• System Apps - Appx items that reside in the C:\Windows\*
• Apps - Appx items installed in C:\Program Files\WindowsApps and have two subcategories
  • Provisioned - Installed after 1st Logon
  • Installed - Installed as part of the OS
• Other - Appx items that do not have a direct tile or UI (background apps like the Print UI or payment UI)
• And the odd ducks that dance to their own music - Apps that you can remove from Settings App but do not appear elsewhere.

• This can be implemented any time after deployment so you don’t have to worry about reimaging the machine.
• Editing XML can be fussy.  Make sure to use a plain text editor, avoid adding extra spaces and keep the formatting UTF-8.
• Be mindful of old Windows 7 or earlier Group Policies that were for Start menu. They do not apply to Windows 10 unless specifically stated in the Policy Description.

Computer configuration\Administrative Templates\Start Menu and Taskbar\Start Layout
User Configuration\Administrative Templates\Start Menu and Taskbar\Remove All Programs list from the Start menu

• Caveat - You will still see the app icon - not ideal. But users will be told this is purposefully blocked so should not generate calls.
• Use this option for any apps installed to C:\Windows\*.

• Feature Plug - Store for Business is a great option to control the apps the users has available.

Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\Store\Turn off the Store Application 
Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\Store\Disable all apps from the Windows Store 
Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\Store\Turn off Automatic Download and install of updates

• Follow Rules above.
• Some apps will not uninstall. Because. They. Don’t. Stop asking. Dont make me turn the car around! But seriously. If PowerShell does not remove them,the app is specifically blocked from uninstall, likely because the OS is dependent on them.
• Test on VMs before deploying in a live environment
• Be surgical.  There are several scripts out there that will try to rip everything off the machine. I prefer to be more precise and remove just the specific ones. (sorry - not a fan of any delete *.* type scripts)

• Use the Package name from the Get-AppxProvisionedApps
• Package name contains the version number which will be different for each build.
• Use the Remove-AppxProvisionedPackage cmdlet and not Remove-AppxPackage
• Provisioned Apps uninstalled while online are for that user profile only.

1. Contact Support/Get Help - This is removable via  "Manage Optional features" in Settings App Listed as "Contact Support"
2. Feedback changed to Feedback Hub in 1607 and changed from a System app to Windows app
3. News and Sway changed from provisioned to installed in 1607
4. Sport and Finance changed from provisioned to installable from Store in 1607
5. It might not be a Windows App - You might think some apps are Modern/UWP apps, but they're really Win32.

1. Virtual Machine(s) of each build
2. Settings App-> Apps list view
3. Two PowerShell scripts.

get-appxpackage | select name,version,Packagefamilyname,installlocation|export-csv c:\users\<user>\desktop\GetApps.txt 

get-appxprovisionedpackage -online | select displayname,version,packagename|export-csv c:\users\<user>\desktop\GetProvisionedApps.txt

Get-AppxPackage |Select Name,PackageFamilyName 

Get-AppxProvisionedPackage -Online | select displayname,packagename

1. Built a vanilla VM for each major Windows 10 release based off a standard Enterprise ISO, install the latest updates for each.
2. Let provisioning finish
3. Ran the two PowerShell commands on each VM

get-appxpackage | select name,version,Packagefamilyname,installlocation|export-csv d:\users\<user>\desktop\GetApps.txt 

get-appxprovisionedpackage -online | select displayname,version,packagename|export-csv d:\users\<user>\desktop\GetProvisionedApps.txt

• There are several less intrusive methods to controlling apps.
• Not all apps are bad.
• Apps do change per Windows 10 version.
• Feedback hub does work as a voice for changing apps from System to Installed or Provisioned.  Check for requests/issues and vote up if you agree with the request!

