Keep your system clean of apps you don’t need

Oct 22, 2018 12:18 GMT  ·  By

If you’re one of the early Windows 10 adopters, you probably know that the operating system sometimes keeps reinstalling the apps that you removed for no clear reason.

This experience has caused frustration in the Windows 10 user community, and many accused Microsoft of forcing some apps on them in order to make them more widely used.

And while there’s no indication this is indeed the case, starting with Windows 10 version 1803, Microsoft is giving users the power to prevent feature updates from reinstalling removed apps when deploying feature updates (like Windows 10 version 1809, also called October 2018 Update).

Microsoft says in a technical support document that apps being reinstalled on feature updates is just an issue that does not occur during monthly updates or security-related patches, and it only applies to first-party apps shipped by the company with Windows 10.

“When you remove a provisioned app, we create a registry key that tells Windows not to reinstall or update that app the next time Windows is updated. If the computer isn't online when you deprovision the app, then we don't create that registry key,” Microsoft explains.

Preventing apps from being reinstalled can be done with a registry key, and Microsoft offers a default file that you can use for your configuration – you can find the full contents in the box at the end of the article.

What you first need to do is to remove the apps from your system using the package name. Click here to learn how to remove pre-installed Windows 10 apps.

Removing the apps is best to be done with an Internet connection, as Microsoft creates registry keys to instruct Windows on how to handle the app. The company explains:

“If you remove a provisioned app while Windows is online, it's only removed for new users—the user that you signed in as will still have that provisioned app. That's because the registry key created when you deprovision the app only applies to new users created after the key is created. This doesn't happen if you remove the provisioned app while Windows is offline.”

The registry file with all pre-defined apps

Once you do this, you need to create a REG file to generate a registry key for Windows 10 apps and remove only the registry keys of the apps you want to keep.

For instance, copy all lines of the file below in a text document and rename it to the REG extension. Delete the line that includes the command for the app you want to keep. Each package name includes the name of the app so it’s easy to determine which package is for each app.

Basically, all apps mentioned in the REG file would be blocked from being reinstalled when you update your system to the October 2018 Update or the next feature update. Once you are done editing the file, save it and then double-click it to create the registry keys.

You can keep the file and make further modifications in the future should you want to keep or remove some of the apps that come with Windows 10.

The upcoming Windows 10 19H1 will let users remove more pre-installed apps, as Microsoft wants to give users more control over the content that ships with the OS. This means you will be able to block more apps when upgrading to a new version of Windows 10, so using this trick with further edits to the original file may be required.

This new update is projected to be finalized in the spring of the next year, with the public launch expected in April.

Registry Key For Default Apps

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This hack only works for first-party Windows 10 apps
The registry file with all pre-defined apps
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