How to stop users from uninstalling metro applications in windows 8
In Windows 8 the process of uninstalling metro apps is rather easy. Therefore, when you have established the metro apps in Windows 8 the way you want, you may wish to prevent other users on the computer from uninstalling them. This tutorial will show you all the necessary steps to disable the uninstall metro apps feature.
Unlike normal desktop apps which can be uninstalled from the Control Panel, the metro apps can be uninstalled by just right-clicking on the apps’ tiles and choosing Uninstall. Although this makes the uninstall process less painful, it also increase the chance of uninstalling app by mistake. Luckily, you can disable the Uninstall button if you desire.
1. Press Winkey + R to open the Run window, type gpedit.msc to the field and hit OK to open the Local Group Policy Editor window.
2. When the Local Group Policy Editor window appears, navigate to User Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Start Menu and Taskbar.
3. On the right side of the window, find the Prevent users from uninstalling applications from Start and double click on it.
4. By default, this option is set to Not Configured. We need to change it to Enabled to remove the Uninstall button from the Start screen.
5. Click OK at the bottom of the current window to save the setting.
You do not need to restart the system to see the change because it takes effect immediately. When you go to the Start screen and right-click on a metro app, the Uninstall button is gone.
The picture below is taken when the setting is not changed yet. The Uninstall button appears between the Unpin from Start and Smaller button.
Are you looking for a proper procedure which can help you in uninstalling the Metro application in Windows 8? If yes, then you are at the right place. Well there is a way which can help you in disabling the Windows Store in Windows 8, but the method explained in this guide will absolutely delete the Metro applications from your operating system, Windows 8.
Metro is a new user interface introduced in Windows 8 operating system; it is based on Microsoft’s Metro design language.
So for all those Windows 8 users who are not fond of the Metro Application go through this informative guide, you will surely get an appropriate solution.
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Instructions
To bring up the run box press Windows + R keys together.
In the empty space displayed in front Open, type gpedit.msc and then click OK
A list will be viewed on your screen, from the catalog drill down to User Configuration and then go into Administrative Templates. From Administrative Templates’ drop down menu select Start Menu and Taskbar.
Another window will open on your screen showing you a list of settings. From the record double click on “Prevent Users from Uninstalling applications from Start”
A window will open on your screen with the title Prevent Users from Uninstalling applications from Start. Drag your cursor on the upper left side of the window and click on the Enabled button and then click on the Next Setting tab.
Now you will have to update the policy in order to take an effect on your computer. This can be done by opening the Run box; press Windows + R. In front of Open type gpupdate /force and click Ok.
That is it! To make sure that the process has been completed effectively drag your cursor towards the uninstall option on the Metro title and right click; you will see that the particular option no more appears.
With apps making the core of the Metro user interface in Windows 8, come new challenges for system administrators, organizations and businesses to control what users are allowed to do, and what they should not do when it comes to these new features.
One of the things that admins need to consider is that users can install and uninstall Metro apps as they please, unless guidelines and rules prevent them from doing so.
A company installing a series of apps on all operated copies of the operating system might want to block users from uninstalling those applications in Metro.
The uninstall app option becomes available after users right-click on a Metro app on the start screen, or the apps screen.
A click on the uninstall button removes the app from the Metro start screen and the system, so that it is no longer accessible on the system.
Users with access to the Group Policy Editor can use a policy to control app uninstallations. The editor is however only available in Windows 8 Pro and Windows 8 Enterprise, and not in Windows 8 or Windows 8 RT. Only system administrators can access the local Group Policy Editor to modify settings.
Use the hotkey Windows-R to bring up the run box, enter gpedit.msc and tap on enter or click on the ok button to load the Group Policy Editor in Windows 8. If you are in Metro, enter gpedit.msc directly and hit enter to load it. The screen switches to the desktop to display the Local Group Policy Editor.
Select User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Start Menu and Taskbar from the left sidebar menu. Click on the Setting header once to sort the listing alphabetically, and locate the Prevent users from uninstalling applications from Start policy there.
Double-click the policy, and switch its state from not configured to enabled to remove the uninstall option from the Metro interface.
You need to log off and on again, or restart the PC, before the changes take affect. Once configured, you will notice that the uninstall button is no longer displayed on right-clicks in the Metro user interface.
Option 2 involves editing the Windows 8 Registry manually to make the changes. Use Windows-R to bring up the run box, enter regedit in the form and click ok to start the Windows 8 Registry Editor.
Navigate to the following Registry key:
HKEY_Current_User\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows
Right-click on Windows, and select New > Key from the options. Name the key Explorer and click ok. Right-click Explorer and select New > Dword (32-bit) Value, and name it NoUninstallFromStart.
