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Microsoft Tests New Tool To Remove OEM Crapware (arstechnica.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Windows 10 already includes ways to clear out applications and data to repair misbehaving systems or prepare them to be sold, courtesy of the Refresh and Reset features added in Windows 8. Microsoft is now adding a third option: a new refresh tool. Currently available only for Windows Insiders, the new tool fetches a copy of Windows online and performs a clean installation. The only option is whether or not you want to preserve your personal data. Any other software that's installed will be blown away, including the various applications and utilities that OEMs continue to bundle with their systems. Ars Technica points out that the tool isn't perfect. For example, "it installs a preview build from the fast track, but Microsoft notes that the new tool can sometimes install a version older than the one currently installed. When this kind of version mismatch occurs, the option to preserve your files is removed."
Let's see if this makes it past the lameness filter:
I run this remove_crapps.ps1 script after every new Windows Insider build, to remove the stuff I don't want (including OneDrive).
They tried that. Up until around 1999, Microsoft wouldn't allow a new PC to be shipped with anything but stock Windows (and before that, DOS). Pre-installed software was forbidden by the licensing agreement.
An antitrust lawsuit in the late 90s claimed that this practice was anticompetitive because OEMs couldn't put alternative web browsers on PCs. So Microsoft was forced by the courts to allow OEMs to install whatever they wanted on prebuilt PCs.