Uninstall/unpin Spotify, WhatsApp, etc. using script

Question

Hello everyone,

on a clean Windows 11 installation is a lot of bloatware, which in some weird state - it's there, but it's not installed:

If I right click on "Spotify", there is "Uninstall", but the app is not listed anywhere:

The same is, when I use PowerShell to list all apps - it's not there.

Command "Get-AppxPackage Spo" returns nothing.

I found out, that this should list all Start Menu items and then I can do some operations with it, but Spotify is not in the list:

((New-Object -Com Shell.Application).NameSpace('shell:::{4234d49b-0245-4df3-b780-3893943456e1}').Items()

I'm looking for a way, how to remove this bloatware using script - ideally PowerShell, but probably any other script would be also acceptable :-)

It's about Spotify, WhatsApp, LinkedIn and Kindle apps.

Thank you very much in advance.

Best regards,

Jan

Answer 1

Here are the scripts that I use to clean up the VM's that I use for testing.

cls
"Junk App Report"
"--------------------Junk---------------"
$Junk = "xbox|phone|disney|skype|spotify|groove|solitaire|zune|mixedreality|tiktok|adobe|prime|soundrecorder|bingweather!3dviewer"
Get-AppxPackage | Where-Object {  $_.Name -match $Junk  } | Format-Table -Property NonRemovable, Status, Name
Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers | Where-Object {  $_.Name -match $Junk  } | Format-Table -Property NonRemovable, Status, Name
Get-AppxProvisionedPackage -Online | Where-Object {  $_.DisplayName -match $Junk  }| Format-Table  -Property DisplayName
""
"--------------------Everything---------------"
Get-AppxPackage  | Format-Table -Property NonRemovable, Status, Name
Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers |  Format-Table -Property NonRemovable, Status, Name
Get-AppxProvisionedPackage -Online | Format-Table  -Property DisplayName

Modify the junk variable for that apps that you want to remove. Note that it removes apps that are provisioned but not installed. Start small, do one or 2 apps. The first time you run the script you may get errors because the app hasn't been installed for any user. If you run it a second time it should be clean.

Some apps cannot be removed.

$Junk = "xbox|phone|disney|skype|spotify|groove|solitaire|zune|mixedreality|tiktok|adobe|prime|soundrecorder|bingweather!3dviewer"
"Removing apps for this user only."
$packages = Get-AppxPackage | Where-Object {  $_.Name -match $Junk  } | Where-Object -Property NonRemovable -eq $false 
foreach ($appx in $packages) {
    "Removing {0}" -f $appx.name
    Remove-AppxPackage $appx   
}
""
"Removing apps for all users."
$packages = Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers | Where-Object {  $_.Name -match $Junk  } | Where-Object -Property NonRemovable -eq $false 
foreach ($appx in $packages) {
    "Removing {0}" -f $appx.name
    Remove-AppxPackage $appx -AllUsers 
}
""
"Removing provisioned apps."
$packages = Get-AppxProvisionedPackage -Online | Where-Object {  $_.DisplayName -match $Junk  }
foreach ($appx in $packages) {
    "Removing {0}" -f $appx.displayname
    Remove-AppxProvisionedPackage -online -allusers -PackageName $appx.PackageName 
}

Answer 2

1. Run PowerShell with administrative rights.
2. After Windows PowerShell opens, type get-appxpackage and press Enter.
3. Scroll through the list of bloatware you want to remove.
4. Once you find the bloatware you want to uninstall, type get-appxpackage ** remove-appxpackage. is the name of the app you want to remove. For example, if you want to remove Spotify, simply type get-appxpackage spotifyapp.