Microsoft seems to think our computers are free advertising space, a place where it can selfishly promote its other products - even though they were told roundly in the ‘90s that even bundling a web browser was not OK. How is this still happening to people, - Sean Hollister October 4, 2020 They’re among the least offensive bloatware I’ve seen, and I never really look at the Start Menu anyhow - my taskbar and search bar have long been enough for me. They’re just shortcuts to the web version you could already access in any web browser of your choice, which double as advertisements to pay for a more fully featured copy.īecause they’re web apps, it’s not like they take up any space on my computer, and I don’t really mind them in my Start Menu. These aren’t full free copies of Office, by the way. Did I mention that icons for Microsoft Office apps have magically appeared in my Start Menu, even though I’ve never once installed Office on this computer? My new Start Menu contains shortcuts to Microsoft apps I’ve never installed Screenshot: Sean Hollister/The Verge No, this time Microsoft is merely sneaking unwanted web apps onto my PC - and using my Windows 10 Start Menu as free advertising space.

OK, it’s not as bad as when my entire computer screen got taken over by an unwanted copy of Microsoft Edge. Seriously, the story you’re reading right now started off as a news post about this happening to other people.

Microsoft had installed unsolicited, unwanted web app versions of Word, PowerPoint, Excel and Outlook onto my computer. The craziest part: When my machine finished rebooting, it now contained the exact thing I’d been writing about before I was rudely interrupted. Windows 10 had restarted my computer without permission yet again - to install yet another forced OS update onto my solid state drive.

When I got back, I couldn’t believe my eyes. I stepped away from my computer for dinner, halfway through writing a story for The Verge.

Microsoft access after update