back to article You're alone in a room with the Windows 10 out-of-the-box apps. What do you do?

Imagine you’ve just returned to work from a lengthy sabbatical and found, among the thousands of increasingly shrill and unanswered emails in your mailbox, one telling you that you are now the proud product owner of a bunch of Windows OS apps. What would you do? Steve Teixeira, a general manager in Microsoft’s Windows and …

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Windows as a Service

    Do Win10 users own anything??? Its subscription model hell forever.

    You can't even get compensation for Windows, so what do you own!

    ___________

    https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/03/24/microsoft_windows_10_update/

    https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/06/12/which_calls_for_compensation_for_customers_amidst_windows_10_upgrade_fail/

  2. onefang

    I'd open source the little horrors.

    1. Robert Helpmann??
      Childcatcher

      Source of Little Horrors

      I'd open source the little horrors.

      Yes, but what would you do if you start finding Notepad open on your computer every night with just a single line showing?

      ----> "Feed me, Seymour!"

      1. onefang

        Re: Source of Little Horrors

        I'd invite Bill Gates, Steve Ballmer, and Satya Nadella into my office, lock them in with the computer, and let them battle it out. The survivor gets to be Microsoft CEO. A mean green mother from outer space probably couldn't do any worse at running Microsoft than the other three.

        1. Danny 14

          Re: Source of Little Horrors

          new provisioned apps are a pain to maintain. we uninstall just about all of them via a powershell script (uninstall per user AND the provisioned store too so new profiles wont get them).

          calc is a copy of windows 7 calc, notepad++, paint.net, chrome. start menu is an xml copied locally then gpo'd (containing good old fashioned .lnk files). windows doesn't manage printers, there is an old school .lnk to explorer.exe shell for the old printer management. etc etc.

          w10 boots quick and with roaming profiles logs in in about 35 seconds on old 1st gen i3s (redirected desktop, documents and appdata).

          store is installed but locked off via applocker (we have minecraft installed as a user app on some machines and toshiba print management software as an app on others )

          all works well on 1803. Boy was it a fuck about from 1604 to get to this point.

  3. Marco van de Voort

    Not turn them in to apps.

    The speed of notepad for a quick edit is pretty much the main reason to use it. Please no UWP nonsense!

    1. Terry 6 Silver badge

      Re: Not turn them in to apps.

      And above all none of that UWP shite of removing a few useful features first . I have Onenote 2016 and it's almost as good as Evernote used to be (before they restricted its use) for my work. The cut down Win10/UWP version is just rubbish.

      Edit: Just saw the post about calculator. Another very good example of UWP crap software replacing a perfectly good version.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Not turn them in to apps.

      Many Windows utilities need a refresh and some more features, as a text editor Notepad is really primitive today - I guess a lot of Windows users use Notepad++ or something alike (which could be used as an inspiration, although its programmers may not like it).

      But they are apps that need to be powerful enough but not intrusive - once upon a time maybe they could be used to showcase the OS features, but today not - leave it to other applications, not basic utilities, especially if touch-enabling and UWPing them makes them less far usable. And please, no .NET and JS stuff!!!

      1. fatal

        Re: Not turn them in to apps.

        I suspect the developers already use notepad++ themselves

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Not turn them in to apps.

          I suspect the developers already use notepad++ themselves

          Curse you, website, for only giving me one upvote (without creating extra accounts, that is, that would be cheating :) ).

        2. Spazturtle Silver badge

          Re: Not turn them in to apps.

          Not sure about this particular team but some windows software teams use macs running linux for their development environment. Internally they will use whatever allows them to get the job done as fast as possible, time is money after all.

        3. richardcox13

          Re: Not turn them in to apps.

          > I suspect the developers already use notepad++ themselves

          More likely VS Code (for obvious reasons), but any dev org that locked down that choice (Sublime Text FTW!) would find retention even more challenging.

        4. lsces

          Re: Not turn them in to apps.

          Surely any good developer is already on Linux ... and has better tools already ;)

          1. katrinab Silver badge

            Re: Not turn them in to apps.

            Go to the Windows App store, install Ubuntu[1], then a simple ‘apt-get install emacs’ will get you the best text editor available.

            [1] Before you all start flaming me about my choice of distro, yes, there are other distros, I tried them all, and I found that within Windows 10’s subsystem for Linux, Ubuntu was the most reliable. Otherwise, I’m not a huge Ubuntu fan, I mostly prefer FreeBSD.

