It’s 2019, and Windows 10 has too many useless and annoying features. Don’t get me wrong: Windows 10 has gotten better and, overall, I love it compared to Windows 8. But some things just need to go.
Like any operating system, Windows 10 is full of junk that we’d all love to remove, and this is a decent list. Personally, I’d much rather more and more of the ancient things in Windows 10 get replaced by modern equivalents, such as Explorer, various outdated settings panels, applications like Notepad, and so on.
Reading this article felt more of a burden that having those obsolete Win 10 features. I suppose by “obsolete” I have to assume they are obsolete for everybody, but maybe that is not so! I don’t even notice what I don’t use, or what doesn’t affect me, if features are not interfering with my available resources or tools then worrying about them seems like an Ode to OCD! Like buying a new car and asking for the cigarette lighter to be removed and a credit applied because you don’t smoke!
On the flipside I like lean, which is contradicted by my love of bling like Compiz cubes, so how can they(They as in MS, Apple, Linux, Unix, Android,………..) ever win?
Of course I appreciate if they actually did make some of the suggested changes, there would undoubtedly be many users who had legacy scripts that no longer worked. Imagine having to turn your focus for such a trivial benefit to be deployed?
Maybe this article is good at getting people interested in it, but when I stopped reading it partway through, I found nothing of interest or anything I was interested in and hadn’t already changed. Windows 10 as an operating system is just fine. You can shut the ads off, shut Cortana off, I’ve never used it. I’ve never used Edge or whatever their knew satanic deal with Google is for their new browser. It seems to me that this article is there to generate a tidbit of controversy amounting to nothing.
Quoting this – what should I call it – amateur blog post is a waste of space. In 10 minutes I could write up a list of real stuff that could be removed. The things the guys lists are easily disabled or removed during or right after install without much hassle. I say this pointless writing should be the one removed. I hope he wasn’t payed for this, that would be real shame – now that would be a topic that wouldn’t be pointless to write about.
IMHO windows has gone way downhill since windows 7. After that microsoft went gung-ho with a new vision for transforming it from an operating system into an advertising platform. Even if you pay for the pro version, you still have to put up with their crap. Now you need an enterprise version just to match the control we had in windows 7. Many of us oppose, but few actually resist. Microsoft’s plan all along was to take advantage of the fact that most people won’t stand up to them and just accept it.
I can confirm the 3D objects viewer thing in Windows is useless because it cannot trigger any stereoscopic 3D modes (tested on a Nvidia 3D vision laptop and a Intel GPU connected to an LG 3D TV via HDMI, other apps like Kodi have no problem triggering stereoscopic 3D on both). So it’s basically Blender without the rest of the application.
Also, Candy Crush Saga was my wake up call I need to go back to Windows 8.1. Who needs this junk?
Just for fun I installed Windows Server 2019 in a VM a few days ago. Look how gloriously empty the start menu is:
https://i.imgur.com/5tToBNo.png
No My People Feature, no candy crush, no 3d Objects, no edge (only IE 11 lol), no ads, no onedrive. I haven’t tested it on a real computer, I dont know if DirectX 11/12 works on it for gaming. But as far as I understand the codebase is almost the same as Windows 10, only some server features added.
I did game on Windows Server 2003 when Windows XP with only Service Pack 1 was still shit.
This is how Windows 10 Enterprise should be. But it is still pretty crappy. Much like Bixby on Samsung phones, no one uses Cortana. Just give up and remove that crap.
The one ‘feature’ I wish they would remove from Windows 10 is the almost requirement of a Microsoft account to use it. Why would I want an always online operating system. There are occasions when I don’t want it to have access to the network.
It’s not always online, you can still login when disconnected. The real problem with account Windows linking is that you must have a login password (the one you have for the account) and that all kinds of stuff starts syncing in the background for services I either don’t use (OneDrive) or use as a spam sewer (Hotmail).
That synching is not a problem, it is a feature and works very well for non-business. I login with a microsoft account (no password required later, you can use a PIN, biometric/Hello, picture password, etc) and immediately my mail works, my files are available, my browser settings are there, etc. I wish a lot more settings were actually synched like this. I would love to login to a new pc and be asked “which of the following programs/apps that you have in your account would you like to automatically install? Would you like to have your preferred settings as well?”
avgalen,
Not a bad feature, it reminds me of using a sun workstation back in the day. No it’s not the feature that’s bad, just the implimentation. I don’t my accounts & data tethered to microsoft’s datacenters. It really would have been awesome as an open technology that worked across devices / operating systems. Microsoft is injecting features into windows in the same way that developers are injecting denuvo online DRM into their games: they purposefully take functionality that could have been local and force it to only work with their servers. Some may not think windows is so bad yet, but we keep moving incrementally in that direction.
