Windows 10 Packages and MDT/Sysprep

[petben]

In the past I have removed various All User Apps from Windows 10 using:

 

Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers | Remove-AppxPackage

 

This does leave a load of Xbox, Zune etc junk that I think MS want (force) you to keep.

 

Just recently the Sysprep part of MDT has been failing with 'Failed to remove Apps for the current user 0x80073cf2'. There is an MS article about this which suggests a fix per App, but I kind of feel this will get more tricky as Windows move more towards Apps.

 

What should I be doing for our images?

 

I have just read "Sysprep has an additional provider that's added in Windows 10 and Windows 8 to clean Appx packages and to generalize the image." maybe removing Apps is not necessary at all?

[Norphy]

There are three issues with that command:

 

1) It's using a sledgehammer to crack a walnut. As well as getting rid of the crap like Xbox, it's also getting rid of stuff that's useful such as Edge, the Mail and Calendar apps and the pictures app

2) All it does is get rid of the apps for the currently logged on user. As soon as someone else logs on, they reappear

3) Sysprep really doesn't like it when you remove apps from a profile. It has a habit of failing when you do that.

 

Instead, if you want to be getting rid of apps, you should be using the Remove-AppxProvisionedPackage command, preferably during the build process and not during. This effectively removes the app from the computer's default user profile and stops them being reinstalled when a new user logs on. This is very effective at getting rid of the xbox stuff.

[sted]

im tempted to say the xbox appx is actually useful for the screen recording stuff as well (granted it does work without it but not as well as you get links to stuff you cant do).

[petben]

someone else has suggested:

 

# keeping calculator

Get-AppxProvisionedPackage -online | where { $_.DisplayName -ne "Microsoft.WindowsCalculator" } | Remove-AppxProvisionedPackage -online

 

 

what do you think?

I don't want all those apps appearing in the start menu but otherwise...do I care..?

[petben]

these are my current Apps from a Fresh 1803 install, should I also keep the Microsoft.StorePurchaseApp, or any others?

 

[arh1a]

I've always removed the apps I don't want directly from the install.wim file and not had any problems that way.

 

https://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/Removing-Built-in-apps-65dc387b

[petben]

I am trying to install them by name for more control,why doesnt this work - unspecified error:

 

Get-AppxProvisionedPackage -Online | where { $_.DisplayName -eq "Microsoft.BingWeather"} | Remove-AppxProvisionedPackage -Online

[jmak]

these are my current Apps from a Fresh 1803 install, should I also keep the Microsoft.StorePurchaseApp, or any others?

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]48870[/ATTACH]

I kept store, but be aware that you need to keep a random background app as well for it to work. Details are on this forum - I'll find the link and post back here.

 

The other one I keep is the Photos app. If you don't, you'll need to provide an alternative or it'll open JPEGs in paint. Photoviewer isn't available by default - it can be "re-enabled" with a reg entry, but I found keeping the app was easier.

Edited May 8, 2018 by jmak

[petben]

Thanks, I’ll be more selective.

 

My next problem is the powershell command above doesn’t work to actually remove the provisioned apps. I’ve tried lots of varieties of the command, all that should work but I get unspecified error.

[RLR]

I've got this script I found online from when 1709 was released. It seems to work for 1803 still.

 

Create a folder with the windows 10 ISO in and with this script inside it.

It extracts the WIM from the ISO download, then mounts the WIM to remove the packages. There is a whitelist area to add packages you dont' want to remove if you want to change any. I've kept xbox ones in as they can stop the the photos app working and

also the screen recording can be useful.

 

It also makes some tweeks to the NTUSER.dat registry. Once the WIM has been modified I upload it to MDT.

https://paste.ofcode.org/dTbcDZQxJsMD5gySqX4zS3

 

Any idea when I use the code tags it puts all my code on one line on these forums?

Edited May 10, 2018 by RLR