Unpin Microsoft Store from the Taskbar using Intune Policy

In this guide, we’ll show you how to unpin Microsoft Store from the taskbar using Intune policy for Windows users. Although the Microsoft Store is a helpful app, most users do not really need it pinned to their taskbar, especially on Intune-managed computers where you want everyone to use Company Portal.

Most organizations that use Microsoft Intune to manage their Windows devices want their users to use the company portal to install and uninstall apps. Therefore, in order to stop users from installing unwanted apps, access to the Microsoft Store app is blocked.

Here’s an observation: blocking the Store app leaves the icon pinned to the taskbar. This is a problem because users may accidentally click the Store icon, ending up seeing a “Microsoft Store is blocked” error.

In Intune, you can either use Settings Catalog or Policy CSP – NoPinningStoreToTaskbar to prevent the Microsoft Store from being pinned to the taskbar for all users. That being said, we advise using the settings catalog instead of the Policy CSP because it is simpler to accomplish this task. Rest assured, this guide will cover both approaches.

Unpin Microsoft Store from the Taskbar using Intune Settings Catalog

Let’s create a policy to unpin the store icon from the taskbar using the Intune Settings catalog. Sign in to the Microsoft Intune admin center. Select Devices > Windows > Configuration Profiles. To create a new policy, select Create > New Policy.

On the Create a profile window, configure the following settings and select Create.

• Platform: Windows 10 and later
• Profile Type: Settings Catalog

Click Next.

Enter the basic details about the policy. In the Basics tab, enter the following details:

• Name: Enter a descriptive name for the profile that can be easily identified later. In the below example, we have set the profile name to “Unpin Microsoft Store from the Taskbar.”
• Description: Enter a brief description of the profile. This setting is optional but recommended.

Click Next.

In the Configuration Settings section, under Settings Catalog, click Add Settings. In the Settings picker window, type “Do not allow pinning Store app to the Taskbar” in the search box and click Search. From the search results, select the category Administrative Templates\Start Menu and Taskbar.

In the bottom pane, select the following setting: “Do not allow pinning Store app to the Taskbar.” Close the Settings Picker.

Do not allow pinning Store app to the Taskbar: This policy setting allows you to control pinning the Store app to the Taskbar.

• If you enable this policy setting, users can’t pin the Store app to the Taskbar. If the Store app is already pinned to the Taskbar, it will be removed from the Taskbar on next login.
• If you disable or don’t configure this policy setting, users can pin the Store app to the Taskbar.

Since we want to remove the Store icon from the taskbar for users, we are configuring the policy setting “Do not allow pinning Store app to the Taskbar (User)” to “Enabled.”

Click Next.

In Intune, Scope tags determine which objects admins can see. In the Scope tags section, you specify scope tags. Specifying scope tags is optional, and you may skip this step. Click Next.

In the Assignments window, select the user groups to which you want to assign this policy. We recommend deploying the profile to a few test groups first and then expanding it to more groups if the testing is successful. Select Next.

On the Review + Create page, review all the settings that you have configured for enabling the built-in administrator account via Intune and select Create.

After you create a configuration policy in Intune, a notification appears: “Policy created successfully.” This confirms that the policy has been created and is being applied to the groups we chose. The profile we created can be found in the configuration profiles section of the admin center.

Monitor Policy Assignment

To monitor the MS Store icon removal policy in Intune that you applied to Windows devices and users, select the policy and review the device and user check-in status.

Under the device and user check-in status, we see the total number of devices and users that succeeded in receiving the policy. In some cases, the policy may fail to apply to certain devices. To resolve the issues, you will need to troubleshoot the issue by reviewing Intune logs on computers.

Unpinning the Microsoft Store using Intune Policy CSP

The Intune Policy CSP – NoPinningStoreToTaskbar lets you unpin the Store icon from the taskbar. This is an alternative approach to using the settings catalog to manage the Store icon. However, this method may not work as intended because several users have experienced error 0x87d1fde8.

If you plan to use the NoPinningStoreToTaskbar Policy CSP in Intune to get rid of the MS Store icon, make use of the below CSP URI.

./User/Vendor/MSFT/Policy/Config/ADMX_Taskbar/NoPinningStoreToTaskbar

Alternative Ways to remove the Store from the Taskbar

Finally, let’s take a look at other options that can remove the store icon from the taskbar for your users.

Method 1: Windows Registry

You can tweak the registry to get rid of the Store icon on the taskbar. The MS Store icon can be unpinned for the user on a device by configuring the registry key below. You can also deploy this registry key via a GPO or perform a manual change on the device.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer]
"NoPinningStoreToTaskbar"=dword:00000001

Method 2: PowerShell Script

There are numerous PowerShell scripts available on GitHub that can unpin the store from the taskbar. When these scripts are executed in the user context, the Microsoft Store application is found and unpinned from the taskbar.

Method 3: Manually unpinning

To manually get rid of the store icon from the taskbar, right-click on the Microsoft Store icon in the taskbar. Select “Unpin from taskbar.” However, this method is not recommended because a user can pin the store app back to the taskbar.

Method 4: Group Policy

If you’re managing multiple systems in your Active Directory environment, Group Policy can be used to prevent the Microsoft Store from being pinned to the taskbar for all users. You can configure the Do not allow pinning Store app to the Taskbar GPO and set this policy to Enabled.

Conclusion

To conclude, we have presented multiple methods with which you can prevent the Microsoft Store from being pinned to the taskbar for all users. Using the Settings Catalog in Intune is a very straightforward and easy method when compared to other solutions. If you are not using Intune, you can use a group policy to get rid of the store icon from the taskbar for your users.