Can’t reply to Alfman, so just replying here instead*
I don’t think Windows is “so bad yet” at all, I actually think it is still getting better and better. Not in a “everything they do is perfect” kind of way, but in a “for every 1 step backwards there are also 3 steps forward…but why the F did they take that 1 step backwards” kind of way.
I also have no idea how you would implement a sync-option like that locally. I fell in love with synching when I was travelling for 19 months. Visit internetcafe->start chrome->login->favorites and saved credentials immediately available->WIN
*When WordPress/OsNews blocks a user, users go around the block!
avgalen,
Sure, you always want the new drivers, patches, etc that come with a new OS, but when it comes with new unwanted restrictions, content, controls, and spying, those are areas where microsoft continues to get worse. If microsoft would release a more traditional OS and had the latest drivers & support, there’s no doubt that it would be remain extremely popular with both consumers and businesses. The truth is a lot of the recent developments from microsoft comes at the cost of worse experience and privacy for users. Microsoft are aware of consumer resentment, but they ignore complaints as part of their overall agenda to push us into the crutches of an advertising and delivery model to benefit microsoft. It really is getting worse. We’re nowhere near the end of this transition either, as soon as enough people are on board with windows today, make no mistake the next phase of the agenda will kick in and we’ll continue to get roped into a worse experience for microsoft’s profits. Not only do we pay for windows licenses, it will become increasingly ad infested like television.
Here’s the thing, it could be stopped if enough people were to complain and refuse to take part. However that’s unlikely to happen because microsoft is dragging this out incrementally over long periods and regular people aren’t willing/able/patient enough to make such a long term stand….to say nothing of the apologists among us 🙂
Don’t forget that there are many ways to implement this kind of feature, some ways empower users, others empower the vendor. It’s not just microsoft we’re talking about here, but unfortunately corporations at large are extremely guilty of engineering technology in ways that are bad for consumer privacy and control in order to build a dependency on themselves.
Again, replying here to Alfmans “new unwanted restrictions, content, controls, and spying, those are areas where microsoft continues to get worse.” because I cannot reply where I should reply for some reason (maximum reply-depth?)
I really don’t see how Windows 10 1903 is worse in these departments than the original Windows 10 (1507) or Windows 10 from 2 years ago (1703). Quite the opposite actually.
1) “new unwanted restrictions”: I actually cannot think of any such restriction in 1903 that wasn’t there in 1703 or 1507 but I can think of some restrictions that are no longer there like “I can remove many more apps, I can configure/postpone/delay Updates”
2) “new unwanted content”. “3D/VR” has been added and OneDrive is now included. Both can be removed/ignored entirely. I personally have no use for “3D/VR” but benefit from OneDrive integration incredibly
3) “controls”. 1903 has a lot more controls than 1703 or 1507. The direction is MORE freedom and control. Just compare the privacy-screens between 1903 and 1507
4) “spying”. 1903 has exactly the same amount of spying (telemetry) as 1703 and 1507, but with a bit more control
In the meantime I can now just “add Linux via WSL”, have better shells included, basically every tool and function inside Windows has improved, my companies can AAD-join and autologon to several accounts while being auto-configured through InTune…the list goes on and on. I don’t know anyone that prefers 1507 to 1903 for any of the 4 aspects that you mention here
avgalen,
I think you need to look at larger time frames actually, however I don’t really expect you to change your mind either. If you are happy with the direction windows is going in, then of course that is your prerogative. For me though the long term window strategy is on a path that I strongly dislike. You mention WSL, which is ok but frankly too little too late, it’s not enough to draw me back to windows. Even if we could assume that windows doesn’t get any worse from here on out, it’s already too far down this ugly path for my liking. I don’t like loosing control, privacy, and being pummeled by ads/apps that get automatically reinstalled without my permission. While many people tolerate it, I’m not going to hold my nose and pretend it doesn’t stink.
Title: all-the-useless-windows-10-features-microsoft-should-remove/
…all??? Well, that is surely just a clickbait title
The People Icon Without Any People
…Coming from Windows Phone I thought this was a great idea, I used it for a bit and then forgot about it. This feature could be removed or improved. Since improvement doesn’t seem likely I wouldn’t mind removal but it can already be entirely hidden and disabled.
The 3D Objects Folder No One Uses
…nope nope nope, we are not going to bitch about an organising folder that literally takes 0 bytes and 0 resources
Microsoft Edge’s Horrible News Feed
…nope nope nope, we are also not going to complain about which default webpage is shown and can simply be changed from “Top sites and suggested content” to either just “Top sites” or the amazing “A blank page”.
…however, this should never ever ever have become the default on server operating systems!
All the Ads. So, So Many Ads
…We are on the 4th item and finally we reached one that we can all agree on. Ads inside an OS is a nono!
