Develop Bugs

[Q] Time Saving App's

So im new to the whole Phone scene, This is my first smartphone.. I know shocking. And of course being a Customizer and moder in everything I dabble in I rooted my Evo and am now scouring the net for useful apps.
So my question is..
What are your favorite/most used apps and how do they save you time?
So far heres my list.
Audio Galaxy - Can stream all my music from my computer. No storage needed.
Apps Organizer - Keeps folders looking sleek and easy to access. Also the most available icons by default.
Last Call Widget - Can just glance at my phone to see who called.
XDA App - Faster than the stock browser.
Android Central Widget - Android news at a glance.
Rom Manager - To obvious there.
Selective Silence - Good White/Black list for vibrate... still searching my options for this type of app. (any suggestions)
Thanks

Dropbox is definitely my favorite time saver. I NEVER have to plug my phone into my computer just to swipe a file! Saves me huge amounts of time Plus I download roms and hacks for other phones and store them on my desktop so when I run into my friends I can quickly download appropriate hacks and bluetooth them on over
If you want to sign up, and it's free, could you use this link? I get 250 MB more storage upon a successful referral (that's another thing I like there)
*NVM* Can't post links (I'm too new) *NVM*
PM me if you want the link to sign up please!
Barcode scanner is another time saver. I hardly use it to scan any actual barcodes at all, but it can read QR codes off webpages as well. So when I want to download an APK while I'm browsing on my desktop, I just bust out my phone and point it at the screen and it does all the hard work! There's 45 and a half apps that do the same function, but this one is my favorite as it has the most minimal UI.
Fast Reboot is definitely one of my most used apps. It's essentially a link that sits in your drawer (or wherever you place it) that does a software version of a reboot upon press. It's great for clearing tons of memory quickly, calming down your Android when it's bugging out with a memory leak, or if you're handing your phone over to someone and you don't want them to hit the back arrow and see that you were on Ebay looking for outfits for your girlfriends Tea-cup chihuahua And did I mention it's literally instantaneous?
Hope it helps!

Thanks ill definitely have to set up the drop box. Always having to SD to the computer is a hassle at times.
Thanks
Sent from my WTF using XDA App

AppFinder on Windows Phone 7

Check out my free app in the Marketplace: AppFinder
AppFinder is the fastest way to find apps by name bar none.
Start typing the name of an app or publisher, and the search results are shown instantly.
tap one of the results to go to the marketplace page for the app.
Check it out and let me know what you think

Been using it last couple days, its a big help! Thanks!!!

I'll check it out thanks!

Thank you - it's very fast like the marketplace search should be. Good for quick looking apps if you know the name.
Are there any improvements coming? Like the Top Downloads or anything else?

appfinder feedback
thanks for the feedback - I'm on it

Great app, thanks!
BTW I can't find HTC Hub...

I think you need an HTC device for that sorry buddy

zukа said:
I think you need an HTC device for that sorry buddy
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah but some guys were able to find it...

AppFinder
Ok, v1.1 has been submitted to the app marketplace and is ready for testing - should show up in the marketplace as an update within a few days

ebadger said:
Ok, v1.1 has been submitted to the app marketplace and is ready for testing - should show up in the marketplace as an update within a few days
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
does this fix the crash where it closed and wouldn't reopen for me (even after soft reset)?
I had to uninstall, reinstall to get it working again.

I don't think so.
Although I think I know the cause. I will have to roll the fix into another update.
I think there is a small window where the downloaded data file can be corrupted if the writing to flash is interrupted. It will be simple to fix. For now, if you hit it, uninstall reinstall is the only option.

nice find. but did you know while in maketplace you can use the search button to find apps as well?

jimecm said:
nice find. but did you know while in maketplace you can use the search button to find apps as well?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Of course I do
AppFinder is all about making apps discoverable in the fastest way possible.
I think if you're not in the top 20 apps in the marketplace under any one of the categories, then as a developer you're invisible. AppFinder seeks to make it easier to find apps via search, and with the update, via browsing as well.
Update is in the hopper, still waiting for testing to complete...

