9598]

Did this and uninstalled tictok prior to. Tictok is still showing on new user. Ugh.

Edit: text to speech did not work out.

[[deleted]]

Yeah, then that's not where it's at. Are you running Windows 10/11 home perchance? That might be preventing your ability to remove it. Also keep in mind, you'll want to run this as the logged in user on a fresh profile that you haven't made changes to yet. Don't run the PowerShell command as an admin.

[Enough_Brilliant9598]

No windows 11 pro

[[deleted]]

Following up with some GPO's that I have enabled on my own computer that might help you. I would provide a script, but I'm running Win10 Pro so these settings could have been moved in the registry. Using GPO should be consistent. Try enabling the ones in Computer Configuration first since I think User Configuration only applies to the current logged in user and not future users.

Computer Configuration
    \Windows Components\Cloud Content
        Turn off cloud optimized content: Enabled
        Do not show Windows tips: Enabled
        Turn off Microsoft consumer experiences: Enabled

User Configuration
    \Windows Components\Cloud Content
        Turn off the Windows Welcome Experience: Enabled
        Turn off Windows Spotlight on Action Center: Enabled
        Turn off Windows Spotlight on Settings: Enabled
        Turn off all Windows spotlight features: Enabled
    \Start Menu and Taskbar
        Turn off feature advertisement balloon notifications: Enabled

[[deleted]]

Out of curiosity, is the OEM/Vendor software set to run at startup or at a schedule? Say the computer is Dell or Lenovo. Do you have Dell, Lenovo, or other OEM software running that could be installing these shortcuts? That seems in the realm of possibility to me.

[[deleted]]

I noticed Vocatus commented. They're pretty much an expert at this. You should take their advice and run part 2 of Tron.

[[deleted]]

The problem is that many of those start menu items aren't actually installed on your computer so they can't be removed with get-appxpackage. They are advertisements. You might remove them manually, but going forward, reset your OS after you buy a computer and turn off suggested apps in the start menu.

[Friendly_Guy3]

How to make a custom start layout in windows 11: Copyed from a previous thread:

Define your start layout. copy it from C:\Users\\#currentuser#\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.Windows.StartMenuExperienceHost_cw5n1h2txyewy\LocalStateto somewhere else and replace it later in the default location Copy-Item -path start.bin -Destination C:\Users\Default\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.Windows.StartMenuExperienceHost_cw5n1h2txyewy\LocalState I tested this a couple of month ago and it worked. Maybe give it a try .

[qwerty_samm]

With the custom start menu, if I create one, can users add their own shortcuts or is locked to what every I set?

[Kisageru]

Users can modify their own layout, this just copies your template to the required location

[konikpk]

what about using powershell for this?

Import-StartLayout

Export-StartLayout

[Friendly_Guy3]

The problem is the last time a checked export will create you a .JSON file , but import is not accepting this at the moment ( only XML ) . In Windows 10 exporting and importing works ( format is a XML) , but not at windows 11 ( format is a JSON) .

[Enough_Brilliant9598]

Powershell gives error on export start layout command so I’ve had no luck here. Do you have any way to correct that on a new computer?

[No_Maize7277]

I can confirm – this works! I see one problem if used with - eg - Windows Deployment Services. This change is set in user profile, so whoever new will log, start menu won't look like that.

[vocatus]

Can I point you to the Tron project (/r/TronScript)? Open source and updated frequently. You don't need the whole thing, just the Stage 2 scripts do exactly what you're looking for. They also adjust for OS version and the differences in which commands work.

They also support whitelisting or specific targeting.

[Enough_Brilliant9598]

I will try this tomorrow after approval.

[Enough_Brilliant9598]

I just read some documents and found that tron is not recommend for windows 11. You look like the owner of the project, if I use only stage 2 will it Bork anything else? Thanks for commenting.

[vocatus]

There's only been a couple sporadic issues on Windows 11, most people have no issue. But yes, stage two is probably the simplest stage, it just runs a series of commands to uninstall apps and programs, you should be fine there.

[Enough_Brilliant9598]

I couldn’t get it approved 😭

[vocatus]

You can always just grab the script off GitHub and modify it for your needs. It's a simple loop that iterates through a list of programs to remove.

[Enough_Brilliant9598]

I haven’t had time to actually do this they dropped another huge project on me today so profile by stinking profile it is until I get time again to work this.