• This is not reproducible 100% of the time.
• Some machines will work and some will not with the same settings.
• Resetting the policies to Not Configured and reenabling does not resolve the behavior
• Some users report this issue without any Group Policies, users not able to change it via Settings
• Changing the location of the lock screen image on the system may work
• Lock screen reverts/changes to Cave after resolution change
• Lock screen behavior is inconsistent when Docked vs Undocked

• Copy the image you want to a second path and update the policy with the new path.
• Update the Last Modify Timestamp of the image referenced in the policy.
• Backup and delete the folder C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\SystemData\S-1-5-18\ReadOnly\LockScreen_P

1. Always be up to date
   1. Windows 10 - latest releases and cumulative updates
   2. Hardware updates for the device and docks (if applicable)
   3. Office
   4. Third party apps
2. Get to Baseline before making adjustments, registry hacks, judgements
   1. Logoff the device
   2. Setup hardware as you plan use it (connect all monitors, connect to the dock, etc)
   3. Logon

• Bad - I am keeping it generic here. DPI behavior can be any combination of large, small, fuzzy or crisp. The blogs go into more depth on general High DPI behavior:
• Display Scaling in Windows 10
• Display Scaling changes for the Windows 10 Anniversary Update
• Local system - the computer making the call
• Remote system - the computer answering the call
• Disconnect - Disconnect breaks the connection between the two systems. It does not logoff the remote session. Everything is left running.
• Logoff - Shuts down all programs running on the system and ends the Winlogon session.

1. Remote Desktop Connection MSTSC.exe (Win32)
2. Remote Desktop Preview (App)

1. Know what monitor you want to use for the remote session.
2. Know what monitor is marked as your main monitor.

• I've found that I get the best results when I check “ Make this my Main Monitor” on the monitor I selected for #1

• Always be up to date - Software and hardware
• Get to Baseline - Log off, configure the hardware, logon

• There is no one "Just fix it" button for DPI issue. (We'd all love a magic Fix it!)
• Always check for the latest software/hardware versions and updates.
• Always check to see if the issue is there at Baseline - monitors setup as needed, new logon session.
• Use the new Remote Desktop Preview (beta) app
• If you make registry changes to effect DPI behavior - don’t forget about them. Those changes do come with caveats. Roll registry changes back to default settings if you notice odd behavior and test DPI performance without them.
• If you do find an issue, check Windows Feedback app to see if someone has reported it, if so, vote it up! If not - describe exactly how to reproduce the behavior, hardware configuration, screenshots help! More Feedback votes = Higher priority!

The problem I had was keeping those settings for those folders.  I did some searching and found articles and notes on changing the registry etc, but finally found that you just need to make a few simple changes: Setting the Media template and saving the customizations to that media template.

First,  Select the parent folder and set it to Music, Pictures, Documents, Video or General (whichever you want to customize)

Let's stick with Music for this example:

Right click on the parent folder and select Properties ->Customize.

Select the template you want to use.

Make sure to select "Also apply this to all subfolders"

Click OK to exit.

Next, customize the folder view with the columns that you want:

Right client anywhere in the red box area…

Select More if you don’t see the attribute you want to add on the quick list.

For Example - I've added Protected and Size.

For music I've also sorted by # so all tracks will appear in order.

Once you have that setup the way you want it, go to View on the File Explorer menu and select Options -> Change Folder and Search options:

Under view click Apply to Folders.  This will apply the changes you made above to all folders marked as Music.

Repeat customizations for Pictures, Documents or just General folders.

Hope that Helps!

Full disclosure - I love OneNote. I love to organize things - created a recipe book over Thanksgiving, save websites (shopping!), use send to OneNote on emails, use Office Lens to send documents and receipts, Chores lists, Shopping lists, and I save screenshots of that embarrassing photo that my friends never should have posted online etc etc etc. Its pinned to my taskbar and my Start menu on my phone. I prefer the full version but I've been giving the App a test drive.  When I need to pull up a quick shopping list or take notes on the fly - it works great! I love it so much I demo it to strangers. For that, dear strangers, I'm sorry!

So, when I was asked how to change the Note button to open the full version of OneNote, I understood, but hesitated to dis the App version. Its intention was to be quick access to write and access notes. Its does that and syncs with ease to the Quick Notes section in the desktop version.

But I was curious and did some digging.

Can you customize the button?  Yes!* and Yes!**

*This is intended as a fun user customization. Not an enterprise wide admin option. 

**If you get the Windows flights and get updated to the latest beta builds often - Note will reset to default settings every flight.