Bing Search That Gets in the Way
…I really don’t see how this gets in the way. When I search for something I don’t see anything from the web unless I click the “see web results -> open in browser”. That is actually exactly what I want
The Messy Timeline
…Works fine for me. Could be improved and shouldn’t be removed at all
S Mode, Which Would Have Cost You $50 to Escape
…S Mode can be removed because “non-S Mode” already has a “Only install apps from the Microsoft Store” toggle that is actually better because you can install a few non-store programs, turn on the toggle and benefit from the extra security while allowing some useful programs
Candy Crush Saga (You Knew It Was Coming)
…Everyone agrees, just like the ads, this should never have been there
Technically Gone: That Ad-Filled Solitaire Game
…Basically this was just there to work as an ad for their own games
Thom’s bonus: I’d much rather more and more of the ancient things in Windows 10 get replaced by modern equivalents, such as Explorer, various outdated settings panels, applications like Notepad
Notepad is great to have as a generic tool on every system. It can instantly remove all formatting from a web copy/paste, open CSV’s or logfiles. It is also tiny and takes up near 0 resources. Notepad is one of the most useful built-in utilities of Windows. I actually used it to write this post to prevent time-out-before-posting issues
You like Notepad for the same reasons I love Notepad2, I always try to replace Notepad with it whenever possible (not all companies allow this). I actually e-mailed its programmer to thank him for it (probably twice over the last 10 years or so). Some people are positive about Notepad++ as well, but I would have to elaborate too much to explain why I think Notepad2 is way better for almost everybody.
Anyway, having said that, I think this supports Thom’s bonus: after 20+ years it should be possible to borrow some (non-breaking!) ideas here and there to improve on these useful built-in utilities.
Some examples:
Notepad -> Notepad2
Solitaire -> KPatience (the KDE implementation of Solitaire, I know my grandparents like(d) it :-))
kloot,
Another vote for notepad 2, that’s what notepad should have been!
I actually miss it sometimes when I’m in linux, I wish it were actively maintained and ported. The source code exists, sometime’s got to take the imitative though. It seems to me that open source projects like this are best worked on by high school kids because after that people just get so busy with kids, family, work, etc.
There are dozens and dozens of replacements for every single utility, like notepad, built into Windows. Notepad isn’t the best tool by any stretch, but removing it and replacing it with something optional is a horrible idea. Being able to quickly look at plain text files is a basic feature of every OS and having no tooling or different optional tooling installed on all machines in a network is a nightmare
avgalen,
Um, notepad.exe is pretty bad, it’s time to put it to rest in favor of something better, haha.
I’d probably get rid of all the old win32 based apps, but also replace “Modern” apps with, really anything better, which is everything, even win32. I mean, those apps are slow and bloated. I don’t think I’ve seen any well implemented modern apps. I’d probably also get rid of the kernel. I’d probably get rid of everything and replace it with macOS!
Joking aside, the only thing Windows seems to have going for it is some gaming stuff that I can’t get on other platforms. I really don’t like a single other thing about Windows better than its equivalent on either macOS or a top Linux distro.
I guess Windows is still much more customizable than MacOS. For example, the task bar can be configured to show open windows (like Win XP), open apps (instead of windows), a mix of open apps and pinned program starters (like Mac), or a combination of those. With Mac, you have the dock and that’s it. Can’t easily switch from app-centric to window-centric.
Or: snapping windows to the left/right of a screen to have two windows taking half of the screen space each. Can’t do that on a Mac.
Obviously, Linux with KDE or Xfce is way more advanced than Win.
Oh, I actually forgot about Windows snapping. I do like that in Windows. In mac, because of it’s more document centric metaphors, I find I don’t usually need that though. Somehow the Finder is simply easier to use than Explorer – and drag an drop either to app icons on the launcher, or between apps, etc mostly “just works” on macOS, while it almost never works on Windows. But that goes hand in glove with muilti-monitor support, which is VASTLY superior on mac. For one thing, they properly support multiple monitors with different color spaces, and screen densities. Windows, almost kind of gets that right, but not really (Windows can’t even recover from changing the resolution for a game half the time.) macOS also can remember where my Windows were (on which screen) after unplugging or plugging back in a second screen – Windows can’t even remember that if the computer goes to sleep. And macOS’s virtual desktop, and fullscreen apps (which are sort of integrated) are similarly vastly superior to the equivalent in Windows, though I do find it nice that Microsoft at least tried to copy those features, even if they did so poorly.
You can remove quite a bit of the Windows 10 bloatware via a script available on GitHub. Search for “Windows 10 Debloater.” The only thing I didn’t like about the script was that it also deletes Windows Mail and Windows Calendar – two pre-installed apps I actually use (but it wasn’t hard to reinstall those from the Windows store).