4 ms·

Unfortunately, this "vendor crap" is now part of the OS.

moksha256 8y ago
It's even worse than that. There's 2 types of crap now: vendor crap and Windows crap. You can avoid vendor crap by reinstalling a fresh version of Windows from Microsoft, but you'll still get Microsoft crap (i.e., various apps from the Microsoft store pre-installed with links prominently displayed on the Start menu).
- ChrisSD 8y ago
  These are what Microsoft calls "suggestions" (aka adverts). I think they only actually install when you first click on them. Fortunately they're UWP apps so are easy to completely remove. Turning off the "Show suggestions" settings will stop them coming back.
  - zahrc 8y ago
    A clean install of Windows 10 (not n versions) is shipped with stupid game installers for things like candy crush, Disney magic and march of empire which you can remove easily, but not just "hide" with disabling suggestions.[1] [1] just did a clean install of win10 home
    - ChrisSD 8y ago
      Yes, I meant disabling "suggestions" stops them coming back again in the future. Although Windows has had update "bugs" whereby this setting is ignored. This is solved by delaying feature updates until at least a week or so after release.
      - candiodari 8y ago
        Maybe I'm the only one here, but it seem absurd to me to count on Google, an advertising company, not advertise on Chromebooks. Not yet ... perhaps. Perhaps. Not ? No way.
        johncolanduoni 8y ago
        Since Chromebooks are very internet-forward, they get plenty of advertising opportunities without installing banner ads or something similar into the OS. Are you expecting them to start advertising on the Android home screen too?
        adventured 8y ago
        They already do something better for their ad business moat. They just push their Google Apps bloatware collection on the Android ecosystem at every possible chance they get. I use none of it, yet it still comes with my Samsung phone whether I like it or not. I would expect them to continue that approach with any operating systems they control.
        SmellyGeekBoy 8y ago
        Seems counterintuitive that you take such a strong stance against bloatware and yet use a Samsung phone. The preinstalled (and non-removable) mountain of crap was the reason I gave up on them after my Galaxy S3. Not that other vendors are much better, mind. But I'm quite happy with my OnePlus for now.
        canhascodez 8y ago
        ChromeOS is open-source. Last I looked, their build process was a horror beyond all reason. However, it would at least be possible to strip out any advertising built into the OS. Thing is though, Google controls the advertising on the top two pages on the Internet, and as long as that's true, they don't really need to do anything other than make sure you get there. Which is the strategy behind Google Fiber, Loon, and to some degree Android, more-or-less the reason for Chrome's existence, and why Chromebooks are designed around constant Internet access: all roads lead to Rome.
        phobosdeimos 8y ago
        Yep while everyone was fighting yesterday's war with Microsoft another company took over the internet. Well done guys. Google has more power than MS did at any point in the 90s.
  - tonyedgecombe 8y ago
    Then they all come back with the next update.
    - ChristianGeek 8y ago
      Does this only happen on Windows Home?
      - bananadonkey 8y ago
        This is also true for my recent numerous installs of Pro, which is absurd
