Windows 11 has made the “clean Windows install” an oxymoron

For a sure sort of laptop purchaser, the very first thing you at all times did with a brand new laptop computer or desktop from an organization like Dell, HP, Acer, or Asus wasn’t to open the field and begin utilizing it. Instead, you took a Windows set up disk immediately from Microsoft (a floppy, a CD, a DVD, a USB stick), and also you blew away the whole lot on the laptop’s inner drive, organising a Windows set up with solely the included Microsoft software program and few extraneous apps (although your definition of extraneous might differ considerably from Microsoft’s).

This time-honored observe is colloquially known as a “clear set up,” and it was a treatment for many issues that ailed a brand new Windows PC. Computer producers usually distributed buggy, pointless, or redundant third-party software program (“bloatware” or “crapware”) to assist subsidize the value of the {hardware}. This would possibly cross some financial savings on to the consumer, however as soon as they owned their laptop, that software program primarily existed to eat disk house and RAM, one thing that cheaper PCs might not often afford to spare. Computer producers additionally put in every kind of further help software program, registration screens, and different issues that typically prolonged the setup course of and junked up your Start menu and desktop.

You can nonetheless do a clear set up of Windows, and it is arguably simpler than ever, with official Microsoft-sanctioned set up media simply accessible and Windows Update able to grabbing most of the drivers that almost all computer systems want for primary performance. The downside is {that a} “clear set up” would not really feel as clear because it used to, and sadly for us, it is an inside job—it is Microsoft, not third events, that’s primarily answerable for the pile of undesirable software program and providers it’s essential to decline or clear away each time you do a brand new Windows set up.

The present state of issues

The “out-of-box expertise” (OOBE, in Microsoft parlance) for Windows 7 walked customers by way of the course of of making a neighborhood consumer account, naming their laptop, coming into a product key, making a “Homegroup” (a since-discontinued native file and media sharing mechanism), and figuring out how Windows Update labored. Once Windows booted to the desktop, you’d discover apps like Internet Explorer and the typical in-box Windows apps (Notepad, Paint, Calculator, Media Player, Wordpad, and some different issues) put in.

Keeping that baseline in thoughts, here is the whole lot that occurs throughout the OOBE stage in a clear set up of Windows 11 22H2 (both Home or Pro) if you do not have lively Microsoft 365/OneDrive/Game Pass subscriptions tied to your Microsoft account:

• (Mostly) obligatory Microsoft account sign-in.
• Setup display screen asking you about knowledge assortment and telemetry settings.
• A (skippable) display screen asking you to “customise your expertise.”
• A immediate to pair your telephone along with your PC.
• A Microsoft 365 trial supply.
• A 100GB OneDrive supply.
• A $1 introductory PC Game Pass supply.

This course of is annoying sufficient the first time, however sooner or later down the line, you will even be supplied what Microsoft calls the “second probability out-of-box expertise,” or SCOOBE (not a joke), which is able to attempt to get you to do all of these items once more in the event you skipped a few of it the first time. This additionally would not account for the quite a few one-off post-install notification messages you will see on the desktop for OneDrive and Microsoft 365. (And it is not simply new installs; I’ve seen these notifications seem on programs which were operating for months even when they are not signed in to a Microsoft account, so nobody is secure).

And the Windows desktop, taskbar, and Start menu are now not the pristine locations they as soon as had been. Due to the Microsoft Store, you will discover a number of third-party apps taking on a ton of house in your Start menu by default, even when they don’t seem to be technically downloaded and put in till you run them for the first time. Spotify, Disney+, Prime Video, Netflix, and Facebook Messenger all should be eliminated if you don’t need them (this record can fluctuate a bit over time).