If you're not getting the flights and decide want to customize Note - here ya go! (disclaimer for regedit: export original keys before changing so you can go back to defaults)

1. Open regedit, navigate to  HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ActionCenter\Quick Actions\All\SystemSettings_Launcher_Quicknote
2. Copy the exiting entry (onenote-cmd://quicknote?onOpen=typing) and save that for later if needed
3. Edit the URI entry
4. Paste the new entry you want
   1. If you want to open OneNote Web enter: HTTP:// <entry for the notebook you want>  To find that, open OneNote and select File to see the full path or  right click on the section and select "Copy link to Section" and paste it into notepad to see the text of the path - First line

b. If you want to open OneNote 201x Desktop enter: onenote: and the path to the section you want to default to. To get that path right click on the section and select "Copy link to Section" and paste it into notepad to see the text of the path- Second line.

Copy to Path results:

c. If you want to point it to another Universal App you can use the protocol name for the App. 

• First, let's find the Protocol name. From Start type Default Programs and open the Control Panel option. 
• Select Associate a file or protocol with a Program. 
• Scroll to the bottom to see the protocols:

Before entering anything into the URI entry in the registry, test out any of the protocols from Start-> Run.

Wunderlist://

Zune://

Xbox://

Search://

Microsoft-Edge://

If you find an option you like, add it to the URI and test. This last option is very much a try and test. Some programs will have commands after the protocol statement that improve how that app opens. This is all custom and not necessarily documented, but if it works with Start->Run is should work for the Note button. One option to dig further may be to use Procmon and see if you can capture the entire command line. 

Again, Can you customize Note? Yes, but this information is "as is" (ie not supported).  If you want the app you cant live without to open via Note button in Action Center - play around with Protocol commands and Procmon.  If you flight often to new builds, save the *.reg key of your custom setting so you can re-enable it after a flight. If you want to go back to defaults use onenote-cmd://quicknote?onOpen=typing in the URI.

Have Fun!

Type in the URL for your site:

And a friendly name:

From here you can right click and select "Pin to Start"

Once on the Start you can resize between Small and Large.

Existing Links

If you have existing IE favorites that you want on Start you can just copy the link file from Favorites folder (%userprofile%\Favorites) to %appdata%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\

Here's a mix of links I've added, two from Edge and the rest from shortcut links.

More information:

Start layout for Windows 10 desktop editions

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/hardware/mt171092(v=vs.85).aspx#supported_unattend_settings_for_start

Customize the Windows 10 Start screen

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/mt431718(v=vs.85).aspx

Customize Windows 10 Start with Group Policy

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/hardware/mt170651(v=vs.85).aspx

Let's start with the basics.  There are a lot of terms tossed around when dealing with displays - I'll try to cover the most used:

What is DPI?

DPI is Dots Per Inch - the amount of pixels you can count linearly in an inch.

What is a Pixel?

Rumor has it that the term Pixel comes from Picture Element (as a combination of pic-el) and while this depends on the context, in this case we'll use the definition "A pixel is generally thought of as the smallest single component of a digital image" Remember back in the day when you could sit super close to the TV and see the Green, Red and Blue squares that make up the picture?  Good times, good times!

Those are the main two, but I'll throw a few more out there:

What is PPI?

PPI is Pixels Per Inch.

What is Pixel Density?

Pixel Density is the number of Pixels on a display divided by the diagonal measurement of the display.

Resolution?

I'll take the definition for Image resolution: how much detail an image holds.  The higher the resolution, the more detail it contains. As always, Bigger is Better. I mean Higher. Higher is better. You know what I mean…. Everyone wants the Sunday Football game to look awesome. Higher resolution, higher pixel density mean each blade of grass is visible on that touchdown replay. Still doesn't help if the Ref is blind!

What is Scaling?

Scaling is a term that often gets lumped together with DPI and Pixels and Resolution, and in some cases is used interchangeably.  Scaling should be considered a unique element. It is more a factor of how crisp an element looks at various sizes.  Ideally, something should looks as great at a large scale as it does a small scale.  Scaling can be user controlled and set to how large or small the user wants them appear.

Why do we care about all this?