      - bananadonkey 8y ago
        Another fun fact is if you remove the App Installer or whatever it is called, you can't remove the "adware" apps
    - supernovae 8y ago
      I'm in the insider program, they don't/haven't come back in ages.
      - slededit 8y ago
        I just had to delete "Candy Crush Soda Saga". Was it there before I did that ridiculous registry hack to prevent it? Or did they add a new one at some point... Who knows. Its clear they don't actually want people disabling the installation of them.
- Boulth 8y ago
  Sometimes you can't even reinstall Windows easily, for example Dell has set SSD mode to Intel RAID by default (can be switched to AHCI) but Windows installation media doesn't come with Intel RAID driver by default. Installer doesn't see the disk at all (until switched to AHCI).
- wonthegame 8y ago
  You can easily remove them. It's still annoying having to deleted Candy Crush. I would have a hard time justifying $400 for a Chromebook when a tablet+keyboard is cheaper and slightly better. Plus with Surface Go....$400 seems like a rip off for a Chromebook.
samstave 8y ago
True, I was using my brothers machine, which is win10 - and I havent used windows in years - and I was disgusted by the crappy UI/UX I was given - with its inbuilt notifications which even pop-up to tell you that you went into full screen mode and told it not to pop-up.... Also, the start menu looks like a freaking spyware minefield they way it takes up 60% of the screen when it is activated. Windows is absolutely a mess these days.
- supernovae 8y ago
  Windows 10 start menu doesn't take up that much screen unless the user has configured it as such. Start menu from store is pretty clean. Go to a microsoft store and mess around with devices from there - they are "signature devices" that are clean. Windows isn't a mess these days in any sense of the word, It's just people who have a negative opinion of it speak about it with sympathy from others who have a negative opinion. The Windows subsystem for Linux is awesome, the app store is a move in the right direction (damned if you do, damned if you don't) and they're closing out a lot of legacy design elements with their annual updates. (dark mode, better high res / high dpi support, consistency of legacy/new elements. yaddy yaddy yadda) With a few minutes of trying you can all but customize the entire interface to your liking. ChromeOS has the benefit of not having decades of legacy to preserve - and Android is suffering many of the negatives you speak of with regards to Windows and iOS has completely the opposite problem being a controlled absolute dictatorship err walled garden.
  - satysin 8y ago
    My "signature edition" Surface Book 2 running Windows 10 Professional came with a bunch of crap on the start menu such as Candy Crush Saga, Twitter, some travel app, Minecraft, and advert for Office 365 and some other crap I can't remember. I had to right-click and uninstall them all manually but then a few days later a couple of them returned?! I ended up searching for a PowerShell script that actually removes them. Until a few months later when Microsoft rolled out the April 2018 update and they all magically reappeared again so I had to look up that fucking PowerShell script again. I could kind of accept this on the Home version but on the PROFESSIONAL version?! No fucking way. Why on earth should my pro version come with Minecraft and Twitter?! And this is a £2500 laptop made and sold by Microsoft! Not some £200 Acer from PC World.