jimecm said:
nice find. but did you know while in maketplace you can use the search button to find apps as well?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the annoying thing is that it searches music and video as well. i can't just search for apps alone

locales
Ok, so I just figured out I've only been indexing the en-US locale
I've updated the data to include
{ "en-US", "en-GB", "en-IE", "en-CA", "en-IN", "en-AU", "en-HK", "en-SG", "de-DE", "fr-FR", "fr-BE", "de-AT", "de-CH", "it-IT", "en-NZ", "es-ES", "es-MX" };
this change is effective immediately as it is a data update. Still waiting for the update to make it through the approval process. It seems that the holiday has slowed things down a bit

The update finally arrived
Nice new features and still very fast. But unfortunately, in my case, it wont load after the second app start (even at first start if I switch the section). I always have to deinstall/reinstall again once the app was started.
Maybe you can take a look? Feels like a caching problem or something like that. I'm using a Samsung Omnia 7 in germany - if that helps
Feature wishlist:
1. add a settings screen to edit:
a.) the number of list entries on one page (10, 20, 50) to keep the app fast enough
b.) the section on loading (and maybe you also can set this to no section just for fast look-up app search - I used the app for this before the update)
2. Maybe you can use the OS-typical "left-to-right-scrolling-loading-dots" instead of the big ones?
3. New logo if there is enough time

PrivateJoker said:
The update finally arrived
Nice new features and still very fast. But unfortunately, in my case, it wont load after the second app start (even at first start if I switch the section). I always have to deinstall/reinstall again once the app was started.
Maybe you can take a look? Feels like a caching problem or something like that. I'm using a Samsung Omnia 7 in germany - if that helps
Feature wishlist:
1. add a settings screen to edit:
a.) the number of list entries on one page (10, 20, 50) to keep the app fast enough
b.) the section on loading (and maybe you also can set this to no section just for fast look-up app search - I used the app for this before the update)
2. Maybe you can use the OS-typical "left-to-right-scrolling-loading-dots" instead of the big ones?
3. New logo if there is enough time
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Private Joker,
Thanks for the feedback.
First - there was a bug that only impacted the German locale! I was trying to save bandwidth by truncating unnecessary leading zeros in the price and this caused an exception when the locale was set to German. I've updated the data to include the leading zeros and this fixes the problem for Germans. You will have to uninstall and reinstall though to get it to work. I am very sorry for the inconvenience, and I really appreciate you taking the time to give me your feedback even though the app was not working for you at all. I hope you will try again given that the data has been fixed.
Regarding your feedback -
I think you are right on the mark for #2 and #3
I don't understand 2b.
regarding 1a.
perf should not be impacted by the number of items that are shown -
Appfinder actually transfers the marketplace data to the device and indexes it locally. I do this because the network is really, really slow. Aside from having artists and albums mixed up with apps in the marketplace search results, I also was tired of waiting for results to load. Scrolling through the apps means waiting.
The delay at the beginning is caused by reading the marketplace data from flash and indexing it in RAM. Occasionally the loading dots will appear after launching (like the first time that you use it) because AppFinder has transfered a new data file and needs to parse it again. Instead of delaying every 10 or so apps in the list, there is one delay at the beginning (which is relatively small). Right now parsing the file takes about 4 seconds.
Perf could be greatly improve if I had access to memory mapped file APIs. Further compressing the data would help as well - The really slowest part is really reading from the flash. I can improve perf when a network update occurs by reading from the flash in the background before blocking - this would drop the update delay from ~4 seconds to ~1 second.
I could also not query as you're typing -- Waiting until the enter button has been pressed would reduce CPU load and any chunkiness - pressing search would just render the apps instantly.
Anyway, really appreciate your positive attitude and willingness to give feedback in light of what must be a frustrating experience. Please give it another try.
Thanks,
Eric

[Q] Moving the "taskbar" in Dragonstorm

Hi there,
I recently installed a program on my IQ called "QMail". In setting it up, all the documentation says to start by clicking on the "Tools" menu. The problem is, I can't see any tools menu, and I have a feeling it may be blocked by the Windows taskbar, which is at the bottom of the screen in the Dragonstorm roms.
Is there any way to temporarily move the taskbar/start menu location to the top of the screen?
Also, has anyone tried using QMail? I'd be interested in hearing experiences - it sounds too good to be true! (here's a link: modernnomads.info/wiki/index.php?page=Installing+and+configuring+QMail - as you can see, the menus are at the bottom of the screen...)
Thanks!
Mike

