Windows 10: Turn Off Automatic Installation of Suggested Apps in Windows 10

How to: Turn Off Automatic Installation of Suggested Apps in Windows 10

How to Turn On or Off Automatically Installing Suggested Apps in Windows 10


Information Starting with Windows 10 version 1607 Anniversary Update, Windows will silently automatically download and install suggested apps like Age of Empires: Castle Siege, Asphalt 8: Airborne, Candy Crush Soda Saga, FarmVille2: Country Escape, Flipboard, Minecraft: Windows 10 edition, Netflix, Pandora, Twitter, World of Tanks: Blitz, etc... from the Windows Store without any confirmation by default.

This will happen to both local accounts and Microsoft accounts on the PC while connected to the Internet.

This tutorial will show you how to turn on or off automatically installing suggested apps for your account in Windows 10.



Note This will not uninstall suggested apps that were already automatically installed. You will still need to manually uninstall them.

This will not remove suggested apps pinned to Start. You will still need to manually unpin them.


EXAMPLE: Suggested apps on Start





Here's How:


Note The .reg files below will modify the DWORD value in the registry key below.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ContentDeliveryManager

SilentInstalledAppsEnabled DWORD

0 = Disable
1 = Enable



1. Do step 2 (enable) or step 3 (disable) below for what you would like to do.


2. To Enable Automatically Installing Suggested Apps
NOTE: This is the default setting.
A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the file below, and go to step 4 below.

Enable_automatically_installating_suggested_apps.reg

Download

3. To Disable Automatically Installing Suggested Apps
A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the file below, and go to step 4 below.

Disable_automatically_installating_suggested_apps.reg

Download
4. Save the .reg file to your desktop.

5. Double click/tap on the downloaded .reg file to merge it.

6. If prompted, click/tap on Run, Yes (UAC), Yes, and OK to approve the merge.

7. If you like, you can delete the downloaded .reg file if you like.


That's it,
Shawn


Related Tutorials

• How to Turn On or Off Showing App Suggestions on Start in Windows 10
• How to Enable or Disable App Suggestions on Start in Windows 10
• How to Turn On or Off Automatic Download and Install of App Updates by Store in Windows 10
• How to Uninstall Desktop and Windows Apps in Windows 10
• How to Turn On or Off App Suggestions in Share flyout in Windows 10

:)

 

Automatic installation of Candy Crush, Micky Mouse and other useless garbage; KNOCK IT OFF, MICROSOFT!

Hello AKMC,

These would be suggested apps that are automatically getting installed.

You can use the method in the tutorial below to turn off the automatic installation of these suggested apps. However, you will still have to uninstall any suggested apps that were already installed.

Turn Off Automatic Installation of Suggested Apps in Windows 10

 

Windows apps auto install

Hello Joseph,

You can use the method in the tutorial below to turn off the automatic installation of suggested apps in Windows 10. Unfortunately, you will still need to uninstall any apps already installed.

Turn Off Automatic Installation of Suggested Apps in Windows 10

 

Hello SmileyPK, *Smile

Nope. It's a different setting in the tutorial.

The group policy you mentioned can only be used in the Enterprise and Education editions of Windows 10.

 

Yes, but are they the same? Let's ignore the different Windows 10 editions.

Is this setting doing the exact same thing as the Group Policy I mentioned (just that it also works on Home edition), or is it different?

If it's different, how so? What specifically does the "Consumer Experience" Group Policy control, and what does the registry key in this tutorial specifically control?

 

The SilentInstalledAppsEnabled DWORD from the tutorial is specifically for automatically installing suggested apps for only your account.

The only thing I can tell you about the policy you posted about is what it states in the quote below. It basically does the same via policy for all users, but it's no longer a viable option. You would need to use what's in the tutorial now unless you have an Enterprise or Education edition installed.

See: App Suggestions on Start - Enable or Disable in Windows 10 - Windows 10 Forums


(Registry setting)
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\CloudContent

DisableWindowsConsumerFeatures DWORD

(delete) = default
1 = Enabled (policy)

 

I see. Hopefully, someone will see this tutorial and can tell us what these two policies do.

 

Both tutorials will show you what they do. *Wink

 

I disagree. The descriptions in the tutorials have not described precisely what each policy controls and how (and if) they control different things.

 

They don't give you the exact specific details since that would be impractical, but they do tell you generally what they do.

This tutorial is only for automatically installing suggested apps.

The other tutorial is to enable/disable suggested apps completely, which would also include the above.

 

What Brink says makes perfectly sense to me. *Smile

In fact, the DisableWindowsConsumerFeatures way of proceding is not available on Home and Pro editions, as if the idea of having full control over such features should be reserved to enterprises and/or other institutions (ref. Enterprise and Education editions). For these kind of organisations it seems reasonable assuming that they may wish to reserve to their administrators the choice of making certain options at all available to their final users (according to company policies of course).

For the rest of the world Automatic Install is set by default, but an average user (like myself) does not have a really handy option to opt out or back in, should he or she change his o her mind, and t is thank to this tutorial if everyone can freely decide whether to be submerged by a tidal wave of unwanted apps or not.

I would add how grateful I am to Brink, considering that, before getting here (as per his suggestion at #296), I got very frustrated by seeing a full army of Windows apps re-installing themselves after a Clean Installation of version 1703 (Creators Update) and despite having thoroughly uninstalled them as per his other great tutorial Uninstall Apps in Windows 10.

Thank you again, Shawn ! *Biggrin

 

I'm glad it could help Lamberto. *Smile

 

I would like to add this does not work currently under creators update.

I tried a variety of ways of doing it, (Setup w/ Internet, Setup w/o Internet, updates for other apps on/off) and it continued to install the apps regardless.

 

Hello, and welcome to Ten Forums. *Smile

It's currently still working for me in build 16275.

The main thing is that if the suggested app is already installed, this will not help for it. You'll have to manually uninstall the app to remove it.

 

Try this (run CMD and copy/paste):
Code: reg add "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ContentDeliveryManager" /v "ContentDeliveryAllowed" /t REG_DWORD /d "0" /f reg add "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ContentDeliveryManager" /v "OemPreInstalledAppsEnabled" /t REG_DWORD /d "0" /f reg add "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ContentDeliveryManager" /v "PreInstalledAppsEnabled" /t REG_DWORD /d "0" /f reg add "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ContentDeliveryManager" /v "PreInstalledAppsEverEnabled" /t REG_DWORD /d "0" /f reg add "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ContentDeliveryManager" /v "SilentInstalledAppsEnabled" /t REG_DWORD /d "0" /f reg add "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ContentDeliveryManager" /v "SoftLandingEnabled" /t REG_DWORD /d "0" /f reg add "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ContentDeliveryManager" /v "SubscribedContentEnabled" /t REG_DWORD /d "0" /f reg delete "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ContentDeliveryManager\Subscriptions" /f reg delete "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ContentDeliveryManager\SuggestedApps" /f[/quote]