Hacker News Reader

> maybe the difference is that we install Windows 10 Pro whereas the author is a Windows 10 Home user

No, every installation of Windows 10 Pro I've seen had a start menu that was mostly ads (links to Candy Crush, Spotify, Office etc.) - I've also had the OS nag me about giving Edge a second chance.

This is in Germany, in case the region matters, and I always deny all spyware as far as possible using the GUI.

    Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers | Remove-AppxPackage

This is the first thing I run on any Windows box I am forced to interact with.

Removes all the junk in the Start menu in one command.

Doesn't that also remove Calculator?

Yeah don't do this - I did this once and I ended up having to reinstall since it broke enough stuff that the control panel wouldn't even work afterwards.

I've just done it to a VM and Control Panel is still there. I suggest you run:

get-appxpackage -allusers | fl name

and curate the list first and pipe that through remove-appxpackage. Quite a few appx thingies refused to uninstall due to being important! On the other hand so far this VM is working fine and by following a few of the other suggestions from howtogeek eg remove Bing from your start menu, it seems almost usable.

I just take all the ones I want form this list and you can copy/past them in PowerShell and they execute one after the other.

I would not do what he suggests as that will remove every app.

    To uninstall 3D Builder:
    get-appxpackage *3dbuilder* | remove-appxpackage

    To uninstall Alarms & Clock:
    get-appxpackage *alarms* | remove-appxpackage

    To uninstall App Connector:
    get-appxpackage *appconnector* | remove-appxpackage

    To uninstall App Installer:
    get-appxpackage *appinstaller* | remove-appxpackage

    To uninstall Calendar and Mail apps together:
    get-appxpackage *communicationsapps* | remove-appxpackage

    To uninstall Calculator:
    get-appxpackage *calculator* | remove-appxpackage

    To uninstall Camera:
    get-appxpackage *camera* | remove-appxpackage

    To uninstall Feedback Hub:
    get-appxpackage *feedback* | remove-appxpackage

    To uninstall Get Office:
    get-appxpackage *officehub* | remove-appxpackage

    To uninstall Get Started or Tips:
    get-appxpackage *getstarted* | remove-appxpackage

    To uninstall Get Skype:
    get-appxpackage *skypeapp* | remove-appxpackage

    To uninstall Groove Music:
    get-appxpackage *zunemusic* | remove-appxpackage

    To uninstall Groove Music and Movies & TV apps together:
    get-appxpackage *zune* | remove-appxpackage

    To uninstall Maps:
    get-appxpackage *maps* | remove-appxpackage

    To uninstall Messaging and Skype Video apps together:
    get-appxpackage *messaging* | remove-appxpackage

    To uninstall Microsoft Solitaire Collection:
    get-appxpackage *solitaire* | remove-appxpackage

    To uninstall Microsoft Wallet:
    get-appxpackage *wallet* | remove-appxpackage

    To uninstall Microsoft Wi-Fi:
    get-appxpackage *connectivitystore* | remove-appxpackage

    To uninstall Money:
    get-appxpackage *bingfinance* | remove-appxpackage

    To uninstall Money, News, Sports and Weather apps together:
    get-appxpackage *bing* | remove-appxpackage

    To uninstall Movies & TV:
    get-appxpackage *zunevideo* | remove-appxpackage

    To uninstall News:
    get-appxpackage *bingnews* | remove-appxpackage

    To uninstall OneNote:
    get-appxpackage *onenote* | remove-appxpackage

    To uninstall Paid Wi-Fi & Cellular:
    get-appxpackage *oneconnect* | remove-appxpackage

    To uninstall Paint 3D:
    get-appxpackage *mspaint* | remove-appxpackage

    To uninstall People:
    get-appxpackage *people* | remove-appxpackage

    To uninstall Phone:
    get-appxpackage *commsphone* | remove-appxpackage

    To uninstall Phone Companion:
    get-appxpackage *windowsphone* | remove-appxpackage

    To uninstall Phone and Phone Companion apps together:
    get-appxpackage *phone* | remove-appxpackage

