Remove Built-in apps when creating a Windows 10 reference image

When creating your reference image for Windows 10, you might want to remove the Universal Apps for various reasons. The community have come up with several scripts to accomplish this task, and don’t want to take any credit for coming up with the idea to do it with PowerShell. However, I wanted to share my version of a PowerShell script that removed the built-in apps in Windows 10.
In this script, I’ve taken another approach compared to those created by other community members. Since new versions of Windows 10 will emerge 2-3 times a year, I don’t want to update a script to support the new version that might incorporate new Universal Apps. Instead, I’m white-listing Universal Apps that I want to keep (like the Calculator), and remove everything else. In my experience, this should lead to the least amount of maintenance and that’s what I’m all about.

Script

As with the release of Windows 10 1607, a few more apps were added compared to Windows 10 version 1511. Edit the WhiteListedApps variable and make the changes that you seem fit in terms of which apps that should not be removed. As for Features on Demand, there’s also a white list of packages that won’t be removed when running the script. Edit the WhiteListOnDemand variable to fit your organizational requirements.

Update 2017-06-27: Script has been updated to only log output to RemovedApps.log file and not generate any errors that might cause MDT sequence to break.
Update 2017-03-23: Script updated with Write-LogEntry function to write to a log file called RemovedApps.log placed in C:\Windows\Temp. Applications like Quick Assist and Contact Support can now also be removed with this script. A bug has also been addressed causing the list of appx packages not to be fully populated.

# Functions
function Write-LogEntry {
    param(
        

[parameter(Mandatory=$true, HelpMessage=”Value added to the RemovedApps.log file.”)]

[ValidateNotNullOrEmpty()] [string]$Value,

[parameter(Mandatory=$false, HelpMessage=”Name of the log file that the entry will written to.”)]

[ValidateNotNullOrEmpty()] [string]$FileName = “RemovedApps.log” ) # Determine log file location $LogFilePath = Join-Path -Path $env:windir -ChildPath “Temp\$($FileName)” # Add value to log file try { Add-Content -Value $Value -LiteralPath $LogFilePath -ErrorAction Stop } catch [System.Exception] { Write-Warning -Message “Unable to append log entry to RemovedApps.log file” } } # Get a list of all apps Write-LogEntry -Value “Starting built-in AppxPackage and AppxProvisioningPackage removal process” $AppArrayList = Get-AppxPackage -PackageTypeFilter Bundle -AllUsers | Select-Object -Property Name, PackageFullName | Sort-Object -Property Name # White list of appx packages to keep installed $WhiteListedApps = @( “Microsoft.DesktopAppInstaller”, “Microsoft.Messaging”, “Microsoft.StorePurchaseApp” “Microsoft.WindowsCalculator”, “Microsoft.WindowsCommunicationsApps”, # Mail, Calendar etc “Microsoft.WindowsSoundRecorder”, “Microsoft.WindowsStore” ) # Loop through the list of appx packages foreach ($App in $AppArrayList) { # If application name not in appx package white list, remove AppxPackage and AppxProvisioningPackage if (($App.Name -in $WhiteListedApps)) { Write-LogEntry -Value “Skipping excluded application package: $($App.Name)” } else { # Gather package names $AppPackageFullName = Get-AppxPackage -Name $App.Name | Select-Object -ExpandProperty PackageFullName $AppProvisioningPackageName = Get-AppxProvisionedPackage -Online | Where-Object { $_.DisplayName -like $App.Name } | Select-Object -ExpandProperty PackageName # Attempt to remove AppxPackage if ($AppPackageFullName -ne $null) { try { Write-LogEntry -Value “Removing application package: $($App.Name)” Remove-AppxPackage -Package $AppPackageFullName -ErrorAction Stop | Out-Null } catch [System.Exception] { Write-LogEntry -Value “Removing AppxPackage failed: $($_.Exception.Message)” } } else { Write-LogEntry -Value “Unable to locate AppxPackage for app: $($App.Name)” } # Attempt to remove AppxProvisioningPackage if ($AppProvisioningPackageName -ne $null) { try { Write-LogEntry -Value “Removing application provisioning package: $($AppProvisioningPackageName)” Remove-AppxProvisionedPackage -PackageName $AppProvisioningPackageName -Online -ErrorAction Stop | Out-Null } catch [System.Exception] { Write-LogEntry -Value “Removing AppxProvisioningPackage failed: $($_.Exception.Message)” } } else { Write-LogEntry -Value “Unable to locate AppxProvisioningPackage for app: $($App.Name)” } } } # White list of Features On Demand V2 packages Write-LogEntry -Value “Starting Features on Demand V2 removal process” $WhiteListOnDemand = “NetFX3|Tools.Graphics.DirectX|Tools.DeveloperMode.Core|Language|Browser.InternetExplorer” # Get Features On Demand that should be removed $OnDemandFeatures = Get-WindowsCapability -Online | Where-Object { $_.Name -notmatch $WhiteListOnDemand -and $_.State -like “Installed”} | Select-Object -ExpandProperty Name foreach ($Feature in $OnDemandFeatures) { try { Write-LogEntry -Value “Removing Feature on Demand V2 package: $($Feature)” Get-WindowsCapability -Online -ErrorAction Stop | Where-Object { $_.Name -like $Feature } | Remove-WindowsCapability -Online -ErrorAction Stop | Out-Null } catch [System.Exception] { Write-LogEntry -Value “Removing Feature on Demand V2 package failed: $($_.Exception.Message)” } } # Complete Write-LogEntry -Value “Completed built-in AppxPackage and AppxProvisioningPackage removal process”

Using the script in MDT

1. Using this script is really no brainer, simply download it, call it Invoke-RemoveBuiltinApps.ps1 and place it in the %SCRIPTROOT% directory, meaning the <DeploymentShareRoot>\Scripts directory in MDT.

2. In your task sequence for Windows 10, add a Run PowerShell Script step and set the PowerShell Script field to:

%SCRIPTROOT%\Invoke-RemoveBuiltinApps.ps1

Start your reference image creation process and watch the magic happen!