Is there a way of stopping Windows installing bloat?

[WelshBloke]

Just noticed (again!) that Microsoft have installed a bunch of unwanted bloat on my PC after me uninstalling it the last time.

Any way to stop this?

Referring to stuff like Money, Sport, phone companion, Acer explorer, etc

 

[Chiropteran]

Just noticed (again!) that Microsoft have installed a bunch of unwanted bloat on my PC after me uninstalling it the last time.

Any way to stop this?

Referring to stuff like Money, Sport, phone companion, Acer explorer, etc

The fall update basically installed itself like a fresh OS install. A lot of settings were changed back to default, apps reinstalled, etc.

It's not really a known thing if this will happen every time, since this is the first major update to Windows 10.

 

[WelshBloke]

The fall update basically installed itself like a fresh OS install. A lot of settings were changed back to default, apps reinstalled, etc.

It's not really a known thing if this will happen every time, since this is the first major update to Windows 10.

I thought that I'd already uninstalled them from that. I could be mistaken though, I seem to be spending a lot of time "babying" this OS. :\

 

[SparkyJJO]

I got a little annoyed at that with some systems at work recently. I attached some Surface 3 tablets to the domain, set up the user accounts, and what do you know, it installed that utterly retarded candy crush garbage for the new user account. Uh, hello, this is a business domain account, why would I want the employee playing candy crush? Sigh.

 

[Mushkins]

I got a little annoyed at that with some systems at work recently. I attached some Surface 3 tablets to the domain, set up the user accounts, and what do you know, it installed that utterly retarded candy crush garbage for the new user account. Uh, hello, this is a business domain account, why would I want the employee playing candy crush? Sigh.

You could say the same thing about Solitaire going back 20+ years. If it's a business domain account, you should be blocking Candy Crush (and Solitaire) via GPO.

 

[SparkyJJO]

I'll have to dig into that. Windows 7 Pro, by default, does not install games. Sure, you can load them later, but by default it wasn't there.

Our domain is on a Server 2012 server and this is the first set of Windows 10 systems attached, so I'll have to dig into the GPO (and applicable GPO updates for Windows 10) to screw around with it.

My frustration is a Windows PRO version shouldn't come with games in the first place. They had it right with Vista Business and 7 Pro, why they went backwards I don't know.

 

[WelshBloke]

You could say the same thing about Solitaire going back 20+ years. If it's a business domain account, you should be blocking Candy Crush (and Solitaire) via GPO.

Or Microsoft shouldn't install new things without asking? (solitaire being one of the things it reinstalls after it being uninstalled)

 

[Mushkins]

Or Microsoft shouldn't install new things without asking? (solitaire being one of the things it reinstalls after it being uninstalled)

I'm not gonna disagree. But that's unfortunately not how it works 🙂 Anything that's part of the base image is going to get reinstalled anytime a system integrity check is done and they are found to be missing, whether it's the Mail app or Candy Crush.

Corporate domain environments are 100% up to the network administrators to decide what does and does not get installed, and MS provides fantastic tools to do so.

If you're that dead-set on making sure the handful of default apps do not get reinstalled, you'd need to use some sort of device management software like MaaS360.

 

[Mushkins]

I'll have to dig into that. Windows 7 Pro, by default, does not install games. Sure, you can load them later, but by default it wasn't there.

Our domain is on a Server 2012 server and this is the first set of Windows 10 systems attached, so I'll have to dig into the GPO (and applicable GPO updates for Windows 10) to screw around with it.

My frustration is a Windows PRO version shouldn't come with games in the first place. They had it right with Vista Business and 7 Pro, why they went backwards I don't know.

Windows 8, 8.1, and 10 Pro versions all definitely have the base games installed by default again 😛