This command:
wmic product where name="Application Name" call uninstall /nointeractive
appears to do it. Put the whole long name from the software list in Control Panel, within those double parentheses. This works in at least some cases where msiexec /x does not. And it is not version-specific.
To change it in local policy:
Local Computer Policy > Computer Configuration >Windows Settings > Security Settings > Network List Manager Policies >[properties of the the network name in question] >network location tab then pick your Location type.
An excellent tool from The Windows Club. Found by the excellent Joe Busby.
https://www.thewindowsclub.com/ultimate-windows-tweaker-4-windows-10
If your Active Directory dates back to Server 2003, you may have “Internet Explorer Maintenance” items in GPO. These are obsolete IE control specifications which can not be edited on newer servers. To delete these items:
Tested under Windows 10 only, this works well for non-OEM:
(Get-WmiObject -query ‘select * from SoftwareLicensingService’).OA3xOriginalProductKey
and this appears to be good for OEM/sticker:
(GCIM SoftwareLicensingService).OA3xOriginalProductKey
The amazing Joe Busby showed me a number of things today. First, we remove all sorts of gaming bits which eat resources, and we also remove the built-in Mail and Calendar and BingNews, in administrative Powershell:
Get-AppxPackage "Microsoft.XboxApp" | Remove-AppxPackage Get-AppxPackage "Microsoft.XboxGameOverlay" | Remove-AppxPackage Get-AppxPackage "Microsoft.XboxIdentityProvider" | Remove-AppxPackage Get-AppxPackage "Microsoft.Xbox.TCUI" | Remove-AppxPackage Get-AppxPackage "Microsoft.XboxSpeechToTextOverlay" | Remove-AppxPackage Get-AppxPackage "windowscommunicationsapps" | Remove-AppxPackage Get-AppxPackage "Microsoft.Advertising.Xaml" | Remove-AppxPackage Get-AppxPackage "Microsoft.BingNews" | Remove-AppxPackage Get-AppxPackage "Microsoft.BingWeather" | Remove-AppxPackage
There is an optional -allusers option for both Get-AppxPackage and Remove-AppxPackage, the following appears to do some good:
Get-AppxPackage "Microsoft.XboxApp" | Remove-AppxPackage -allusers Get-AppxPackage "Microsoft.XboxGameOverlay" | Remove-AppxPackage -allusers Get-AppxPackage "Microsoft.XboxIdentityProvider" | Remove-AppxPackage -allusers Get-AppxPackage "Microsoft.Xbox.TCUI" | Remove-AppxPackage -allusers Get-AppxPackage "Microsoft.XboxSpeechToTextOverlay" | Remove-AppxPackage -allusers Get-AppxPackage "windowscommunicationsapps" | Remove-AppxPackage -allusers Get-AppxPackage "Microsoft.Advertising.Xaml" | Remove-AppxPackage -allusers Get-AppxPackage "Microsoft.BingNews" | Remove-AppxPackage -allusers Get-AppxPackage "Microsoft.BingWeather" | Remove-AppxPackage -allusers
Another item. Search for “Background apps”. Open it up, and choose which apps run in your background !!!!! None is an option!
And a third. The Edge browser is reloaded by the operating system at boot and after it is closed. Turn it off with registry settings (this is in Powershell):
CD HKCU:\Software\Policies\Microsoft\ mkdir MicrosoftEdge mkdir MicrosoftEdge\Main CD MicrosoftEdge\Main New-ItemProperty . -Name AllowPrelaunch -Value 0 -PropertyType "DWord" -Force CD HKLM:\Software\Policies\Microsoft\ mkdir MicrosoftEdge mkdir MicrosoftEdge\Main CD MicrosoftEdge\Main New-ItemProperty . -Name AllowPrelaunch -Value 0 -PropertyType "DWord" -Force
And a fourth. “Game Mode” is something which sits in the background eating resources. Its purpose is to semi-automatically record as a digital movie, everything that happens on your screen. It tries to detect and do this automatically, and it gets it wrong a lot, slowing things down, and sometimes, a lot. But Game Mode can be shut off globally. Turn it off with a registry setting here:
CD HKCU:\Software\Microsoft\ mkdir GameBar New-ItemProperty . -Name AllowAutoGameMode -Value 0 -PropertyType "DWord" -Force CD HKLM:\Software\Microsoft\ mkdir GameBar New-ItemProperty . -Name AllowAutoGameMode -Value 0 -PropertyType "DWord" -Force
Updates are being distributed to Windows 10 via peer-to-peer methods, in addition to cloud-to-PC. This will be essential to handle the big build files, 4 gigabyte plus, at many sites.
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/deployment/update/waas-delivery-optimization
If you see that Windows built-in search components (any of several, including the Indexer, Cortana, etc.) are using a lot of your disk bandwidth, run this in an administrative Powershell:
Add-AppxPackage -Path “C:\Windows\SystemApps\Microsoft.Windows.Cortana_cw5n1h2txyewy\Appxmanifest.xml” -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register
It appears to reset or reload Cortana or a big chunk of it, and probably disable “Development Mode” too. One web reference stated that the above has to be run in a newly created local admin profile to work.
Also, if you’re in a former (or, God forbid, current) SBS environment, make sure the SBS client is removed, and make sure GPO isn’t automatically reinstalling it.
This is easily done in Local Group Policy, on the machine with the RDS licensing server:
Computer Configuration/
Administrative Templates/
Windows Components/
Remote Desktop Services/
Remote Desktop Session Host/
Licensing
There is a setting in Windows Group Policy which will force lockscreen / locked screensaver after a machine considers itself inactive for a specified amount of time:
This overrides all other related (e.g. screen saver) settings and PC-local settings. It’s located here in group policy:
Computer Configuration\Windows Settings\Security Settings\Local Policies\Security Options
and while creating/linking group policy on a server:
Computer Configuration\Policies\Windows Settings\Security Settings\Local Policies\Security Options