But what makes it even worse is that Microsoft overrides your choice frequently on OS updates, which means you will need to repeat all these manual steps not just for each machine, but also for each major OS update. And you can’t script it.
I see this statement repeated often but I have never had this happen - not even once. I use Windows Pro and don’t do anything special either, I just apply Windows updates. If this is happening, I wonder why it is not happening to me.
Same, I never had Windows Update change defaults. This is one of those urban legends that is only very loosely based in fact (KB3135173 back in 2016 indeed had a bug that reset defaults, afaik it never happened since) but keeps persisting.
It's the same with ads; everyone claims Window 10 shows ads but I never saw any ads and I doubt it even has the capability of downloading and displaying random ads. It does occasionally show "recommendations" for using its apps (like Edge or Teams) and I guess if you squint really hard you could call those "ads", but I never saw an actual advertisement for some 3rd party website or product or anything of the sorts.
Yes, Windows 10 is bloated and the fact MS refuses to release a SKU with fully opt-out telemetry is bad, but this kind of hyperbole rubs me the wrong way.
Windows 10 reinstalled "Candy Crush Soda Saga" on my machine multiple times during updates, so it's absolutely not just first-party software like Edge and Teams that they've pushed.
Not doubting you but that is so weird. I deleted it (and a few other apps) once on that first install of Win 10 and it has never come back. I've never used any tool to disable or clean anything, etc... Just removed the apps through supported means.
It shouldn't happen anymore, but what kind of braindead update system didn't check for that in the first place?
> One of the ongoing feedback items we’ve heard is how the apps that come preinstalled with Windows will reinstall after each upgrade – particularly noticeable for our Insiders that receive multiple flights per month. We’ve heard your feedback, and starting with Build 14926, when your PC updates it will check for apps that have been uninstalled, and it will preserve that state once the update has completed. This means if you uninstall any of the apps included in Windows 10 such as the Mail app or Maps app, they will not get reinstalled after you update to a newer build going forward.
"Oops, we totally forgot to consider that any users would want to uninstall this bloatware, so we just included it again as part of each update. And definitely no one inside our organization had personally uninstalled Candy Crush, pointed out this problem, and had their concerns ignored because we wanted to maximize the number of installs that our partners are paying us for. User experience is our highest priority, and what're you going to do about it, switch to Linux?"
So MS turned Windows into the device OEM bloatware infested version of stock Android, combined with Google level tracking. Nice. I guess corporate customers are treated different, at least my commercial Windows liscense and my work-laptop has no bloatware worth mentioning.
Urban legend? Every time Windows updates I have to go into the Sound settings to disable the low-quality bluetooth endpoint on my headphones, because it is the default option and every update clears my selection and reestablishes the default.
I agree that can be annoying; did you try submitting a bug report?
I sent one once through their "Send Feedback" thing and someone actually got back to me (several months later, but still).
FWIW, I'm using wireless headphones that have the same 2 options (for calls and for "gaming") but never had the issue you're describing (though they're not Bluetooth, they come with a custom usb dongle).
You'd have to stretch the definition of ads quite a lot for those to fit. At worst, they'd be bloatware (but IIRC they're not even pre-installed apps, just stubs that link to the store that you can simply remove permanently). Still in bad taste and those should not show up especially in Pro SKU.
An ad would be a banner that shows up when you open the Start menu with "meet singles near you" or "try ubereats" or "buy Chevrolet cars" or some other bullshit of that sorts.
They're ads. Just like product placement in videos. When the actor is drinking Coca-Cola(tm) with the label pointed perfectly to the camera, that's an ad.
The fact that it doesn't "feel" like an ad to you, is just the industry adapting to audiences general dislike of "obvious" ads.
I really do wonder what causes the unevenness of this. For me, I installed Foxit reader and it's always stayed my default. I also switch .txt files to open in Notepad++ and it has always stayed the default too. I've changes a lot of file extensions over the years and they always stuck through all the Windows updates, etc... I've never used any version of Edge as my main browser nor has it ever become the default for anything automatically. I may have been prompted to try it during an upgrade welcome screen but I've always said no and it's never bothered me again.
I dual boot. Once a year or so, windows update trashes my boot loader and makes me do a grub repair in order be able to boot into ubuntu again. It’s inconvenient for me, but amateur Linux users could really panic and think it was Linux’s fault
This used to happen to me with the quarterly? version increments but hasn't been the case for a couple of years now. I even upgraded from W10 to W11 and was pleasantly surprised that grub was left intact, i.e. as the default boot manager.
I use the Professional edition too, and Windows resets my default image viewer and PDF viewer every now and then. Not sure if it's related to Windows updates, though. IIRC the resets are correlated more with one of those apps updating itself and Windows no longer trusting it with the defaults it had been previously granted.
Just speculation but perhaps the way the installers work makes it appear to Windows that the app was uninstalled first and then a new version is installed. If it looks like it was uninstalled then I can see why Windows might change the default.
Which feels quite amateurish and thus ridiculous for Microsoft. Like, they invent a new app store in Windows 10 and they still can't even be bothered to implement a working update routine that isn't infuriating to end users?
I honestly don't remember any details but this had happened to me once, about 1.5 or 2 years ago, where a major W10Pro update had somehow reset the default browser to Edge. It was just a normal bi-annual update, however it could be that I've installed manually using Windows Update Assistant without waiting for the normal rollout.
Microsoft just forced all of their office suite file extensions to look at their MS Office... which I don't (shouldn't) have installed. I happily use LibreOffice. But suddenly things are going to different apps!
User Friendly, as long as by "friendly" you mean "actively sabotaging"
That's happening on my dad's new laptop as well - he still uses his MS Office 2013 license because why not, but even after many attempts we couldn't figure out a way to make Windows open double-clicked files in that old Office. It would always pop up the newest unactivated test version. And before that it took a while until the OS even listed the programs in the start menu. MS literally fights its own software when you don't pay the annual 365 ransom.
This was happening to me after a system restore. Uninstalling all other versions of office on my computer, then rebooting and changing the default program to Office 13 worked for me.
