Oh no, they’ve added things too. Just not things anyone should want.

The worst part these days is “de-cloud-ifying” a fresh Windows install. The post-install setup wizard is… aggressive, about shoving Azure services in the user’s face. It does about everything it can to make these optional things look mandatory. Cleaning that mess up is practically an assumed part of the process now, IMO.

In the end, it was kind of a trek to find all the things to disable or turn off. It also does not bode well for the concept of private data and “opt in” of cloud services.