You’re the ideal windows user…whatever that may be??

It's not fucking with core components that aren't supposed to be fucked with.

It’s software running on your own computer. If you’re not supposed to turn off ads and OneDrive, change the default search engine, etc then that’s a pretty sad state of affairs.

Though as an ex-Windows developer and hacker, I can tell you that NT is pretty modular and is designed to be “fucked” with in various different ways. Microsoft just like to ship defaults that are more favourable for their own business than your typical power user.

How is Dropbox now a "core component" of computers? Have we collectively lost our minds?

How is OneDrive a core component? It even has an uninstall in Europe, because baking it in is clearly anti-competitive.

http://windowscentral.com/software-apps/windows-11/microsoft...

I wouldn’t mind the defaults if they weren’t horrible. No, I don’t want Microsoft selling my data to 3rd parties. I don’t want an AI “assistant” watching everything I do. I don’t want crazy right wing conspiracy theory news stories in my start menu, or popping up next to the clock or wherever that junk lives. I don’t want my start menu to do an internet search. Or to try and get me to play candy crush. If I want a dropbox like service I’ll research my options. Don’t auto install onedrive and make it start automatically at boot.

None of that stuff is a core component. The only reason any of that stuff is part of windows is because windows is a mature product. And all their desperate product managers need to add stupid features to windows to justify getting promoted.

Maybe I’m just old fashioned, but I don’t use windows because I want to be part of Microsoft’s software empire. I just want an OS that boots fast and lets me play video games. I don’t buy ram from the computer store so some tasteless bozo at Microsoft can justify their 6 figure salary.

If cloud is core component does it mean that Windows requires internet to run?

> It's not fucking with core components that aren't supposed to be fucked with.

I suppose the problem for many people is that advertisements are now "core components", when they really shouldn't be.

First-party upsells are now core components when they shouldn't be.

Third-party resellers are now core components when they shouldn't be.

Look, I get it: minesweeper is no longer free, and I'm okay with that. But FCOL, now the start button is ad-supported?

Try completely removing one drive to understand the rest of our pain. Even if you manage to get the program gone, somehow the default file save location for many applications is still a (now deleted) one drive folder. If you forget and click save.. well now you have one drive again.

Don't. Do. That.

Leave it alone, that's why Windows is breaking for you. You keep fucking with core components. It's not Linux. You can't do that and not suffer consequences.

Leave it alone? It's unnecessary bloatware, that performs absolutely zero required functionality. It's continuous prominent presence in the _always_ visible part of the file tree on the left of _every_ explorer window is a constant reminder that what used to be my favorite OS is now user hostile.

At least in Europe it did get a proper uninstall a while ago, which proves that it really was just there for promotion.

I'd gladly pay for a version of Windows that just leaves me alone. No I don't want Edge, Bing, a weather snippet, start search, Cortana, forced updates and a regular black pattern maze promising a somehow "improved experience" while trying to force metrics participation down my throat.

But I also don't want Linux, because many tools I rely on (plus games) won't run on it and I don't want a Mac because it's too opinionated. It feels exactly like being stuck in an abusive relationship at this point.

You can disable OneDrive pretty easily

Now you can, in Europe. It used to involve registry hacks, which, as others keep pointing out, could break stuff because it's not the way you are supposed to modify your OS.

Unnecessary bloatware? Bloatware really? What does it bloat? You can make all of these things disappear without removing them from Windows itself. You also have to remember that an inaction is an action. Ignoring a pop-up or not reading something and then just clicking x doesn't equal this thing will not bother me anymore. You can make the weather snippet widget thing just not be there anymore and it's not hard. I have more than just edge installed for my browser and I could switch between them even though I favor edge and use edge as my default browser. Cortana hasn't showed itself on my computer for... I have no idea how long and that's just because I went through every setting and read everything... No group policy changes, no registry hacks, just using Windows. If you are on professional or higher of windows then you could just pause updates over and over and over. If an update is waiting then go into Windows update in the settings and click pause and then it doesn't install it. I've postponed updating since January because I'm on an insider build that has a known blocker where it can't be updated from.

> Unnecessary bloatware?

Yes. I don't want it, I don't need it, my OS does not need it to function, I never asked for it and (until the EU forced them to change this) I could not remove it.

> Bloatware really?

Yes, really. "Unwanted software included on a new computer or mobile device by the manufacturer". What in this definition does not apply, according to you?

> What does it bloat?

