Can’t Remove Remnants of Some Old UWP (Microsoft Store) Apps

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Any suggestions on the best way to delete remnants of unwanted UWP (Microsoft Store) apps from the hidden and protected C:\Programs Files\WindowsApps folder without having to take ownership (something I prefer not to do) and/or leaving behind orphaned entries in my Windows registry? Please note that I’m a complete novice when I comes to using PowerShell.

For example, I have a Standard (local) user account that I rarely use and decided to log in this week and uninstall several unwanted UWP apps associated with that account. I successfully removed most of those apps from the Windows Apps tab of Revo Uninstaller Free and then used the O&O AppBuster utility (which I was very impressed with) mentioned in PKCano’s 21-Jun-2021 Removing Built-in Apps from Win10 to find and remove 4 or 5 additional apps that weren’t detected by Revo Uninstaller Free.

However, I still have remnants of a few older apps at C:\Programs Files\WindowsApps that either seem to be tightly integrated with my Win 10 operating system (e.g., Phone Link – previously known as Your Phone per the 01-Apr-2022 ghacks.net article How to Uninstall Phone Link on Windows Devices) or just seem to ignore any PowerShell command I run to try and remove them.  I can’t figure out how to get rid of these stray folders short of deleting them with TreeSize Free because:

• They are not detected by Revo Uninstaller Free
• They are not detected by O&O AppBuster
• They are not listed when I run the command Get-AppxPackage | ft name, PackageFullName -AutoSize from a PowerShell console with Administrator rights

For example, here’s a screenshot from TreeSize Free showing I have a relatively large 256 MB remnant of an old Phone Link v1.20092.123.0 app (last modified 24-Aug-2022) in C:\Programs Files\WindowsApps …

… but when I run commands like Get-AppxPackage *Microsoft.YourPhone* | Remove-AppxPackage or Remove-AppxPackage -Package Microsoft.YourPhone_1.20092.123.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe -AllUsers from a PowerShell console with Administrator rights those commands don’t appear to have any effect at all.

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Dell Inspiron 5584 * 64-bit Win 10 Pro v22H2 build 19045.2846 * Firefox v112.0.2 * Microsoft Defender v4.18.2303.8-1.1.20200.4 * Malwarebytes Premium v4.5.27.262-1.0.1991 * Macrium Reflect Free v8.0.7279 * Revo Uninstaller Free Portable v2.4.4 * O&O AppBuster v1.3.1343 * TreeSize Free Portable v4.6.3

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Try this, maybe it will work:
Download the .txt file from the second post in Removing Built-in Apps from Win10.
Use *Microsoft.YourPhone*
In Admin PowerShell, run the two PowerShell commands to remove the app for current user and allusers but take the -allusers off the end of the latter.
In an Elevated Command Prompt, run the command to remove the app with the /online switch. (It’s actually a PowerShell command run in the Command Prompt. I never could make it work in PowerShell. Not my forte) This deprovisions the app and may? remove traces. I

There is a separate section in the .txt file for PowerShell and Command Prompt.

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lmacri

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You may want to try using Dism++10.1.1002.1B found here:
https://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/dism.html

I used Download (ZIP) and extracted the files.

Bring up the selection Appxs for both User Appx and Provisioned Appc.

Shown below is Provisioned Appx.

Remove the Provisioned Appx you wish to remove.
Don’t remove anything you don’t understand.
Don’t remove Microsoft Store.

Remove the User Appx you wish to remove.
Don’t remove anything you don’t understand.
Don’t remove Microsoft Store.