            1. onefang

              Re: Not turn them in to apps.

              "then a simple ‘apt-get install mc’ will get you the best text editor available."

              FTFY, you had all those extra letters in the packages name.

              "I found that within Windows 10’s subsystem for Linux, Ubuntu was the most reliable."

              I think that's the distro Windows 10 Linux subsystem was built around, so that's no surprise.

            2. Guevera

              Re: Not turn them in to apps.

              A simple 'apt-get install emacs'

              You must be using DVORAK or something too misspell 'vim' so badly.

              1. gyffes

                Re: Not turn them in to apps.

                He wouldn't've made the mistake at all if he'd been using nano...

            3. JohnFen

              Re: Not turn them in to apps.

              I think it's better to install Linux as the base OS, then run Windows in a VM.

        5. Marco van de Voort

          Re: Not turn them in to apps.

          I'm a developer. For anything serious developer will fire up a serious IDE, and for a quick edit notepad is preinstalled and good enough.

          (quick inventory : my devel machine contains VS, Delphi+Lazarus, MP Lab (classic and X) and TexWorks)

      2. JohnFen

        Re: Not turn them in to apps.

        "as a text editor Notepad is really primitive today"

        That's the major feature of Notepad, and it shouldn't change. Having a lean, bare-bones text editor is a very, very good thing. Microsoft's Notepad with additional features is Wordpad, and there's always things like Notepad++.

        1. matjaggard

          Re: Not turn them in to apps.

          Notepad++ takes too long to start. Notepad is fast, really fast. I always replace notepad with notepad2 because it is also fast but handles line endings, large files and some syntax highlighting.

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            "Notepad++ takes too long to start"

            Don't how many plug-ins you load, but my Notepad++ start is instantaneous.

            I don't advocate to make Notepad a bloated application, but it lacks features you expect from a text editor today. And the average computer is enough powerful to not blink if they're added.

            For example, it can't become stuck if you open a large file. It needs better search (and maybe replace) features. Some syntax highlighting would be welcome.

            1. Updraft102

              Re: "Notepad++ takes too long to start"

              Don't how many plug-ins you load, but my Notepad++ start is instantaneous.

              I've never used Notepad++, but I had to wonder what the deal was with everyone saying it takes too long to load. When I used to use Windows, I used Metapad in place of Notepad for years, and it has all kinds of features that were lacking in Notepad, like the CR/CR+LF ability. At 190KB, most of which is the embedded icon, the program (a standalone .exe) loads instantly. How much larger can Notepad++ possibly be?

              I remember encountering the same kind of thing when I revisited KDE Plasma recently. Since Mint has dropped their KDE version, I tried Kubuntu, then converted that to KDE Neon (rebased 18.04) by swapping in the repo and updating.

              Kubuntu comes with Kate as the default text editor, while KDE Neon uses Kwrite. Both are official products of KDE. Why two text editors? I looked it up, and apparently, Kate is so feature-heavy that it supposedly starts too slow, so Kwrite is offered as a pared-down version that starts much quicker.

              On my systems, I can get out "one" of "one, one thousand" before Kate is ready to use. I never saw much point in switching to Kwrite to reduce that fraction of a second even further. YMMV if you're not using a SSD, but if the time it takes for a text editor (even a really heavy one) to start bothers you, you really should be.

            2. JohnFen

              Re: "Notepad++ takes too long to start"

              "Some syntax highlighting would be welcome."

              In my view, that would be adding unnecessary bloat right there. Notepad isn't, and shouldn't be, a "programmers editor". It should remain just a plain and simple text editor.

              1. Anonymous Coward
                Anonymous Coward

                "It should remain just a plain and simple text editor."

                Sure, but when you're editing some scripts on a server, or a config file maybe in XML, YAML or whatever, some syntax highlighting is welcome, because it reduces the chances of making mistakes, and it won't add much bloat - make it optional, if you fear your computer is too underpowered to run it - c'mon TurboPascal editor could do it on a 286 with 640K of RAM...

        2. Shadow Systems

          Re: Not turn them in to apps.

