Deleting built in (and otherwise undeletable) metro apps (saves disk space too.)

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Rakeesh_j

Senior Member
Jan 13, 2010
526
88
EDIT: Found a faster and cleaner way!

You guys who run tablets that have uber tiny amounts of storage (e.g. 32gb dell venue 8 pro) might want to do this as it will free up space used by apps that you probably don't even touch. You can always just install any you want to keep from the Windows store, but personally I think 8 apps are all crap (except Netflix.)

Click start > type 'powershell' (no quotes) > press ctrl+shift+enter > (say yes if it asks)

Type the following:

Get-AppXProvisionedPackage -online | Remove-AppxProvisionedPackage -online
Get-AppXPackage | Remove-AppxPackage

Tada! No more useless built in Windows apps taking up disk space, and new user accounts don't start with a cluttered start menu.

If you're like me and you keep an autoconfigure batch script for new installations, you can accomplish the above with the following lines:

powershell -Command "Get-AppXProvisionedPackage -online | Remove-AppxProvisionedPackage -online"
powershell -Command "Get-AppXPackage | Remove-AppxPackage"

Guessing this works with RT as well, but it's a sad OS that I wouldn't ever buy, so I can't test.

(Old post sticking around for archival purposes)

I never use these things. I don't like apps that force full screen when it is really unnecessary. I guess it makes sense for a touch screen, but for a desktop this is downright stupid, especially when you have a big monitor and like working with multiple things at once. Anyways, I noticed that these take up a gig of space, and I am on an SSD, so space is precious. Sadly, uninstalling them from the start menu doesn't actually delete them, in fact it's really no different at all from using the unpin from start option.

Simply navigating to that folder to delete them doesn't work. First you'll claim ownership via the UI, and then it will at least let you browse the folder. I tried taking it a step further and using the universal "take all" method from an admin prompt:

d:\windows\program files\> icacls windowsapps\* /T /C /Grant Users:(OI)(CI)(MA)

It failed. So I figured, let's try rebooting to the command console and do the same thing. Success! Well, not really.

If you type del windowsapps, it pretends to delete them, but it doesn't actually do so. Microsoft is clever, they really went out of their way to make sure you keep them and like them! So I took it a step further, I tried the same thing from WinPE by booting from the install disk, hitting the repair button, and navigating to the command shell. Same result as above. Microsoft REALLY wants to make sure they remain intact.

Fortunately though, I have an ace up my sleeve. I booted a linux ISO, mounted the partition, and did an rm -rf WindowsApps, and lo and behold, its gone! You see, linux doesn't really care if you keep metro apps, it just does whatever you tell it to.

By the way, I did this inside of a VM just to make sure that it doesn't break anything, and so far, it doesn't appear to do so. The apps still remain in the start menu (if you didn't unpin them) but launching them just returns right back to the start menu. No worries, just unpin them and it will stay out of sight and out of mind.

Something confuses me though...the live tiles for these apps still actually work. At least, the live tiles for news, finance, and travel still work, but launching the app just drops you back to the start menu. My guess is that the live tile portion of the app runs in another process. Somebody who is more familiar with WinRT could chime in here. Also, the useless windows store and some important things like the desktop app and the "pc settings" app (aka metro control panel) remains intact, so no issues there.

Anyways, I'd like to figure out a way to delete these while windows is still running, that way I can automate doing so when I install windows. Any ideas? My current thought is to remove them from the install.wim, but it's kind of a PITA and often something goes wrong when I try to muck with that.
 
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Волк

Senior Member
Jan 7, 2012
1,159
548
San Diego
Nexus 9
Google Pixel 6 Pro
Thanks for the info. I won't be able to do the research until the weekend, but in searching for windows 8 (non-Microsoft) themes, I found info on a program (I hate that all of a sudden all programs are being called 'apps') which lets you take (for real) ownership if system files. The info where I ran into it's usage was because Windows 7 and 8 need either hacked system files (guess having a hacked 7 with legit license was a great idea) or a special program to load a custom theme.

Sent from my LG-P999 using xda premium
 

GoodDayToDie

Inactive Recognized Developer
Jan 20, 2011
6,066
2,933
Seattle
Out of curiosity, what built-in apps did you find to be un-deleteable? Removing the built-in apps that I didn't use (Finance, News, etc.) was easy; just right-click or flick downward (to select the tile) then select Uninstall. Leftover files in the WindowsApps dir could be removed.
 

Rakeesh_j

Senior Member
Jan 13, 2010
526
88
Out of curiosity, what built-in apps did you find to be un-deleteable? Removing the built-in apps that I didn't use (Finance, News, etc.) was easy; just right-click or flick downward (to select the tile) then select Uninstall. Leftover files in the WindowsApps dir could be removed.

