Windows 10 Pro 1903 still comes with crapware by default
When you install Windows 10 from scratch, some Universal Platform applications do get installed by default or at least linked in the Start Menu. That's true for Windows 10 Home, Pro and even Enterprise.
Microsoft has been criticized in the past for pushing games to newly installed Windows 10 Pro systems. We never got an official explanation why Candy Crush Saga, Seeker's Notes, or Netflix on Pro systems.
Have things changed? Tero Alhonen suggested that they have. He posted a screenshot on Twitter that showed the Start Menu of a Home system installation of Windows 10 Home without Candy Crush Saga. His screenshot still showed other apps, Netflix and Spotify in particular.
Martin Geuss chimed in stating that he still saw games being listed in the Start Menu using the MSDN ISO of Windows 10 version 1903. Geuss installed Windows 10 Pro as well and it too listed several games in the Start menu on first start of the system.
Paul Thurott finally installed Windows 10 Pro and still got games installed; these were listed in a Play group on the system and no longer listed individually. Microsoft changed the layout of the Start Menu in the May 2019 Update, and that is probably the reason why.
Time to find out what is going on
I installed a fresh copy of Windows 10 version 1903 on a test system and created a local account that I used to sign in. The Start menu of the operating system was divided into two groups of apps called Productivity and Explore.
Some options displayed just a download icon and the hover text "a great app is on its way" at first. It took a while for the apps to become available.
The Productivity group listed Office, Mail, Microsoft Edge, Photos, Weather, and a group with Outlook, Word, Excel, OneDrive, PowerPoint, and OneNote applications.
The Explore group listed the Microsoft Store, Spotify Music, Netflix, Microsoft News, Xing, and the Play group with Candy Crush Friends Saga, Microsoft Solitaire Collection, Candy Crush Saga, March of Empires, Gardenscapes, and Seekers Notes.
Some games were not installed but did install as soon as you clicked on the icon in the Start menu.
Conclusion
Devices with Windows 10 Home or Pro installations will get games and other third-party applications regardless of the selected account type. The only exception to the rule is if the Pro version is domain joined; games won't be listed in that case.
Enterprise and Education systems get only productivity apps, and there are mechanisms in place to turn these off as well.
There may be regional differences as well in regards to apps and games that do get installed on Windows 10 devices.
It is easy enough to remove these from Windows 10; just right-click on individual apps or games and select "unpin" or "uninstall" from the context menu. Windows 10 version 1903 comes with options to unpin an entire group of apps as well in the Start Menu by right-clicking on the group title.
I think that Pro systems should not come with games or entertainment apps by default, but that is just my opinion.
Now You: What is your take on this? Do you find this useful?
I play some steam games. while linux is nice and all it doesn’t allow windows games… and windows emulation doesn’t cut it even on an i9 extreme
Since I installed the 1903 “update”, every time I try to save a file like a pdf ebook, etc. it forces my downloads folder to “group” the folders in chronological order only. I have been able to set the group to “None” for all other files in File Explorer, but not if it is saving from Chrome. The latest incident was today when I re-booted and upon startup there was an adobe flash renewal notice.
Well at least you can uninstall more apps you never wanted in the first place. I didn’t bother testing 1903 in beta but so far on a couple older Haswell PC’s it boots pretty slow, and Edge original is just as flaky as the day it was released. I am glad I can reduced the apps down to what I use and hopefully use a browser that actually works. I would advise most users to pass on the upgrade for a month or so if at all possibly.
All previous Windows versions shipped games and other nonsense! If anyone doesn’t like, get over it and uninstall.
Yes, just confirming the GHacks Reply option isn’t working.
“Microsoft changed the layout of the Start Menu in the May 2019 Update”
Grrrrrrrrrr! Can they not just for once allow USERS to customise their own damn computer (i.e. user options, Microsoft, USER options), and for the Start Menu etc., etc. NOT to change every five minutes (yes, I know, hyperbole, but…). Thank you.