          I'll second that the ultra simple Notepad is just about perfect for editing plain text files. About the only function I can think of that would be nice to have is the ability to Sort, but other than that it's fine just the way it is. I also use Notepad++ for larger files & more complex functions, but it's serious overkill just to Sort a block of text. MS Word 2016 Professional is SO far overkill that it's like hiring a giant lorry capable of hauling hundreds of tonnes of dirt per dumper fill to pull your child in a little red wagon around the yard. To add insult to injury is the fact that Notepad is accessible to a screen reader whereas the full MS Office is an utter crapshoot as to which parts are, which parts are not, & which ones will (not) be the next time you launch the blighted, bloated thing. I don't need Word just to Sort a block of text, I don't *want* some massively bloated program just to do simple editing, & I'm disgusted with the thought of what MS might do to Something That Works in the name of "improving the user experience". Here's a way to improve this user's experience: leave the fekkin' thing alone!

      3. pungy

        Re: Not turn them in to apps.

        "Many Windows utilities need a refresh and some more features, as a text editor Notepad is really primitive today"

        That mentality is what's wrong with Windows today. Notepad is SUPPOSED to be barebones and super fast. If you want to write an HTML document, use Notepad++. If you want to write a BAT, use Notepad.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Not turn them in to apps.

          Notepad is SUPPOSED to be barebones and super fast.

          If you really want barebones, try EDLIN. You need to be of a masochistic nature to fully appreciate it, though, and I think they may have finally removed it in Win 10.

          :)

          1. Lyndon Hills 1

            Re: Not turn them in to apps.

            Edlin had the ability to be used along with a file of commands to be executed, which was pretty useful occasionally. The next comment (when I was reading) suggests programmers are using Linux, in which case they can do all the same sort of things from the shell.

          2. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Not turn them in to apps.

            Your comment made me think of this :)

            https://mwl.io/nonfiction/tools#ed

          3. herman

            Re: Not turn them in to apps.

            I think edlin.com is the only usable program ever written in brainfuck.

          4. Terry 6 Silver badge

            Re: Not turn them in to apps.

            I tried to remember EDLIN. I know I once used it a lpt. But nothing returned. Except a vague feeling of dread.

          5. The Oncoming Scorn Silver badge
            Headmaster

            Re: Not turn them in to apps.

            EDLIN - Cripes now that's going back at least 30 years with Chernobyl (That's what we nicknamed our tutor) at Swindon North Star College.

          6. Alan Bourke

            Re: Not turn them in to apps.

            EDLIN? Go on out of that with your bloatware.

            copy con myfile.txt <enter>

            line 1 <enter>

            line 2 <enter>

            ctrl-z

            Bingo.

          7. Steve the Cynic

            Re: Not turn them in to apps.

            If you really want barebones, try EDLIN. You need to be of a masochistic nature to fully appreciate it, though, and I think they may have finally removed it in Win 10.

            As far as I know, it's still in 32-bit builds of Win10, but not (because it's still a DOS executable) in 64-bit builds.

            Indeed, the Unreliable Source says so, for what that's worth.

            https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edlin

    3. bombastic bob Silver badge
      Thumb Up

      Please no UWP nonsense!

      BIG! THUMBS! UP!

    4. Wibble

      Re: Not turn them in to apps.

      Notepad does need updating. Nothing much but having an undo buffer and little things such as multi-line tab indenting, column cut/copy/paste, maybe allowing multi-document tabs would go a long way. Sure, it's better than nothing, but only just.

      1. Danny 14

        Re: Not turn them in to apps.

        my notepad++ opens as fast as notepad. be thar context menu or start menu.

      2. david 12 Silver badge

        Re: Not turn them in to apps.

        >Notepad does need updating. Nothing much but having an undo buffer and little things such as multi-line tab indenting, column cut/copy/paste, maybe allowing multi-document tabs would go a long way.<

        Those would be good improvements to WordPad. Notepad doesn't have to compete with WordPad.

  4. Dwarf

    How can it be in anyone's interest to remove apps like this from the OS ?

    When in the history of computing hasn't a system come with a basic text editor ?

    These get used for any of a thousand different problems - tweaking config files, basic text manipulation, looking at log files.

    Many places won't allow external software downloads either, so tying to get the Vogons in change management to approve such a change will often prove pointless.

    1. Flakk
      Joke

      tying to get the Vogons in change management to approve such a change will often prove pointless.

      Well, if you wouldn't insist on publishing code that was written whilst under the influence of two Pan-Galactic Gargle Blasters, we wouldn't need Change Management!

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      How can it be in anyone's interest to remove apps like this from the OS ?

      I suspect you haven't been using Microsoft software for that long then.

