Microsoft could easily avoid a lot of legal hassle and earn a lot of goodwill if they just offered a version of Windows with nothing but the most basic stuff pre-installed. Hell, just go the typical/custom install that a most other programs have during the initial start up, most people will just select the option that installs Office and the other crap anyway. The people that don't want it will never use it and current resent that you attempt to force them.
How does one decide what constitutes "basic"? Is a password-manager a "basic" feature? If so, then is "Passwords.app" bundled by Microsoft into Windows an unfair advantage because of distribution when compared to "1Password.app"? Ok, then, can Microsoft make a button called "Passwords" in their "Settings.app" and that qualifies as a non-competitive "basic" "Settings" feature?
Everything that came installed on vanilla Windows XP would pretty much work.
By that standard I'm also including Internet Explore 8 since that should be just sufficient enough to download a modern browser of the users choice. /s (but also a little bit serious)
Unfortunately, this doesn't feel true anymore, I have an enterprise version and it's still pushy with its news feed, bing, and other pre-installed stuff.
Installed plenty of Windows 10/11 Pro recently, comes with a whole bunch of stuff that in no way benefits business clients and in many ways will hamper them.
Why should they care about goodwill? Treating customers as they have has made them one of the most profitable companies in the world. People whine and complain about them all the time, but continue to throw barrels of money at them. Goodwill isn't going to improve their profitability.