I’m still on Win10 1803 (Pro) on my Steam engine, which I use strictly for gaming – why the heck should I ever upgrade? There’s no legitimate way (without hacks) through the firewall to Windows update, anyway… Oh well, maybe if I’m really bored.
@RB: “The other bothersome issue on Windows 10 is that you no longer have the ability to customize your start menu.”
You can’t? All the more reason to use a start menu replacement like Classic Start Menu. They really make Win 10 a lot more usable, and my use of one is probably why I never noticed that you can’t customize the start menu Microsoft provides.
The Comment Hamster must have died. One of my comments was a reply but appeared as an original, the other appeared written by “Anonymous.”
@Martin Brinkmann:
Thanks for the clarification! (BTW, threaded replies seem to have broken for me a few days ago, so I’m sorry if this is hard to find…)
This just proves how super greedy M$ is. It is an unfair trade for M$ to collect license fees from Win 10 users AND force them to see her ads, 3rd-party games and apps = double-dipping.
@ Sad
Try the non-free Crossover program from Codeweavers Inc. It can run most modern Windows programs on Linux, unlike the free Wine program.
I think any version should be spared of crapware. I hate logging on in work on a new workstation to wait to wait only to download and install this uselss junk.
The other bothersome issue on Windows 10 is that you no longer have the ability to customize your start menu. I’d love to get of a lot of useless uninstalable MS crap. Result:: a very long list that you need to go through to find your stuff. The rest is just pollution.
MS is prostituting their own OS.
I did a clean install of 1903 Enterprise – the only start screen items were Office and Edge – nothing else, not even the MS Store, Photos, Weather, Email, News, etc – I had to add all the items I wanted there.
I will install a linux variant on a laptop to browse for all news searches and others, and mail. W10 for everyday computing.
@David: “The Enterprise version of 1903 …”
I don’t keep up on Microsoft licensing requirements (who can?), but I thought you could only get an Enterprise through a volume licensing deal, not as onesies. That requirement is why my currently employer does not provide the Enterprise edition to us.
Is that not true?
Visual Studio Enterprise Subscriptions (about $2800 US annually for the renewal) can be purchase directly from MS or through a reseller – it has access to all MS supported software (even some no longer supported), which includes all OS versions, desktop, server, phone, etc and in all flavors, education, enterprise, pro, home in all languages.
Well, it is, but you can buy Enterprise keys for example on eBay from resellers. May not be legal in all countries but it is in some.
Earlier in the week, I noticed a problem with my Start Menu layout, so I found a neat little tool referenced here:
https://www.intowindows.com/how-to-backup-restore-start-menu-layout-in-windows-10/
The tool works its magic and didn’t leave any traces of any undesirable programs:
https://www.sordum.org/10997/backup-start-menu-layout-v1-1/
Although I didn’t use the “backup” function because I wanted to comepletely reset the Start Menu, it sounds like one can make a “backup” and restore it after an upgrade.
I am going to Linux eventually, when W10 goes subscription probably. Been trying for years but Linux is very Windows user unfriendly under the hood. If you just use it for internet or Office clones, it is acceptable.
>Now You: What is your take on this? Do you find this useful?<
The article's useful, the junkware, no.
/s maybe? :)
This is another reason I give people for now refusing to fix their Windows computers. I was willing to deal with getting rid of third party crapware on PCs for users. But now that the OS vendor themselves is installing it, I prefer to spend 100% of my time in Linux.
I refuse to help them money or no. I send them to BleepingComputer.com
99% of them can’t be bothered to get it for free.. they want someone to bitch at. nopes
Windows 10 is a scam ever since Satya took over. Remember when you could buy a Windows device without any bloatware? It was called Microsoft’s Signature Edition. Microsoft needs to bring that back.
Windows 10 should be like Windows 7. I have W10 but sometimes I ask my old father’s laptop with W7 inside to finish my homework — while my W10 is upgrading, updating or whatever it’s doing.
