Thursday, October 26, 2017

Removing 'uninstallable' Packages from Windows10

I assume you'll have to some admin skill knowledge.
So how do you install all these pre-installed windows apps that are on your new laptop?

'Add Remove' programs only allows you to report a problem. Well the problem is that you want to uninstall it. So here is how you can do it:

Open a powershell in admin mode

You can search for packages with the command

> Get-AppxPackage | Where-Object {$_.Name -like '*3D*'}

And you get something like

Name              : Microsoft.Microsoft3DViewer
Publisher         : CN=Microsoft Corporation, O=Microsoft Corporation, L=Redmond, S=Washington, C=US
Architecture      : X64
ResourceId        :
Version           : 2.1709.8012.0
PackageFullName   : Microsoft.Microsoft3DViewer_2.1709.8012.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe
InstallLocation   : C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\Microsoft.Microsoft3DViewer_2.1709.8012.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe
IsFramework       : False
PackageFamilyName : Microsoft.Microsoft3DViewer_8wekyb3d8bbwe
PublisherId       : 8wekyb3d8bbwe
IsResourcePackage : False
IsBundle          : False
IsDevelopmentMode : False
Dependencies      : {Microsoft.VCLibs.140.00.UWPDesktop_14.0.25426.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe,
                    Microsoft.VCLibs.140.00_14.0.25426.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe,
                    Microsoft.NET.Native.Framework.1.3_1.3.24201.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe,
                    Microsoft.NET.Native.Runtime.1.4_1.4.24201.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe}
IsPartiallyStaged : False


Remove the 3D viewer (a.k.a. mixed reality)

> Get-AppxPackage Microsoft.Microsoft3DViewer | Remove-AppxPackage

So it is just a matter of guessing the name of the package you want to install. But you get the idea.

Remove OneNote

>  Get-AppxPackage Microsoft.Office.OneNote | Remove-AppxPackage

Remove XBox stuff
> Get-AppxPackage Microsoft.XboxApp | Remove-AppxPackage
> Get-AppxPackage Microsoft.XboxSpeechToTextOverlay | Remove-AppxPackage


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