I'm all for less bloat ware, but come one. The camera app or remote desktop are the least shitty ones. Its borderline to call them even bloatware.
To be clear, they seem to be saying that those apps will still be preinstalled. They'll just be easier to uninstall if you want to do so.
"option for the first time to uninstall the Camera app, Cortana app, Photos app, People app, and the Remote Desktop client. "
I thought they dropped support for Cortana. Is she back (maybe as "The Weapon")?
Yeah, having the option is not a bad thing. Nothing changes for those who use the apps or want them there, but it lets people remove them if that's what they want.
My issue is the Solitaire and games. We have Win11 for Business (Switching to Enterprise soon) and I have to run a powershell script during Intune/oobe to rip out all the bloat.
But Windows always came with Solitaire - even 30+ years ago. It was included originally to teach users how to use a mouse. Solitaire makes you click, double click and drag.
Removing Solitaire caused its own backlash. They can't win with that one.
my work is transitioning to it soon, I'll have to find similar scrips soonish.
I have an amazing resource for this kinda stuff. As soon as I an remember it and find it I'll drops comment here.
would appreciate it, thanks!!
Here you go if you aren't using PSAppDeploy to deploy software in your Org you're doing it wrong ;).
They've got Remediation scripts and PSAppDeploy scripts for a LOT of applications
PSAppDeploy works great within both SCCM and Intune App Deployment
thanks!
Windows 11 ships with a shitty featureless version of the remote desktop client. You have to download the "real" or "full" version from the Windows app store.
I found this out incidentally a few weeks ago and it is annoying having the app you need and some random imposter app with the same name clogging up search / start menu.
Have they fixed the store version so it can do multiple monitors yet? Also local folder redirects?
No clue sorry, that's not functionality that I use.
I mean I’ve never used either of those apps and my computer doesn’t even have a camera.
Sounds like textbook bloatware to me… 🤷♀️
"if I don't use it, it's useless"
Bloatware doesn’t necessarily mean it’s useless, but if even a reasonable percent of people don’t want or need it or shouldn’t be preinstalled. That’s bloatware.
For bloatware to be a meaningful term, I think it needs to go beyond just some arbitrary percent of users don't need or use it. For an OS, having baseline apps which are useful across a wide variety of hardware setups and use cases is reasonable, even if they don't apply in your particular situation. Bloat would be superfluous apps that replicate baseline features or baseline apps that have grown in scope beyond what's strictly necessary.
Remote desktop and camera apps are pretty primary pieces of functionality, whether or not you use or need them. Windows is bloated garbage in general but those apps are not really a part of that imo... I don't know if there's really a precise definition of bloatware but I sort of think of it mostly as something that takes up your system resources rather than just hard drive space. Something that runs all or most of the time even though it doesn't actually provide much value
It's bloat because a lot of people will never make use of it, so it's taking up more space (bloating it) for no appreciable gain. It should be easy to install if you do want to make use of it, but not literally every piece of software should be installed just because some people will use it.
It coming pre-installed is also harmful to third parties. Many will just choose the MS version because it's already there, rather than potentially find another group who's made similar (maybe even better) software for the same purpose.
By that definition grep and awk are bloat on Linux.
At least I can uninstall either of those programs with a single command
i'd wager those tools are "indirectly used" by other used software ... that should also be included into the definition.
one mans bloat is another mans treasure
Agreement. But they are not removing them so much as adding the option to uninstall them right? So functionally it's thereof needed still.
RDC could be a good option to uninstall for businesses where the machine acts as a terminal and you don't want those devices launching RDC to begin with
Not sure why it hasn't been allowed already.
Every company I've worked for so far had me use RDC at some point, either to connect to a server or to an app.
I'm all for less bloat ware, but come one. The camera app or remote desktop are the least shitty ones. Its borderline to call them even bloatware.
To be clear, they seem to be saying that those apps will still be preinstalled. They'll just be easier to uninstall if you want to do so.
"option for the first time to uninstall the Camera app, Cortana app, Photos app, People app, and the Remote Desktop client. "
I thought they dropped support for Cortana. Is she back (maybe as "The Weapon")?
Yeah, having the option is not a bad thing. Nothing changes for those who use the apps or want them there, but it lets people remove them if that's what they want.
My issue is the Solitaire and games. We have Win11 for Business (Switching to Enterprise soon) and I have to run a powershell script during Intune/oobe to rip out all the bloat.
But Windows always came with Solitaire - even 30+ years ago. It was included originally to teach users how to use a mouse. Solitaire makes you click, double click and drag.
Removing Solitaire caused its own backlash. They can't win with that one.
my work is transitioning to it soon, I'll have to find similar scrips soonish.
I have an amazing resource for this kinda stuff. As soon as I an remember it and find it I'll drops comment here.
would appreciate it, thanks!!
Here you go if you aren't using PSAppDeploy to deploy software in your Org you're doing it wrong ;).
They've got Remediation scripts and PSAppDeploy scripts for a LOT of applications
PSAppDeploy: https://github.com/PSAppDeployToolkit/PSAppDeployToolkit
Scripts: https://silentinstallhq.com/detection-scripts/
PSAppDeploy works great within both SCCM and Intune App Deployment
thanks!
Windows 11 ships with a shitty featureless version of the remote desktop client. You have to download the "real" or "full" version from the Windows app store.
I found this out incidentally a few weeks ago and it is annoying having the app you need and some random imposter app with the same name clogging up search / start menu.
Have they fixed the store version so it can do multiple monitors yet? Also local folder redirects?
No clue sorry, that's not functionality that I use.
I mean I’ve never used either of those apps and my computer doesn’t even have a camera.
Sounds like textbook bloatware to me… 🤷♀️
"if I don't use it, it's useless"
Bloatware doesn’t necessarily mean it’s useless, but if even a reasonable percent of people don’t want or need it or shouldn’t be preinstalled. That’s bloatware.
For bloatware to be a meaningful term, I think it needs to go beyond just some arbitrary percent of users don't need or use it. For an OS, having baseline apps which are useful across a wide variety of hardware setups and use cases is reasonable, even if they don't apply in your particular situation. Bloat would be superfluous apps that replicate baseline features or baseline apps that have grown in scope beyond what's strictly necessary.
Remote desktop and camera apps are pretty primary pieces of functionality, whether or not you use or need them. Windows is bloated garbage in general but those apps are not really a part of that imo... I don't know if there's really a precise definition of bloatware but I sort of think of it mostly as something that takes up your system resources rather than just hard drive space. Something that runs all or most of the time even though it doesn't actually provide much value
It's bloat because a lot of people will never make use of it, so it's taking up more space (bloating it) for no appreciable gain. It should be easy to install if you do want to make use of it, but not literally every piece of software should be installed just because some people will use it.
It coming pre-installed is also harmful to third parties. Many will just choose the MS version because it's already there, rather than potentially find another group who's made similar (maybe even better) software for the same purpose.
By that definition
grepandawkare bloat on Linux.At least I can uninstall either of those programs with a single command
i'd wager those tools are "indirectly used" by other used software ... that should also be included into the definition.
one mans bloat is another mans treasure
Agreement. But they are not removing them so much as adding the option to uninstall them right? So functionally it's thereof needed still.
RDC could be a good option to uninstall for businesses where the machine acts as a terminal and you don't want those devices launching RDC to begin with Not sure why it hasn't been allowed already.
Every company I've worked for so far had me use RDC at some point, either to connect to a server or to an app.