Hi, Sandmonkee,
I'm having the exact trouble with viewing the qmail menu bar in EnergyROMs and an HTC Touch Pro 2.
Coming from CE machines, I've always used qmail. Though not as robust as nPop, qmail will do imap, which nPop obviously won't.
Did you ever find a solution to this? I haven't.
Jake

jakfish said:
Hi, Sandmonkee,
Did you ever find a solution to this? I haven't.
Jake
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have actually. Using the 2003SE version ended up working for me, the toolbar stays on top. Its this one:
http://q3.snak.org/download/snapshot/q3u-ppc2003se-armv4-ja-3_0_0.zip
When you sync, it'll ask you if you want to update the program. Say no. It still has great functionality.
Good luck!

how is qmail better than the built in windows mobile mail application?

josefcrist said:
how is qmail better than the built in windows mobile mail application?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well I can't answer that really, as I've never tried the windows mail program. I don't use Outlook on my computer (Thunderbird for me) so I was looking for something similar that I could use on my phone. I wasn't able to find any kind of "Mobile Thunderbird" (a real miss on Mozilla's part imho), but QMail is pretty darn close. Plus you can use it for RSS, IMAP, POP3, NNTP and all kinds of other great stuff that I don't think the windows one can do. Look here for more info:
http://pdaphonehome.com/forums/htc-...il-setup-gmail-hotmail-exchange-nntp-rss.html

Sandmonkee, many, many thanks.
This version does work; I have searched everywhere for a solution--you were the only person who had one.
Heh, I'd forgotten what a bear it is to setup qmail. Took the entire evening. Filtering is difficult, especially. The good news is, once you set up, then just copy the qmail directory, along with your Mail directory, to the desktop and upon re-flashing, etc, those two directories will preclude setting anything up again.
It's much faster than Pocket Outlook and with its infinite adjustments to fonts and other visuals, it makes email on a phone almost a pleasure.
I did find that if you commit to a certain filter, say "headers only," and then want to change that to "all," qmail wouldn't recognize the change. I had to delete the entire account and start again.
Too, for a Tmobile TP2 user, I really had to go back and forth b/w landscape and portrait to access all the menu buttons. And the hardkey back arrow is sometimes the only thing that will close you out of a menu. But sometimes not.
It is a crazy program, but ungodly sophisticated. It's so funny to have such a good English translation of the program itself but so little documentation elsewhere.
Again, I'm grateful for your help,
Jake

Glad that got it working for you!
Gmail does work, I use it on my phone. You just need to get the SSL files that are on the download site and copy them to your Qmail directory on your phone.
Hopefully more folks will clue in to this great app!

I'm looking for some keyboard shortcuts. Ctrl-D will delete the message upon next sync, so you don't have to go through the hassle of Marking, etc.
But have you figured out a way to exit the actual program via a keystroke?
I still have to go to File and work my way to Exit.
Another thing I noticed is that if I make a shortcut in /Windows/StartMenu/Programs, I get a trusted certificate error. With keyboard config, however, I can at least map, say, ctrl-e and bring up QMail.
Jake

Inconsistencies in Jelly Bean

Hey guys, came across this great article about jelly bean and I wonder what you guys think about it. I really agree with some of the points he makes.
http://www.androidpolice.com/2012/09/18/ux-things-i-hate-about-android/

Read this article as well and yes he does make some good and valid points. However, Android is still a work in progress according to Matias Duarte. As much as Jelly Bean has improved the user experience there is still a ways to go to polishing the OS.
Here is a good follow up article you might want to check out:
http://www.androidcentral.com/duarte-i-m-third-way-where-i-want-be-android