The built in apps that it places on the start menu when you first log in to Windows 8. It prevents you from deleting them, because then new accounts won't see the apps, and it forces them on to the start menu by default.
 
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GoodDayToDie

Inactive Recognized Developer
Jan 20, 2011
6,066
2,933
Seattle
You can delete them from Start easily enough, if for some reason you find their presence there offensive. You can also delete the updated versions from the device. The basline (1.2) versions are, I assume, what you are complaining about... meh. If you want to bang your head against this, go ahead. I get what you're asking for now, though I really don't understand why. Besides, full-screen or not, some of the "Metro" apps are pretty good, especially a few of the games (which are frequently FS anyhow). It's worth keeping the store around for free game downloads IMO... but I think we've already established that our opinions differ on how to use Win8.
 

Rakeesh_j

Senior Member
Jan 13, 2010
526
88
You can delete them from Start easily enough, if for some reason you find their presence there offensive. You can also delete the updated versions from the device. The basline (1.2) versions are, I assume, what you are complaining about... meh. If you want to bang your head against this, go ahead. I get what you're asking for now, though I really don't understand why. Besides, full-screen or not, some of the "Metro" apps are pretty good, especially a few of the games (which are frequently FS anyhow). It's worth keeping the store around for free game downloads IMO... but I think we've already established that our opinions differ on how to use Win8.

You're thinking of using the "uninstall" option from the start menu. That does NOT delete them, it just removes all references to them. They still reside on the hard disk and consume disk space. On my 120GB SSD on my laptop, every gig counts. Why leave them there when they are doing nothing at all? No banging your head involved, just boot up linux, rm -rf WinApps, problem solved.

Anyways, last I checked there were approximately zero AAA titles in the windows store. In fact, I've yet to see any windows app do anything that can't already be done better in a web browser. I'm not particularly impressed with solitaire collection, pinball, toy soldiers...and ooh mahjong, the game to end all games. The only one even remotely interesting is hydro thunder, in which case they ought to call it Retro instead of Metro.
 
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phailyoor

Senior Member
May 17, 2012
172
56
www.hiddencreeksoftware.com
I never use these things. I don't like apps that force full screen when it is really unnecessary. I guess it makes sense for a touch screen, but for a desktop this is downright stupid, especially when you have a big monitor and like working with multiple things at once. Anyways, I noticed that these take up a gig of space, and I am on an SSD, so space is precious. Sadly, uninstalling them from the start menu doesn't actually delete them, in fact it's really no different at all from using the unpin from start option.

Simply navigating to that folder to delete them doesn't work. First you'll claim ownership via the UI, and then it will at least let you browse the folder. I tried taking it a step further and using the universal "take all" method from an admin prompt:

d:\windows\program files\> icacls windowsapps\* /T /C /Grant Users:(OI)(CI)(MA)

It failed. So I figured, let's try rebooting to the command console and do the same thing. Success! Well, not really.

If you type del windowsapps, it pretends to delete them, but it doesn't actually do so. Microsoft is clever, they really went out of their way to make sure you keep them and like them! So I took it a step further, I tried the same thing from WinPE by booting from the install disk, hitting the repair button, and navigating to the command shell. Same result as above. Microsoft REALLY wants to make sure they remain intact.

Fortunately though, I have an ace up my sleeve. I booted a linux ISO, mounted the partition, and did an rm -rf WindowsApps, and lo and behold, its gone! You see, linux doesn't really care if you keep metro apps, it just does whatever you tell it to.

By the way, I did this inside of a VM just to make sure that it doesn't break anything, and so far, it doesn't appear to do so. The apps still remain in the start menu (if you didn't unpin them) but launching them just returns right back to the start menu. No worries, just unpin them and it will stay out of sight and out of mind.

Something confuses me though...the live tiles for these apps still actually work. At least, the live tiles for news, finance, and travel still work, but launching the app just drops you back to the start menu. My guess is that the live tile portion of the app runs in another process. Somebody who is more familiar with WinRT could chime in here. Also, the useless windows store and some important things like the desktop app and the "pc settings" app (aka metro control panel) remains intact, so no issues there.

Anyways, I'd like to figure out a way to delete these while windows is still running, that way I can automate doing so when I install windows. Any ideas? My current thought is to remove them from the install.wim, but it's kind of a PITA and often something goes wrong when I try to muck with that.