Double-click the Dword afterwards, and enter 1 as its value date.
This article will show you how to prevent users of your computer from uninstalling Metro applications in Windows 8. Follow the tutorial below.
By default all users of a Windows 8 system can access all Metro applications. So, any user of the system can easily uninstall any Metro applications installed by you or any other user.
Though uninstalled metro applications can be restored back by downloading them from the Windows Store, but that will be wasting of time and bandwidth. So, if you want to prevent other users from uninstalling any Metro applications installed in your Windows 8 computer then perform the following steps.
1. First of all press Windows + R to open the Run window. Now type
into that textbox, Hit Enter.
2. Now go to User Configuration-> Administrative Templates -> Start Menu and Taskbar option and find for Prevent users from uninstalling applications from Start. Initially it will be set in Not Configured status.
3. Double click on it to open the settings for it. A dialog box will be popped up, click on Enabled option, then click OK.
4. Now you can see that, the settings is Enabled.
Next right-click on any Metro application, there will be no longer any Uninstall option.
About Nick
Nick is a Software Engineer. He has interest in gadgets and technical stuffs. If you are facing any problem with your Windows, feel free to ask him.
Uninstalling an app from Windows 8 is deadly easy. It’s so easy that sometime you may want to figure out a way to stop people from removing apps you want them to stay there. I can see that it could be painful to IT people keeping reinstalling apps back to their users’ computer over and over.
Fortunately, there is a way of doing so. And it’s not that difficult at all. Thanks to theWindowsClub for sharing this tip. Basically, you are doing it through local group policy.
1. Open Local Policy Editor, by pressing Win + R, typing gpedit.msc, and pressing Enter.
2. Navigator to the following location:
User Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Start Menu and Taskbar
3. Select the entry “Prevent users from uninstalling applications from Start” and enable it.
4. Because it’s a user configuration, you will have to either reboot your computer or manually refresh the group policy by running the following command in Command Prompt to have the change taken effect.
Once the change has taken effect, you won’t be able to see the remove app option from the option list in Start screen.
Equivalently, you can archive the same via a registry change. Just simply go to the following location in regedit, and create or set a registry entry as DWORD (32bit) named NoUninstallFromStart to 1.
Uninstalling apps from Windows 10/8 involves a simple procedure. All the user has to do is go to the ‘Star’ and right-click on an app. An action bar is pulled up from the bottom of the screen, allowing you to uninstall the app quite easily. While this is simple and anybody will be able to do it – can you imagine the trouble it could cause you? Anybody can delete your favorite apps without your consent. So, It’s always better to eliminate such chances rather than minimizing them. And the ultimate solution that pops-up in my mind is to stop a user from being able to uninstall UWP Applications in Windows 10/8.
Prevent users from uninstalling Apps in Windows 10
Switch to the Desktop mode and use the following sequence of keys simultaneously – Windows + R. The action should bring up a Run box. Type gpedit.msc in it and press the ‘Enter’ key to bring up the group policy editor.
When done, navigate to the following location:
User Configuration\Administrative Templates\Start Menu and Taskbar
Then, to the right-hand side, look for the ‘Prevent users from uninstalling applications from Start‘ setting and check its state.
You will find the state as ‘Not Configured’.
Double-click on it to bring up a new window. Under the window, select the ‘Enabled’ option.
Now, in order to allow the updated policy to take immediate effect on your PC, press Windows+R key in combination and in the RUN box that will appear on your computer screen, type gpupdate /force.
Please note that you need to give space before ‘/’ else, you will get the following error message “Windows cannot find ‘gpupdate/force’. Make sure you typed the name correctly, and then try.”
Once done, go to the Metro Start Screen and right-click on an app. You shouldn’t find the uninstall option now.
If you are having any problems installing apps from Windows Store, check out our post – Unable to Install Apps from Windows Store’.
Here’s a quick tip to gain more space on your local disks
As you probably know by now in case you’re a Windows 8 adopter, Microsoft offers its newest operating system with several pre-installed Metro/Modern apps.
Regardless if we’re talking about Sports, Bing, Photos, Messaging and Mail, all of them are considered to be the essential apps for the average Windows 8 computer user who wants to make the most of the Metro UI without launching the Store.
The problem with these apps is that some of them are pretty useless for the majority of users, so removing them is quickly becoming a priority for quite a lot of people.
In addition, they eat up a lot of space on your disks and given the fact that the available free space is one of the hottest topics these days for those interested in buying a Surface with Windows 8, it’s pretty important to get rid of them.
Uninstalling a specific app is usually just a matter of clicks because the “confusing” Start Screen allows users to simply right-click a Modern app and hit the “Uninstall” button at the bottom of the screen.
