How do you handle appx windows apps? I'm remove the most apps on my golden image. But I need to have a few, photos, calculator, notepad etc. Single session. Are you doing the same thing? Or removing all apps and use alternative apps? Just a thought 💭

Kill them with fire

And what about photos?

Everything is replaceable. I have Paint.net in the base image but can easily dump something else for photos too. Those packages just drag your logons man

There's a bunch of apps that you would remove that are fairly obvious for optimisations; however, I think optimisation needs to be balanced with application UX. It would be nice to have a consistent modern application experience on Windows but Windows developers are so slow take update a modern UI. Having said that, here's an interesting look at Windows Media Player vs VLC: windowslatest.com/2026/06/16/microsoft-reveals-windows-11s-media-player-isnt-dead-but-legacy-still-opens-videos-instantly. Thankfully VLC 4 updates the UI considerably and looks like a modern app. The Photos app is a good example - this can be replaced with ImageGlass, but ImageGlass doesn't include the same editing capabilities. Paint.NET is probably too heavy for most user's requirements. Clock is another good one - this app supports features that are actually useful - M365 accounts and has timers, focus features, Tasks integration etc, but always updates at launch. There is no way to update this app in your image before users launch the app