I don't know how much truth there is to this, and I'll check with my personal machines when I get home (I run Linux at work) but when I worked in a retail space, the apps that were pre-loaded varied based on the OEM. Dell got a set, Toshiba got a different set, Lenovo got a different set, etc. Sometimes it varied based on the particular line, like HP would include a different set of games on their laptops that had touchscreen devices, etc.
I'm not 100% confident on this and I haven't worked in Retail for a couple of years thankfully, but I suspect strongly that the apps that are installed are pushed not by Microsoft, but by the OEM in their recovery image. I suspect thus that if you buy a standalone version of Windows 10, and clean install the machine with nothing else on the hard drive, that you won't get those apps pre-installed. But buy a computer with Windows 10 preloaded, and the sky's the limit, the OEM pushes what they want, and Microsoft makes it difficult to opt out.
I'd love someone else to weigh in on this, because I've been distanced from the situation for a while. But no matter how you slice it, users are getting increasingly frustrated, and I think it's a terrible business strategy for Microsoft. They've ruined any potential trust I might have had for their app store before it had a chance to even take off, and I'm not sure they'll be able to recover. If anything, I've got my eyes on Google, who stand positioned to completely shake up the personal computer space with Chrome OS and its budding Android apps support. It'll be interesting to see how the space unfolds.
I'm not 100% confident on this and I haven't worked in Retail for a couple of years thankfully, but I suspect strongly that the apps that are installed are pushed not by Microsoft, but by the OEM in their recovery image. I suspect thus that if you buy a standalone version of Windows 10, and clean install the machine with nothing else on the hard drive, that you won't get those apps pre-installed. But buy a computer with Windows 10 preloaded, and the sky's the limit, the OEM pushes what they want, and Microsoft makes it difficult to opt out.
I'd love someone else to weigh in on this, because I've been distanced from the situation for a while. But no matter how you slice it, users are getting increasingly frustrated, and I think it's a terrible business strategy for Microsoft. They've ruined any potential trust I might have had for their app store before it had a chance to even take off, and I'm not sure they'll be able to recover. If anything, I've got my eyes on Google, who stand positioned to completely shake up the personal computer space with Chrome OS and its budding Android apps support. It'll be interesting to see how the space unfolds.