On permanent hiatus {with backup and coffee}
offline▸ Win10Pro 2004.19041.572 x64 i3-3220 RAM8GB HDD Firefox83.0b3 WindowsDefender
offline▸ Acer TravelMate P215-52 RAM8GB Win11Pro 22H2.22621.1265 x64 i5-10210U SSD Firefox106.0 MicrosoftDefender
online▸ Win11Pro 22H2.22621.1992 x64 i5-9400 RAM16GB HDD Firefox116.0b3 MicrosoftDefender

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TechTango, lmacri

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geekdom wrote:

You may want to try using Dism++10.1.1002.1B found here: https://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/dism.html

Hi geekdom:

I had partial success with Dism++ Portable v10.1.1002.1. It was able to remove the two smaller remnants of Phone Link v1.23022.140.0 (last modified 21-Apr-2023) …

… so now I’m just left with that one large ~ 260 MB remnant of the older Phone Link v1.20092.123.0 (last modified 24-Aug-2022) in C:\Programs Files\WindowsApps.

Tomorrow I’ll clean up as many remnants of my unwanted apps as possible with Dism++ and then tackle what’s left over with PKCano’s PowerShell commands. I’m going to take my time since I’m a PowerShell novice so it might take me a day or two to post back with a status update.

Thanks again for suggesting Dism++. I’ve heard of this utility (it apparently can still be used to patch clean reinstalls of Vista SP2 back to end of support on 11-Apr-2017 even though Microsoft deactivated the Microsft Update servers for Win XP and Vista on 03-Aug-2020 – see SIW2’s 02-Dec-2021 instructions <here> in the VistaForums) but I had no idea it was able to uninstall UWP apps. I’ll have to take a closer look at this utility and see what else it can do.
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Dell Inspiron 5584 * 64-bit Win 10 Pro v22H2 build 19045.2846 * Firefox v112.0.2 * Microsoft Defender v4.18.2303.8-1.1.20200.4 * Malwarebytes Premium v4.5.27.262-1.0.1991 * Macrium Reflect Free v8.0.7279 * Revo Uninstaller Free Portable v2.4.4 * O&O AppBuster v1.3.1343 * TreeSize Free Portable v4.6.3 * Dism++ Portable v10.1.1002.1

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TechTango, geekdom

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Here are Microsoft’s built-in provisioned apps along with their package names:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/application-management/provisioned-apps-windows-client-os

On permanent hiatus {with backup and coffee}
offline▸ Win10Pro 2004.19041.572 x64 i3-3220 RAM8GB HDD Firefox83.0b3 WindowsDefender
offline▸ Acer TravelMate P215-52 RAM8GB Win11Pro 22H2.22621.1265 x64 i5-10210U SSD Firefox106.0 MicrosoftDefender
online▸ Win11Pro 22H2.22621.1992 x64 i5-9400 RAM16GB HDD Firefox116.0b3 MicrosoftDefender

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lmacri

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geekdom wrote:

You may want to try using Dism++10.1.1002.1B found here: https://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/dism.html …

Hi geekdom:

Thanks for the link to the MS Learn article Provisioned Apps Installed With the Windows Client OS – lots of good info there. At least I know what a provisioned app is now.  🙂

I completed my cleanup with Dism++ Portable v10.1.1002.1 and it was able to remove ~ 20 of the stray folders in C:\Program Files\WindowsApps that were not detected by Revo Uninstaller Free (Windows Apps tab) or O&O AppBuster.  Dism++ did have problems with the remnants of three apps – namely Intel Graphics Control Panel v3.3.0.0, Dell (Rivet) SmartByte 3.1.1001.0 and Dell SupportAssist for PCs 3.13.7.0. I believe all these remnants were owned by SYSTEM and using 0 bytes.

For example, here’s what I saw when I tried to remove Intel Graphics Control Panel v3.3.0.0 from the Provisioned Appx tab …

… and what I saw when I tried to remove remnants of that same app from the User Appx tab.

