Start Screen, Metro deployment. HELP!!!

[mike86]

Hi All,

 

I've been given the task of putting win8 on our infant student netbooks. All good so far. On the domain, policys seem to be ok, apart from problems with UAC & display res which i've sorted. However, they do not want the default items on the metro screen (mail, cal, etc) & would just like links to software & IE.

 

How are you guys going about doing this?

 

Thanks

[william_tropico]

Hello,

 

We use a powershell script to remove the default metro apps during sysprep and have set to true in the unattend.xml file.

 

remMetro64.ps1

remMetro32.ps1

 

Not sure if these are any help?

Edited June 25, 2013 by william_tropico

[Arthur]

$AppsList = "Microsoft.Bing",
           "Microsoft.BingFinance",
           "Microsoft.BingMaps",
           "Microsoft.BingNews",
           "Microsoft.BingSports",
           "Microsoft.BingTravel",
           "Microsoft.BingWeather",
           "Microsoft.Camera",
           "Microsoft.Media.PlayReadyClient",
           "microsoft.microsoftskydrive",
           "Microsoft.Reader",
           "microsoft.windowscommunicationsapps",
           "microsoft.windowsphotos",
           "Microsoft.XboxLIVEGames",
           "Microsoft.ZuneMusic",
           "Microsoft.ZuneVideo"
           
$AppsList | ForEach { Get-AppxPackage -Name $_ } | ForEach { Remove-AppxPackage $_; Remove-AppxProvisionedPackage -Online -PackageName $_ }

 

Source: blogs.technet.com/b/deploymentguys/archive/2013/06/07/update-removing-built-in-applications-from-windows-8.aspx

[mike86]

Thanks for your help. Do you know the best way of then adding/removing shortcuts/having a different start screen for staff users etc? Does it get messy when installing new programs and deploying shortcuts, is there a way to redirect the start screen like you'd redirect the start menu in xp/win 7. Appreciate any help I can get, thanks.

[william_tropico]

Might be worth holding off deployment until 8.1 is released. It is possible to manage the start menu on 8 but there isn't a right or wrong way to do it IMO. We have shortcuts redirected for students on the local computer and make sure that the icons we have on the start menu are in the redirected folder.

 

Windows 8.1 and customising the start menu using GPO this looks like it is worth the wait

[mike86]

Thanks, does doing the local redirection pin then to the start/metro screen?

[william_tropico]

No, We have staff/student computers so on student computers we configure the start menu before syspreping (put the icons in groups and name them) then use the copyprofile to apply the start menu as default for all users who log into that computer.

 

This is what we do

[mike86]

ah, cheers for that. I've got the start menu redirection working (picked up from our student gpo for the win7s, made no changes), & everything shows up if you use the search (putting the mouse in the bottom corner, clicking search & finding the program). However, I wanted to be able to pin say IE, RM Maths, Nessy, Word to the start screen. It's for the infant kids so wanted to make as simple as possible.

[william_tropico]

Anyone deploying Windows 8 now? This post on wards mentions customising the start menu using a local user, copying the appdata file which holds the layout and deploying it using group policy. That is probably what you need as your systems have already been syspreped.

 

Its also worth mentioning that the AppsFolderLayout.bin file is not created until the computer is part of a domain (on Windows 8 Pro)

[DrCheese]

Looks like you can finally do this much easier in 8.1

Customising Windows 8.1 Start Screen Layout with Group Policy

[sted]

Looks like you can finally do this much easier in 8.1

Customising Windows 8.1 Start Screen Layout with Group Policy

 

now can users still pin their own stuff as in addition or is that a set in stone option?

[jugglerjoe]

yeah i would personally wait untill 8.1 now IF you have the choice. if not...

get a new build on a machine with youe default applications on (ones that are on every machine). customise the start screen how you like (IF icons for applications are allready on there, delete them and re-add them from the exe in the C: Drive)

once you have got it customized how you want go to sysprep and sysprep into audit mode. login and move

C:\Users\Administrator\Local\Microsoft\Windows\AppsFolder.Itemdata-ms

C:\Users\Administrator\Local\Microsoft\Windows\AppsFolder.Itemdata-ms.bak

C:\Users\Administrator\Local\Microsoft\Windows\AppsFolderLayout.bin

C:\Users\Administrator\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs

 

move to the default user in the same locations.

 

set up a GP to file copy those from network share to the locations.

 

IF Deploying along side windows 7 deny win 8 pcs access to \\\NETLOGON\Default User.v2 otherwise windows 8 pcs will use this.

 

its kinda trial and error for the start screen... =[

 

to remove packages from a wim i use this powershell script. (youll need to edit to make it work for you obvs)

Mount your image with dism then edit this to suit your needed

 

$WimLoc = "C:\wim"

$PackageLoc = "$WimLoc\Program Files\WindowsApps"

$packname = dir $PackageLoc

$packname = ($packname).Name

 

foreach ($pak in $packname) {

dism /image:$WimLoc /remove-provisionedappxpackage /packagename:$pak

}

 

Think thats right. just UN-provisions them so they dont install for users.

that will remove them form the wim which is a one time process. OR what you could do is add a step in the unattend.xml file / or task sequence to run "powershell.exe -command (get-appxpackage | remove-appxpackage)" should do it. but will delete the whole app rather than just unprovisioning them.

 

sorry if this is all ramblings im quite O_O right now ^_^ message is ya want help with soem stuff

[william_tropico]

IF Deploying along side windows 7 deny win 8 pcs access to \\\NETLOGON\Default User.v2 otherwise windows 8 pcs will use this.

 

 

This! This was very annoying for us. In the end we had to Only allow local user profiles else when anyone logs in they would see a blank desktop and no access to anything.

[jugglerjoe]

i know absolutly ridiculous isnt it! >_< took me god near a month to figure out start screen and default profiles

anyways, hope it helped.

I am now sticking in automated emails and things so we make sure everything that is win 8 is in the group to disable them from seeing that location ^_^

 

we are thinking about removing the default user from the network and getting win 7 to pic it up locally too. however are unsure oof implications of this so waiting till summer