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Microsoft Making More of the Windows 10 Built-In Apps Removable (arstechnica.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the move-to-recycling-bin dept.

With the latest Windows 10 build 18262, Microsoft is allowing you to remove apps such as Mail, Calendar, Movies & TV, and the Groove Music app. Ars Technica reports: The ability to remove these apps doesn't really mean much in terms of disk space or convenience, as none of them are very big. The move may be of more interest to corporate deployments; an organization that has standardized on Outlook, for example, might want to remove the Mail and Calendar apps to reduce user confusion.

Elsewhere, the new build also updates Task Manager; an optional column in the Details tab will show which applications handle mixed DPI systems and what API level they use for that support. Microsoft is also planning, but has not yet enabled, a new Windows troubleshooter. This will examine diagnostic data and automatically perform any fixes or reconfigurations that appear to be necessary.

10 of 82 comments (clear)

  1. Wake me up when they make telemetry removable by sconeu · · Score: 4, Insightful

    And automatic updates.

    --
    General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
    1. Re:Wake me up when they make telemetry removable by Opportunist · · Score: 3

      Not really, actually it gets funnier and funnier with every incarnation of their "hey look, we made Windows better" spiel. MS announcements are more and more like Soviet propaganda, announcing and parading out achievements nobody gives a fuck about while failing to address what people actually care about.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  2. Oh Please...PLEASE! by IonOtter · · Score: 3, Funny

    Please remove Cortana. She's a good girl, but I really don't want her in my machine.

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    [End Of Line]
    1. Re:Oh Please...PLEASE! by jwhyche · · Score: 3

      She is a useless twat from hell. I really tried to use her, I tried to use her like $2 whore. Jumped through the hoops, did the voice training; my cat understand my commands better. The cat just ignores me. Hell that bitch from google is more useful. That alone tells you how bad cortana is.

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      I read at +2. If your post doesn't reach that level I will not see or respond to it.
  3. Gimme the old interface! by Stormwatch · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Win10's interface is an ugly mess. Let users choose the "classic" interface from Win2k and lots of complaints will vanish.

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    Circumcision is child abuse.
    1. Re:Gimme the old interface! by gweihir · · Score: 2

      Win10's interface is an ugly mess. Let users choose the "classic" interface from Win2k and lots of complaints will vanish.

      You need to adjust your language. That is not "ugly mess" that is "innovative interface"!
      Just so you know, the whole OS is also not "spyware", but a "great AI-driven agent that always knows what the user wants and thinks".

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    2. Re:Gimme the old interface! by thegarbz · · Score: 2

      and lots of complaints will vanish

      I think you're dramatically over estimating how much users give a crap.

  4. I just want an OS by nine-times · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I really really wish the pendulum would swing back to the operating system to just being an operating system. The kernel, drivers, window manager, desktop environment, etc., but basically no built-in apps, personal assistants, advertising, activation, or any other nonsense unless I want it.

    If you want to be innovative with your OS, make it run faster and more securely. Improve your APIs and frameworks to make it easier to develop applications. Make it easier to administer devices in bulk-- and don't make it "easier to administer" by creating some complex proprietary system that anticipates that you're an enterprise customer who can afford to employ a full-time expert of your expensive suite of tools. Make is actually easy. Let owners own their computers again. Let administrators administer their computers. Stop forcing updates and burdensome "security" restrictions. The OS should serve the computer's owner's needs, not the manufacturer's business interests.

    I know, I know... "Use Linux!" When someone can get hardware vendors and software developers to support it, I'll switch to it. I'd love to. I can't.

    1. Re:I just want an OS by hackertourist · · Score: 3, Interesting

      To illustrate:

      my previous laptop was built in 2008, it ran Windows 7. 8 GB RAM, 4 cores.
      CPU% when idle: 1%
      Available RAM before starting applications: >7 GB.

      Current laptop built in 2018, runs W10. 8 GB RAM, 4 cores.
      CPU when idle: 10-60%
      Available RAM before starting applications: 4-5 GB.

  5. Re:But Linux by Tough+Love · · Score: 2

    Just pointing out, there is no such thing as a non-removable app in Linux. There might be packages that other packages depend on, sure, but in general you can configure Linux whatever way you want, with whatever applications you want. And you can find out what anything running on your machine is actually doing.

    Oh, looks like some Microsoftie doesn't want you to know that.

    --
    When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.