      Here is a possible scenario:

      1 - isolate (done)

      2 - bar access to any apps but those in a MS controlled shop (probably next, I'm betting on "security" as the argument although that is about the most laughable claim especially Microsoft could come up with)

      3 - make them part of an optional package - at an extra charge.

      Given the way most corporates bend over backwards to hand MS a lot of money, they'll get away with it too. After all, they have been for decades..

    3. Crazy Operations Guy

      "When in the history of computing hasn't a system come with a basic text editor ?"

      RHEL 7 when you install using the 'minimal' option. Comes with a web server, but doesn't have nano, emacs, vim, vi, and even lacks ed. Fortunately it does have grep, sed, cat, and echo. RHEL has abandoned the command line and now expects you use the GUI for everything (Seriously, fuck you NetworkManager)

    4. bombastic bob Silver badge
      Unhappy

      "How can it be in anyone's interest to remove apps like this from the OS "

      For Micro-shaft, it's all about LOCKING YOU IN TO SOME SUBSCRIPTION-BASED BLOATWARE for *EVERYTHING*. And with UWP/FLATSO for that "new, shiny" effect.

      For the end-user, not such a good thing at all.

      /me reaches for the pink liquid

  5. Dan 55 Silver badge
    Alert

    Oh God

    New boss, placed in charge of stuff that doesn't really need changing, what could possibly go wrong?

    1. 9Rune5

      Re: Oh God

      SteveT is one of the good guys. I believe the outcome will be just fine.

      1. bombastic bob Silver badge
        Meh

        Re: Oh God

        "SteveT is one of the good guys."

        If THAT is true, MAYBE he can do something about the !@#$ 2D FLATNESS [and the spyware, and the adware, and the forced updates, ...]

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Oh God

      You should read Steve Teixeira bio... and maybe a couple of his books, albeit dated, now.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    'Proud owner of notepad and calc. What should we do'

    Clearly MS need to Cloud & AI them urgently. How can MS not know this?

    1. Dan 55 Silver badge
      Trollface

      Re: 'Proud owner of notepad and calc. What should we do'

      They're too busy concentrating on blockchain and slurping.

      1. I ain't Spartacus Gold badge

        Re: 'Proud owner of notepad and calc. What should we do'

        Blockchain and Slurping did the conveyancing when I moved house last.

    2. fidodogbreath

      Re: 'Proud owner of notepad and calc. What should we do'

      Clearly MS need to Cloud & AI them urgently. How can MS not know this?

      JS AND HTML5 ALL THE THINGS!!!!

      (^^^ I'm joking. Please do not do that. ^^^)

      My guess: Notepad, Calc. et al will become "ad-supported;" ad-free versions will be available, but only in a bundle with Candy Crush Soda Saga and Solitaire.

      1. bombastic bob Silver badge
        Unhappy

        Re: 'Proud owner of notepad and calc. What should we do'

        years ago the source for notepad (and maybe calc) were included in the SDK. One time I compiled an MDI version of notepad that actually worked, using that source, and quite possibly uploaded the binary to an online service with all necessary credit to MS for having written it. (re-distributing binaries derived from the SDK was simpler back then)

        These applications are SO trivial I'm surprised nobody has cloned them as some kind of open source "retro looking" versions NOT in the store. Otherwise, we'll have to haul in some gtk or qt-based version, built with cygwin [and distributed with the DLL], etc. etc..

        The days of *NON* *BLOATWARE* applications may soon be over...

  7. Buzzword

    A/B testing

    I propose two streams. In the A-stream, you create fancy new apps with all the latest bling. Calc.exe does blockchain, notepad.exe becomes notepad.js, Paint uses AI to predict what you want to draw, etc. In the B-stream, you leave everything exactly as it is. Randomly assign users to A/B, and after a few months see which is more popular.

    1. onefang

      Re: A/B testing

      And then update everyone with the least popular.

      1. TRT Silver badge

        Re: A/B testing

        Surely they need to create an integrated application which combines the best features of the other applications, and thus create a third stream of in-box apps. As well as ensuring that they acquire a popular competitor software house, preferably one that started off quite small and still retains that small and effective core staffing, then tack their Frankencode feature extension onto that product before rewriting it from the ground up in .Net and creating a fourth, D, stream.

      2. NiceCuppaTea

        Re: A/B testing

        Or you could just skip all that and ask cortana what to do.

