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Hey Microsoft, Stop Installing Apps On My PC Without Asking (howtogeek.com)

Posted by msmash on from the stop-it-already dept.

Chris Hoffman, writing for How To Geek: I'm getting sick of Windows 10's auto-installing apps. Apps like Facebook are now showing up out of nowhere, and even displaying notifications begging for me to use them. I didn't install the Facebook app, I didn't give it permission to show notifications, and I've never even used it. So why is it bugging me? Windows 10 has always been a little annoying about these apps, but it wasn't always this bad. Microsoft went from "we pinned a few tiles, but the apps aren't installed until you click them" to "the apps are now automatically installed on your PC" to "the automatically installed apps are now sending you notifications." It's ridiculous.

10 of 511 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Better yet... by TechyImmigrant · · Score: 5, Informative

    Today (Feb 15th 2018) is the day Microsoft has been telling me they are going to remove the PDF reader and I should use 'edge' instead. The singularity of stupid has arrived.

    --
    I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
  2. Paste into a .reg file and run. You're welcome. by nctritech · · Score: 4, Informative

    Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

    [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\CloudContent]
    "DisableWindowsConsumerFeatures"=dword:00000001

    1. Re:Paste into a .reg file and run. You're welcome. by cyberpunkrocker · · Score: 4, Informative

      Setting HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ContentDeliveryManager\SilentInstalledAppsEnabled to 0 seems to do the same trick at least on Win10 Home

    2. Re:Paste into a .reg file and run. You're welcome. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

      That setting doesn't actually work after 1511. I know because I used to use this and in current builds they expect you to get the enterprise or education SKUs.

  3. Re:They did ask... by unrtst · · Score: 5, Informative

    ... Steam on MacOS and seen a pretty small selection of games ... I don't even know if they support Linux

    SERIOUSLY!?! Steam has been one of the biggest supporters of Linux. Their SteamOS _IS_ Linux. Their Steam Machines run Linux. They have over 1k games that run on Linux (probably most of the same ones that run on macs).

  4. Re:They did ask... by mr_mischief · · Score: 4, Informative

    Linux Mint Cinnamon and Linux Mint Debian Edition (LMDE2) are both handling Steam just fine at my house and have been for many months.

  5. Re:They did ask... by tepples · · Score: 3, Informative

    It's a shame I bet the files stored on my SSDs likely wouldn't share data and if I dual installed [the same Steam game for multiple operating systems,] I'd have to pick between.

    That depends on how an application's depots are configured. Each depot is a package that can be for one or many operating systems, one or many architectures, one or many languages, and either the base game or a particular add-on. A well-packaged Steam game would come as three depots:

    • Program: Specific to one combination of architecture and operating system but shared across all languages
    • Non-program localization: Those parts shared across all architectures and operating systems that pertain to one language, mostly strings, fonts, and pre-rendered signboard textures
    • Non-program, non-culture: Shared across all architectures, operating systems, and languages

    (Many developers refer to non-program depots as "assets", but others claim that the term "assets" devalues non-program works.)

    Thus you'd end up with a program depot per OS and non-program depots shared among OSes.

  6. "Suggested Apps" by darkain · · Score: 1, Informative

    It is called "Suggested Apps", and with one tic inside of settings, it is entirely disabled. Do we need an entire bitchfest for a simple optional OS feature that is easily disabled?

    https://www.groovypost.com/how...

  7. Re:This is A/B testing, not all of you experience by guruevi · · Score: 3, Informative

    This has been known since ~2016:
    https://winaero.com/blog/fix-w...

    TL;DR:
    If a vendor wants to promote an app, then they pay Microsoft to push it to all Windows PCs.

    --
    Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com
  8. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 3, Informative

    Comment removed based on user account deletion