Many users have spotted that Windows 10 Anniversary Update downloads and installs some games and apps automatically. Without the user even opening the Store, or asking for his or her permission, the operating system installs some apps like Candy Crush Soda Saga, Minecraft: Windows 10 edition, Flipboard, Twitter and some other apps. Earlier, you could prevent Windows 10 from installing them using a Registry Tweak, but it does not work any more in version 1607 "Anniversary Update". Here is the alternative way to prevent these apps from installing.

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The Windows 10 version 1607 Anniversary Updates includes a feature that automatically installs apps from the Windows Store because it wants to promote some of them. These apps are installed for the currently signed-in user. When you are connected to the internet, Windows 10 will download and install a number of Store apps automatically. The Tiles for these Metro apps or Universal apps suddenly show up in the Windows 10 Start Menu with a progress bar indicating that they're being downloaded. After they finish installing they show up in the Recently installed section of the Start menu:

To Block Soda Saga and other unwanted apps in Windows 10 Anniversary Update, do the following.

Press Win + R shortcut keys together on the keyboard to open the Run dialog. In the Run box, type the following: secpol.msc The Local Security Policy app will appear on the screen. Select Application Control Policies in the left, then click Applocker. Click Packaged app Rules: Right click the right pane and select Create new rule: The Create new rule wizard will be opened. Click Next to open its next page: On the Permissions page, set Action to Deny, leave User or Group as Everyone: Click Next, then click Use an installed packaged app as a reference -> Select: In the app list, select Windows Spotlight(Microsoft.Windows.ContentDeliveryManager) and click OK: Move the slider to the Package Name option as shown below, then click Create:

That's it! Note that already downloaded content in the tiles wont go away after this Applocker rule, however, there will not be any new content after this. You can remove existing unwanted apps. All you need to do is right click their tiles and remove them, they won't coming back. Credits: dobbelina@MDL .

To restore the default behavior, you need to remove the rule in Local Security Policy you created.

A side effect of this AppLocker rule restriction might be that the Windows Spotlight feature which shows random images on the Lockscreen will not work. But this issue is very minor, since you can still change your Lock screen background to a custom image or to a slideshow.

Update: if the trick described above has no effect for you, please try another method mentioned in the following article:

Fix: Windows 10 installs apps like Candy Crush Soda Saga automatically

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