My OS, duh. It probably does not waste too many resources, as long as I don't engage with it, but the fact that it's there and it was shoved into my face on every explorer window is something worse than spam. It's basically the modern day equivalent of those shitty browser toolbars that some programs used to try to sneak install.

> You can make all of these things disappear

False. I was only able to fully disable OneDrive with registry hacks, before EU forced them to take it out.

So you are telling me, a Windows power user since 3.11, that I should just rtfm?

It's not about being able to turn certain things off, it's about the playbook that Microsoft is following these days, displaying malignant, almost petty behavior, like restoring the Edge shortcut on the desktop after updates.

It's about all the black patterns, like how you need to first go back a page in the post-update maze before you even get the option to continue without attaching a Microsoft account to your OS. Yes, I know that you can turn the maze off, but that option is hidden so far in the settings most users have no idea it even exists.

It's about the fact that they even dared to suggest putting ads in Explorer windows. It's about the clear sensation that my OS is no longer on my side. It's selling out, stabbing me in the back, turning rotten. It's a crying shame, but I may need to take it out to the back of the shed one of these days.

Thus proving OP's point: it's not your computer.

If you remove glibc in Linux, it will start breaking too.

Onedrive is not a core windows component. It’s not a dependency of other applications. It’s just a Dropbox replacement.

Windows works, and has always worked, just fine without onedrive. Microsoft just doesn’t want you to know that, because they are obsessed with the idea of upselling you on subscription based cloud services.

> Onedrive is not a core windows component.

Unfortunately this is changing in the wrong direction for you or I.

I uninstalled onedrive from windows 11 and everything seems to work fine.

Don’t leave us in the dark. Is that option being removed in the future?

There’s actually a few different glibc replacements available for Linux.

And if you think OneDrive is essential for Windows then I’d suggest you do a little reading on the history of Microsoft and how they falsely claim dependencies on their own software stacks. Especially the court cases around debundling IE4 with Win98, and DR-DOS vs Windows 95.

Well, "technically" - it wasn't a false claim. It WAS dependent on IE and other things. It didn't have to be dependent - MS made it that way on purpose, so things would stop working without (even though the dependency didn't need to be baked in).

It's akin to adding webview to your application to display a text file, even though you never would display an HTML file. It could have been done another way, but it wasn't.

Except that it was demonstrated that IE could be removed from Windows 98. So Microsoft then claimed that Windows ran slower without IE. A judge (because this whole saga went to court) argued that Microsofts video evidence proving that point was falsified and so Microsoft later also dropped their slowness claim too.

No, it wasn't. There was w98lite and such where you could replace WIndows 98's (i)explore.exe/shell32.dll with a Windows 95 one and yet the rest of the software just ran like nothing, while being able to run IE in a standalone way.

Ignoring the fact that you're comparing a cloud storage client to what is essentially a kernel wrapper that all software depends on, you actually can remove glibc without breaking things. You just also have to install another libc (say, musl) and replace your software that targets glibc with software that targets musl, or install a glibc -> musl compatibility layer (gcompat).

So, yeah. If you actually know enough about libcs to want to get rid of glibc for a real reason, you can do it without breaking things. If you just want to go around and start deleting core system dependencies (which I think is very silly to put a cloud storage client in that bucket, regardless of the brand of cloud storage) without replacing them, then chaos seems to be the goal, and maybe order is the "broken" state for that machine :P

> You keep fucking with core components.

What exactly tells you that OneDrive a core component?

Stop holding it wrong!

Have you considered that maybe not being able to use your computer how your want is precisely why this post exists?

> core components

A Dropbox clone is now 'core OS compinents'? That's just as much a valid criticism of Windows as anything else in this thread

I completely agree. Removing vital parts of the Windows subsystem just leads to unintended consequences.

You're getting downvoted, as will I, because presenting an alternative anecdotal experience isn't acceptable in Windows threads. I've learned this the hard way.

Unfortunately just like the original post is anecdotal (I haven't had a machine fail to startup after an update since XP) not all anecdotes are born equal.

Interestingly, I don't see adverts myself, and I've never seen any at work. I -suspect- that's heavily regionalized.

Are there features I don't care for? Sure - I don't use OneDrive, I don't internet search from the Start bar, and I use Edge only occasionally. But it's not like somehow you -have- to use everything they ship.

I get it. An OS is personal. If you don't like Windows, use MacOS or Linux. All 3 have different approaches and one of them will fit you better than the others. Arguing over which is better or worse is like fighting over ice-cream flavors.