But in case you’re planning to remove all of them as fast as possible, here’s a trick found by Winaero. Basically, it all comes down to the integrated PowerShell that allows you to run a bunch of commands as administrator.
Launching the PowerShell is pretty simple. You can either access the Start Screen and type “PowerShell” or hit “Win Key + R” on the desktop, write down “PowerShell” and hit enter. Don’t forget that you need to launch the PowerShell with administrator privileges!
Once you’re there, simply write down the following command to check out the list with the installed Metro/Modern apps in case you removed some of them from the Start Screen:
hello all, I know i have asked this before but didn’t really get anywhere. Is there a way i can block apps from being installed or ran when the WIN8 pc is on a domain. I have our first WIN8 PC and want to lock it down so users can open apps that i dont want them to have or download apps from the windows store.
any help would be great, thanks.
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12 Replies
I’m pretty sure that the answer is currently no, due to the technology used for them.
And there is no useful means of discussing such a thing on the Internet due to the volume of people looking to disable Metro. It clogs the search results.
Bryce Katz
Disable the Modern UI? Not gonna happen.
Disallow certain apps to run? Group Policy is your friend. Restrict the systems in question to a list of approved apps only.
Corey_A
Bryce Katz wrote:
Disable the Modern UI? Not gonna happen.
Disallow certain apps to run? Group Policy is your friend. Restrict the systems in question to a list of approved apps only.
i tried to restrict apps from running in the policy but it didn’t work
Corey_A
Scott Alan Miller wrote:
And there is no useful means of discussing such a thing on the Internet due to the volume of people looking to disable Metro. It clogs the search results.
I did find the policy to turn off access to the store which was one thing i was looking for its under Computer Config\Admin Temp\Windows Components\Store there is a “Turn off store application” setting that will block access to the store and then i can uninstall apps i don’t want. The bad thing about this is that i have to do it at the local PC since those settings are not in the GP Editor for the domain yet but its a start.
I guess another question along this topic is if i want to install an app ie RDP app from the store its asking for a hotmail account, is there a a way to download and install the apps from a network share of some type?
Removing bloatware from a new PC is a rite of passage for most Windows users whenever they get a new machine. And for years, desktop users have turned to third-party programs such as PC Decrapifier to automate bloatware removal.
But removing all those pre-installed “Metro” apps in Windows 8 hasn’t been so easy, and boy, does Microsoft pre-install a lot of them. (Around 20 in the Windows 8.1 Update, if you’re counting.) For the most part, the only option was to go through each modern app one-by-one, right-clicking the ones you didn’t want, and then selecting “uninstall”—not too difficult, but very manual.
A new, free program aims to change all that. Called Windows 8 App Remover, this desktop program automates the process of uninstalling modern UI apps by letting you remove them all at once with just a few clicks, kind of like a Live Tile-hating version of PC Decrapifier.
Although pre-installed modern apps are less offensive than typical desktop crapware, there are still good reasons to dump the ones you don’t use. Beyond the hard drive savings, removed apps mean fewer updates from the Windows Store, and erasing apps makes it a lot easier to organize the Start screen or cut down on clutter in the All Apps view.
How to use Windows 8 App Remover
To get started, download Windows 8 App Remover from Sourceforge and install it as you would any other desktop program. Sorry, Windows 8 App Remover is not available for Windows RT tablets as it’s a desktop program.
First you’ll want to choose your version of Windows 8.
From the drop-down menu, select your version of Windows 8. You have three choices: Windows 8, Windows 8.1, or Windows 8.1.1 (choose this last option if you installed the spring update for Windows 8.1 that puts the Windows Store app on your taskbar).
Next, click the List Apps button.
You should now see a list of all the Windows 8 apps installed on your PC, with checkboxes that are no longer greyed out.
Now, all you have to is select the checkbox next to the apps you don’t want and then click the Remove Apps button.
Next, you’ll see a final warning window that lets you know what you are about to do can’t be undone. If you’re sure you want to remove the apps click Yes.
After a few seconds, the apps you selected will be greyed out, meaning they’re gone from your system.
Just a few clicks and all those modern apps you don’t want are gone.
You could also remove all the standard issue apps by clicking the Select All button and then clicking Remove Apps—but while this is a tempting feature, you’ll want to be careful. Selecting to remove Communication, for example, means dumping Calendar, Mail, and People, which come packaged together from the Windows Store. Since those apps are handy, and require some configuration, you may not want to lose them.
Also, keep in mind that the Start menu is set to return to Windows 8.1—possibly as soon as August. When the Start menu does come back it will include the ability to display some at-a-glance data from modern apps such as local weather and calendar appointments. So some modern apps may be worth keeping even if you don’t use them right now.
That said, if you ever want any of your deleted modern apps back, they are always available for download from the Windows Store.
