What would cause the MS News and Sports apps to NOT appear in a Win 10 install via MDT Task Sequence?

[SonicMojo]

I am working on some MDT automation for a Windows 10 ENT rollout and like many others - most business deployments want to remove a pile of the Win 10 provisioned apps from a standard deployed desktop.

 

For my deployment testing - I am using this excellent script to remove a good portion of the provisioned Win 10 apps:

 

https://github.com/NickolajA/PowerShell/blob/master/MDT/Reference Image/Invoke-RemoveBuiltinApps.ps1

 

I have customized the script ever so slightly – simply altering the app list to include items I actually want to keep for a new deployment:

 

if (($App.Name -in "Microsoft.WindowsCalculator", "Microsoft.WindowsStore", "Microsoft.BingNews","Microsoft.BingSports","Microsoft.BingWeather", "Microsoft.DesktopAppInstaller")) {

        Write-Output -InputObject "Skipping essential Windows app: $($App.Name)"

 

After this small tweak - the script runs fine as part of my MDT task sequence – but News App (BingNews) and Sports app (BingSports) apps are nowhere to be found on a fresh Win 10 1607 deployment to a VM.

 

Even more odd - the Weather app does appear as do the rest of the items in the “protected” list (Calculator, Windows Store and DesktopInstaller.)

 

Is there some specific app that I am removing within the script (the not protected list) that is taking the News and Sports apps out anyway? Or is there something else I am missing? Does Cortana have to be active to use News and Sports - because I am disabling that completely via GPO at the end of my MDT task sequence

 

Appreciate any ideas on what's going on

 

Cheers!

 

VP

 

[SonicMojo]

Looks like I might have an answer.

 

In my test lab I am using the Jan 2017 updated Windows 10 ENT iso from MSDN - and seems that the News and Sports apps are no longer part of a default install?

 

I just deployed a default image to a new VM using this ISO (with no scripts to remove anything) and when I log in as a local user and run Get-AppxPackage | Select Name via PowerShell (as Admin) - there is no reference to Microsoft.BingNews or Microsoft.BingSports as even being available as a provisioned app? (see attached)

 

Maybe MS is finally getting the hint that this stuff is not needed in the enterprise environment?

 

VP