It is known that the Patch Tuesday update, which is the monthly security update of Windows, often comes with some problems or bugs. However, the latest September version, KB5030211, had no known issues, and very few reported problems online or in the feedback center. However, Microsoft managed to screw it up as it allegedly started pushing the new Windows Backup app on Windows 10 22H2 LTSC systems with no option to remove it easily.

The Patch Tuesday update brings this change unannounced as the release notes did not mention such a thing. The issue was brought to his attention by Reddit user Esky013, who is apparently an IT manager, on the Intune subreddit. They explained:

After applying the September CU for Windows 10 22H2 (KB5030211), there is a shiny new Start menu shortcut for Windows Backup. It doesn’t work in any of the environments we handle (“This feature is not supported by your organization”) due to applicable policies, and we don’t want or need it in the Start menu. If it is not there it will also save the questions from the users.

It looks like it’s part of the “Windows Feature Experience Pack” and as such the shortcut looks a bit “magical”. There’s nothing in the usual %ProgramData% or %AppData% locations for start menu shortcuts, and it’s not an appx package that I can remove.

The executable is “%windir%\SystemApps\MicrosoftWindows\.Client.CBS.cw5n1h2txyewy\WindowsBackupClient.exe”.

And – no surprises here – there is no policy to hide this shortcut. The Intune Windows Spotlight policy is set to block completely in some clients, “Block third-party offers” and “Block consumer-specific features” in others, and the Windows Backup shortcut still appears.

Another user in the thread was able to work around the problem by removing the Windows Feature Experience package using the DISM (Deployment Image Servicing and Management)/Remove-Package command-line option. They write:

I uninstalled this package on 2 systems and the Windows backup icon was successfully removed from Windows 10 Pro 22H2 without breaking anything else here.

This is what I did:

dism /online /get-packages

Remove-WindowsPackage -Online -PackageName “Microsoft-Windows-UserExperience-Desktop-Package~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~10.0.19041.3393”

For those who haven’t been following along, Microsoft debuted the new Windows Backup app on the Dev channel earlier this year. Later the app got future build improvements. Although it was initially designed for Windows 11, it has been released on Windows 10 as well.

source: Reddit