Removing or repairing a Windows 8 or 10 built in app

Removing or repairing a Windows 8 or 10 built in app


From CMD you want to know what package to remove:
Mail and Calendar are called windows communication apps. The rest are easier to correlate.

C:\Program Files\WindowsApps>dir
 Volume in drive C has no label.
 Volume Serial Number is 5A4E-ED39

 Directory of C:\Program Files\WindowsApps

...
12/31/2015  07:28 AM              microsoft.windowscommunicationsapps_17.6525.42271.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe
12/31/2015  07:28 AM              microsoft.windowscommunicationsapps_2015.6525.42271.0_neutral_~_8wekyb3d8bbwe
...

               0 File(s)              0 bytes
             122 Dir(s)  50,681,364,480 bytes free


Get the names of the packages to remove


From powershell you remove it:

PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> Remove-AppxPackage microsoft.windowscommunicationsapps_17.6525.42271.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe
PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> Remove-AppxPackage microsoft.windowscommunicationsapps_2015.6525.42271.0_neutral_~_8wekyb3d8bbwe

scroogled again - I can't get chrome back on my re-imaged Toshiba laptop.

Sorry you were scroogled. The problem is that the google update uses the Visual Studio Software Deployment. When you delete or remove chrome from your newly imaged Laptop you can't get it back. I saw google update installation failed with error 0x8004071b.

I tried everything.

I cleaned the software registry, I wiped out the instances of google in appdata under the users. I wiped out all google files. I even loaded a older version of google. It appears google is trying to update to a dead update server.

The fix was to install adobe flash that asked to install google chrome and google chrome toolbar. It installed and the problem was solved on my Mom's Toshiba.

No your not crazy it is OCR online

No it isn't yet another mental condition to try to blame your crazy on someone else. This is a online optical character recognition service that can pull text from images.

http://projectnaptha.com/

This is basically a chrome extension that reads a image you see on the web or copy to clipboard and allows you to highlight text to copy.

Is loss less truly loss less?

It can be if you know how to copy you CD. The CD was designed using digital coding theory. Simply put the very nature of the CD was designed to allow you to reconstruct data over finger prints, dust, and scratches. For music and video we could tolerate some loss but for data is has to be exact. You old CDs will have oxidation and deterioration over time even if you handle it with care and rarely ever use it. The Cds from the 1980's were the worst and the quality has improved over the years. The sooner you make that copy the better.  

http://www.exactaudiocopy.de/en/

Exact Audio Copy is a so called audio grabber for audio CDs using standard CD and DVD-ROM drives. The main differences between EAC and most other audio grabbers are :

• It is free (for non-commercial purposes)
• It works with a technology, which reads audio CDs almost perfectly. If there are any errors that can’t be corrected, it will tell you on which time position the (possible) distortion occurred, so you could easily control it with e.g. the media player

With other audio grabbers you usually need to listen to every grabbed wave because they only do jitter correction. Scratched CDs read on CD-ROM drives often produce distortions. But listening to every extracted audio track is a waste of time. Exact Audio Copy conquer these problems by making use of several technologies like multi-reading with verify and AccurateRip.

Seagate Backup Plus Drive USB 3.0 Disconnects and Reconnects on Windows 8.1 upgrade - Not a Workaround

This did not work. The drive still disconnect periodically when a Western Digital USB 3.0 drive connected to the same hub does not. I'm going to try removing all data and reformatting. I had to give up on this and re-purpose the drive on a pogoplug. Nothing written below worked. I am leaving this here so you can see my steps.

I have a Seagate Backup Plus Drive 2.0TB attached to a USB 3.0 port that started disconnecting and reconnecting on it's own when connected to USB 3.0. This started after I upgraded to windows 8.1 from 8.0. If the drive is moved to a USB 2.0 port there are no issues. I suspected a power savings issue since this would happen on an interval when the drive was not in use such as video streaming or surfing photos. The drive is a full size 3.5 inch drive in a portable USB 3.0 case with it's own external AC power adapter. Power to the drive should not be an issue.

I bought a SIIG USB hub and the problem persisted when the hub was connected to the USB 3.0 port without the 4 amp power adapter that came with the SIIG hub. Once the power adapter was added the drive no longer had issues.

Hub Info:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00AAHLWA0/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

This is 3 USB3.0 ports and 4 USB 2.0 ports. I paid $28. There is a $20 coupon code that you can apply under the price. I am guessing that any externally powered USB 3.0 hub would work. This was my only windows 8 issue after upgrades to 6 machines.

Hidden Treasure or Fools Gold?