If you want to remove them from a windows install image

http://forums.mydigitallife.info/threads/37039-Remove-Metro-appz-and-default-associations-to-them
 
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link68759

Senior Member
Jun 20, 2010
426
56
Razer Phone 2
Sony Xperia 5 II
You're thinking of using the "uninstall" option from the start menu. That does NOT delete them, it just removes all references to them. They still reside on the hard disk and consume disk space. On my 120GB SSD on my laptop, every gig counts. Why leave them there when they are doing nothing at all? No banging your head involved, just boot up linux, rm -rf WinApps, problem solved.

Anyways, last I checked there were approximately zero AAA titles in the windows store. In fact, I've yet to see any windows app do anything that can't already be done better in a web browser. I'm not particularly impressed with solitaire collection, pinball, toy soldiers...and ooh mahjong, the game to end all games. The only one even remotely interesting is hydro thunder, in which case they ought to call it Retro instead of Metro.
Oh, so a game is only good if it has AAA backing?
 

Rakeesh_j

Senior Member
Jan 13, 2010
526
88
You could had taken ownership of the WindowsApps folder and delete it, that's what I did.

I tried that, even used some command line stuff that break all file locks and ensure that the current user has full control over the files. It would let you delete them, even go through and say it deleted them, but when you look in the directory again, they are still there.

Oh, so a game is only good if it has AAA backing?

No. My current favorites are both indie titles, and are not AAA. Those being Natural-Selection 2, and League of Legends.

For Google Chrome, there are MORE and BETTER games than in the Windows store, and to a lesser extent, Firefox as well. Yep, web browsers have better games than the Windows store.

Every single game in the windows store is either old or just plain crap. I played Angry Birds on a CELL PHONE over a YEAR ago. These are all casual games, not games that you sit down for a marathon session to play. If the windows store is your idea of a good place to get games, then I dare you to go to your friends and say "Hey guys, let's all go to my house and play some reversi and then some tick tack toe!" and see what kind of reaction you get. Or how about one better, ask them to bring their PC's over for a windows 8 lan party, I'm sure they'll get right on that one.

The two games I listed above are legit desktop titles. Windows 8 games are not. In fact, as I've said numerous times, there isn't a single windows store app that does anything that isn't already done better in a browser.
 
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Rakeesh_j

Senior Member
Jan 13, 2010
526
88
So I'm doing the ol' nuclear option of a reformat for the windows 8.1 update, and I just updated OP to include some new info I found (Maybe common knowledge at this point after 18 months of futzing around with 8? Who knows, just something I discovered on my own a few minutes ago while tinkering with powershell.)

Really neat and really clean compared to the other way.
 

441Excelsior

Senior Member
May 6, 2012
847
104
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I use Embedded edition that doesn't include preinstalled metro apps (only IE, skydrive and photo viewer are included)
 

441Excelsior

Senior Member
May 6, 2012
847
104
29
windows 8.1 Embedded Industry Pro is the same as Windows 8.1 Pro

here is screen of my desktop
 

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Rakeesh_j

Senior Member
Jan 13, 2010
526
88
I use Embedded edition that doesn't include preinstalled metro apps (only IE, skydrive and photo viewer are included)

That's effectively what you get when you run the two commands I listed. For whatever reason, skydrive and photo viewer aren't possible to remove. In fact they don't even appear to reside in the WindowsApps folder...I'm not even sure where they reside.
 

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    EDIT: Found a faster and cleaner way!

    You guys who run tablets that have uber tiny amounts of storage (e.g. 32gb dell venue 8 pro) might want to do this as it will free up space used by apps that you probably don't even touch. You can always just install any you want to keep from the Windows store, but personally I think 8 apps are all crap (except Netflix.)

    Click start > type 'powershell' (no quotes) > press ctrl+shift+enter > (say yes if it asks)

    Type the following:

    Get-AppXProvisionedPackage -online | Remove-AppxProvisionedPackage -online
    Get-AppXPackage | Remove-AppxPackage

    Tada! No more useless built in Windows apps taking up disk space, and new user accounts don't start with a cluttered start menu.

    If you're like me and you keep an autoconfigure batch script for new installations, you can accomplish the above with the following lines:

    powershell -Command "Get-AppXProvisionedPackage -online | Remove-AppxProvisionedPackage -online"
    powershell -Command "Get-AppXPackage | Remove-AppxPackage"

    Guessing this works with RT as well, but it's a sad OS that I wouldn't ever buy, so I can't test.

    (Old post sticking around for archival purposes)

    I never use these things. I don't like apps that force full screen when it is really unnecessary. I guess it makes sense for a touch screen, but for a desktop this is downright stupid, especially when you have a big monitor and like working with multiple things at once. Anyways, I noticed that these take up a gig of space, and I am on an SSD, so space is precious. Sadly, uninstalling them from the start menu doesn't actually delete them, in fact it's really no different at all from using the unpin from start option.