Yes you have to use what they ship. Because they force you to. You cannot turn off one drive nagging. You cannot turn off the start menu search. When installing windows these days you have to use a Microsoft account and so on.

Yes there are work arounds, but that’s not for the average user. If I need to start tinkering and hack around in registries I might as well use Linux.

I confess I don't have a Microsoft account, and installed without one. I'm not sure how I did that, I guess I just passed on it. Every month or so it after a reboot it prompts me to "finish setting up my computer" and I just "remind me later".

I haven't touched the registry, so that's not in play.

OneDrive doesn't nag me.

As I said earlier this is all anecdotal, clearly your experience is different to mine. This post is just anecdotes, not data, and I'm not suggesting my experience is your experience.

I had to install a temporary windows 10 (not 11) install so that I can unlock the bootloader of a xiaomi phone and install a better rom. I managed to avoid the microsoft account use by not connecting to the internet before the setup was finished. It asked me like 2 or 3 times it looped 2 or 3 times in the select wifi / use MS account screens before giving up and sending me to the local account creation.

> Every month or so it after a reboot it prompts me to "finish setting up my computer" and I just "remind me later".

Why do you ask them to remind you? It sounds like you're already set up?

> I don't internet search from the Start bar

Unless you keep modifying the registry to disable it, you do, every time you do a search. You're just not using those results. But you're still getting the crappy experience of delayed actions when you just want the local results.

I just looked and I don't get them but I see them on others computers. I can't remember doing any registry hacks on this so not sure why I don't get them... Maybe because I upgraded from windows 7 and never had a windows account, running as local user only?

It's normally active for local users as well. It is for me and I never logged in. You're (accidentally?) running with an unusual config for some reason. The way to turn it off also changed a couple of times already, so you're really lucky you've avoided it.

Don't really appreciate you speaking for me. I down voted them and you because of wild baseless assertions

It's because people fuck with the registry, run those decrapifier scripts etc. They completely mess with the guts doing nonstandard things and eventually it turns into a mess. Ask me how I know.

After I started administering fleets of Windows machines, I learned that if you don't fuck with it, it's fine!

If you need to make changes, use group policy. Don't like OneDrive? Don't use it! Uninstalling it is going to fuck things up.

Install updates as they come. "But it breaks things!" No it doesn't. It only does if you've fucked your registry to hell.

Just leave things alone and stop trying to customize it like a Linux box is my advice. It is what it is and will work fine if you use it the way it's intended.

If uninstalling it breaks things, at least one of these must be true:

1. It should not be uninstallable and MS screwed up by making it so.

2. The uninstaller is broken and MS screwed up by making it so.

Either path is MS’s fault, not the user’s.

> Don't like OneDrive? Don't use it! Uninstalling it is going to fuck things up.

OneDrive in the end is a component designed to exfiltrate documents. Wanting to remove a security vulnerability should not brick a device. Asking people to not use it is not a solution because you are prompted to send your documents over the internet to a third party every single time you save a new file.

> Don't like OneDrive? Don't use it

No, I absolutely want it off my computer. But then I'm not going to bother with weird registry scripts. Windows won't let me easily remove things, so I removed windows.

> Install updates as they come. "But it breaks things!" No it doesn't.

KB4541335 entered the chat. If you haven't seen a broken vanilla update, you haven't been doing this long enough.

You are just confirming the sentiment in the original post.

<< It is what it is and will work fine if you use it the way it's intended.

That may be true for work PCs, where my access is already restricted and heavily monitored, but I don't accept that for my personal machine.

<< It's because people fuck with the registry,

Hey, if MS wants to put configs somewhere else that is cool too. I don't understand how it is somehow expected that I don't touch the magic box ( because it is all held by rubber band and glue ). It is not some rinky-dink shop that made its first release. It is a global company. I simply expect more.

<< Install updates as they come.

This is for the user to decide. I am personally livid that windows machines update bios these days without any user interaction. If I ever saw retarded setting just waiting to cause a major issue, this is it.

<< Just leave things alone and stop trying to customize it like a Linux box

I use my Windows instance in a VM so I suppose I technically am leaving it mostly alone, but even then I chose to make some changes to registry to make the access easier for myself.

If I may get a little personal for a moment. I think your professional experience may be clouding your judgment in this case. I see it fairly often across a wide variety of professions, where various representatives consider client/user/buyer a hindrance of sorts that should make their lives easier 'by just doing X'. The thing is, the relationship is really not about making the representative's life easier.