As it is the holiday season and usually i have something 'special' in the pipeline for the festive release, this year is no exception! This is something i have been working on and perfecting behind the scenes, so that it works under OOBE stage and not cause aborts, (which in the early tests it did due to the nature of the beast). Testing is ongoing and results are good so far. The only slight downside is that it takes about 1 or 2 minutes longer for the installation to complete if you use the option depending on your processor speed... It is a Windows 10 option ONLY. It is not user adjustable, it may be at another time, but for now it is a preset routine, as it can get quite complex. More details later, just to keep you in suspense
A few clues... Been asked if it can be done, i can now say yes, but in a limited way... It's an addition to a recent 'feature' option that was added. I kept it under wraps that even @Enthousiast didn't know about it until today when he tested the 106.0 RC1
it was because i had so many failed attempts i almost gave it up and then i altered the list of things it did and found the 'safe' ones which didn't abort setup or confuse it.
MRP is at RC2 stage and Creator v10 has been updated to include the new option... Spoiler: The Option and its limitations The new option is something i have been asked for a while and have had a few failures attempting to get it to work, however have now managed it with some 'safe' ones that can be removed during Oobe stage. MRP can now uninstall/remove some Windows 10 Apps and the list is show below. Now for the time being until i can get more time to make a new tab in the creator to have a selection, it will be a preset block that is uninstalled/removed. What is uninstalled/removed: Netflix, Twitter, Messaging, Skype, Zune, SoundRecorder, Office (Hub), CandyCrushSodaSaga, Farmville2CountryEscape, MinecraftUwp, RoyalRevolt2, Facebook, 3DBuilder, 3DViewer, Wallet and SolitaireCollection. If they are found in the OS/Edition then each of the above will be removed/uninstalled, if not then the routine will 'skip' the ones not found and do the next App in the list. Remember the MRP is NOT a chopping tool and never will be, there are other tools to do that. This is just to remove a few of the Apps. I doubt the list will be any more unless extra games are added by M$. It has taken a few weeks to be able to remove the above Apps safely and without any aborts or problems. If you use the 'Slim' Menu, (delete apps from Start Menu), option as well as this new option your 'Slim' Start Menu will be a bit slimmer too. The Apps block will be removed/uninstalled and it will be for any new users too. There is NO selection, as i not had time to write that in as it will be a complex task and time is a bit short at the moment. As i mentioned in a previous post, it may add up to an extra minute or so while the processing is done, it does NOT edit the WIM, it is all done 'on the fly'. It is experimental and so far our testing has been successful. But i cannot guarantee it will be for everyone. Please don't ask for other Apps to be added for removal such as Edge, Xbox or Store etc as they can cause major aborts and basically screw up the installation of the OS during Oobe stage.
well for one thing never use pause or exit within scripts that are used within oobe stages, that includes oobe.cmd, setupcomplete.cmd or firstlogin.cmd or you will have serious problems as you will not see that it has paused for one thing as normally oobe stage all echo'd output is not shown.
the 3rd batch about KMS detection is not needed as MRP does that anyway. They could be combined into one file called UserTweaks.cmd as the MRP will look for that file, but what you have without modification ie remove any exit/pause and the part about reboot and the shutdown command it will fail as it is. Sadly this is not part of MRP so i cant really help here.
if you have the code you can always make a script and include it with the other scripts of the project then the user can use it after os installation
As for a script to remove other apps, there are plenty on the internet, maybe on MDL too. Some apps are more tougher to remove and cannot be done via oobe stage, those such as Cortana, Edge, Feedback etc would need to be done via editing the actual WIM image using other tools which are beyond the scope of this project. Have created a test Creator along with MRP to see if the Selection of W10 Apps/Games tab will work and be ready for this 106 release. Also added a routine to remove extra spaces on the end of any DMI entries which should allow better brand detection. This has been added to QT 83.0 which will be released at same time as MRP106 ready for the holiday season.
A side-effect when you select Office {hub} App removal is that OneNote also vanishes! The testing continues... But looks on target for this weekend for release. **EDIT** MRP106 Release is on Hold.
Bad news i am afraid. It still seems to reinstall Candy Crush and Netflix maybe others too after a while when you go online. Seems like m$ manage to sneak them back on, even if uninstalled correctly by some sort of undocumented internal timer! I am taking a break so MRP 106 is on hold until i can work out why or attempt a secondary removal routine later in the setup... May have to scrap this App/Game removal option totally.
It seems like M$ are playing silly devils as sometimes no apps/games gets reinstalled, on en-GB, yet on nl-NL it would be NetFlix, candy crush or solitaire reappear, it seems random. I know it should not be language dependant as no documentation i can find says it is. In my selected options i set Store not to update automatically, and i am wondering if that was the key why nothing got reinstalled. Plus the PC was not connected to the internet during installation. More testing will carry on when time permits, so if that is the case to be offline during install and the Store option set to not auto update then we might have a winner! Connected to the net now for 35 minutes, still no apps/games reinstalled. I don't give up too easy without a fight....
Just done a test install, everything set as it was ie the ini selections as before, connected the LAN so it was online during installation... No apps/Games was reinstalled. Opened Store... checked Start Menu again, nice and tidy no reinstalled apps or games. Store was now showing ads on its 'live' tile, same with the xbox one i mean it was alternating between Xbox and Minecraft icons. Weather had updated to show London. Checked for updates... Still nothing reinstalled... This is most bizarre. It may be that Store option set to not auto update is the 'key' ? More testing will be done but for now it is late (after midnight here) and way too tired to reinstall again.
Have updated the code in MRP so that if you use the remove W10Apps tab and select any, MRP will auto set the flag for 'Prevent Store Apps from auto updating' as this seems to be the 'key' for the re-installation of some of the selected Apps. Also tweaked the removal routine so that similar games ie Candy Crush xxxx, FarmVille xxx etc will also be removed. Just in case m$ decides to sneak on another name or version of them. I started the test pc from last night and still no Apps reinstalled, even after an hour or so the Apps/Games i had selected still did not reappear! More tests will be done, so far all is not lost. Have also updated the information on that tab in the Creator. Best results is if the computer is not connected to the internet during installation, but all being well the little tweaks done should allow connection and not affect the outcome. Also it may depend on the Language or Edition installed the results obtained. Sorry i can't perform miracles and as mentioned it is experimental.