    Simply navigating to that folder to delete them doesn't work. First you'll claim ownership via the UI, and then it will at least let you browse the folder. I tried taking it a step further and using the universal "take all" method from an admin prompt:

    d:\windows\program files\> icacls windowsapps\* /T /C /Grant Users:(OI)(CI)(MA)

    It failed. So I figured, let's try rebooting to the command console and do the same thing. Success! Well, not really.

    If you type del windowsapps, it pretends to delete them, but it doesn't actually do so. Microsoft is clever, they really went out of their way to make sure you keep them and like them! So I took it a step further, I tried the same thing from WinPE by booting from the install disk, hitting the repair button, and navigating to the command shell. Same result as above. Microsoft REALLY wants to make sure they remain intact.

    Fortunately though, I have an ace up my sleeve. I booted a linux ISO, mounted the partition, and did an rm -rf WindowsApps, and lo and behold, its gone! You see, linux doesn't really care if you keep metro apps, it just does whatever you tell it to.

    By the way, I did this inside of a VM just to make sure that it doesn't break anything, and so far, it doesn't appear to do so. The apps still remain in the start menu (if you didn't unpin them) but launching them just returns right back to the start menu. No worries, just unpin them and it will stay out of sight and out of mind.

    Something confuses me though...the live tiles for these apps still actually work. At least, the live tiles for news, finance, and travel still work, but launching the app just drops you back to the start menu. My guess is that the live tile portion of the app runs in another process. Somebody who is more familiar with WinRT could chime in here. Also, the useless windows store and some important things like the desktop app and the "pc settings" app (aka metro control panel) remains intact, so no issues there.

    Anyways, I'd like to figure out a way to delete these while windows is still running, that way I can automate doing so when I install windows. Any ideas? My current thought is to remove them from the install.wim, but it's kind of a PITA and often something goes wrong when I try to muck with that.
    1
    Out of curiosity, what built-in apps did you find to be un-deleteable? Removing the built-in apps that I didn't use (Finance, News, etc.) was easy; just right-click or flick downward (to select the tile) then select Uninstall. Leftover files in the WindowsApps dir could be removed.

    The built in apps that it places on the start menu when you first log in to Windows 8. It prevents you from deleting them, because then new accounts won't see the apps, and it forces them on to the start menu by default.
    1
    I never use these things. I don't like apps that force full screen when it is really unnecessary. I guess it makes sense for a touch screen, but for a desktop this is downright stupid, especially when you have a big monitor and like working with multiple things at once. Anyways, I noticed that these take up a gig of space, and I am on an SSD, so space is precious. Sadly, uninstalling them from the start menu doesn't actually delete them, in fact it's really no different at all from using the unpin from start option.

    Simply navigating to that folder to delete them doesn't work. First you'll claim ownership via the UI, and then it will at least let you browse the folder. I tried taking it a step further and using the universal "take all" method from an admin prompt:

    d:\windows\program files\> icacls windowsapps\* /T /C /Grant Users:(OI)(CI)(MA)

    It failed. So I figured, let's try rebooting to the command console and do the same thing. Success! Well, not really.

    If you type del windowsapps, it pretends to delete them, but it doesn't actually do so. Microsoft is clever, they really went out of their way to make sure you keep them and like them! So I took it a step further, I tried the same thing from WinPE by booting from the install disk, hitting the repair button, and navigating to the command shell. Same result as above. Microsoft REALLY wants to make sure they remain intact.

    Fortunately though, I have an ace up my sleeve. I booted a linux ISO, mounted the partition, and did an rm -rf WindowsApps, and lo and behold, its gone! You see, linux doesn't really care if you keep metro apps, it just does whatever you tell it to.

    By the way, I did this inside of a VM just to make sure that it doesn't break anything, and so far, it doesn't appear to do so. The apps still remain in the start menu (if you didn't unpin them) but launching them just returns right back to the start menu. No worries, just unpin them and it will stay out of sight and out of mind.

    Something confuses me though...the live tiles for these apps still actually work. At least, the live tiles for news, finance, and travel still work, but launching the app just drops you back to the start menu. My guess is that the live tile portion of the app runs in another process. Somebody who is more familiar with WinRT could chime in here. Also, the useless windows store and some important things like the desktop app and the "pc settings" app (aka metro control panel) remains intact, so no issues there.

    Anyways, I'd like to figure out a way to delete these while windows is still running, that way I can automate doing so when I install windows. Any ideas? My current thought is to remove them from the install.wim, but it's kind of a PITA and often something goes wrong when I try to muck with that.

    If you want to remove them from a windows install image

    http://forums.mydigitallife.info/threads/37039-Remove-Metro-appz-and-default-associations-to-them