Note: New article on Default App Optimization for VDI posted that includes the Anniversary (Build 1607) and Creator (Build 1703) updates. This post is only for the original (Build 1511) release.
And we all know from Windows 7, optimization guides for VDI made a substantial, positive impact on server density, but will the same hold true for Windows 10?
As part of the practice of optimizing a Windows 10 image, we also must remember one of our XenApp best practices:
XenApp Best Practice #2: For the best combination of user experience and resource consumption, optimize appropriately
The first part to Windows 10 optimization is to look at all of the “free” apps we get with a fresh installation. I just installed a fresh copy of Windows 10 Enterprise and there are well over 50 applications already in my start menu, many of these are the system apps that we definitely want to keep like PowerShell and Command Prompt, but what about 3D builder, Bing Finance, Get Started, etc?
So, look at the Windows 10 list of default apps by running the following PowerShell command:
“Get-ProvisionedAppXPackage -Online|Select DisplayName”
The applications listed will be provisioned to each and every user that logs on with this image.
What to keep and what to cut? And will it make a difference in terms of user experience and server density? If the app isn’t used, leaving it on the system won’t hurt, or will it? Look at Task Manager
As you can see, I’ve never started the Weather app, but it has consumed some resources (albeit, very small). And what happens if the user starts the app? They will consume even more. So what do you cut?
First, let’s remove the easy ones. These are the apps that we have no good reason why a user would run this application at work and/or doing so would significantly impact server resources:
- Microsoft.3DBuilder
- Microsoft.Getstarted
- Microsoft.MicrosoftOfficeHub
- Microsoft.MicrosoftSolitaireCollection
- Microsoft.People
- Microsoft.SkypeApp
- Microsoft.WindowsCommunicationsApps (Mail & Calendar)
- Microsoft.XboxApp
- Microsoft.ZuneMusic
- Microsoft.ZuneVideo
That still leaves us with quite a few more apps. And for each one, you have to decide if you want users to have this app or not. And if you believe that removing the Bing Sports app will prevent users from checking on their latest sports teams, you are sadly mistaken; they still have a web browser. So for this list of apps, the decision is yours:
- Microsoft.BingFinance
- Microsoft.BingNews
- Microsoft.BingSports
- Microsoft.BingWeather
- Microsoft.Office.OneNote
- Microsoft.Windows.Photos
- Microsoft.WindowsCamera
- Microsoft.WindowsMaps
- Microsoft.WindowsPhone
- Microsoft.WindowsSoundRecorder
And finally, for the apps you should keep, our list grows quite short:
- Microsoft.Appconnector
- Microsoft.WindowsAlarms
- Microsoft.WindowsCalculator
Seriously, do you really want to remove the calculator? BTW, if you haven’t looked at Calculator in Windows 10 yet, do so. Microsoft added a lot of functionality to the app. Now I can quickly tell you that 100 centimeters per second equals 2.237136 miles per hour, or almost equal to 1 meter per second, 1.94 knots, 3.28 feet per second or 11.19 turtles 🙂
So removing these apps will only help server density if they are used, but then removing an app that is used will hurt the user experience.
For the best combination of user experience and resource consumption, optimize appropriately
Note: The complete Windows 10 optimization blog series
Daniel (Follow @djfeller)
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I like this blog series except for one thing. In the above you recommend cutting some applications to be provisioned. What you don’t do is say how to remove those applications or point in a good direction on how to do that. Your blog is great but only half done….
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100 centimetres per second is “almost equal” to 1 meter per second..? I’m not sure this new calculator is all it’s cracked up to be! ;P
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Haaa, you the only one to catch that. Guess people don’t understand the metric system.
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Ha! When you say “people” I think you mean “Americans”… Here in the Rest Of The World, we all use metric: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metric_system#/media/File:Metric_system_adoption_map.svg
Btw thanks for these blog posts 🙂 Presumably many of these would also apply to Server 2016 VDAs.
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How can I re-install the default windows 10 apps. A user now needs a few of them back.
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[…] Windows 10 was initially released, I developed a set of optimizations and showed how OS changes can improve the overall logon […]
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I’ve found a way to do this in powershell. It goes as follows:
“So I had this same issue today and found that with DISM, it can be removed:
to get a list of installed packages:
dism /online /get-provisionedappxpackages | select-string packagename
then for each packagename, you can remove them as such:
dism /online /remove-provisionedappxpackage /packagename:Microsoft.XboxApp_2017.113.1250.0_neutral_~_8wekybb3d8wbbe
etc etc.
so basically
dism /online /remove-provisionedappxpackage /packagename:(insert packagename here)”
This information was taken from:
https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windows/en-US/4b1d1efd-79ca-43a1-bb43-d95cad81dd73/how-to-remove-microsoftxboxgamecallableui-appxpackage?forum=ws2016
So far it works for me
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