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Question
Tuesday, June 25, 2019 7:43 PM
Working on creating a new WDS Windows 10 v1809 image for our school. We need the ability to remove or hide apps from the apps list in the Start menu. Coming from Windows 7, we were able to remove everything that we needed to remove from the OS to prevent students from using/seeing. Now in group policy or via registry changes for Windows 10 1809, we're not seeing a way to completely remove or hide a great bunch of apps in the start menu's apps list.
I want to remove/hide the following: Get Help, Messaging, Microsoft Store, Mixed Reality Portal, Skype, Xbox Console Companion, and Xbox Game Bar.
How can I do this because after hours of struggling, changing policies, using AppLocker on Packaged app rules, using PowerShell to remove App packages, etc. etc. and trying other suggestions from around the web, but I can't find a way.
Any help would be appreciated for what has so far been a huge pain to customize our Windows 10.
All replies (6)
Tuesday, June 25, 2019 9:16 PM
Hello
Links to help with app management
This link will help with removing apps from a Windows Image
DISM App Package (.appx or .appxbundle) Servicing Command-Line Options
here are the details on how to use the Powershell command to remove appx packages
Not all apps can be removed, this list should show the list of apps that can be removed and which ones cannot
Understand the different apps included in Windows 10
There were some issues with apps returning when upgrading to a newer edition, this should have been resolved in 1809 release but just in case.
How to keep apps removed from Windows 10 from returning during an update
Thanks, Darrell Gorter [MSFT] This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
Tuesday, June 25, 2019 9:25 PM
Thanks for responding, I really do appreciate it. Unfortunately though this is not an acceptable solution for some enterprise/education customers, particularly where I work. This is part of the reason so many system administrators hate Windows 10. M$FT is taking away or not implementing all the control and customization abilities we used to have with previous versions of Windows.
It appears I am going to have to disable the Start menu entirely and rely on taskbar pins or desktop icons.
I don't look forward to telling our school's technology director and administrators that we can't control every aspect of Windows 10.
Wednesday, June 26, 2019 7:11 AM | 1 vote
Hi,
Have you tried disable app list by editing registry?
Open regedit, and find
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
add a NoStartMenuMorePrograms DWORD and set it's value to 1.
Then restart, the start menu wiil show as the following:
Best regards,
Yilia
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Thursday, June 27, 2019 5:48 PM
Looks like this will work for us, and we'll just do pinned tiles instead as a sort of white-list.
There is a GPO setting to do this same thing for both computer and user's under Admin templates > Start Menu and Taskbar. The setting is "Remove all Programs list from the Start menu". I enabled it and set it to "Remove and disable setting".
Thanks for the help!
Friday, June 28, 2019 7:28 AM
Hi,
Thanks for your reply and sharing.
If the replies are helpful, please mark them as answer.
If there is anything we can help, please feel free to post here.
Best regards,
Yilia
Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they help.
If you have feedback for TechNet Subscriber Support, contact [email protected].
Friday, July 12, 2019 10:32 PM
The suggestion is helpful but it is not an answer. Microsoft has no answer to hiding or removing apps from the Start menu list even in enterprise/education versions. Even though the apps we don't want won't work, they are still an invite to users who don't need to even see it in the first place. This is very frustrating and we are not happy with the lack of control and customization with Windows 10 from an enterprise management standpoint.