      3. DragoCubed

        Re: A/B testing

        That's starting to sound like a nightmare from Google

    2. Lusty

      Re: A/B testing

      A/B testing is what led to Vista. Do you really want the majority to win in a vote about OS choices again? Technical people are a tiny tiny minority which is why Linux is really popular here but the year of Linux on the desktop will never come. The normals don’t like it.

      1. bombastic bob Silver badge
        Unhappy

        Re: A/B testing

        "A/B testing is what led to Vista"

        Apparently Micro-shaft does NOT know how to run a survey of ACTUAL users...

  8. handle bars

    You don't get as far as the office drawer apps having lost all will to live post experiencing the dreadful "mail" app. And there is windows 10 problem - designed to be a jack of all trades o/s across pc, tablet and phone it became a master of none. And now? With only the pc needing it the jack of all is inadequate at what it once ruled

  9. Munkeh

    Blockpad as a service

    Clearly they need to turn Notepad into a UWP collaborative cloud based text editor powered by blockchain as a service.

    1. Crazy Operations Guy

      Re: Blockpad as a service

      Can't forget the requisite shoehorning of Cortana into it.

  10. Christopher Reeve's Horse

    Isn't it obvious?

    If it's anything like the small suite of popular games that used to be part of windows, you ruin the UI, pump them full of sickening advertising, and then offer users the ability to pay for the adverts to be removed.

    1. TRT Silver badge

      Re: Isn't it obvious?

      Added bonus if both installer and executable now weigh in at >2GB each.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Isn't it obvious?

        Added bonus if both installer and executable now weigh in at >2GB each.

        As far as I have been able to judge from the growth of the binaries, that's already a default..

    2. Smoking Man

      Re: Isn't it obvious?

      Bring back Clippy.

      And make it a system app, essential and unremovable.

      1. I ain't Spartacus Gold badge
        Devil

        Re: Isn't it obvious?

        Surely we want Active Desktop, permanently linked to Yahoo!!!'s homepage with sound impossible to disable and all videos set to autorun.

      2. Christopher Reeve's Horse

        Re: Isn't it obvious?

        Isn't Clippy as a system app, essential and unremovable, effectively just Cortana?

      3. Shadow Systems

        At Smoking Man, re: Clippy...

        They've already done it. They slapped lipstick on that pig (the non oinky end), rolled that turd in glitter, & changed the name to Curtana.

  11. dotdot

    easy

    Throw the machine at the window.. you'll have a window as everyone who uses windows needs a window to dream of what could have been.

    Jump out of the window... height doesn't matter , this is not real life.

    freedom.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: easy

      I'm very much in the mood to do a Windows 10 Bonfire come this autumn/Winter. I may even have some spare sacrificial rigs, so I don't have to burn up my Laptop! (While it did come with 10, Linux (Mint) works flawlessly on it!)

    2. Fred Flintstone Gold badge

      Re: easy

      Throw the machine at the window.. you'll have a window as everyone who uses windows needs a window to dream of what could have been.

      Yup. True defenestration™ :)

  12. Dippywood

    If you found yourself in charge of the in-box Windows 10 apps, what would you do with them?

    Install Linux

    1. Martin Gregorie

      Re: If you found yourself in charge of the in-box Windows 10 apps, what would you do with them?

      Install Linux

      I did. Fifteen years ago.

      1. bombastic bob Silver badge
        Devil

        Re: If you found yourself in charge of the in-box Windows 10 apps, what would you do with them?

        well, aside from simply ABANDONING every "new, shiny" concept that came with either 'Ape' or Win-10-nic, here's what I'd do:

        a) go back to the simplest method of doing everything;

        b) make sure that all window decorations are 'owner draw' and FORCE them to look like 7 or XP;

        c) make sure all control windows draw themselves like XP or 7;

        d) make sure it uses a TRADITIONAL MENU [no ribbon, no fat-finger-burger]

        e) make sure it reminds people of how good Windows *USED* to be at one time, before the arrogant millenial "2D FLATSO" "UWP" "we will SOCK IT TO YOU with ADS" crowd got ahold of it

        What sold windows 3.0 in the early 90's: It looked nicer than the 2D FLAT stuff that preceded it, had useful applications _LIKE_ notepad and calc, had some built-in games like solitaire [which probably sold MORE copies of windows than ANY other single application], didn't take forever to load or install (on a 386 SX processor with 4M or RAM!!!) and...

