SharePoint 2013: Missing Blank Site Template

Problem

You want to create a new site based upon the Blank site template.  However, this site template is not shown when you try to select it:

This template is still available, but it is hidden.  You can see it when you run 

Get-SPWebTemplate | Select-Object Name, ID, Title, IsHidden | Ft -auto 

The IsHidden property is read only from PowerShell.  However, you can edit this property by editing the WEBTEMP.XML file in folder

C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\15\TEMPLATE\1033\XML

on each farm WFE.  You'll need to set the IsHidden property to False.  Note however that this approach isn't supported and may be overwritten by future updates. Another approach is to create a custom WEBTEMP*.XML file in this folder.  Further details about this approach can be found in Understanding WebTemp*.xml Files.  All things considered, it's much simpler to use the New-SPSite or New-SPWeb commandlets and including the Template option, when needing to create sites based upon this template.

Solution

1. Run the New-SPSite or New-SPWeb commandlet using the -Template option

References

• Missing Blank Site Template in SharePoint 2013
• Understanding WebTemp*.xml Files
• New-SPSite
• New-SPWeb
• Get-SPWebTemplate
• Get a list of web templates and IDs in a SharePoint site

Notes

• tbd