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Hey Microsoft, Stop Installing Apps On My PC Without Asking (howtogeek.com)
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.
It UNINSTALLS programs without asking. About 3 months ago an update rolled out that Win10 said Quickbooks "Conflicted" with. So, without user interaction or ANY way short of pulling the plug to stop it, it Uninstalled Quickbooks from the users PC. Then did it to 3 more... Win10 Between the Spying "Metrics" it collects, and the Forced Auto-installs, and now it appears forced Installs, is by far the most "In your way" OS that Microsoft has ever produced. A STARK contrast to Even the Annoyances of Win7 and Win8.1.
I set a PC up for someone at work a week or two ago, the next day it put an update on and reset the entire Start menu tile configuration I'd spent about 15 minutes sorting out, so I had to set it all up again.
A couple of days later my Dad said "I don't know what happened to this laptop. All my programs have gone and I have to manually search for everything now." Yes, it had deleted all his Start menu, too. What a total F#'#'*&$£ pile of $#!t3. This should be illegal. If I went into someone's house and re-arranged their rooms without asking I'd expect the police to be knocking on my door.
I only moved to Win 7 because of the end of life with XP, but I can't see me moving off Win 7, ever.
To everyone calling bullshit:
This really happens, but it is assumed that Microsoft is doing some kind of A/B testing, similar to when they roll out updates:
I've never seen it happen on my PC (besides Candy Crush, which I could easily delete), but on two completely fresh / no MS Account Windows 10 Installs at my in-laws. The following games kept getting downloaded and reinstalled. It was really without user intervention on a completely fresh machine.
https://i.redd.it/5uvjgiyc7l50...
It amounted to roughly 1,2GB traffic on a 4mbit connection. Only disabling cloud content via registry allowed this to stop. Uninstall led to reinstall.
Primarily? No. But I enjoy gaming. And my privacy. What now?
Your privacy? That was pretty much gone loooong ago. Now they've come to take away ANY control you may have left over your computing experience, so they can subject you to constant propaganda-laced exhortations to conform, to consume, to rent-to-not-own, and to trust your entire to the Cloud and the corporations. In general, they're doing everything possible to get you to give up your autonomy and your ability to think critically. They haven't achieved that goal yet, but they are getting ever closer, and the writing's on the wall. But go on ahead and enjoy those games! Or, alternatively, you might consider that having to use Windows makes those games cost WAY more than the sticker price. Like, maybe, your soul ...
'The Economy' is a giant Ponzi scheme whose most pitiable suckers are the youngest among us and the yet-unborn.
I know I look forward to the day when an alternative gaming operating system rivals Windows via Steam.
Steam turned PC gaming into a DRM-laden dystopia. Add to it the drama* that comes with playing online, cryptocoin miners running up GPU prices, and most games being uninspired formulaic FPS rehashes, and it's no wonder the term "PC master race" was originally coined with sarcastic intent. By comparison, having to run Windows is a pretty minor fault.
Besides, this article is a non-story. Every version of Windows has always shipped with a few annoying default settings, go in and turn that crap off - problem solved.
* Gaming is taken way too seriously today. In the good old LAN play days, we'd (my friends and I) all use cheats, custom maps and weapon hacks because we weren't trying to see who was the best, we were just fucking around and having fun.
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DRM is like antifreeze, to the MPAA/RIAA it's sweet, to the consumers it's poison.
I suppose that could be happening. However just last night I setup a brand spanking new computer for my kids to use. I installed Firefox, Minecraft, and Steam. I was switching between the children's profiles to set things up when I noticed that the start menu was now showing some new games that weren't there previously. Games that I've never heard of let alone purchased through either Steam or the Windows Store. I also didn't configure the Windows 10 install using any external accounts like email or Microsoft. From my perspective it appears entirely as if Windows just decided that I'd like some games and installed them on its own.
TFA is pointless. Windows 10 doesn't install any apps without your request if you turn off the settings "Occasionally show suggestions in Start" under the taskbar settings. Additionally the package responsible for installing these "suggestions" is called App Installer which you can simply uninstall and gone. You don't need any fancy educational or enterprise thing for it.
The thing is if you do a search on this problem you'll find 100 different people suggest 100 different registry edits or group policy edits and 100 different people complaining that it doesn't work. Frankly I've given up on any article claiming you can't turn it off.
Incidentally this single setting is also responsible for the suggestions to use Edge when you use Chrome, and also responsible for one of the two nagging OneDrive adverts.