Can I uninstall the Windows App Store from Windows 8.1?

Question

I was tasked with removing viruses from a brand new Acer laptop. In my (and the owner of the laptop) bloatware definition includes all preinstalled applications and Winstore itself. You may not agree with this, but this is not relevant.

I tried the remove-appxpackage Powershell remove-appxpackage with Winstore ID and received an error, the important part of which is

This application is part of Windows and cannot be uninstalled for each user. An administrator can try to remove an application from a computer by turning Windows features on or off. However, the application cannot be uninstalled.

I have not seen such an option in the Windows Features menu. Can I remove Winstore from Win8.1?

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Here's the full error message (for reference):

  remove-appxpackage: Deployment failed with HRESULT: 0x80073CFA, Removal failed.  Please contact your software vendor.
 (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80073CFA)
 error 0x80070032: AppX Deployment Remove operation on package winstore_1.0.0.0_neutral_neutral_cw5n1h2txyewy from:
 C: \ Windows \ WinStore failed.  This app is part of Windows and cannot be uninstalled on a per-user basis.  An
 administrator can attempt to remove the app from the computer using Turn Windows Features on or off.  However, it may
 not be possible to uninstall the app.
 NOTE: For additional information, look for [ActivityId] 83cee5eb-80ef-0001-3bc1-cf83ef80d001 in the Event Log or use
 the command line Get-AppxLog -ActivityID 83cee5eb-80ef-0001-3bc1-cf83ef80d001
 At line: 1 char: 1
 + remove-appxpackage winstore_1.0.0.0_neutral_neutral_cw5n1h2txyewy -confirm
 + ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
     + CategoryInfo: WriteError: (winstore_1.0.0 .... l_cw5n1h2txyewy: String) [Remove-AppxPackage], IOException
     + FullyQualifiedErrorId: DeploymentError, Microsoft.Windows.Appx.PackageManager.Commands.RemoveAppxPackageCommand

Answer 1

I am sure that you have understood this so far, but, seeing that you did not ask this question, mark the correct answer, I give you two cents.

First stop the service with the name:

• Go to services
• Find the called service: Display name: Windows Storage Service (WSService)
• Run "remove-appxpackage Winstore ID"

This should remove the application, but only after stopping the service. If you cannot find the service in the Services, find it in the registry. Registry Name: Service Name (Registry): WSService

Let me know if this helps you in a year and a half. In the future, see all applications that use services that are likely to need the service to stop before uninstalling.

Underdog

Answer 2

You should be able to remove Winstore in the context of the machine, not the user (as implied by the error message). I successfully performed the removal of Group Policy (which also insists that it is part of Windows) using the Task Scheduler task (works like LOCALSYSTEM) to stop the service and then delete it.

Since Winstore is a Windows service, this solution should work for you.