Tag: Microsoft Store

Block Windows Store, Xbox, Solitaire, or Any Built-In App with Group Policy

Remove-AppxPackage disappears the next time provisioning runs the OS image; the right tool for keeping consumer UWP apps (Microsoft Store, Xbox, Solitaire, Mixed Reality Portal) off business endpoints is AppLocker Packaged app Rules pushed by Group Policy. Walks the full GPO end-to-end: create + link a new GPO at the OU/domain root, configure the Application Identity service to start automatically (AppLocker's hard dependency), import a 132-rule AppLocker baseline XML, scope the rules with either publisher exceptions on broad Allow rules or explicit per-package Deny rules, switch enforcement mode from Audit-only to Enforce rules, gpupdate, verify on a domain-joined client (Application Identity running, Microsoft Store / Xbox / Solitaire all hit 'This app has been blocked by your system administrator'). Includes the SKU gotcha (AppLocker only enforces on Enterprise / Education, not Pro / Home), the audit-only safety net, the AppLocker event-log IDs (8020 = blocked, 8021 = would-be-blocked) for reporting, and the local-admin-bypass test trap.