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Uninstalling all apps in Windows 10

  • August 16, 2015

A clean install or upgrade of Windows 10 will include several apps preinstalled. These include:

  • 3D Builder
  • Alarms and Clock
  • Calculator
  • Calendar
  • Mail
  • Camera
  • Contact Support
  • Get Office
  • Get Skype
  • Get Started
  • Groove Music
  • Maps
  • Microsoft Solitaire Collection
  • Money
  • Movies & TV
  • News
  • OneNote
  • People
  • Phone Companion
  • Photos
  • Store
  • Sports
  • Voice Recorder
  • Weather
  • Windows Feedback
  • Xbox

Phew! That’s a lot of bloatware. For most of them uninstalling is simply a matter of right clicking on the shortcut or tile and selecting “Uninstall”. But many apps do not have this option since they are built into Windows.

I’m going to show you a way of removing all these apps at the same time, allowing you to start with a clean slate.

WARNING! This will remove all Store Apps on your machine, with the exception of Microsoft Edge and Cortana. This will also remove the Store app. I will show you how to reinstall the Store app a little later below.

 

  1. Open up Powershell as an administrator. This can be done by quickly searching for Powershell in the search box in the task bar and right clicking it to open as an admin.
  2. Run the following command: Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers | Remove-AppxPackage
  3. Then run the following command: Get-AppXProvisionedPackage -online | Remove-AppxProvisionedPackage

Once this is done you should notice that all the apps listed at the start of my post should be gone! Notice that the Store app was also removed, if you’re fine with that then you’re job is done. But if you want to install some useful apps like Calculator or Mail we will need to restore the Store.

Reinstalling the Store App

These instructions are from Microsoft but I will repeat them here incase they are taken down.

  1. Download the Reinstall-preinstalledApps.zip PowerShell Script to your PC and copy it to your desktop. If the link doesn’t work create a file called reinstall-preinstalledApps.ps1 and copy the following code into it:
  2. Open an elevated PowerShell window.
    1. Click Start.
    2. Type “Windows PowerShell” in the search bar.
    3. Right-click Windows PowerShell in the results list and click “Run as administrator”.
    4. A User Account Control dialog displays. Click “yes” to proceed.
  3. Navigate to the script download folder, which is your desktop if you followed step 1. Your command will look similar to the following:
    PS C:\Users\Abby>CD Desktop
  4. Temporarily allow unsigned PowerShell scripts to execute. Your command will look similar to the following:
    PS C:\Users\Abby\Desktop>Set-ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted
  5. Add a string argument to the powershell command that represents the string containing the name of the app. In our example of the Windows Store, the string is *Microsoft.WindowsStore* (asterisks included). Your command will look similar to the following:
    PS C:\Users\Abby\Desktop>.\reinstall-preinstalledApp.ps1 *Microsoft.WindowsStore*
    The system will prompt for approval to execute the script. Typing “y” will allow the script to continue.
  6. Re-enable enforcement for signed PowerShell scripts. Your command will look similar to the following:
    PS C:\Users\Abby>Set-ExecutionPolicy AllSigned

You should now see the Store app available. Before you start installing other apps from the store I suggest opening the “Downloads” screen from the top right menu and selecting “Check for Updates”.

Preserving folders when backing up lists and collections in Garmin BaseCamp

  • December 21, 2014

Garmin BaseCamp (v4.4 as of this post) allows you to export your lists and collections as a GPX file. However GPX files are a “flat” format, meaning that they don’t store your information hierarchically. So upon trying to import your GPX file back into BaseCamp you will find that all the folders you created to organize your lists no longer exist. Instead, everything appears muddled up into one big disorganized collection.

Here is a better way of backing up your BaseCamp data, in the event you need to move it to another computer or just back it up.

To Backup

Find the BaseCamp AppData folder. This location may change depending on what kind of OS you are running. On Windows 8.1 it is located in %APPDATA%/Garmin/BaseCamp/Database. When you find the folder you will see it will contain one or more folders with the version name of BaseCamp they are associated with. Copy the folder (in this case it will be named “4.4”) and put it somewhere safe, this is essentially your backup.

To Restore

Install BaseCamp, it needs to be the same version you backed up from, or a newer one. Delete any existing folders already in the %APPDATA%/Garmin/BaseCamp/Database directory, then simply take the folder you copied earlier and place it into the same directory (the one you originally copied it from). Now start BaseCamp. The neat thing is that even if you backed up from an older version of BaseCamp, it will be smart enough to see the database from an older version and upgrade it to it’s newer version. Your collection should appear organized as it did before with lists in their appropriate folders.