"OS decides to install Candy Crush and other games I never asked for. Unacceptable. " - I would like more details on this. I don't think I've heard of that before?

Not sure if you're being sarcastic (there's the non-Nexus Android experience after all), but I did a fresh install of Windows 10 Pro on my gaming machine a while ago. Full retail license and an official .iso downloaded from Microsoft. There's barely anything installed on that machine, however I was also surprised to find Candy Crush in my start menu after a while. It's probably just a shortcut to the store, but it does look quite a bit like it's already installed.

by default windows 10 will show you 'suggested' apps in your start menu programs list. This can be disabled in the settings (just open settings and search for suggestions)

It does happen after an upgrade (ex. the anniversary update).

Although it does not install Candy Crush, just a stub to install it, anyway, it is certainly unappealing.

Showing a featured app on the windows store tile != Installing an app.

It is certainly not "the" Windows Store Tile, they're annoying stubs like the "Get Office" one.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/7b/Windows_10_bu...

The OS puts Candy Crush in your menu and it's installed on demand. So to users it will seem like it's always been installed.

All the pre-installed software is my big pet peeve for Windows 10. I don't want weather, or contacts, or xbox, or 3d builder, or email, or alarms, or skype, or office, or calendar, or groove, or money, or news, etc... I've deleted them and they just come back because of some provisioning setting.

Buy a signature edition laptop directly from the microsoft store, then you will not et any crap-ware.

Things like Candy Crush, Skype, and Office aren't the full installs but instead are stubs that install the applications on first run. Even if you buy a retail copy of Windows 10, that junk is still in there.

A signature edition makes sure that the only crapware is stuff that Microsoft installed.

This isn't true. You get Candy Crush. That's the whole problem.

OK, then Microsoft changed what gets installed. A year ago when I bought a signature laptop, no junk was pre-installed, IIRC

Wait until you get the random start menu no longer works bug. Not only does the start menu not appear, clicking on the File Explorer icon will take 30 + seconds to open, every time. There are links where thousands of people have posted various fixes but from my understanding MSFT hasn't actually fixed the underlying cause. To their credit they have released a utility that fixes the issue however.

Microsoft deserves every bit of ridicule lobbed its way for adding advertising to it's start menu in Win10. That being said they aren't the only offender, my iPhone has a folder of apps called Apple Trash filled with Apple's collection of worthless default apps that can't be removed from iOS.

Like what? This used to be true but I believe most of it was remedied with iOS 10.

Watch and Home, for example

Most built-in Apple apps can now be hidden in the normal way.

Get some perspective. Operating systems have included simple games since the 80s. Minesweeper, anyone?

While I agree that it's more a minor annoyance than a dealbreaker (for me at least), the fact remains that there's a big difference between including a simple game or two and installing (or "suggestive-selling") a "freemium" money-sink from a third party.

Basically the way I look at it in order of annoyance/offensiveness:

- Free, standalone application made by same company (this is a free gift as far as I'm concerned)

- Free, standalone application made by another company (ok, this is starting to approach crapware but as long as it can be uninstalled and doesn't try to sell me anything, I'll deal)

- Link, installer, or preinstalled application that requires later purchase from same company (OK, this is an ad and pretty offensive)

- Link, installer, or preinstalled application requiring later purchase from third party (this is most certainly unwanted crapware that they were paid to include)

Try to get the LTSB build, less clutter.