He makes some good points, but also shows that he doesn't seem to understand Android programming at all.
If you open something within an app directly from a widget (his Gmail example), then obviously the back key would go one layer higher within the app. Opening an email from a widget layers home->gmail->email, not home->email.
Also, icons opening the "wrong" app. He uses Maps and Latitude as an example. Well, considering that Latitude is built on the Maps framework (and presumably calls an instance of Maps in order to operate), it makes complete sense that opening Maps would open the active Latitude session when one exists.
Other items just seemed like whining. For example, the section regarding the Google Voice icon. He makes the base assumption that people use it primarily for texting when texting is certainly not the primary function of the app. The app's primary function is voicemail, followed closely by VOIP calling. Texting is easily a tertiary function, even if it has been embraced by the community. [Edit: As mentioned below, I was incorrect regarding VOIP, which would make texting the secondary function of the app.]
Don't get me wrong. There were some good points, but I was shaking my head through a lot of that article.

Cilraaz said:
The app's primary function is voicemail, followed closely by VOIP calling.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
there is no voip from the google voice app itself. when you make a call with it, it basically calls the GV number + the number you are actually wanting to call.

Zepius said:
there is no voip from the google voice app itself. when you make a call with it, it basically calls the GV number + the number you are actually wanting to call.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My mistake. I assumed it was VOIP rather than call-chaining, based on the app prompting if Voice should be used for international calls. So at that point, texting would become the secondary function.
Thanks for the info.

Cilraaz said:
He makes some good points, but also shows that he doesn't seem to understand Android programming at all.
If you open something within an app directly from a widget (his Gmail example), then obviously the back key would go one layer higher within the app. Opening an email from a widget layers home->gmail->email, not home->email.
Also, icons opening the "wrong" app. He uses Maps and Latitude as an example. Well, considering that Latitude is built on the Maps framework (and presumably calls an instance of Maps in order to operate), it makes complete sense that opening Maps would open the active Latitude session when one exists.
Other items just seemed like whining. For example, the section regarding the Google Voice icon. He makes the base assumption that people use it primarily for texting when texting is certainly not the primary function of the app. The app's primary function is voicemail, followed closely by VOIP calling. Texting is easily a tertiary function, even if it has been embraced by the community.
Don't get me wrong. There were some good points, but I was shaking my head through a lot of that article.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Although you are totally right, you have to look at it from a consumer's point of view. And they won't think "hey, of course the back button goes to the underlying Gmail menu", they'll think "wtf.? I was on the home screen before I tapped that mail on the widget. Why did it take me into the Gmail overview now?"
The same is even more true for Latitude. It is obvious for us tech-enthusiasts that Latitude is just more or less a part of maps. But I guess most other people never even give a thought to this, so they're just confused why the Maps icon would open a (seemingly) completely different service.
Also I'm sure the author of the article knows all this as well as anybody. But he tries to look from the consumer's point of view.
To the article: I mostly agree with his points. Play store not remembering my scroll position and the different sizes of some icons (and even more the almost overlapping icon names sometimes) are things that bugged me too. But mixed UI designs and that calculator bug are just things that happen if you roll out such a major update with significant UI changes. It's nothing I get even slightly mad about.

qwer23 said:
Although you are totally right, you have to look at it from a consumer's point of view. And they won't think "hey, of course the back button goes to the underlying Gmail menu", they'll think "wtf.? I was on the home screen before I tapped that mail on the widget. Why did it take me into the Gmail overview now?"
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can understand it from a consumer's point of view, but how would it be resolved programmatically? If we start requiring a pointer to where a screen was opened from, you increase the memory footprint of every app. It might also cause some problems with app deconstruction. In the Gmail example, pressing the back button deconstructs the single email instance, but if a pointer were to tell it to go back to the home screen because we got to it from a widget, do we deconstruct the base Gmail app also? What if the widget puts you 4 layers into an app? Not only would the pointers again add to the app's memory footprint, but we have the deconstruction issue on a larger level.
I'm not the greatest programmer (especially in Java), but the "inelegant" way that it works now seems to have a few positives for both devs and users.
qwer23 said:
The same is even more true for Latitude. It is obvious for us tech-enthusiasts that Latitude is just more or less a part of maps. But I guess most other people never even give a thought to this, so they're just confused why the Maps icon would open a (seemingly) completely different service.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Again, I understand the consumer side of things, but is Maps opening Latitude more confusing than having Maps kill off Latitude? The user would then just try to re-open Latitude and be confused as to why the prior instance wasn't running. If Maps wouldn't kill off Latitude, then it would have to create a second instance of itself, which again has a negative impact on the app's memory footprint.
------------
I understand a general "hey, it should work like this instead", but there are plenty of reasons why it works the way it does now. Android might be able to get "perfect" functionality, but it would likely require some dumbing down of multitasking (either more process suspension instead of true(r) multitasking or the memory manager would be more likely to kill off background processes). I don't at all doubt these are discussions going on at Google, though.