        MADE! THE! THINGS! YOU! DID! WITH! A! COMPUTER! MUCH! EASIER! THAN! BEFORE!!!

        Now, let's compare Win XP or 7 to Win-10-nic and see if ANY of that is actually TRUE...

        SO, ultimately, I'd leverage these applications to *DEMONSTRATE* beyond a shadow of a doubt, so that even the most casual observer could see it, that WIndows 'Ape' and Win-10-nic are ABSOLUTELY GOING IN THE WRONG DIRECTION, and people can *EASILY* *REBEL* against the ribbon, 2D FLATSO, fat-finger-burger UI by RETURNING to these simple yet elegantly useful applications (like notepad) with only the most MINOR of updates (to handle things like lines ending in LF or CR, or optionally being a fully functional scientific calculator with a choice between RPN and algebraic), and NOT looking like it was designed by the ANIMATORS OF 'SOUTH PARK' [which is DELIBERATELY done poorly, and lampshaded in the starting sequence].

        1. Waseem Alkurdi

          Re: If you found yourself in charge of the in-box Windows 10 apps, what would you do with them?

          @bombastic bob

          and people can *EASILY* *REBEL* against the ribbon, 2D FLATSO, fat-finger-burger UI by RETURNING to these simple yet elegantly useful applications (like notepad) with only the most MINOR of updates

          And security?

          You said "people", and this implies "regular people" (as opposed to techies who have already jumped to Linux).

          Security vulnerabilities? Windows 7 support expires in 2020 or something.

          1. bombastic bob Silver badge
            Trollface

            Re: If you found yourself in charge of the in-box Windows 10 apps, what would you do with them?

            "And security"

            /me falls over, and rolls on the floor laughing

        2. This post has been deleted by its author

    2. chivo243 Silver badge
      Trollface

      Re: If you found yourself in charge of the in-box Windows 10 apps, what would you do with them?

      @Dippywood

      Return to Sabbatical ASAP! Or check myself into Bellevue for a long stretch...

      Or play Candy Crush until my eyes bleed?

      1. Crazy Operations Guy

        Re: If you found yourself in charge of the in-box Windows 10 apps, what would you do with them?

        " Or check myself into Bellevue for a long stretch..."

        I should point out that Bellevue is also the name of a city in Washington State that is host to several Microsoft offices...

        1. Will Godfrey Silver badge

          Re: If you found yourself in charge of the in-box Windows 10 apps, what would you do with them?

          ... and entirely appropriate too.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: If you found yourself in charge of the in-box Windows 10 apps, what would you do with them?

      Actually I got and a Mac and zapped Windows for a Linux Mint.

      I need some commercial apps such as what Affinity makes (Designer, Photo and -by the looks of it- Publisher is a winner too) so I need a commercial desktop, but at least I now have one layer of risk (and no license management worries) instead of exposure at app as well as OS level.

      LibreOffice works fine on Linux, thankfully I don't need fancy Excel work.

  13. This post has been deleted by its author

  14. onefang

    Decimation by defenestration.

    Then I'd retire and write a book about it, Decimation by Defenestration for Dummies.

    1. TRT Silver badge

      by defenestration and decimation...

      You mean "chuck them out of Windows 10"?

  15. DJV Silver badge

    Calculator

    I'll just leave this here:

    https://winaero.com/blog/get-calculator-from-windows-8-and-windows-7-in-windows-10/

  16. Anonymous South African Coward Bronze badge

    Lob a Tsar Bomba at it.

    Only way to get rid of that sort of abomination.

  17. ivan5

    What to do

    First and foremost leave the UI at about the win 7 version and make sure that it can't be changed when it gets near win 10.

    Having ensured that - leave every thing else alone

  18. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Obviously...

    Port them to iOS 12

  19. LenG

    I really don't care

    he can do what he likes with them. I have better freeware programmes for the few in-box apps that I might otherwise want to use.

    Except paint. That is still occasionally useful.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: I really don't care

      The problem is always when you work on different systems, maybe customers' ones, and you don't have all your applications available and can't install them. Having a better default text editor won't be a bad idea.

    2. ThePieMan

      Re: I really don't care

      Good for you but my work PC is sort of locked down, so supplied apps it is (within reason).

    3. bombastic bob Silver badge
      Meh

      Re: I really don't care

      "Except paint. That is still occasionally useful."