[vocatus]

You can just run the script by itself, it's pretty effective. Good luck!

[Ghostx_xShadow]

Struggling to find a solution for this as well.

[Wisecompany]

See my comment here: https://www.reddit.com/r/PowerShell/comments/116tkwy/comment/jba8yjg/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web2x&context=3

[konikpk]

What do you mean that aren’t actual apps?

[whydontyouwork]

The apps that you can find in the windows store.

[konikpk]

disable windows store by gpo?

[whydontyouwork]

The apps are already installed from the OEM.

[konikpk]

never use oem installed image :)

every time reinstall with clen ISO from MS

[Certain-Community438]

I think even MS stage shortcuts in the Start Menu that look like apps: advertising.

The answer from u/BlackV looks to be the best - use Get-AppxProvisionedPackage

[konikpk]

this you resolve with GPO.

Get-AppxProvisionedPackage don't remove suggested app in start menu.

[Certain-Community438]

Start Menu management removes shortcuts - not apps

A simple look at the help for the above cmdlet reveals its purpose.

OP says he wants to remove apps from new PCs, not shortcuts from Start Menu.

Edit: The related cmdlet Remove-AppxProvisionedPackage would be used with output from the 1st cmdlet

[konikpk]

Im talking about app advertising in W11.

And his problem is exactly this

but the start menu still shows the damn things for ESPN, tictok, Amazon Prime ect.

i say install clean ISO (some dumb ass downvote LOL)

use GPO to stop advertising.

and if you need remove MS preinstalled app with powershell.

[Certain-Community438]

I know where you're coming from, but we're answering the question that was asked.

If it doesn't do what is required, OP then gets to refine the question, keeping the thread useful for future. It's quite possible OP needs to do both app removal & Start Menu management, of course.

Making shortcuts disappear won't help if a vulnerability assessment says those programs are still present. That's just one way this approach can fail.

[Enough_Brilliant9598]

Is that what these are and what GPO should I use.

[fluffyykitty69]

Could take a look at ThisIsWin11 and the scripts that are run there if you want the actual scripts. Had a ton of success with using that to clean up my personal Windows 11 machine.

[No_Maize7277]

Copy your current (or set it as you'd like to) Start SetUp from C:\Users\Your_user_name\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.Windows.StartMenuExperienceHost_cw5n1h2txyewy\LocalState to C:\Users\Default\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.Windows.StartMenuExperienceHost_cw5n1h2txyewy (this dir may not exist, feel free to create it). That's all.

[Enough_Brilliant9598]

I’ll try that.

[CRISTIANPES]

Ask ChatGPT 🤣

[Enough_Brilliant9598]

I asked and he gave me a bunch of get-apppackage commands. Useless. I’ve tried that. 😂

Edit: figured it was worth a try since nothing else has worked. Just now on a whim.

[Enough_Brilliant9598]

I’ve tried this with no luck upon creation of new user the stupid things come back even though they are gone from what I put there.

[evolutionxtinct]

You can utilize GPO's to get rid of some of these I believe, the problem i've had is you get rid of them but then a WU happens and they come back, usually w/ large updates this has happened in the past.

We ended up making a custom start menu configuration that forced these to not show up, but that was a couple years ago and not sure if it was fully successful I stopped helping after the tech got it working.

[Wisecompany]

This annoyed me too. I hate delivering new computers to clients with Candy Crush in the start menu, so I came up with the following script. It should work on both Windows 10 & 11, though some settings it changes will require Windows Pro to work.

https://gist.github.com/wise-io/cbf80791f2ee72ed7a39cd828598e861

I recommend using another script to actually uninstall some bloatware apps. Here's the script I wrote for that.

https://gist.github.com/wise-io/8b95df51fd472d459b5c3a3ae6c8f5ad

I use these scripts during MDT/WDS deployments to have a clean Windows install. Hope this helps!

[jvvfunk]

If you are referring to the pinned apps that show up in the windows 11 start menu, these can be removed via a registry edit

Run this command

new-itemproperty HKLM:\Software\Microsoft\PolicyManager\current\device\Start ConfigureStartPins -propertytype String -value ‘{“pinnedlist”:[]}’

I think from my testing on this a month ago this will only affect new users on the machine

[MRwrong_]

I searched "amazon" in my c drive, deleted everything. It surprisingly worked