I recently ran into a little treasure when trying to completely remove Google from my machine and running into a hidden database that was locked and can't be removed without reformatting the hard drive. IObit offers free software to unlock files or directories that simply made my machine un-bootable which led to the previous article. It was locked in the same way the Windows OS locks the previous installation. I decided to use Opera browser

instead since it is almost identical under the hood to Chrome. So I started using the IOBit start menu 8. It work as expected but if you are an experienced user I caution you. You will realize you miss key features in Windows 8. Most settings are configurable and you can get back to the paneled start screen easy enough. Switching between apps from the Tiles can be a pain. The nice feature is you can turn this on and off in settings so you don't have to uninstall it if you ever want to go back. If you use Windows 8 there is no going back. There are some easy ways to enhance Windows 8 to get the best of both worlds but I will say that for the afterlife.

http://www.iobit.com/iobitstartmenu8.php

What does
Start Menu 8 do?

Start Menu 8 is specially designed for Windows 8. It offers a perfect solution for users who work with Windows Start Menu all the time and are not accustomed to the new Metro start screen in Windows 8. This smart tool brings back both the Windows 8 start button and Windows 8 Start Menu, and offers the option to skip Metro start page, allowing users who only work on desktop to boot to Windows 8 desktop directly. It's the best Windows 8 start menu replacement.

The Road to Windows 8.1 is feeling like the Baatan Death March

No disrespect intended. I believe it honors the men and women left behind when MacArthur slipped away by remembering the sacrifice and also the brutality. War crimes continue into the modern day just as we see acts of bravery and courage. Now, like WWII, is one of the turning points in US history where our freedoms are not only being challenged but being violated and it is having a global impact.

This upgrade path to windows 8.1 from Windows 7 is brutal. Is it really that different from the old service pack model. If you have a retails disk you would install and upgrade. Maybe the Window 8 line will have a similar roll-up as XP sp3. My biggest issue is all the keys. It is best to keep these keys in a file or email where they are tied together so you know what key is for what machine and for what product offering.

I started out with Windows 7 in various versions. I payed for the Windows 8.0 promotion for several machines. This was a upgrade ISO where a key is provided to upgrade windows 7 to windows 8 pro.
I was given a key via email and a receipt for my purchase from the windows store. Later I had to find an obscure link to apply to get a email that provides a media center upgrade for windows 8 which was free at the time. This media center key is the new key applied to the machine. This key will not let you do a clean install so you need to apply your first key if you run into a major issue then reapply the media center component. Then I'm guessing upgrade again. Well Microsoft has a clear end to the upgrade path. How is this going to impact people that fall along this path. If you have multiple machines for yourself or family then now is the time to buy everyone Macs. Since this is high tech on a budget maybe just let them buy their own MACs.

In reality most people get the OS with a new PC. If you are looking at this site then you already know that is a bad idea since a DIY PC should be about 50% the price of a boutique PC on the high end. On the low end with budget DIY PC the OS becomes a big percentage of the cost. So we are now in too deep and need a plan. It is always best to backup as a first option but if your anything like me backups are not as frequent as I would like and I can't remember if there is anything important I might loose. My backups tend to be more about content than disk images. This is even more important when I have so many machines to think about.

Now with windows 8.1 you can download a ISO as a upgrade only ISO from windows 8 to windows 8.1.

Here are the links:
http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msusa/html/pbPage.Help_Win7_usbdvd_dwnTool
This article spells out how to create the media:
http://winsupersite.com/windows-8/windows-81-tip-download-windows-81-iso-windows-8-product-key
In this Winsupersite article it is clear this disk is only going to help with the upgrade and not allow us to go from 7 to 8 to 8 with media center to 8.1.

This is for the purposes of a upgrade only since we don't have a retail 8.1 key at this point.
Finally microsoft's link with instructions:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/create-a-system-repair-disc


So if I have issues with windows where it won't boot or I need to repair what disk should I be using?

To create recovery drive for Windows-8, please start (open) the "Recovery Tools" in Windows-8! 

press the key combination
[Win-Logo]+[R], then simply type the command
control.exe /name Microsoft.Recovery
(... see Image1-1).  

Use one of your old small USB sticks. The stick will be formatted so save whatever you think you might need. Label it Win 8.1 Recovery as well.

In "Recovery Tools"  click the text "Create recovery drive". 

This will start the "recovery drive wizard" for Windows-8! The drive must be able to hold at least 256 MB, and everything on the drive will be deleted. You can use DVD-R/RW, CD-R/RW, USB .... 

Well the plot thickens. I ran into more issues when trying to recover from a windows 8.1 disaster after I tried to completely remove Google and all Google services from my machine. There was a hidden locked database that would not go away without formatting my hard drive. Unfortunately for me the damage was already done. The OS failed to boot and I needed to attempt a repair. To make a long story short you need the Windows 8.1 ISO. Not the recovery disk and not your windows 8.0 ISO. They all say invalid disk on any attempt to repair or even start a new install. I had to move the drive to a second PC and reover the files then reformat then install windows 8.0 then the media center key then upgrade to 8.1. I was able to get a bit torrent version of the 8.1 ISO for future recovery efforts. I would hope Microsoft makes this available to paying customers because as it stands now if you get backed into a corner there is no escape. Windows 8.1 is not a service pak. It is 3.5 GB of data that is downloaded and installed over your windows 8.0 which also requires re-installing your start screen apps.