Update – Removing Built-in Applications from Windows 8

In October last year I published a script that is designed to remove the built-in Windows 8 applications when creating a Windows 8 image. After a reading some of the comments in that blog post I decided to create a new version of the script that is simpler to use. The new script removes the need to know the full name for the app and the different names for each architecture. I am sure you will agree that this name - Microsoft.Bing – is much easier to manage than this - Microsoft.Bing_1.2.0.137_x86__8wekyb3d8bbwe.

The script below takes a simple list of Apps and then removes the provisioned package and the package that is installed for the Administrator. To adjust the script for your requirements simply update the $AppList comma separated list to include the Apps you want to remove.

$AppsList = "Microsoft.Bing" , "Microsoft.BingFinance" , "Microsoft.BingMaps" , "Microsoft.BingNews",` 
            "Microsoft.BingSports" , "Microsoft.BingTravel" , "Microsoft.BingWeather" , "Microsoft.Camera",` 
            "microsoft.microsoftskydrive" , "Microsoft.Reader" , "microsoft.windowscommunicationsapps",` 
            "microsoft.windowsphotos" , "Microsoft.XboxLIVEGames" , "Microsoft.ZuneMusic",` 
            "Microsoft.ZuneVideo" , "Microsoft.Media.PlayReadyClient"

ForEach ($App in $AppsList)
{
    $PackageFullName = (Get-AppxPackage $App).PackageFullName
    if ((Get-AppxPackage $App).PackageFullName)
    {
        Write-Host "Removing Package: $App"
        remove-AppxProvisionedPackage -online -packagename $PackageFullName
        remove-AppxPackage -package $PackageFullName
    }
    else
    {
        Write-Host "Unable to find package: $App"
    }
}

 

When deleting applications I also recommend that you create and deploy a custom start screen layout using the export-layout command to export a layout they want to use and then apply the layout during deployment to the default user profile. If you do not use a custom start screen layout you may see a version of the start screen that only contains five tiles. For more information see my previous post - https://blogs.technet.com/b/deploymentguys/archive/2012/10/26/start-screen-customization-with-mdt-.aspx?pi36647=2.

For more information on adding and removing apps please refer to this TechNet article..

This post was contributed by Ben Hunter, a Solution Architect with Microsoft Consulting Services.

Disclaimer: The information on this site is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, confers no rights, and is not supported by the authors or Microsoft Corporation. Use of included script samples are subject to the terms specified in the Terms of Use .