Whitelisted package exclusion (foreach-notlike) with Get-AppxPackage/Remove-AppxPackage

user_16330115 0
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This PowerShell script should uninstall all Windows 11/10 bloatware, except $WhitelistedApps, When I run the script on a VM, it tries to uninstall all bloatware, even $WhitelistedApps!

This is a waste of time, the script will try to uninstall WhitelistedApps, but they are already NonRemovable, so I want to exclude them.

Please, Tell me: What's wrong with the code?, and how can it be corrected?

I suspicious of the way i used -NotLike, or maybe the way of quotation marks "" that have package names.

$WhitelistedApps = @(
        "1527c705-839a-4832-9118-54d4Bd6a0c89"
        "E2A4F912-2574-4A75-9BB0-0D023378592B"
        "F46D4000-FD22-4DB4-AC8E-4E1DDDE828FE"
        "Microsoft.AAD.BrokerPlugin"
        "Microsoft.AccountsControl"
        "Microsoft.AsyncTextService"
        "Microsoft.BioEnrollment"
        "Microsoft.CredDialogHost"
        "Microsoft.ECApp"
        "Microsoft.LockApp"
        "Microsoft.MicrosoftEdge"
        "Microsoft.MicrosoftEdgeDevToolsClient"
        "Microsoft.PPIProjection"
        "Microsoft.Win32WebViewHost"
        "Microsoft.Windows.Apprep.ChxApp"
        "Microsoft.Windows.AssignedAccessLockApp"
        "Microsoft.Windows.CallingShellApp"
        "Microsoft.Windows.CapturePicker"
        "Microsoft.Windows.CloudExperienceHost"
        "Microsoft.Windows.ContentDeliveryManager"
        "Microsoft.Windows.Cortana"
        "Microsoft.Windows.NarratorQuickStart"
        "Microsoft.Windows.OOBENetworkCaptivePortal"
        "Microsoft.Windows.OOBENetworkConnectionFlow"
        "Microsoft.Windows.ParentalControls"
        "Microsoft.Windows.PeopleExperienceHost"
        "Microsoft.Windows.PinningConfirmationDialog"
        "Microsoft.Windows.Search"
        "Microsoft.Windows.SecHealthUI"
        "Microsoft.Windows.SecondaryTileExperience"
        "Microsoft.Windows.SecureAssessmentBrowser"
        "Microsoft.Windows.ShellExperienceHost"
        "Microsoft.Windows.StartMenuExperienceHost"
        "Microsoft.Windows.XGpuEjectDialog"
        "Microsoft.XboxGameCallableUI"
        "MicrosoftWindows.Client.CBS"
        "MicrosoftWindows.UndockedDevKit"
        "NcsiUwpApp"
        "Windows.CBSPreview"
        "Windows.ContactSupport"
        "Windows.MiracastView"
        "Windows.PrintDialog"
        "c5e2524a-ea46-4f67-841f-6a9465d9d515"
        "windows.immersivecontrolpanel"
)
    
    foreach ($App in $WhitelistedApps) {    
    Get-AppxPackage | Where-Object {$_.Name -NotLike $App} | Remove-AppxPackage
    }
}
powershell
1 Answers

My bad on my last comment, I didn't see the foreach statement on your code hence why recommended to use the -notin operator instead of -NotLike.

The easiest approach in this case would be to remove the foreach loop and just change the operator for -notin as suggested:

Get-AppxPackage | Where-Object {$_.Name -notin $WhitelistedApps} | Remove-AppxPackage

To explain what is wrong with your code, first of all, you are running Get-AppxPackage a total of 44 times (the number of elements on the $WhitelistedApps array) and since you're looping over this array, the condition:

Where-Object {$_.Name -NotLike $App}

Will return those packages you don't want to remove, a total of 43 times. This can be tested by following this example:

  • Run the loop without Remove-AppxPackage:
$apps = foreach($App in $WhitelistedApps)
{
    Get-AppxPackage | Where-Object {$_.Name -NotLike $App}
}
  • Filter the result $apps array by those elements found on $WhitelistedApps and then group them by Name:
$apps.Where({$_.Name -in $WhitelistedApps}) | Group-Object Name

Result should be something like this:

Count Name                      Group                                                                                                                               
----- ----                      -----                                                                                                                               
   43 windows.immersivecontr... {windows.immersivecontrolpanel_10.0.2.1000_neutral_neutral_cw5n1h2txyewy, windows.immersivecontrolpanel_10.0.2.1000_neutral_neutr...
   43 Windows.PrintDialog       {Windows.PrintDialog_6.2.1.0_neutral_neutral_cw5n1h2txyewy, Windows.PrintDialog_6.2.1.0_neutral_neutral_cw5n1h2txyewy, Windows.Pr...
   43 Microsoft.BioEnrollment   {Microsoft.BioEnrollment_10.0.19041.1023_neutral__cw5n1h2txyewy, Microsoft.BioEnrollment_10.0.19041.1023_neutral__cw5n1h2txyewy, ...
   43 Microsoft.Windows.OOBE... {Microsoft.Windows.OOBENetworkConnectionFlow_10.0.19041.1023_neutral__cw5n1h2txyewy, Microsoft.Windows.OOBENetworkConnectionFlow_...
   43 Microsoft.AAD.BrokerPl... {Microsoft.AAD.BrokerPlugin_1000.19041.1023.0_neutral_neutral_cw5n1h2txyewy, Microsoft.AAD.BrokerPlugin_1000.19041.1023.0_neutral...
   43 Microsoft.Windows.OOBE... {Microsoft.Windows.OOBENetworkCaptivePortal_10.0.19041.1023_neutral__cw5n1h2txyewy, Microsoft.Windows.OOBENetworkCaptivePortal_10.
...
...

If you wanted to use a foreach loop to filter the Packages that don't exist on the $WhitelistedApps array, the code should look like this (note that, instead of looping over $WhitelistedApps, we're looping over the Packages just one time):

foreach($App in Get-AppxPackage)
{
    if($App.Name -notin $WhitelistedApps)
    {
        $App
    }
}
user_153395440
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