Cilraaz said:
[...]
I understand a general "hey, it should work like this instead", but there are plenty of reasons why it works the way it does now. Android might be able to get "perfect" functionality, but it would likely require some dumbing down of multitasking (either more process suspension instead of true(r) multitasking or the memory manager would be more likely to kill off background processes). I don't at all doubt these are discussions going on at Google, though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks Cilraaz, you really shed some light upon the deeper reasons for the sometimes odd behaviour of the back button and app layers. I'm no programmer at all, so I didn't know all this would add to the memory footprint of the apps and would affect developing in such a major way.
After reading your post I suggest we can be happy with some minor incosistencies and enjoy true multitasking instead of dumbing down our phones Again thanks for your nice clarification!

Some good stuff in this thread.

"complains about back button not taking him home, doesn't use home button"

crixley said:
"complains about back button not taking him home, doesn't use home button"
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's not what he complained about. He complained about the back button behaving inconsistently.

I find it actually works very logically. If i click on one email in my widget to read it and then use the back button to go back, it makes sense to be taken to my inbox so i can read more messages, instead of being taken back to home screen and selecting a new email from there. Its more practical in case you get like 10 emails at one, which won´t fit in the widget all at once anyway. If i wanted to go back to the home screen, hey there is the home button.

That sounds like one corner case where the behaviour works in your favor, that doesn't mean it's right. It used to work better. For example if you have Navigation open, and select and email from the notification then you are brought to the email. Then when you hit back it brings you to your Inbox (which you have no reason to go to) then when you hit back again it brings you to your home screen. In previous versions of Android when you hit back from the email you are reading it would take you directly back to Navigation. That is what you most likely want, and that is what the Android documentation says should happen. But all too often it does not.

Totally agree with this article. I love Jelly Bean, and Android, but ultimately, it lacks a hell of a lot of polish. This is where iOS is still leagues ahead (and for that matter, so is WP7/8), I forgive it because it is a very open and powerful platform, but it is still a platform for the techie, and has a long way to go before it is as friendly and approachable as its rivals IMO.
The same sorts of arguments have been leveled at PCs for years and are equally valid.
Like it or not, most people AREN'T techies and this is why the likes of Apple are so successful, because they understand this and bring out an OS that is generally intuitive to average joe. Ironically I find some of the ways their software works confusing in places (particularly OSX) but that is more down to my "techie" approach and being set in my ways, as most techies are.

Well, he has some valid ponts, but most of the time, he is wrong. Especially for the back button.

e34v8 said:
Well, he has some valid ponts, but most of the time, he is wrong. Especially for the back button.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Could you please tell me how he is wrong, specially if Android documentation says that the function of back button is X, and, sometimes you get Y, sometimes you get Z, and sometimes you get X?
Either document that back button has a bunch of functions that no one knows until you use it in a given context with a given app, or, give it a consistent behavior (and I'm not discussing which one would be better).... It is understandable when 3rd party software doesn't behave 100% as documented, but, built in phone apps should be consistent and provide the same experience...

Great article. A lot of those things drive me nuts, the icon size and back button in particular.

