Remove-Features

A PowerShell script for debloating and hardening a Windows installation. It removes or disables unwanted apps, features, services, scheduled tasks, and telemetry based on a single JSON configuration file.

Features

The script processes the following categories, each driven by a list of names (wildcards supported):

Category	Action
Printer	Removes printers
WindowsPackage	Removes Windows packages (FoD / capabilities packages)
WindowsCapability	Removes Windows capabilities
WindowsOptionalFeature	Disables Windows optional features
AppxPackage	Removes Appx packages (all users) and provisioned packages
ScheduledTask	Disables scheduled tasks
Service	Sets service startup type to Disabled
Autologger	Disables ETW autologgers via the registry

All actions are logged to a file and echoed to the console with color-coded levels.

Requirements

• Windows with PowerShell 5.1 or later
• An elevated (administrator) PowerShell session

Usage

# Apply the changes defined in the configuration file
.\Remove-Features.ps1 -SettingsFile .\Remove-Features.conf.jsonc

# Apply the changes and restart the computer afterwards
.\Remove-Features.ps1 -SettingsFile .\Remove-Features.conf.jsonc -Restart

Parameters

Parameter	Description	Default
-SettingsFile	Path to the JSON/JSONC configuration file.	.\settings.json
-LogFile	Path to the log file that actions are appended to.	.\Remove-Features.log
-Restart	Restart the computer after all changes are applied.	(off)

Note: The default -SettingsFile value is .\settings.json. The included configuration file is named Remove-Features.conf.jsonc, so pass it explicitly as shown above (or rename it).

Configuration

Edit Remove-Features.conf.jsonc to control what gets removed or disabled. Each top-level key maps to a category listed above and contains an array of names. Names may include wildcards (for example "*Xbox*"), and the file supports // and /* */ comments, which are stripped before parsing.

{
    "AppxPackage": [
        "Microsoft.XboxApp",
        "*Microsoft.549981C3F5F10*" // Cortana
    ],
    "Service": [
        "DiagTrack" // Connected User Experiences and Telemetry
    ]
}

Warning

Removing packages, services, and features can be difficult or impossible to reverse. Review the configuration carefully and test on a non-production machine before applying broadly.

License

See LICENSE.