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Despite Outrage From Users, Microsoft Continues To Install Bloatware Applications Onto Every Windows 10 PC (windowscentral.com)

Posted by msmash on from the tussle-continues dept.

Before Windows 10, a clean install of Windows only included the bare essentials a user would need to get started using their PC. With Windows 10, a clean install stays that way for about two minutes, because the second you hit the desktop, the Microsoft Store immediately starts trying to download third-party apps and games. Users have long complained about it, but it turns out Microsoft never put paid to it. Windows Central writes: And these apps keep trying to install themselves even after you cancel the downloads. There are six such apps, which is six too many. These apps are often random, but right now they include things like Candy Crush, Spotify, and Disney Magic Kingdoms. You should not see any of these apps on a fresh install of Windows 10, yet they are there every single time. There are policies you can set that disable these apps from automatically installing, but that's not the point. On a fresh, untouched, clean install of Windows 10, these apps will download themselves onto your PC. Even if you cancel the installation of these apps before they manage to complete the download, they will retry at a later date, without you even noticing. The only way I've found that gets rid of them permanently is to let them install initially, without canceling the download, and then uninstall the apps from the Start menu. If you cancel the initial download of the bloatware apps before they complete their first install, the Microsoft Store will just attempt to redownload them later and will keep doing so until that initial install is complete. This is not a good user experience, Microsoft.

5 of 490 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Malware installs bloatware... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Informative

    Where is exactly "out there"? In the mobile market? In cloud system backends? Etc.

    If we are taking "everything counts", then, no it isn't. Are you from the past?

  2. Even on Pro by Yggdrasil42 · · Score: 5, Informative

    The even more ridiculous thing is that this happens even on the Pro version. The one that's supposed to be for doing work. And those "policies you can set that disable these apps from automatically installing"? Yeah, they don't work anymore. As a result every employee gets Candy Crush and the like installed on every machine. Absolutely insane.

  3. How much does Windows 10 Enterprise cost? by tepples · · Score: 3, Informative

    Nonsense, either get an Enterprise license

    How many PCs does a company need before it qualifies to buy Windows 10 Enterprise licenses? And how much does it cost per seat? In my experience, "Request a Quote" as stated in Microsoft's comparison page means "if you have to ask, you can't afford it." The "Learn More & Try" link ultimately links to an ROI calculator, but I could not try the ROI calculator because it was blurred out by a modal dialog that requires the user to submit personal and company information and authorize a Microsoft salesperson to contact the user.

    or just uninstall the apps

    Just uninstalling the apps doesn't undo the fact that having downloaded them in the first place counts against the monthly data transfer allowance that your ISP imposes.

  4. Except that you can not by Cyberax · · Score: 4, Informative

    The thing is, you simply can NOT buy Win 10 Enterprise unless you are a large company. They sell licenses starting with 50 users.

    1. Re:Except that you can not by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      The thing is, you simply can NOT buy Win 10 Enterprise unless you are a large company. They sell licenses starting with 50 users.

      This is only true for what they call an "E5" enterprise agreement.

      There is also a lower "E3" enterprise licensing model that only requires 5 device licenses, usually $150 each but you can purchase a placeholder device cal that is $30 to fill in the required 5 total.
      It's then $84/user/year with no real minimum requirement.

      E3 does not come with a deployment image version of windows 10 enterprise, but instead as an upgrade to windows 10 professional.
      That does mean you'll need a licensed copy of 10 pro to upgrade to enterprise, but they do allow OEM pro versions as well as retail and system builder.

      Don't get me wrong, it's still far more expensive and complicated than this should be, and it's asinine to have removed the basic local/group policy functionality out of professional edition.

      But with a 5 computer minimum in E3, enterprise edition isn't completely out of reach even for a home user. Even if it's still complete bullshit to be necessary in the first place.