On my windows 10 computer, the browser settings have an option called "Open new tabs with", defaulting to "Top sites and suggested content". This can be changed to "A blank page", right there in the browser settings.

On the same computer, on the default start page ("Top Sites and suggested content"), the hieroglyph cog referenced above is conveniently place at the top right, and even has a label, too. It's called "Hide Feed".

Unfortunately Microsoft are the ones who decided to make Windows 10 a free upgrade for Windows 7/8 users, so we all bear the awfulness of them needing to sell sponsored spots in the OS to compensate for that loss of revenue. At least if the OS basically makes money on its own on an ongoing basis, we won’t need to ever pay for Windows updates again? Still, ugh.

edit: I’m agreeing with you guys here. I’d spend more on an “ad-free” Windows license if I had a choice, but that doesn’t exist unless you’re a volume license customer (LTSC) I wish they’d find some way to let people avoid the ads, like having them in Home and disabling them in Pro, as most laptops (even my Dell XPS) ship with Home. (They did try “Windows 8.1 with Bing” once. I guess it didn’t work out?)

For every previous version of windows you typically bought a new licence only when you purchased a new PC. The fact that MS allowed upgrades to Widows 10 on old machines should not have affected their revenue to any great extent, those machines were never going to have a paid upgrade anyway.

I may be completely off-base since Microsoft surely has some numbers we don’t that justify their choice of licensing model, but from my perspective, and from a few real experiences helping family and friends, people figure their PCs were at the end of their life and needed an entire replacement. Installing the free Windows 10 upgrade changes their mind - now they think their computer is perfectly up to date, at least for a few more years. These are machines with specs that look like Core 2 Duo or 1st gen Core i3, 250 GB spinning rust drive, 4 GB RAM. Those specs are especially prolific in decommissioned office PCs sent to recyclers who give them a fresh 7 or 10 license. They’re cheap, plentiful, and come with warranty, so plenty of people go for them.

Another thing to consider is volume licenses weren’t able to take up the offer - the company had to pay for their Windows 10 upgrade. Enterprise licensing is the Microsoft money maker.

That should be plenty for the basic 'grandpa wants the internet and Word' use cases, though. If it's not, I blame Microsoft.

Not using Windows, but I have some machines with similar specs and they are quite useful even for browsing many if not most websites. But, you must have NoScript and ad blocking.

So to be fair to Microsoft, at least some, if not all of the blame must go to web developers.

Fair point, there probably was an element of trying to prolong machines' lives longer than usaul going on, all right.