For the longest time, we didn’t. First we had those back-breaking glass tube monitors, once white (now funky yellow) and bulky, taking up most of your desk and a safe haven for dust bunnies and lost pens. Then came LCD monitors quickly turning to LED monitors, lighter and larger and brighter screens!  Where once we had one dusty, smelly 15" monitors we have multiple 21"…27"…36" and usually an array of them!  And now the buzz term is 4K monitors!   I don’t know how everyone's office runs, but where I live there is a hodge-podge of monitors on everyone's desks.  Usually, we get one nice new one every few years and then we scavenge for a few more small ones, some with a few pixels or lines out (but-hey-its 24" and I borrowed it fair and square!) or we bring in some from home that were just gathering dust. (Because more monitors imply we're more productive… or cool… or nerdy)

Bottom line, our monitors are not all the same.  Many have differing resolutions and with each cool new technology jump, we're more likely to have at least one High DPI monitor at our disposal.

But isnt the Desktop PC dead?

The Desktop is just one scenario.  Others scenarios deal with the expanding world of growing and shrinking form factors. On one side of the spectrum we have laptops, tablets and even phones that can be connected to external monitors via docking stations, connection cables or wireless.  At the other end of the spectrum we have ultra large monitors (like the sweet upcoming Surface Hub) in conference rooms for presentations.  In both cases, it's rare that you connect to the monitor with the exact same DPI or resolution settings and abilities.  But, in most cases, you want your presentation to be flawless and visible, especially to the boss, and don’t want to mess around with a multitude of settings.

Still with me?

To recap - we have a variety of hardware form factors, all with their own native resolutions and specs (which may or may not be the same) and we have the ability and desire to connect this hardware to different systems.  And we want it to look good.  Or, more likely, we want it to look awesome.

That's not easy to do.

In past versions of Windows, when moving an element from one monitor to another when they have different resolutions, text may not scale correctly and look blocky or blurry and application windows may be larger or smaller than desired.  The greater the difference in resolution, the more noticeable the change in Windows elements.

Windows 10 has made several improvements on how it handles different resolutions.  But to promise that everything has been addressed is akin to saying you've counted all the stars in the sky. Bottom line, it is a very complex issue.

Improvements:

The focus for 10 was to provide a crisp and clean presentation across multiple interfaces.  It works to present content in the best scale, but allows users to adjust this if needed. (Meaning, when you install Windows 10 it will present what it thinks is the best scale - so you will see "recommended" by the default setting.)  It now handles per monitor DPI settings, meaning it reads the monitor's DPI and Resolution abilities and provides independent controls for Scaling (accessibly by right clicking on the desktop and selecting Display Settings.) 

This previously was access to resolution settings but since most monitors are automatically set at their recommended/optimal setting by default, scaling has been given preference here.

If you connect a new monitor at a later point during a Windows session, it will detect the DPI settings and adjust elements on the fly.  If a monitor is switched during a session (as in Docking or Undocking the monitor) Windows will adjust from the old to the new scale factor.  This ensures that the content doesn’t become too large or tiny to the point where its unusable and users should have a consistent experience even when changing displays.

Many element of Windows 10 were rewritten to handle changing scale and are considered fully cooked.  These include (but not limited to) the shell, taskbar, file explorer, desktop icons and context menus.  There are some elements that still need some adjustments, but these are applications that get minimal traffic.  To continue the cooking analogy - these elements are still baking and will be rolled out as they are completed via the new model of Windows milestone updates.  Windows Insiders who run preview builds will see updates sooner, but typically on a fix by fix basis.

Beyond the core Windows 10 code and built-in applications updates, there are several other things that could still effect the Windows 10 experience with scaling and multiple monitors:

Universal Windows Apps(fka Modern Apps, fka Metro Apps) automatically get the scaling for free - they should all look great.

Windows desktop applications (or as I call them, applications) are dependent on their own code.  This means that many applications may need to update their code to be multi-monitor DPI aware. (This depends on how the applications were originally written - some are easy to adjust to the new way Windows 10 handles multiple monitors and scaling, some cant handle it at all without being rewritten - as I threw out my disclaimer at the beginning - I don’t write code, but I'm told some applications may have defined widths/height of elements by hardcoding the number of pixels, in high DPI displays they would always appear small and never adjust.  Some UI elements, like pictures and icons, may be only have a low resolution image, and will need a high resolution version added to not look fuzzy or blurry)

In the end, the experience with Windows 10 core features should be very good on a variety of screens.  There may be some issues (in Windows) that aren't perfect yet, but are being worked on and updated in time. There also will be applications that may not be 100% yet. Many can be fixed and are likely being updated now.  There are a few, depending on age and usage, that may not be updated.