      The XP version. The 7 version has that @#$%'ing HIDEOUS RIBBON

      1. Waseem Alkurdi

        Re: I really don't care

        The 7 version has that @#$%'ing HIDEOUS RIBBON

        The Paint source code is included in the Windows NT source code dump. One can possibly compile it using modern tools (see OpenNT for an OS compiled using the selfsame method).

  20. imanidiot Silver badge

    Since nothing about them needs changing...

    Take another sabbatical?

    1. TRT Silver badge

      Re: Since nothing about them needs changing...

      Is that where they teach you the art of sabbotage?

  21. handle bars

    You are not worried "man gets given mundane dept lead and seeks to make it his own in order to impress" syndrome won't happen? When leaders think they have to make a bold statement in the corporate fashion to get the better role they do strange things

  22. Kev99 Silver badge

    Some of the little tidbits are leftovers from when MS bought Central Point Software, such as almost all of the disk cleanup buggers.Notepad should be left alone as should calculator. Beyond that, there are probably hundreds of applications and DLLs that could be wiped. If windows had an intelligent installer, most would never see the light of day.

  23. Sixtysix
    Flame

    Take them round the back...

    ...and euthenise them.

    With extreme prejudice.

    EXTREME I said...

    1. Shadow Systems

      Re: Take them round the back...

      I was thinking of launching them from an orbital platform at a very high speed so they make it through atmospheric reentry burn & impact straight through the roof of a certain MS CEO's office...

  24. Zebo-the-Fat

    When did a program turn into an app??

    1. TRT Silver badge

      Exactly 12 years to the day after it stopped being an executable.

      1. Will Godfrey Silver badge
        Happy

        Hmmm

        In the mid 1980s the Acorn Archimedes came with two floppies. Apps1 and Apps2

    2. bombastic bob Silver badge
      Meh

      When did a program turn into an app??

      When they went into "the Store" and actually became CRAPP...

      actually Micro-shaft has been using the term 'app' since before XP. I forget when it started, maybe around the Windows '98 time frame. They just haven't forced the REST of us to call it that until Apple's iPhone and Google's Android and their associated 'app stores' became 'a thing'.

      Then it's all 'hip' and 'cool' and 'new' and 'shiny' and sounds like your dad trying to use teen lingo when you're 15.

      1. Updraft102

        Re: When did a program turn into an app??

        Then it's all 'hip' and 'cool' and 'new' and 'shiny' and sounds like your dad trying to use teen lingo when you're 15.

        Perfect description. The only thing more cringe-inducing is those restaurant chains using "app" to mean an appetizer in their TV commercials. "Look, we're cool too!"

      2. Waseem Alkurdi

        Re: When did a program turn into an app??

        actually Micro-shaft has been using the term 'app' since before XP.

        The term was "application", not "app". The "app" came into existence as you rightfully mention, after the iPhone.

        1. Terry 6 Silver badge

          Re: When did a program turn into an app??

          That rings a bell. And an "application" was usually a utility programme or a suite.i.e. something non-trivial. Whereas now its abbreviated version seems to be for something that is trivial. And to match the concept the existing programmes need to be trivialised (akin to "dumbed down")

  25. JohnFen

    What would I do?

    "if you found yourself in charge of the in-box Windows 10 apps, what would you do with them?"

    Whatever my job required me to do with them.

  26. PerlyKing
    Devil

    What would I do?

    Replace Notepad with GNU Emacs :-D It used to be considered a beast, but these days it's pretty lightweight!

    1. JohnFen

      Re: What would I do?

      Emacs droolz, vi roolz!

      (Nothing tickles my nostalgia bone as much as reviving stupid old holy wars.)

      1. onefang

        Re: What would I do?

        "Emacs droolz, vi roolz!"

        Your vi needs a spell checker.

        1. Waseem Alkurdi
          Trollface

          Re: What would I do?

          And emacs perhaps needs to shed off a few bytes first?

  27. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

    Is the old cardfile still a thing in there?

  28. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Ask a silly question

    "Returned from sabbatical to discover I’m now the proud owner of a number of in-box #Windows apps, including notepad and calc. What should we do?"

    First thing that popped into my mind: DON'T %#* WITH THEM!!!

  29. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Wordpad

    Dump notepad and make Wordpad the default for text files. Wordpad actually understands different EOL types. I do not need to strip ^M off lines when from Wordpad's files.

    1. Crazy Operations Guy

      Re: Wordpad

      Except Wordpad is a piece of shit when you want to work with files that have lines longer than however many would fit into about 7 inches of printed space.

