Windows 10 Default App Notifications After Deploy

[Paul B]

I've been evaluating Smart Deploy and have run into a persistent issue with any Windows 10 image I've created from version 1703 (Creators update). Everything works fine in the VM I use to capture the image, including a CopyProfile unattend.xml, but whenever I deploy the image to a new VM or machine, any user receives multiple notifications indicating "an app default has been reset." I am using the current version of Smart Deploy: 2.0.2050.

This issue would cause a problem for us, help desk calls will probably increase and deploying an image with these problems doesn't look well for the organization.

The latest process I used to try fixing this problem is as follows:

1. Installed Windows 10 x64 Pro to a Generation 1 Hyper-V VM
2. Disabled the network connection for the VM
3. After installation, entered audit mode
4. Customized the default profile
5. Used group policy to turn off Microsoft consumer experiences (candy crush etc)
6. Used Powershell to remove some UWP apps (ran both remove-appxpackage and remove-appxprovisionedpackage commands)
7. Ran sysprep with an answer file that had the CopyProfile directive
8. Booted into OOBE and created a default user
9. Shut down the VM and captured an image
10. Created offline install media on a USB drive
11. Deployed the image and platform pack to a test machine
12. The user created in the reference VM receives the notifications
13. A new user account was created, that account does not receive the notifications

We may be able to deal with the notification issue if it only occurs for the account created on the reference image, but it may still be a problem depending on how we create images to deploy to our users.

I will update this thread if I figure out a solution to the issue, if anyone else has this issue I would appreciate any advice.

[Jason93]

You don't have to sysprep. Smartdeploy does this for you. You can also create an unintended answer file. If you go to smartdeploys website and click on support there are step by step directions on building a master image. 

[Paul B]

The first image I created with Smart Deploy was a vanilla install of Windows 10 Professional x64, where I didn't perform any image customization or run my own sysprep (no need to copy the default profile, etc) and I even had the issue in that case.

I first used VirtualBox to create and capture the reference VM, and switched to Hyper-V in order to rule out the virtualization software as a possible cause of the issue, with no luck.

Some digging on the internet indicates this may be a problem with sysprep and Windows 10, and not a problem specific to Smart Deploy, but I haven't managed to find a resolution to the issue yet.

[Csmith1919]

Yeah, I can say I have this same issue. It ranges from 6-12 notifications. Thanks for confirming it was not only me!

[Craig Mankiewicz]

I can also confirm I just created a vanilla Win 10 pro install today and have numerous "An app default was reset" notifications on first login.

[Chris Jones]

This is happening to us too - previously on Anniversary update, now on Fall Creators.

[Allenflo]

Any update on this issue?    This is happening to me as well.   Fresh Fall Creators Update installation

Thanks

[Jeff Harris]

Sysprep with CopyProfile is sort of broken in Windows 10 1709. Here's a lengthy TechNet post with users reporting different behavior.

We're hoping it's resolved in the next update. There are some work-arounds to get it working well enough, but nothing seems to be a magic bullet. 

[cg40]

Any update on this? I have this issue as well with Windows 10 Pro1903 image.

[Bryan Zayas]

50 minutes ago, cg40 said:

Any update on this? I have this issue as well with Windows 10 Pro1903 image.

I second this, I've largely been ignoring this issue post deployments. But I've also experienced it in Windows 10 Pro 1903.

[RPA]

Windows is constantly changing what is happening behind the scenes with updates to the OS builds.  For security reasons, Microsoft has really tied the default applications to the specific users.  Even though much of what is being done from an imaging/sysprep standpoint is trying to build off the default profile, with recent changes, the Default Applications notifications you're seeing is by design.  You'll need to do some PS scripting to export/import the default app associations or utilize GPO to pass along the default app associations.

[BPF12207]

We have the same issue. The image is dropped and customizations are lost. I think this is more of a win10 issue though because on the physically imaged PC, if I set the default apps as the local admin, they are lost when the domain user logs in. Windows is forcing each profile to what microsoft wants as defaults from what I can tell

[douglasac10]

I'm seeing the "there was a problem with the associations and it's been reset to the defaults" notifications when I log in for the first time (after using the dism /export-defaultfileassociations and dism /import-defaultfileassociations commands) however the notifications seem to be erroneous, as the associations are correctly showing what I've set them as (e.g. the one that usually pops up first is complaining about PDF files now opening with Edge, but they're still set as Adobe Reader).

They only come up on first login so not a huge issue, and as others have pointed out it's probably a Windows issue rather than a Smartdeploy one.

[Jason M]

This is probably related to removing the provisioned appX packages. That's the only thing I did differently when I started seeing the "An app default was reset" notifications. I haven't even applied any custom file associations yet. Still testing..