How to forbid users from uninstalling company applications

Question

We have deployed some company applications to our users. The applications have been installed without error and we can see the applications in the control panel. Now we want to forbid users from uninstalling these applications. How to achieve this?

Answer 1

If they are Administrators there is nothing you can do to prevent them from uninstalling. There will always be a way for an Admin to bypass anything that you try.

However having said that, you can play wack-a-mole. Where you force the app to reinstall if missing hourly/daily. I would use ConfigMgr for this.

Answer 2

Hi,

Thank you for posting in Microsoft Q&A forum.

Per my experience, you can try Windows GPO to prevent users from uninstalling the applications. Windows GPO can be used to limit access to particular features and applications. You can manage the windows OS through GPO including the installation and uninstall of application. You can limit the use of certain windows installer components or prohibit access to particular control Panel items. Try below group policies:

\User Configurations\Policies\Administrative Templates\Control Panel\Add or Remove Programs\Remove Add or Remove Programs (If you enable this setting, Add or Remove Programs is not available to all users.)

\User Configurations\Policies\Administrative Templates\Start Menu and Taskbar\Prevent users from uninstalling applications from Start (If you enable this setting, users cannot uninstall apps from Start.)

Thanks for your time. Have a nice day!

Best regards,

Simon

---

If the response is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and upvote it.

Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.