The good news is that all three apps were listed when I ran the command Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers | Select Name, PackageFullName from a PowerShell console with Administrator rights, and I was able to delete these remnants with the following commands using the full package name as instructed in Option 9 of Brink’s TenForum’s tutorial Uninstall Apps in Windows 10:

remove-appxpackage -AllUsers AppUp.IntelGraphicsControlPanel_3.3.0.0_x64__8j3eq9eme6ctt

remove-appxpackage -AllUsers RivetNetworks.SmartByte_3.1.1001.0_x64__rh07ty8m5nkag

remove-appxpackage -AllUsers DellInc.DellSupportAssistforPCs_3.13.7.0_x64__htrsf667h5kn2

Those PowerShell commands removed the last remnants of those apps from C:\Program Files\WindowsApps and they are no longer detected by Dism++.

I still have a few stubborn remnants (including that annoying ~260 MB folder for MS Phone Links v1.20092.123.0) that I can’t seem to get rid of with any of the PowerShell commands I’ve tried so far but I’ll post back about that later in a separate reply.
——————-
Dell Inspiron 5584 * 64-bit Win 10 Pro v22H2 build 19045.2846 * Firefox v112.0.2 * Microsoft Defender v4.18.2303.8-1.1.20200.4 * Malwarebytes Premium v4.5.27.262-1.0.1991 * Macrium Reflect Free v8.0.7279 * Revo Uninstaller Free Portable v2.4.4 * O&O AppBuster v1.3.1343 * TreeSize Free Portable v4.6.3 * Dism++ Portable v10.1.1002.1

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PKCano wrote:

Download the .txt file from the second post in Removing Built-in Apps from Win10. Use *Microsoft.YourPhone* …There is a separate section in the .txt file for PowerShell and Command Prompt.

Hi PKCano:

As I noted in today’s post # 2555198, there are still quite a few remnants of uninstalled apps in C:\Program Files\WindowsApps (who knew Dell SupportAssist was leaving behind that much garbage every time it was updated 🙂 ) that:

• Are not detected by Revo Uninstaller Free (Windows Apps tab), O&O AppBuster or Dism++
• Are not listed when I run the command Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers | Select Name, PackageFullName from a PowerShell console with Administrator rights
• Are not listed when I run the command Get-AppxProvisionedPackage -Online | Format-Table DisplayName, PackageName from a PowerShell console with Administrator rights
  

Most of these orphaned folders are only taking up a few MBs of disk space so I’m not too concerned about them, but I would still like to get rid of that annoying ~260 MB folder for MS Phone Link v1.20092.123.0 (last modified 24-Aug-2022). From TreeSize Free:

I ran all the PowerShell and Command Prompts commands you suggested for Microsoft.YourPhone in your Complete-AppRemoval-List.txt file that was attached to post # 2372696 of your topic Removing Built-in Apps from Win10 2004/20H2/21H1. There were no errors (I tried one PowerShell command with and without the -allusers switch as you suggested) …

… but TreeSize Free confirms the Microsoft.YourPhone folder in C:\Program Files\WindowsApps was not deleted.

I also tried running the following PowerShell command using what I assume is the full package name (based on the folder name) with the following command but that didn’t have any effect either.

remove-appxpackage -AllUsers Microsoft.YourPhone_1.20092.123.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe

I think the fact that the PowerShell command Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers | Select Name, PackageFullName no longer detects any entries related to Microsoft.YourPhone means that any “Remove-AppxPackage” PowerShell command I try to run won’t have any effect now. Unless you have another suggestion I think I’ll just leave that C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\Microsoft.YourPhone_1.20092.123.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe folder as it is or take the plunge and manually delete it with TreeSize Free.
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Dell Inspiron 5584 * 64-bit Win 10 Pro v22H2 build 19045.2846 * Firefox v112.0.2 * Microsoft Defender v4.18.2303.8-1.1.20200.4 * Malwarebytes Premium v4.5.27.262-1.0.1991 * Macrium Reflect Free v8.0.7279 * Revo Uninstaller Free Portable v2.4.4 * O&O AppBuster v1.3.1343 * TreeSize Free Portable v4.6.3 * Dism++ Portable v10.1.1002.1

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