Another annoying thing the back button does is, for example, if you have been using the Play Store before, then you open an app that links to a Play Store page. Once you have seen the page and press back, rather than it taking you back to the app, the back button will just traverse through all the pages that you have been looking at on the Play Store in your previous session.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

crixley said:
"complains about back button not taking him home, doesn't use home button"
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah I found that amusing as well.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium

pfmiller said:
That sounds like one corner case where the behaviour works in your favor, that doesn't mean it's right. It used to work better. For example if you have Navigation open, and select and email from the notification then you are brought to the email. Then when you hit back it brings you to your Inbox (which you have no reason to go to) then when you hit back again it brings you to your home screen. In previous versions of Android when you hit back from the email you are reading it would take you directly back to Navigation. That is what you most likely want, and that is what the Android documentation says should happen. But all too often it does not.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Maybe the "back" button should be replaced by a "higher level" (hope it's the right term ) button. Maybe in this case his function would be more logical.
However I agree on almost every point in the article

Deleting built in (and otherwise undeletable) metro apps (saves disk space too.)

EDIT: Found a faster and cleaner way!
You guys who run tablets that have uber tiny amounts of storage (e.g. 32gb dell venue 8 pro) might want to do this as it will free up space used by apps that you probably don't even touch. You can always just install any you want to keep from the Windows store, but personally I think 8 apps are all crap (except Netflix.)
Click start > type 'powershell' (no quotes) > press ctrl+shift+enter > (say yes if it asks)
Type the following:
Get-AppXProvisionedPackage -online | Remove-AppxProvisionedPackage -online
Get-AppXPackage | Remove-AppxPackage
Tada! No more useless built in Windows apps taking up disk space, and new user accounts don't start with a cluttered start menu.
If you're like me and you keep an autoconfigure batch script for new installations, you can accomplish the above with the following lines:
powershell -Command "Get-AppXProvisionedPackage -online | Remove-AppxProvisionedPackage -online"
powershell -Command "Get-AppXPackage | Remove-AppxPackage"
Guessing this works with RT as well, but it's a sad OS that I wouldn't ever buy, so I can't test.
(Old post sticking around for archival purposes)
I never use these things. I don't like apps that force full screen when it is really unnecessary. I guess it makes sense for a touch screen, but for a desktop this is downright stupid, especially when you have a big monitor and like working with multiple things at once. Anyways, I noticed that these take up a gig of space, and I am on an SSD, so space is precious. Sadly, uninstalling them from the start menu doesn't actually delete them, in fact it's really no different at all from using the unpin from start option.
Simply navigating to that folder to delete them doesn't work. First you'll claim ownership via the UI, and then it will at least let you browse the folder. I tried taking it a step further and using the universal "take all" method from an admin prompt:
d:\windows\program files\> icacls windowsapps\* /T /C /Grant UsersOI)(CI)(MA)
It failed. So I figured, let's try rebooting to the command console and do the same thing. Success! Well, not really.
If you type del windowsapps, it pretends to delete them, but it doesn't actually do so. Microsoft is clever, they really went out of their way to make sure you keep them and like them! So I took it a step further, I tried the same thing from WinPE by booting from the install disk, hitting the repair button, and navigating to the command shell. Same result as above. Microsoft REALLY wants to make sure they remain intact.
Fortunately though, I have an ace up my sleeve. I booted a linux ISO, mounted the partition, and did an rm -rf WindowsApps, and lo and behold, its gone! You see, linux doesn't really care if you keep metro apps, it just does whatever you tell it to.
By the way, I did this inside of a VM just to make sure that it doesn't break anything, and so far, it doesn't appear to do so. The apps still remain in the start menu (if you didn't unpin them) but launching them just returns right back to the start menu. No worries, just unpin them and it will stay out of sight and out of mind.
Something confuses me though...the live tiles for these apps still actually work. At least, the live tiles for news, finance, and travel still work, but launching the app just drops you back to the start menu. My guess is that the live tile portion of the app runs in another process. Somebody who is more familiar with WinRT could chime in here. Also, the useless windows store and some important things like the desktop app and the "pc settings" app (aka metro control panel) remains intact, so no issues there.
Anyways, I'd like to figure out a way to delete these while windows is still running, that way I can automate doing so when I install windows. Any ideas? My current thought is to remove them from the install.wim, but it's kind of a PITA and often something goes wrong when I try to muck with that.