      Intentionally reading a log file in wordpad should be considered a cry for help...

      1. tfewster
        Facepalm

        Re: Wordpad @COG

        Long lines in Wordpad: Click View, Word Wrap, then choose from No Wrap, Wrap to Window or Wrap to Ruler

  30. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Pithy, but to the point.

    Dont break them.

  31. Disk0
    Holmes

    Here’s an idea

    Make all those trinket apps run only on Windows Phone as an incentive to people who want the apps, to buy a Windows Phone.

    Problem solved.

  32. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Not sure what happened

    So here is my suggestion again.

    DONT BREAK THEM!!!

  33. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Leave these few decent apps as are

    I don't need bells and whistles, just a box where I can type notes and save them. Even Notepad++ is overkill for my usage. Same with Paint, don't need Paint.net or Paint 3D. Keep them as are.

  34. ThePieMan

    Simples

    Considering how basic Notepad is - it’s actually one of my most used apps. It’s simple and quick to use.

    If I wanted something with bells and whistles I’d use something else. Please don’t make it GUI’ed up!

  35. Anonymous Coward
    Joke

    Notepad...

    Add vi and Emacs modes

  36. maddddog

    GRRRRRRR

    Take a 10 pound sledge hammer and smash it to smithereens. When I was a wage slave, I always had a base ball bat it my office and I called it my fine tuner. I never used it but I did bring it out occasionally. Windows (all versions) made my life a living hell.

  37. Lorribot

    Notepad has its uses where it is better than Notpad++, Its latest iteration which includes text zooming is useful additions that actually add stuff with out taking anything away.

    The OOB Apps that came with Windows 8 like News, Video, Films and TV, Mesaginging (on a PC?), Connect (My device does not support miracast apparently), Camera (my PC does not have one) and some of the more recent additions like Mixed Reality just need a way to remove them so you don't have to look at them ever again as they are just MS not checking capabilities before installing stuff and generally throwing stuff at a wall and seeing what sticks.

  38. georgezilla Silver badge

    What do you do?

    Nuke the drive back to the Stone Age ...

    And install Linux ......

    Oh .....

    Wait ......

    I already did that.

    So I wouldn't have to do anything.

  39. AdamWill

    I would...

    ...get on Twitter and have some fun explaining what CRLF actually *means* to baffled millennials who have never seen a manual typewriter...

    1. TRT Silver badge

      Re: I would...

      Did you see that programme "Back in time for the factory", where they let a millennial loose on a manual typewriter just for shits and giggles? Utterly lost and nearly kacked herself when she experimentally pressed a lever and the carriage flew to the end of its travel.

  40. vtcodger Silver badge

    "You're alone in a room with the Windows 10 out-of-the-box apps. What do you do?"

    Find the host/hostess, mumble something about lovely party, but you have a prior commitment, and leave?

    1. Waseem Alkurdi
      Devil

      The quote begins with "You're alone ..." xD

  41. Herby

    Long for the days...

    Of an 029 keypunch and a box-o-cards. They worked for a couple of decades, why not. Lacking that, we could move forward to an ASR33 and go from there.

    Me? Yes, I've used both!

  42. herman

    I simply do my text file editing in the address bar of Firefox.

  43. Anonymous Coward
    Coffee/keyboard

    I'd resign.

    Immediately.

  44. Zmodem
  45. Chris King

    "You're alone in a room with the Windows 10 out-of-the-box apps. What do you do?"

    Depends. How many bullets are there in the gun ?

  46. phands

    Reformat the drive and install Linux.

  47. Richard 12 Silver badge

    Fix all the bugs

    Support more formats

    Nothing else. Nothing else at all.

    Eg Calc should remember the number when changing mode, and do all arithmetic correctly to high decimal precision (not high binary precision).

    Notepad should read and write every text-only format known to humankind. (Every codepage of ASCII, UTF-8, UTF-16 etc, EOL, CRLF, CR, LF, LFCR etc)

    Paint should load and save every image format known to humankind.

    Between those two, you'll keep busy and won't break anything.

  48. WibbleMe

    The sort answer is to download an app that makes windows 10 look like windows 7

  49. WereWoof

    Just bring back the windows 98 UI (minus the crashiness) and I would be ecstatic!

    1. Terry 6 Silver badge

      IMHO it's been downhill since 3.11

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