Now what?

Hopefully this gives you a good introduction to Windows 10 improvements for DPI and Scaling, how to adjust the scaling as needed if you use multiple monitors or switch between displays, how to identify if any issues are Windows based or application based and if it’s a DPI issue or Scaling problem.

And if you run into any issues? Detailed Feedback!  Describing DPI and Scaling issues is not easy but if you think you are running into an issue, the only way it can have a chance of getting fixed is via feedback. (and screenshots - we <3 screenshots)

Things to watch out for are:

What happens?

Does it always happen (can you make it happen on demand?)

What are the monitors in play? 

How are they connected?

Is it a specific Windows element (File Explorer, Event Viewer) or is it another Microsoft application, Office, Skype etc or is it a third party application?

Is it Large but Crisp, or Large and Blurry? (scaling is working vs not)

If it’s a Windows element use the Windows Feedback app to see if it's been reported and vote that up!

If you want more in-depth information on Windows 10 DPI and Scaling updates check out this blog post from our Product Group (posted 12/9/15):

http://blogs.technet.com/b/askcore/archive/2015/12/08/display-scaling-in-windows-10.aspx

For now check out these links:

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/dd464646(v=vs.85).aspx

http://blogs.windows.com/bloggingwindows/2013/07/15/windows-8-1-dpi-scaling-enhancements/

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn528848.aspx

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pixel

http://www.noteloop.com/kit/display/pixel-density/

Just a quick note out there on a specific issue we’ve been seeing lately. It is the really the only issue with Windows 2012 server hanging or becoming unresponsive that we’ve had up almost a year into the release of this OS.

On Windows 2012 running on HP servers that use the October 15th 2012 version of HpCISSs2.sys, those servers will run into an issue were we have an IO stall accessing the disk.  This stall happens when we hit the HpCISSs2.sys and will never recover.  The first time it happens the servers don’t actually hang but that is when the traffic jam starts to backup.  Meaning – someone can have a car accident block the highway 5 miles down the road. You wouldn’t stop moving right away but eventually you’re going to be stopped in the resulting line of traffic.

Some of the symptoms you may see is that the server will show you a grey screen instead of the logon option. You may not be able to RDP to the server but if you test ports such as 3389 135 445 with port query they will be open.  Remote WMI queries may fail. Ping will work. File shares will not be accessible.

For those familiar with the Windows debugger the driver version info is:

14: kd> lmvm
hpcisss2

start             end                 module name

    Loaded symbol image file: HpCISSs2.sys

    Image path:
\SystemRoot\System32\drivers\HpCISSs2.sys

    Image name: HpCISSs2.sys

    Timestamp:        Mon Oct 15 14:09:41 2012 (507C5165)

    CheckSum:         0002A400

    ImageSize:        00028000

    Translations:     0000.04b0 0000.04e4 0409.04b0 0409.04e4

From Microsoft diagnostics reports (MPS or MSDT) we see the file as:

STORAGE (SCSI) HPCISSS2.SYS       Hewlett-Packard Company      62.26.0.64          10/15/2012       153 KB    (156,992 bytes) Smart Array P410i Controller

Although MSinfo32 may show a different date, the version number in these cases has been 62.26.0.64:

Driver c:\windows\system32\drivers\hpcisss2.sys (62.26.0.64, 153.31 KB (156,992 bytes), 7/2/2013 12:28 AM)

Customers with this issue have  followed what HP has documented here for a separate issue involving HpCISSs2.sys on 2012.

If you have that version of the driver, are running Windows 2012 and are running into this behavior please contact HP and open a ticket with them to investigate this further.

To get conclusive data that confirms this is the issue, a Kernel Memory dump is the best route. Since Servers are typically setup for a Kernel dump by default the only change that would be required is to setup the system to generate that dump on an NMI signal:

How to generate a complete crash dump file or a kernel crash dump file by using an NMI on a Windows-based system

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/927069

Not having to get a Full memory dump and only needing a Kernel dump greatly reduces the resulting size of the dump file, which is becoming problematic when generating dumps on systems with a large amount of RAM.