Disable Background MS Store apps

Overview

• ID/URL: disable-background-ms-store-apps
• Description: Disables Microsoft Store apps from running in the background
• Risk Level: Safe

Details

Disables all background activity for modern UWP apps by setting 'GlobalUserDisabled' to 1 under the current user's BackgroundAccessApplications registry key, creating the key if it doesn't exist.

Apply

$path = "HKCU:\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\BackgroundAccessApplications"
$name = "GlobalUserDisabled"
$newValue = 1
  
# Ensure the key exists
If (-Not (Test-Path $path)) {
  New-Item -Path $path -Force | Out-Null
}
  
# Set the value
Set-ItemProperty -Path $path -Name $name -Type DWord -Value $newValue
  
Write-Host "$name set to $newValue (Background Access Disabled)"

Unapply

 $path = "HKCU:\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\BackgroundAccessApplications"
  $name = "GlobalUserDisabled"
  $originalValue = 0
  
  # Ensure the key exists
  If (-Not (Test-Path $path)) {
      New-Item -Path $path -Force | Out-Null
  }
  
  # Revert the value
  Set-ItemProperty -Path $path -Name $name -Type DWord -Value $originalValue
  
  Write-Host "$name reverted to $originalValue (Background Access Restored)" -ForegroundColor Yellow