In the US I bought a Windows 10 x64 Home laptop from a brick and mortar Microsoft store, and in almost 4 years I have never seen any crapware installed on the machine except for what I intentionally installed.
I am shocked beyond comprehension! I will not alter my clean windblows install-behaviour in any shape or form. While installing, I won’t let windblows access the interweb, from a usb stick I copy over program installers and registryfiles. I get rid of all bloatware and all windblows apps, nuke windblows defender, nuke everything. Edge does never ever get started on the machine, its also blocked with a firewall. I basically spend an hour or two killing all these idiotic things and even after that I am left with a system that has numerous annoyances I am not able to murder. Oh well, I only need windblows on one machine for one specific purpose, so it’s all good. The rest of my time I spend in happyhappy linux-land nowadays. Long story short, windblows 10 out of the box is one nasty user-hostile, privacy-raping, bloated horrorshow that should be slapped with a billion lawsuits for annoying the hell out of the planets population.There should be a law prohibiting outrageous misuse of monopoly like Microsoft are displaying.
@ Clint
when sarcasm is the truth.
I think you forgot to mention that it’s buggy. And the UI is barely usable. Other than that, carry on.
@Clint Burtwood
Why invest even 5 min. in deleting, blocking… Just install LTSB/LTSC version of Windows.
There is no browser, no Cortana, no games, no telemetry… just Google Twitter and you will find how to get and install it.
https://www.ghacks.net/2017/07/28/windows-10-ltsb-becomes-windows-10-ltsc/
B or C is not clear which is better
@ilev
Clint, grow up.
@ Anonymous said on April 30, 2019 at 4:00 pm
Character assassination is easier than refuting his assertions.
CrapOS with CrApps.
It is very easy to avoid the automatic installation of this crap.
Just install Windows 10 without internet connection, create a local account and after that installation is finished disable the automatic installation of recommended apps with Shutup10 from O&O Software.
After that you can connect to the internet without worring about this crapware.
>disable the automatic installation of recommended apps with Shutup10 from O&O Software
Why would you do that? There are means to achieve this directly from Windows itself.
Color me surprised. It’s absolutely ridiculous to call this crapware a “Pro” version of Windows – this would not even be acceptable for the “Home” version.
Windows 8.1 still has 3 1/2 years to go. After that it’s Mac or Linux for me, unless Microsoft does a 180 degree turnaround when it comes to their strategy.
I agree the OS should be just that, if you want games or some other productive apps you should know by know where to find them in the Microsoft Store. Yeah it isn’t difficult to uninstall them, but shouldn’t be installed to begin with. I will appreciate the ability now for even Home version to be able to pause feature upgrades which is a step in the right direction. So once you do get your PC setup they way you want it, you can rest assure you can keep it that way longer.
If Linux users could crack why Microsoft Office 365 won’t stream to Linux so I could install Access and Outlook through Wine, then I would already be on Linux. Unfortunately I need those two programs for work.
But I am trying to figure out if I can use the Linux versions in lieu of my current programs.
Have you tried running a virtualized instance of Windows 10?
Windows should come as Windows, nothing else. I would not mind a removable link to ‘Microsoft recommended software but that’s as far as it should go. Vanilla Windows. All else requires user intervention. Enough to run Windows and access the internet only. The could knock over a lot of unnecessary processes, as well. Let users seek if they want to load what should be extras – an accessory link.
Hey got to use that 32 GB from the user’s SSD in way or the other. :P
The Enterprise version of 1903 doesn’t come with any of this “crapware†preinstalled. Try it.
“Enterprise and Education systems get only productivity apps”
I see this in the trial of Enterprise. But has anyone here verified that this is true of the EDU version as well?
LTSB/C or Server is the answer to all your problems ;)
imgur.com/Pomoqk1
I initially hit [Reply] to David, then I decided to make my comment a stand-alone one by refreshing the page. It appeared as if I was making a regular comment but ended up as a reply to David. Odd, it was not my intention.