Getting rid of Metro Apps

Hi

I use the excellent Classic Shell on windows 8.1 and love it !

Unfortunately, every now and then Apps try to open files when i double click them.

Also the annoying metro "Start screen" is taking over my desktop from time to time.

I'd like to know if/how to remove all traces of Metro Apps from my environment.

Any advice ?

Thanks !

Not sure if you can ...

I'm unsure if you can remove all of them. However go to the Start Screen and right-click on each and click on uninstall. The pre-installed one's like Mail, Store, Internet Explorer, etc. may not be able to be uninstalled. Either way, I'd atleast leave the Windows Store one alone. Just like it was needed to get Windows 8.1 from Windows 8, it'll probably be needed for future versions of Windows.

mpoirier said:

Hi

I use the excellent Classic Shell on windows 8.1 and love it !

Unfortunately, every now and then Apps try to open files when i double click them.

Also the annoying metro "Start screen" is taking over my desktop from time to time.

I'd like to know if/how to remove all traces of Metro Apps from my environment.

Any advice ?

Thanks !

Click to expand...

When you run into a file that an APP opens, just change the default program for that extension to a desktop program that works with that kind of file. There's other ways to do that but this one is easiest.

OK.

I just did this.
I uninstalled all the apps I didn't want in the All Apps screen.

Then I went to Program files in Explorer.
In the View tab I selected Show hidden files.
I right clicked Windows Apps & took Ownership of it.
(The CMD window will disappear when it is done.)

To take Ownership:

http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/2814-take-ownership-add-context-menu-windows-8-a.html

********************************************************

(In Folder options I checked use check boxes for multiple selections.)
A picture:



*********************************************************

After taking Ownership of the Windows Apps folder I clicked on it to show the contents.
A picture:



I clicked the Name check box to choose them all.

I then read them carefully one by one & deselected those I wanted to keep.

Then in the Home tab I clicked Delete.
A picture:



It proceeded to delete them.
A picture:



That's it.

David Bailey said:

OK.

I just did this.
.
.
.

That's it.

Click to expand...

Yikes! Are you sure this is a proper way to remove apps? It looks like the equivalent of deleting your "program files" directory to get rid of desktop applications. This would leave behind tons of orphaned shards in the registry, dead end links on the desktop and useless dll files elsewhere on the disk.

For anyone who wants to try this, I would suggest a full backup first. Deleting 17k files at once seems ill advised.

Even if you uninstalled or deleted all the APPs you'd have to set default program to open particular type of file as it would loose those settings. You'll have a bunch of "Unknown Type" icons all over the place.

mikeytg said:

Yikes! Are you sure this is a proper way to remove apps? It looks like the equivalent of deleting your "program files" directory to get rid of desktop applications. This would leave behind tons of orphaned shards in the registry, dead end links on the desktop and useless dll files elsewhere on the disk.

For anyone who wants to try this, I would suggest a full backup first. Deleting 17k files at once seems ill advised.

Click to expand...

I use Macrium Reflect to make a full backup of all local drives.

When you click the big red X to delete the Apps they go to the Recycle Bin.

You can always put them back if problems arise.

After deleting them I had no problems except I had to reinstall a couple of Apps that quit working.

I used CCleaner to clean up the registry.
I thought there would be a bunch of issues but there were only about 6.

I ran the DISM & sfc commands & there were no problems found.

After emptying the Recycle Bin & all but the latest restore point, I had gained 5 or 6 GBs of free space.

When I posted, I assumed people would have enough common sense to make a system backup first.
& not to empty the Recycle Bin until they were sure they wanted to keep the changes.

I think some Apps can't be deleted.
Or they are hidden system files.

For example the Store & Skydrive & Camera were not in the list.
They were still there after (on the Start window) after I deleted all the others.

I was bold enough to delete them because I had a full image backup ready to go.
But I don't have any problems.

I could have used Revo Uninstaller Pro to uninstall them:



It searches for left over bits & removes them.
That would have taken hours.

There is a free version of it.

In general, just deleting things is not a good idea.

& I had no useless icons all over the place.