Thanks for the info. I won't be able to do the research until the weekend, but in searching for windows 8 (non-Microsoft) themes, I found info on a program (I hate that all of a sudden all programs are being called 'apps') which lets you take (for real) ownership if system files. The info where I ran into it's usage was because Windows 7 and 8 need either hacked system files (guess having a hacked 7 with legit license was a great idea) or a special program to load a custom theme.
Sent from my LG-P999 using xda premium

Out of curiosity, what built-in apps did you find to be un-deleteable? Removing the built-in apps that I didn't use (Finance, News, etc.) was easy; just right-click or flick downward (to select the tile) then select Uninstall. Leftover files in the WindowsApps dir could be removed.

GoodDayToDie said:
Out of curiosity, what built-in apps did you find to be un-deleteable? Removing the built-in apps that I didn't use (Finance, News, etc.) was easy; just right-click or flick downward (to select the tile) then select Uninstall. Leftover files in the WindowsApps dir could be removed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The built in apps that it places on the start menu when you first log in to Windows 8. It prevents you from deleting them, because then new accounts won't see the apps, and it forces them on to the start menu by default.

You can delete them from Start easily enough, if for some reason you find their presence there offensive. You can also delete the updated versions from the device. The basline (1.2) versions are, I assume, what you are complaining about... meh. If you want to bang your head against this, go ahead. I get what you're asking for now, though I really don't understand why. Besides, full-screen or not, some of the "Metro" apps are pretty good, especially a few of the games (which are frequently FS anyhow). It's worth keeping the store around for free game downloads IMO... but I think we've already established that our opinions differ on how to use Win8.

GoodDayToDie said:
You can delete them from Start easily enough, if for some reason you find their presence there offensive. You can also delete the updated versions from the device. The basline (1.2) versions are, I assume, what you are complaining about... meh. If you want to bang your head against this, go ahead. I get what you're asking for now, though I really don't understand why. Besides, full-screen or not, some of the "Metro" apps are pretty good, especially a few of the games (which are frequently FS anyhow). It's worth keeping the store around for free game downloads IMO... but I think we've already established that our opinions differ on how to use Win8.
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You're thinking of using the "uninstall" option from the start menu. That does NOT delete them, it just removes all references to them. They still reside on the hard disk and consume disk space. On my 120GB SSD on my laptop, every gig counts. Why leave them there when they are doing nothing at all? No banging your head involved, just boot up linux, rm -rf WinApps, problem solved.
Anyways, last I checked there were approximately zero AAA titles in the windows store. In fact, I've yet to see any windows app do anything that can't already be done better in a web browser. I'm not particularly impressed with solitaire collection, pinball, toy soldiers...and ooh mahjong, the game to end all games. The only one even remotely interesting is hydro thunder, in which case they ought to call it Retro instead of Metro.

Rakeesh_j said:
I never use these things. I don't like apps that force full screen when it is really unnecessary. I guess it makes sense for a touch screen, but for a desktop this is downright stupid, especially when you have a big monitor and like working with multiple things at once. Anyways, I noticed that these take up a gig of space, and I am on an SSD, so space is precious. Sadly, uninstalling them from the start menu doesn't actually delete them, in fact it's really no different at all from using the unpin from start option.
Simply navigating to that folder to delete them doesn't work. First you'll claim ownership via the UI, and then it will at least let you browse the folder. I tried taking it a step further and using the universal "take all" method from an admin prompt:
d:\windows\program files\> icacls windowsapps\* /T /C /Grant UsersOI)(CI)(MA)
It failed. So I figured, let's try rebooting to the command console and do the same thing. Success! Well, not really.
If you type del windowsapps, it pretends to delete them, but it doesn't actually do so. Microsoft is clever, they really went out of their way to make sure you keep them and like them! So I took it a step further, I tried the same thing from WinPE by booting from the install disk, hitting the repair button, and navigating to the command shell. Same result as above. Microsoft REALLY wants to make sure they remain intact.
Fortunately though, I have an ace up my sleeve. I booted a linux ISO, mounted the partition, and did an rm -rf WindowsApps, and lo and behold, its gone! You see, linux doesn't really care if you keep metro apps, it just does whatever you tell it to.
By the way, I did this inside of a VM just to make sure that it doesn't break anything, and so far, it doesn't appear to do so. The apps still remain in the start menu (if you didn't unpin them) but launching them just returns right back to the start menu. No worries, just unpin them and it will stay out of sight and out of mind.
Something confuses me though...the live tiles for these apps still actually work. At least, the live tiles for news, finance, and travel still work, but launching the app just drops you back to the start menu. My guess is that the live tile portion of the app runs in another process. Somebody who is more familiar with WinRT could chime in here. Also, the useless windows store and some important things like the desktop app and the "pc settings" app (aka metro control panel) remains intact, so no issues there.
Anyways, I'd like to figure out a way to delete these while windows is still running, that way I can automate doing so when I install windows. Any ideas? My current thought is to remove them from the install.wim, but it's kind of a PITA and often something goes wrong when I try to muck with that.
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If you want to remove them from a windows install image
http://forums.mydigitallife.info/threads/37039-Remove-Metro-appz-and-default-associations-to-them

