HOWTO completly remove preloaded apps

Introduction

Several days ago I noticed that MS store app is updating a preinstalled game that I removed when I started to use my PC.

After a few investigations, I discovered that ‘uninstall’ an app doesn’t really remove it from your system, but it only hides that app in the current account.

So I looked for a more definitive solution. I don’t want these apps on my system (Windows 10).

As always, remove only known undesired apps.
If you don’t know what it is and it is from Microsoft, do not touch it.

Round #1

open Windows Powershell (normal or ISE version) with administrative access rights.

  • type the following command line:
Get-AppxProvisionedPackage -Online > c:\apps1.txt
  • open c:\apps1.txt with your favorite text editor and look for any undesired app

for each one, you will find, you have to

  • copy it’s <PackageName>
  • type these two commands:

(remove it from the current OS image)

Remove-AppxProvisionedPackage -Online -AllUsers -PackageName <PackageName>

(remove it for all users)

Remove-AppxPackage -AllUsers -Package <PackageName>

Round #2

  • type the following command line:
Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers > c:\apps2.txt
  • open c:\apps.txt with your favorite text editor and look for any undesired app

for each one, you will find, you have to:

  • copy the <PackageFullName>
  • type the following command:
Remove-AppxPackage -AllUsers -Package <PackageFullName>

Round #3

After that, you can delete c:\apps1.txt and c:\apps2.txt

Conclusions

This is a good way to get rid of undesired apps and save disk space.

It is also a very good way to save disk space in Windows 10-based VM.