WinRice Changelog

What's new in WinRice 0.5.04112021

• What's new:
• This release of WinRice is primarily aimed at improving UX, fixing bugs and adding new necessary features.
• Now when you start WinRice, the questions it asks you are easier to understand.
• WinRice now has Express settings which are predefined and are easy to use for people who don't want to spend time configuring their options.
• Ofcourse, if you don't want to use Express Settings, we provide you full control over those settings. WinRice now asks more easy to understand and fluid questions than before.
• WinRice features a new icon and banner. Thanks @vancelmusic.
• WinRice now generally supports Windows 11. This specific version was tested in Windows 11 Pro OS build 22000.292 in General Availability Channel.
• The overall UX is greatly improved. Thanks @KenHV for ideas!
• I've created a document that describes what job each function is responsible for. Read refer to Functions in the Wiki. This is part of an ongoing effort to make WinRice documentation easier to understand.
• This release features a ton of fixes over the last WinRice release.
• Apps:
• We'll now ask if you want to uninstall OneDrive.
• If you don't select which apps you want to uninstall, we'll now also uninstall Microsoft Teams.
• WinRice now asks you if you want to uninstall apps. If you say yes, it will ask if you want to select which apps you want to uninstall. If you choose that you don't want to select which apps you want to uninstall, it will uninstall a pre-defined set of apps.
• If we detect a file called uninstallapps.txt in the same folder as WinRice, we won't ask you any questions about uninstalling apps.
• What is uninstallapps.txt?
• I have omitted the following apps from pre-defined app uninstall list:
• 3D Viewer
• Clock / Alarms & Clock on Windows 10
• Films & TV
• Groove Music
• Microsoft To Do
• Messaging
• Network Speed Test
• Paid Wi-Fi
• Sway
• Skype
• Sticky Notes
• Paint
• Explanation: if you choose to uninstall apps but you don't select which apps to uninstall, we will no longer remove these apps. However if you select which apps you want to uninstall, you will still be able to uninstall these apps.
• The reason behind this change is simple: WinRice isn't a "debloater tool", hence our goal isn't to remove every single inbuilt app. Also, some apps like Skype, Sway, etc. no longer ship with newer versions of Windows, hence they have been omitted from the uninstall list.
• If you have chosen to select which apps to uninstall, and the app selection menu has opened up as a background window, WinRice will now inform you to switch to that window.
• WinRice now installs the latest GitHub release of WinGet from microsoft/winget-cli.
• If you select that you want to install apps using WinGet, it will proceed to ask you the installation method between WinGet Import and Winstall. If you don't choose anything, Winstall will be used.
• With this release of WinRice, I have replaced 7-zip with NanaZip - an open source derivative of 7-zip that comes with support for modern Windows context menu and comes packaged as MSIX (MSIX implies clean uninstalls which in turn prevents Windows rot).
• Note: You must be signed in to Microsoft account in order to install NanaZip, as WinRice installs NanaZip using WinGet from Microsoft Store. WinRice won't install NanaZip if you're not signed in to a Microsoft account.
• Windows optional features
• WinRice will no longer change a feature state if its already changed. This is what it means:
• Say you've chosen to install WSL. There might be chances that WSL is already installed on your device but you're not aware of it. Now, WinRice will alert you if WSL or any other feature like .NET 3.5, Windows Sandbox, etc. is already installed.
• We'll now ask you if you want to uninstall optional features. It's a simple y/n question, but if you go ahead without answering it, we'll uninstall the optional features.
• Now, we will first perform individual feature deployments (that is, installing/uninstalling .NET 3.5, WSL, Sandbox, etc.) before we proceed to the mass feature uninstallation section where we uninstall a pre-defined set of features.
• Clarification: We don't serve you a menu to choose which optional features we uninstall. Only the pre-defined set is uninstalled.
• We now use the classical method to deploy WSL since the newer wsl --install method does not allow us to override system restart warnings.
• OS:
• WinRice now enables Storage Sense. In previous releases, WinRice unintentionally ended up disabling Storage Sense.
• Privacy:
• WinRice will now disable Windows Error Reporting. This setting only applies to Windows users in the Semi-Annual/Annual channel, and will have no effect users in the Windows Insider channels.
• WinRice will no longer turn off Feedback notifications and telemetry if device is detected to be flighting in Windows Insider program.
• Fixes:
• [Apps]:
• I've addressed an issue where WinRice would freeze on Installing 7-zip.
• I've fixed an issue where in some cases WinRice couldn't install the new Microsoft Store.
• I've fixed an issue where in some cases WinRice couldn't install WinGet.
• I've fixed an issue where WinRice would freeze on Uninstalling Microsoft OneDrive.
• I've fixed an issue where in some cases WinRice couldn't install HEVC Video Extensions.
• I've fixed an issue where WinRice wasn't able to install correct dependencies for inbox apps like Microsoft Store.
• [Other]:
• I've fixed an issue where WinRice would incorrectly display job messages to you.
• I've fixed an issue where WinRice would freeze while installing WSL.