phailyoor said:
If you want to remove them from a windows install image
http://forums.mydigitallife.info/threads/37039-Remove-Metro-appz-and-default-associations-to-them
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Awesome, thanks!

You could had taken ownership of the WindowsApps folder and delete it, that's what I did.

Rakeesh_j said:
You're thinking of using the "uninstall" option from the start menu. That does NOT delete them, it just removes all references to them. They still reside on the hard disk and consume disk space. On my 120GB SSD on my laptop, every gig counts. Why leave them there when they are doing nothing at all? No banging your head involved, just boot up linux, rm -rf WinApps, problem solved.
Anyways, last I checked there were approximately zero AAA titles in the windows store. In fact, I've yet to see any windows app do anything that can't already be done better in a web browser. I'm not particularly impressed with solitaire collection, pinball, toy soldiers...and ooh mahjong, the game to end all games. The only one even remotely interesting is hydro thunder, in which case they ought to call it Retro instead of Metro.
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Click to collapse
Oh, so a game is only good if it has AAA backing?

Konstantinos said:
You could had taken ownership of the WindowsApps folder and delete it, that's what I did.
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I tried that, even used some command line stuff that break all file locks and ensure that the current user has full control over the files. It would let you delete them, even go through and say it deleted them, but when you look in the directory again, they are still there.
link68759 said:
Oh, so a game is only good if it has AAA backing?
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No. My current favorites are both indie titles, and are not AAA. Those being Natural-Selection 2, and League of Legends.
For Google Chrome, there are MORE and BETTER games than in the Windows store, and to a lesser extent, Firefox as well. Yep, web browsers have better games than the Windows store.
Every single game in the windows store is either old or just plain crap. I played Angry Birds on a CELL PHONE over a YEAR ago. These are all casual games, not games that you sit down for a marathon session to play. If the windows store is your idea of a good place to get games, then I dare you to go to your friends and say "Hey guys, let's all go to my house and play some reversi and then some tick tack toe!" and see what kind of reaction you get. Or how about one better, ask them to bring their PC's over for a windows 8 lan party, I'm sure they'll get right on that one.
The two games I listed above are legit desktop titles. Windows 8 games are not. In fact, as I've said numerous times, there isn't a single windows store app that does anything that isn't already done better in a browser.

So I'm doing the ol' nuclear option of a reformat for the windows 8.1 update, and I just updated OP to include some new info I found (Maybe common knowledge at this point after 18 months of futzing around with 8? Who knows, just something I discovered on my own a few minutes ago while tinkering with powershell.)
Really neat and really clean compared to the other way.

I use Embedded edition that doesn't include preinstalled metro apps (only IE, skydrive and photo viewer are included)

441Excelsior said:
I use Embedded edition that doesn't include preinstalled metro apps (only IE, skydrive and photo viewer are included)
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windows embedded is not windows 8...

windows 8.1 Embedded Industry Pro is the same as Windows 8.1 Pro
here is screen of my desktop

441Excelsior said:
I use Embedded edition that doesn't include preinstalled metro apps (only IE, skydrive and photo viewer are included)
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That's effectively what you get when you run the two commands I listed. For whatever reason, skydrive and photo viewer aren't possible to remove. In fact they don't even appear to reside in the WindowsApps folder...I'm not even sure where they reside.

ok but true reason why I use embedded edition is that I got free product key from MS DreamSpark