WinRice v0.4 - August 2021 Release

Last edited on 18th October, 2021 at 21:53 IST.

Fixes

• Windows 11: Fixed Windows Update policies not configured.
• Windows 11: Fixed incorrect OS detection.
• Windows 11: More misc. issues I don't intend to recall and list.
• Fixed an issue where sometimes optional features might not uninstall.

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Changelog

General

CleanWin is now WinRice! ❤️

• Documentation has been vastly updated and moved to the doc folder.

• Added new Issue templates to file bug reports, suggest features, or file an issue with documentation.

• Added support for PowerShell 7.

• Added PE (pre-execution environment) where the program checks if updated criteria is met. If one or more of it aren't met, WinRice will exit.

• Update code logic (conditions, etc.).

• Improved code quality.

• Performance improvements.

• Declare absolute location of HKEY_USERS globally.

• Make major tasks optional.

  List (tap to show/hide)

  • Uninstalling inbox apps
    • App Uninstaller type to run - read more
  • Uninstalling optional features
  • Enabling dotNET 3.5
  • Installing Windows Subsystem for Linux
  • Installing Windows Sandbox
  • Using Winstall
  • Using winget import

• Remove unused functions.

  List (tap to show/hide)

  • DisableBrowserRestoreAd,
  • EnableBrowserRestoreAd,
  • DisableM365OnValueBanner,
  • RevertM365OnValueBanner,
  • DisableSuggestions,
  • EnableSuggestions

Apps & Features

WinGet

• Enable all experimental features in WinGet.
• Always install the latest available release of WinGet.
• Added support for winget import.

Winstall

• Add support to include friendly app names (like vscode or Visual Studio Code INSTEAD of Microsoft.VisualStudioCode)
• If no Winstall text file is found in current directory, open file picker window for user to select the file.

App uninstallation

• Add new uninstaller types - App Uninstaller GUI and App Uninstaller List
  Read more.
• Do not remove Camera app on laptops.
• No longer remove Xbox apps like Xbox Game Bar, Xbox Identity Provider, etc.

Feature (un)installation

• No longer uninstall Quick Assist.
• Check if features are in their intended state before forcefully changing state.
• Windows 11: Do not uninstall Snipping Tool since its bound to Snip & Sketch app.
• Windows Subsystem for Linux: Use Microsoft's updated method to enable the feature - read more.

Miscellaneous

• Execute app installation tasks before app uninstallation.
• Unpin Microsoft Edge from taskbar.
• Windows 11: If older versions of Microsoft Store and Widgets are installed, update them.

Privacy and Security

• Turn off Suggested content in Settings.
• Turn off silent installation of suggested apps.
• Windows 10: Turn off Suggested content from Start.

Tasks and Services

• Turn off Hibernation on desktops.

• Turn off Delivery Optimization.

• Do not run EnablePowerdownOnShutdown by default since they might cause bugchecks on some devices [uninvestigated].

• No longer disable some services because Windows 11 and 10 only run them on demand, not always. Disabling these services might as well result in reduced functionality and / or features.

  List (tap to show/hide)

  • DMWAppPushService
  • RetailDemo
  • DiagnosticsHub.StandardCollector.Service
  • MapsBroker
  • NetTcpPortSharing
  • RemoteRegistry
  • SharedAccess
  • TrkWks

Windows Explorer

• Turn off Chat from taskbar.
• Turn off Widgets from taskbar.
• Hide Recent files in Quick Access.
   

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Known issues

⚠️HIGH PRIORITY: Execution gets stuck on "Installing 7-zip...". This has been fixed in main branch, please use method two to run WinRice.

• Windows 11: Apps are not unpinned from start menu. #16 (comment)
• WinRice might fail to install HEVC Video Extensions. To workaround this issue, please manually deploy the latest version of HEVC Video Extensions from https://store.rg-adguard.net/. Choose the "PackageFamilyName" field and input Microsoft.HEVCVideoExtension_8wekyb3d8bbwe in the text field. Select your channel of choice and download and install the latest version.

Release notes

• GUI version has been deprecated and is now in its archived state. Hence, it will now no longer ship with WinRice releases.

Documentation

The documentation in main branch is constantly updated in sync with the latest changes to WinRice. Owing to this behaviour, documentation for each release is stored in the particular release tree.
Documentation for this release is stored in v0.4 tree.

Credits

• Thanks to @YaAlex3 for rewriting the entire pre-execution environment when it was under development with better code.
• Also thanks to @YaAlex3 for the second time for forcing me to update code logic and cleanup code.
• Also thanks to @YaAlex3 for suggesting WinRice as the new name for this project.
• Thanks to @vancelmusic for forcing me to deprecate GUI variant.