Windows 11 Pro: Post-Installation Guide & Customization Tips

Last updated: May 29, 2026

Here we are again… A new version of Windows, and a new environment to clean up. With each new version of its operating system, Microsoft introduces its share of challenges. In this guide, I will document some useful tips to improve the Windows 11 user experience and make it more suitable for a professional environment after a fresh installation. We will see how to customize the search box, disable Bing, remove Built-In Apps, disable Cortana, clean up the Windows Menu, and much more!

Restore the Legacy Right-Click Menu

Windows 11 introduces a redesigned right-click context menu. While it looks cleaner, several useful options are hidden behind the Show more options entry. If you prefer the classic Windows 10-style context menu, you can restore it with a simple registry command.

Comparison between the default Windows 11 right-click menu and the legacy Windows 10-style context menu. — Windows 11 default context menu compared with the legacy right-click menu.

Open a Command Prompt or Windows Terminal with administrator rights and run the following command:

C:\Users\user> reg.exe add "HKCU\Software\Classes\CLSID\{86ca1aa0-34aa-4e8b-a509-50c905bae2a2}\InprocServer32" /f /ve

Restart your computer, or restart Windows Explorer, to apply the change. The legacy right-click menu will then be used by default.

In this section, we'll look at how to remove Bing Search and reduce the size of the search icon in the taskbar.

💡 Note: I explained in a previous article how to do this using a GPO.

Bing Search Bar

Open a terminal with current user rights and type:

C:\Users\user> reg add HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Search\ /f /v BingSearchEnabled /t REG_DWORD /d 0

Windows 11 taskbar search box before and after removing the Bing icon.

💡 Note: Sign out and sign back in to apply the changes.

Search Bar Mode

Start a terminal with current user rights and enter the following command:

C:\Users\user> reg add HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Search\ /f /v SearchboxTaskbarMode /t REG_DWORD /d 1

Windows 11 taskbar search box changed into a search icon.

Disable Cortana

In the Group Policy Editor, go to Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Search and set the "Allow Cortana" policy to Disabled:

Group Policy Editor window showing the Allow Cortana policy disabled on Windows. — Windows Group Policy setting used to disable Cortana.

Clean Up The Taskbar

In the Group Policy Editor, go to Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Widgets > Allow widgets and set it to Disabled

Comparison of the Windows 11 desktop before and after disabling widgets from the taskbar. — Windows 11 desktop before and after disabling widgets from the taskbar.

Remove Windows Built-in Apps

Create the file c:\remove_app.ps1:

Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers | ? { $_.Name -match "windowsalarms" } | Remove-AppxPackage -AllUsers
Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers | ? { $_.Name -match "windowscommunicationsapps" } | Remove-AppxPackage -AllUsers
Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers | ? { $_.Name -match "windowscamera" } | Remove-AppxPackage -AllUsers
#Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers | ? { $_.Name -match "windowsCalculator" } | Remove-AppxPackage -AllUsers
Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers | ? { $_.Name -match "officehub" } | Remove-AppxPackage -AllUsers
Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers | ? { $_.Name -match "getstarted" } | Remove-AppxPackage -AllUsers
Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers | ? { $_.Name -match "zunemusic" } | Remove-AppxPackage -AllUsers
Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers | ? { $_.Name -match "windowsmaps" } | Remove-AppxPackage -AllUsers
Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers | ? { $_.Name -match "solitairecollection" } | Remove-AppxPackage -AllUsers
Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers | ? { $_.Name -match "zunevideo" } | Remove-AppxPackage -AllUsers
Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers | ? { $_.Name -match "bingnews" } | Remove-AppxPackage -AllUsers
Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers | ? { $_.Name -match "Microsoft.People" } | Remove-AppxPackage -AllUsers
#Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers | ? { $_.Name -match "photos" } | Add-AppxPackage -AllUsers
#Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers | ? { $_.Name -match "windowsstore" } | Remove-AppxPackage -AllUsers
Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers | ? { $_.Name -match "soundrecorder" } | Remove-AppxPackage -AllUsers
Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers | ? { $_.Name -match "bingweather" } | Remove-AppxPackage -AllUsers
Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers | ? { $_.Name -match "Microsoft.MicrosoftOfficeHub" } | Remove-AppxPackage -AllUsers
Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers | ? { $_.Name -match "Microsoft.WindowsFeedbackHub" } | Remove-AppxPackage -AllUsers
Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers | ? { $_.Name -match "YourPhone" } | Remove-AppxPackage -AllUsers
Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers | ? { $_.Name -match "Microsoft.XboxGamingOverlay" } | Remove-AppxPackage -AllUsers
Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers | ? { $_.Name -match "gethelp" } | Remove-AppxPackage -AllUsers
Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers *WINDOWSMAPS* | Remove-AppxPackage -AllUsers
Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers *MICROSOFT.BINGNEWS* | Remove-AppxPackage -AllUsers
Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers *MICROSOFTCORPORATIONII.QUICKASSIST* | Remove-AppxPackage -AllUsers
Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers *MICROSOFT.GETSTARTED* | Remove-AppxPackage -AllUsers
Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers *MICROSOFT.ZUNEVIDEO* | Remove-AppxPackage -AllUsers
Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers *MICROSOFT.WINDOWSFEEDBACKHUB* | Remove-AppxPackage -AllUsers
Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers *MICROSOFT.ZUNEMUSIC* | Remove-AppxPackage -AllUsers                                                                                   
Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers *RIVETNETWORKS.KILLERCONTROLCENTER* | Remove-AppxPackage -AllUsers
Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers *MICROSOFT.TODOS* | Remove-AppxPackage -AllUsers
Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers *CLIPCHAMP.CLIPCHAMP* | Remove-AppxPackage -AllUsers                                                                                   
Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers *MICROSOFT.WIDGETSPLATFORMRUNTIME* | Remove-AppxPackage -AllUsers
Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers *MICROSOFT.MICROSOFTSOLITAIRECOLLECTION* | Remove-AppxPackage -AllUsers
Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers *MICROSOFT.GETHELP* | Remove-AppxPackage -AllUsers 
Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers *MICROSOFT.BINGWEATHER* | Remove-AppxPackage -AllUsers
#XBOX
Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers | ? { $_.Name -match "Microsoft.Xbox.TCUI" } | Remove-AppxPackage -AllUsers
Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers | ? { $_.Name -match "Microsoft.XboxGameOverlay" } | Remove-AppxPackage -AllUsers
Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers | ? { $_.Name -match "Microsoft.XboxIdentityProvider" } | Remove-AppxPackage -AllUsers
Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers | ? { $_.Name -match "Microsoft.XboxSpeechToTextOverlay" } | Remove-AppxPackage -AllUsers
Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers | ? { $_.Name -match "xbox" } | Remove-AppxPackage -AllUsers
Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers *Microsoft.GamingApp* | Remove-AppxPackage -AllUsers

Run the PowerShell script from the command line as Administrator:

C:\Windows\system32> powershell.exe -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File c:\remove_app.ps1

Remove all Xbox Built-in Apps

Windows 11 includes numerous built-in Xbox apps. Here's how to remove them.

Run this command from the PowerShell command line as Administrator:

PS C:\Windows\system32> foreach ($app in $(Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers | ? { $_.Name -match "xbox" })) { $app | Remove-AppxPackage -AllUsers }

Clean Up The Start Menu

🫵 Update February 2025: I have noticed inconsistent behavior with this tweak.

Even with the Pro version, the Windows 11 Start Menu is often cluttered with commercial applications, games, and unnecessary items. We'll look at how to clean up the Windows menu with a script that can be deployed in an Active Directory environment.

From a fresh installation of Windows 11, manually remove unwanted applications from the Start Menu:

Comparison of the Windows 11 Start menu before and after unpinning unwanted applications from Start. — Windows 11 Start menu before and after unpinning unwanted applications.

After cleaning it up, copy the file “c:\Users\YOUR_USERNAME\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.Windows.StartMenuExperienceHost_cw5n1h2txyewy\LocalState\start2.bin‘ to a shared folder (in this example, \\SHARE\), then make the file available to the Windows 11 computers in your Active Directory domain.

For the example, we'll use this PowerShell command (with current user rights):

C:\Users\user> Copy-Item -Path \\SHARE\start2.bin -Destination c:\Users\$env:USERNAME\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.Windows.StartMenuExperienceHost_cw5n1h2txyewy\LocalState\start2.bin

💡 Note: restart the computer for the change to take effect.