Disable reinstallation of preinstalled apps

Purpose

Show registry keys (1)

• HKU\.DEFAULT\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ContentDeliveryManager\PreInstalledAppsEverEnabled

Setup Foundry writes 0 to this DWORD value. However, Microsoft does not document the semantics of PreInstalledAppsEverEnabled or a supported effect for the value 0. It therefore cannot be reliably established that this registry value, by itself, prevents preinstalled apps from being reinstalled.

For content delivery, Microsoft instead documents the similarly named but separate PreInstalledAppsEnabled value under HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ContentDeliveryManager. Setting that value to 0 disables automatic content-delivery downloads in the documented scenario. That behavior must not be attributed to PreInstalledAppsEverEnabled.

Notes

Notes

HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT is part of the registry hive used for system accounts; it is not the Windows Default User profile template. Consequently, this value is not automatically copied to newly created user profiles and is not equivalent to a per-user value under HKEY_CURRENT_USER.

To keep removed apps from being provisioned again during certain older Windows 10 feature updates, Microsoft documents separate per-package keys under HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Appx\AppxAllUserStore\Deprovisioned. That documented mechanism is distinct from PreInstalledAppsEverEnabled.

Because this value is not documented as a supported policy or public registry setting, whether Windows reads it—and what effect it has—may depend on the Windows version or may have no observable effect.

Microsoft documentation

Microsoft Learn: Add and manage App Attach applications in Azure Virtual Desktop

Microsoft Learn: Keep removed apps from returning during an update

Microsoft Learn: Registry Hives

Microsoft Learn: SaveSystemAcctInputSettings function

See also

• Entry in the reference