How to remove "Office Live" Start Menu Live Tiles in Win10 1909?

Tannah

New Member
Does anyone know in Windows 10 1903, how to stop the Office Live web shortcuts from being created in the Start Menu Live Tiles? Or a way to preemptively remove them?

Its a Tile that shows up in the Start Menu Live Tiles, that has the sub tiles: Outlook which goes to Outlook.office.com, Word which goes to Word.office.com, Excel which goes to Excel.office.com, and Powerpoint which goes to Powerpoint.office.com. If your using a offline account it then redirects you to Office.Live.com.

This seems to be new to Windows 10 1903, I've looked around and I have not seen a way to remove them? Or I'm missing something obvious?
 
Mount the image and remove (or edit) the file:
\Users\Default\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\DefaultLayouts.xml

I have edited the file and removed the lines with the links.
 
NTLite can remove them if you disable sponsored apps, oem apps and other similar settings in settings page.

and u can clear startmenu by kasuals method here is clean xml file
 

Attachments

  • DefaultLayouts.xml
    503 bytes
I'm now working on Windows 10 1909 Pro x64 Clean ISO, unfortunately these solutions do not work for my use case.
In NTLite (1.8.0.7261) Pre-installed apps is disabled, and Pre-installed OEM apps is disabled. But the Office 365 apps still appear on the Live Tiles.
The \Users\Default\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\DefaultLayouts.xml path does not appear exist until after windows is installed.

If I've fully installed windows 10 I can definitely clean up the live tiles, via Powershell or many other ways. But I want to cleanup the Live Tiles in the pre-install environment, before the first login to the desktop. Without completely disabling the Live Tiles.

I've now progressed to just trying to clear all the Start Menu Live Tiles on OS install, before is hits the desktop for the first time. Been Tinkering with powershell, I get it to clear everything after OS install has logged into the desktop quite easily, But the powershell script will not take effect if I add the PS1 file to the post-setup in NTlite. I think its hitting a authentication wall that stops scripts from being run. but that's my best guess. But I'm very new to powershell scripts.

from https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/configuration/start-layout-xml-desktop
I can see that AppendOfficeSuiteChoice and AppendDownloadOfficeTile tag's were added in Windows 10, version 1803. They appear to be contained in the LayoutModification.xml file. Unfortunately I am at a loss as to how to edit these settings before windows logs in to the Desktop for the first time.

I'll attach the powershell script I put together. This script is copy and pasting from other peoples work, and not my own.
I'm hitting a wall here unfortunately. I'm pretty sure this is possible but I don't know the mechanics yet.
 

Attachments

  • crllivetiles.7z
    936 bytes
Just checked now the install.wim and it is there.

You don't need code, only put the DefaultLayouts.xml clean file in the install source instead, here:
sources\$OEM$\$1\Users\Default\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\

That will save you some bits.
 
Removing DefaultLayouts.xml works almost perfectly. Any idea how to remove Microsoft Edge, Settings and Microsoft Store* tiles.

*NTLite has option "not allow to pin MS Store" (something like that) but I don't know it can unpin this tile.
 
I know this is a few months old, but LenkaPolocka's last comment is something I was stuck on too and so it inspired me to make a full walkthrough (link) since this issue is all over the internet, and people have been looking for this solution for years.
 
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these are all old methods. now it can be changed via reg file only for w10. and +start.bin with w11
 
Menu layouts are XML, taskbar pins are reg keys. W10 exposes the user's CloudStore\cache, but it's obfuscated AF.

There's several places to enforce layouts. Default user, GPO, etc. What's not clear is the precedence order, meaning if you did all the methods which one wins. It's like rock, paper, scissors.
 
Yeah, no offence but for Windows 10 specifically (not talking win 11) the xml method is far cleaner than messing with cloudstore stuff, so I don't really agree at all that it's an "old method" or that changing it via reg files is a good option. It's far too variable to touch the cloudstore keys and won't apply to every user's setup as neatly as the xml approach does. So imo, the guide I posted is a better option, it's certainly what I would choose as a QC guy.

The benefit with the xml approach is that it is preemptive and just simply chooses to not add all the bloat, rather than removing the links and stuff later, which is what all the tools and hacky registry edits do when messing with cloudstore.

I mean, I would absolutely love to be wrong, I wish all of this was just a simple registry key that toggled a 0 and a 1 for enabled/disabled and that was the end of it, but Microsoft didn't build it that way, they chose this crappy setup instead. Maybe Crypticus is totally right and I'm just not seeing it, you'll have to spoonfeed me though. Because I've read these linked posts and I don't see what I'm supposed to see I guess?
 
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Crypticus, when you say in your Windows 11 post "StartMenuLayout Backup & Restore in Windows 11 and Windows 10(Latest Builds ONLY)" are you meaning to say that in insider builds versions of Windows 10, i.e. 22H2 which isn't released yet that there are new, better keys to address the issues? Maybe that's why I'm confused. I'm using 21H2.

Edit: to clarify more, I think where we are diverging, is that I'm trying to find methods that work for all situations, we're talking different languages, home/pro/enterprise, different Windows 10 versions, IT pros, etcetera. If you're just working on your own personal PC then the backup/restore of the cloudstore probably is okay, but I wouldn't try to globally apply any cloudstore key to different devices.
 
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I'm in agreement XML is preferred over CloudStore. Just wanted to point it's still possible to use reg editing. Much like powercfg is superior to tweaking a list of unreadable reg keys. Some features are only available in CloudStore, because layouts only cover the basics.

Like the rest of the Start Menu UI (Quick Access).
 
Nope that was written before, it applies to normal builds too not only insider. reg method is released by microsoft document too....

I think its what group policy changes.
 
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Nope that was written before, it applies to normal builds too not only insider. reg method is released by microsoft document too....
Can you provide links? You're not really being constructive, you're just saying stuff exists and that my method is old, but with no evidence.
 
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if am not wrong pl dont feel bad sad & dismissive.
If am wrong pl ignore my comment.
 
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