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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.

2 of 511 comments (clear)

  1. Better yet... by Zurkeyon3733 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.

  2. Re:They did ask... by thegarbz · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.