It's even worse than that. There's 2 types of crap now: vendor crap and Windows crap. You can avoid vendor crap by reinstalling a fresh version of Windows from Microsoft, but you'll still get Microsoft crap (i.e., various apps from the Microsoft store pre-installed with links prominently displayed on the Start menu).

ChrisSD 8y ago
These are what Microsoft calls "suggestions" (aka adverts). I think they only actually install when you first click on them. Fortunately they're UWP apps so are easy to completely remove. Turning off the "Show suggestions" settings will stop them coming back.
- zahrc 8y ago
  A clean install of Windows 10 (not n versions) is shipped with stupid game installers for things like candy crush, Disney magic and march of empire which you can remove easily, but not just "hide" with disabling suggestions.[1] [1] just did a clean install of win10 home
  - ChrisSD 8y ago
    Yes, I meant disabling "suggestions" stops them coming back again in the future. Although Windows has had update "bugs" whereby this setting is ignored. This is solved by delaying feature updates until at least a week or so after release.
    - candiodari 8y ago
      Maybe I'm the only one here, but it seem absurd to me to count on Google, an advertising company, not advertise on Chromebooks. Not yet ... perhaps. Perhaps. Not ? No way.
      - johncolanduoni 8y ago
        Since Chromebooks are very internet-forward, they get plenty of advertising opportunities without installing banner ads or something similar into the OS. Are you expecting them to start advertising on the Android home screen too?
        adventured 8y ago
        They already do something better for their ad business moat. They just push their Google Apps bloatware collection on the Android ecosystem at every possible chance they get. I use none of it, yet it still comes with my Samsung phone whether I like it or not. I would expect them to continue that approach with any operating systems they control.
        SmellyGeekBoy 8y ago
        Seems counterintuitive that you take such a strong stance against bloatware and yet use a Samsung phone. The preinstalled (and non-removable) mountain of crap was the reason I gave up on them after my Galaxy S3. Not that other vendors are much better, mind. But I'm quite happy with my OnePlus for now.
      - canhascodez 8y ago
        ChromeOS is open-source. Last I looked, their build process was a horror beyond all reason. However, it would at least be possible to strip out any advertising built into the OS. Thing is though, Google controls the advertising on the top two pages on the Internet, and as long as that's true, they don't really need to do anything other than make sure you get there. Which is the strategy behind Google Fiber, Loon, and to some degree Android, more-or-less the reason for Chrome's existence, and why Chromebooks are designed around constant Internet access: all roads lead to Rome.
        phobosdeimos 8y ago
        Yep while everyone was fighting yesterday's war with Microsoft another company took over the internet. Well done guys. Google has more power than MS did at any point in the 90s.
- tonyedgecombe 8y ago
  Then they all come back with the next update.
  - ChristianGeek 8y ago
    Does this only happen on Windows Home?
    - bananadonkey 8y ago
      This is also true for my recent numerous installs of Pro, which is absurd
    - bananadonkey 8y ago
      Another fun fact is if you remove the App Installer or whatever it is called, you can't remove the "adware" apps
  - supernovae 8y ago
    I'm in the insider program, they don't/haven't come back in ages.
    - slededit 8y ago
      I just had to delete "Candy Crush Soda Saga". Was it there before I did that ridiculous registry hack to prevent it? Or did they add a new one at some point... Who knows. Its clear they don't actually want people disabling the installation of them.
Boulth 8y ago
Sometimes you can't even reinstall Windows easily, for example Dell has set SSD mode to Intel RAID by default (can be switched to AHCI) but Windows installation media doesn't come with Intel RAID driver by default. Installer doesn't see the disk at all (until switched to AHCI).
wonthegame 8y ago
You can easily remove them. It's still annoying having to deleted Candy Crush. I would have a hard time justifying $400 for a Chromebook when a tablet+keyboard is cheaper and slightly better. Plus with Surface Go....$400 seems like a rip off for a Chromebook.

samstave 8y ago

True, I was using my brothers machine, which is win10 - and I havent used windows in years - and I was disgusted by the crappy UI/UX I was given - with its inbuilt notifications which even pop-up to tell you that you went into full screen mode and told it not to pop-up.... Also, the start menu looks like a freaking spyware minefield they way it takes up 60% of the screen when it is activated. Windows is absolutely a mess these days.

supernovae 8y ago
Windows 10 start menu doesn't take up that much screen unless the user has configured it as such. Start menu from store is pretty clean. Go to a microsoft store and mess around with devices from there - they are "signature devices" that are clean. Windows isn't a mess these days in any sense of the word, It's just people who have a negative opinion of it speak about it with sympathy from others who have a negative opinion. The Windows subsystem for Linux is awesome, the app store is a move in the right direction (damned if you do, damned if you don't) and they're closing out a lot of legacy design elements with their annual updates. (dark mode, better high res / high dpi support, consistency of legacy/new elements. yaddy yaddy yadda) With a few minutes of trying you can all but customize the entire interface to your liking. ChromeOS has the benefit of not having decades of legacy to preserve - and Android is suffering many of the negatives you speak of with regards to Windows and iOS has completely the opposite problem being a controlled absolute dictatorship err walled garden.
- satysin 8y ago
  My "signature edition" Surface Book 2 running Windows 10 Professional came with a bunch of crap on the start menu such as Candy Crush Saga, Twitter, some travel app, Minecraft, and advert for Office 365 and some other crap I can't remember. I had to right-click and uninstall them all manually but then a few days later a couple of them returned?! I ended up searching for a PowerShell script that actually removes them. Until a few months later when Microsoft rolled out the April 2018 update and they all magically reappeared again so I had to look up that fucking PowerShell script again. I could kind of accept this on the Home version but on the PROFESSIONAL version?! No fucking way. Why on earth should my pro version come with Minecraft and Twitter?! And this is a £2500 laptop made and sold by Microsoft! Not some £200 Acer from PC World.