> maybe the difference is that we install Windows 10 Pro whereas the author is a Windows 10 Home user
No, every installation of Windows 10 Pro I've seen had a start menu that was mostly ads (links to Candy Crush, Spotify, Office etc.) - I've also had the OS nag me about giving Edge a second chance.
This is in Germany, in case the region matters, and I always deny all spyware as far as possible using the GUI.
It removes nothing of any importance. The terrible WinRT photo viewer can be replaced with the classic one, which is still installed along with the OS and just needs to be enabled:
Most of those you can right click on and select uninstall now. It takes longer, but it feels safer to me because I have to take a second for each to think if I want it or not.
I was forced to upgrade my workstation to windows 10 and that’s exactly what i was doing yesterday after unsuccesfully trying to remove bloatware via control panel.
I am fumbling in windows 10. I have lost so much muscle memory due to this upgrade. While i know i’ll build it back I’m frustrated that I have to relearn things I was doing with my eyes closed.
Yeah don't do this - I did this once and I ended up having to reinstall since it broke enough stuff that the control panel wouldn't even work afterwards.
I've just done it to a VM and Control Panel is still there. I suggest you run:
get-appxpackage -allusers | fl name
and curate the list first and pipe that through remove-appxpackage. Quite a few appx thingies refused to uninstall due to being important! On the other hand so far this VM is working fine and by following a few of the other suggestions from howtogeek eg remove Bing from your start menu, it seems almost usable.
For some reasons I had varied results with this (within the same region). I've had installs where the Start menu was really polluted with all kinds of games, and installs where none of them were present. All of them are usually done from the latest ISO I could download from the MS page.
All of the installs were made on OEM machines (HP, Lenovo) that already came with a Pro license or upgrade option. This was done in a home environment so no AD/enterprise options, and never logging on with MS account. So I wonder if there's the possibility that specific OEMs, models, license keys get the treatment while others do not. I'm not sure if the behavior was tied to particular machines or not since I didn't follow the scientific method while doing installations (will do in the future).
No, every installation of Windows 10 Pro I've seen had a start menu that was mostly ads (links to Candy Crush, Spotify, Office etc.) - I've also had the OS nag me about giving Edge a second chance.
This is in Germany, in case the region matters, and I always deny all spyware as far as possible using the GUI.