    To uninstall Photos:
    get-appxpackage *photos* | remove-appxpackage

    To uninstall Sports:
    get-appxpackage *bingsports* | remove-appxpackage

    To uninstall Sticky Notes:
    get-appxpackage *sticky* | remove-appxpackage

    To uninstall Sway:
    get-appxpackage *sway* | remove-appxpackage

    To uninstall View 3D:
    get-appxpackage *3d* | remove-appxpackage

    To uninstall Voice Recorder:
    get-appxpackage *soundrecorder* | remove-appxpackage

    To uninstall Weather:
    get-appxpackage *bingweather* | remove-appxpackage

    To uninstall Windows Holographic:
    get-appxpackage *holographic* | remove-appxpackage

    To uninstall Windows Store: (Be very careful!)
    get-appxpackage *windowsstore* | remove-appxpackage

    To uninstall Xbox:
    get-appxpackage *xbox* | remove-appxpackage

It removes nothing of any importance. The terrible WinRT photo viewer can be replaced with the classic one, which is still installed along with the OS and just needs to be enabled:

https://www.tenforums.com/software-apps/8930-windows-photo-v...

I've been running three systems with all APPX junk removed since Windows 10 was first released. Not a single problem on any of them.

Nice list. Powershell doesn't accept & though, works great otherwise.

Most of those you can right click on and select uninstall now. It takes longer, but it feels safer to me because I have to take a second for each to think if I want it or not.

I think being forced to think about ads for Spotify and Office is exactly what he's trying to avoid.

I was forced to upgrade my workstation to windows 10 and that’s exactly what i was doing yesterday after unsuccesfully trying to remove bloatware via control panel.

I am fumbling in windows 10. I have lost so much muscle memory due to this upgrade. While i know i’ll build it back I’m frustrated that I have to relearn things I was doing with my eyes closed.

For some reasons I had varied results with this (within the same region). I've had installs where the Start menu was really polluted with all kinds of games, and installs where none of them were present. All of them are usually done from the latest ISO I could download from the MS page.

All of the installs were made on OEM machines (HP, Lenovo) that already came with a Pro license or upgrade option. This was done in a home environment so no AD/enterprise options, and never logging on with MS account. So I wonder if there's the possibility that specific OEMs, models, license keys get the treatment while others do not. I'm not sure if the behavior was tied to particular machines or not since I didn't follow the scientific method while doing installations (will do in the future).

Another major difference probably is people who log in to Microsoft account vs local account.

I don't remember seeing web results in my start menu, is that a Cortana thing?

I suspect that there are also regional differences, more crap being pushed to US consumers

Web results are still toggled, if you do not agree to Microsoft's data processing during installation you won't get that "feature". That said, search is downgraded from 7s. For instance, it doesn't look at start menu folder names nor executable name anymore...

Control panel items not showing in the start menu results anymore when you search is also in Win10 and it drives me crazy. It literally looks like the guys designing windows must be using a Mac themselves, or just aren’t computer guys. I just don’t get how things like than wouldn’t annoy them too.

My guess is that decision making in large companies is so slow, so bureaucratic, that everyone has given up on shipping anything else than a mediocre product, even if people individually would design it very differently if they could.

> It literally looks like the guys designing windows must be using a Mac themselves, or just aren’t computer guys.

Or maybe they're trying to kill the Control Panel all together and switch everyone to the new Settings app, but are aware that doing so immediately would lead to a lot of complaints? So they have both, while slowly nudging you towards using the Settings app so you wouldn't be too angry when you wake up one day in the future and find the Control Panel completely gone.

Except that until the functionalities of the control panel have been replicated in the new settings, we still need a way to access the control panel. Hiding those functionalities from search in between just doesn't make sense at all.

And even when functionally fully replicated, the settings app UI is really questionable, and somewhat hard to use.

This. I think they removed at least half of the items from "Control Panel\All Control Panel Items" compared to Windows 7/8/first builds of 10. In a few years Control Panel will be removed altogether.

I would mind it less if they would actually make the settings app feature complete!

Wikipedia in this situation always uses Edge as the browser. I wonder if this helps inflate their user stats?

Try EdgeDeflector (https://github.com/da2x/EdgeDeflector).

Windows 10 Pro has everything this article mentions. Maybe Microsoft doesn’t enable all of the nags depending on where you’re living.