Ah, I have classic shell (now open shell) installed as I don’t like that standard start menu. It’s possible that is part of the default start menu. But yes, I did not get that, it’s definately not on any of my machines.
What you could try is download geek uninstaller, it’s portable and free. Run it and see what is installed, there are two sets, your installed apps which is shown by default and under view you can select windows apps. Could be something installed which you can remove.
Is it a Pro version? I only use Pro.

I think you meant office 360, yes that is the online Office and so does want you to have a M$ account. It’s should not make a difference though, I also use my account (as I use VS), and I don’t have that, so I suspect it’s something installed which I removed.

Yep, online is not optional anymore with anything.

Edit, the attached shows what I have left in Windows Apps, and thats only as I have not worked out what they are for.

This thing is part of 21H2 update which is coming... this winter. So if you got this that it means that you somehow singed up for Windows Insider Program.

I just installed the feature update that was available on Windows 10 (Pro) update.

Wow, I'm an insider? INsider? Not sure what I will do with my new powers.

it's been a while since i tried, but i remember WNICs being the biggest problem.

Last time I remember people getting antsy about 10x or whatever it was a closed version of Windows for tablets and whatnot, and not actually the next evolution of Windows10. Not saying MS are incapable of getting there on all versions eventually, but they do know a huge reason Windows is used as much as it is is that every business and IT guy and whatnot can run whatever they want on it.

I don't know if you're joking or not. XD It's brilliant

Microsoft has been trying on both both fronts. Windows 10 S was (and apparently still is) shipped with "normal" PCs (laptops), but targeted mainly to budget class laptops. MS included the option to switch it to "full Windows 10" that is not closed, but not switch back to S mode. EDIT: Reading more about it, apparently at first Windows 10 S was a completely separate OS, but later MS integrated it with full Windows 10 so that a PC would first be in the S mode, but the user could switch it (permanently) to the "full mode" if he so wished. That is apparently the current "Windows 10 S" now.

Since the PCs running 10 S can obviously also run the "normal" Windows 10, the question remains what was the purpose of S anyway? Why not just enable normal 10 on all those devices? The only logical explanation I can think of was that MS was hoping many 10 S buyers would stay on the S mode, hence slowly increasing the adoption rate of closed Windows 10 among PC users.

Windows 10 X currently seems to be only for certain kinds of PCs (laptops), ie. it can't be bought and run on any PC apparently. However MS seems to state that is the situation now, and MS seems to change their plans constantly. This has been clearly evident of how they are pushing UWP, at some point it was even implied that UWP is dead, until MS apparently changed its plans once again. Then again sometimes it may be just semantics, "UWP is dead!" just means they're calling it with a new name.

To me it is pretty clear MS hopes "home and casual users" to move to a closed Windows (10 S, or X, or whatever is next) ecosystem, also based on their past interviews where they have future projections how common people and maybe also office workers will do their Windows stuff on these closed (or company restricted, in the corporate world) Windows systems, and only some hardcore professional Windows developers and such would continue using what we think of as Windows 10 PCs nowadays. Lately they've also stressed the importance of the Azure cloud integration, maybe hoping that it becomes the norm that people do their computing stuff (also home stuff, gaming, professional stuff, whatever) in the Azure cloud, and the "PC" they use for that is just a low-end graphical terminal.

How they get there though, it is not clear to themselves either. They know they can't just ship a massive feature update to all Windows 10 users that makes Windows a closed ecosystem, that wouldn't be accepted by most current PC users with lots of Win32 applications, Steam games and whatnot. So instead they try to softly increase the adoption rate of those "other" Windows S and X devices, Windows in Azure etc. There are just still so many "stubborn" PC users that cling to their old "legacy" Win32 applications, slowing down the progress that MS wants to materialize.

So I guess our disagreement comes from that you still believe MS wants "Windows PCs" to be a relatively open ecosystem also for home and casual users, and also keep it that way in the future. I don't.

EDIT: Oh, I didn't notice until now that Windows 10 already now has the option "Choose where to get apps". At the moment it is by default set to "Anywhere", but it says they recommend it to set to "The Microsoft Store only".

I wouldn't be surprised at some point MS sets the default to be "The Microsoft Store only", and if the user wants to specifically install applications from elsewhere too, he has to go to change that setting, and maybe it can be changed only as an admin user.

I take that as another proof that that is exactly where MS wants "common" Windows users to go: a closed system where all your software is bought and installed only through their MS Store.

^ Stuff like that is exactly why Valve have been putting a disproportionate amount of money into Proton (relative to the 1% user-base) as an obvious "backup plan". The "backup plan" of EA & Ubisoft is obviously a subscription for streaming. I'm surprised GOG haven't at least considered how very dead this entire store will become virtually overnight if Microsoft did pull the plug on "legacy" Win32 (which is both 32 & 64-bit applications as we know them) in future and they had no similar backup plan.

The real problem is UWP. It's the worst possible API to use for gaming, has consistently had more performance problems with DX12 than "Win32" has with Vulkan (see Quantum Break (DX12 on MS Store) vs (DX11 on Steam)). And worst of all the sandbox nature where you can't access files in "apps" the same way you can applications means death to open modding. Had Oblivion & Skyrim been released as UWP exclusives, there would be no OBSE / SKSE Script Extenders or Mod Managers. Had Morrowind been been released as a UWP exclusive, there would be no Code Patch. Had Stardew Valley been released as a UWP exclusive, there would be no SMAPI, etc. The installers to these patches wouldn't be able to "see" let alone write to the game folders to patch them. In fact, if apps are prevented from accessing game folders directly in a UWP-only world, then any UWP game could only be managed by Windows directly, ie, it will also kill off the ability of game clients like Steam / Galaxy to manage their games, or source-ports to see data files from installed games located outside their own folder... People are inadvertently supporting Microsoft's "vision" of this stuff becoming mainstream every time they make a MS Store purchase of a UWP app.

I doubt anything's going to happen over the next decade purely because Microsoft have forced themselves to support Win32 / 64 for at least 10 years after the latest Enterprise LTSC release. In the long run though, people are being seriously naive if they think modders "can just mod around it" precisely because it's nothing like the 16 -> 32 -> 64 bit API transitions at all. The only real "insurance" is hopefully MS getting their ass sued to the tune of tens of billions by govts & large corporations should they do something dumb like that impacts core infrastructure. And for consumers, hopefully Linux will continue to improve on the gaming compatibility side of things. And any non-Linux GOG user who has backed up their game collection with the intention of still playing them in 10-20 years time, should seriously consider also backing up the oldest Enterprise LTSC ISO they can find that supports their hardware "just in case", as the ultimate killer feature that version of Windows has is that it never downloads "hey guys, we've had another 'Great Idea (tm)' that benefits us more than you" 'Feature Updates' that are forced for the regular versions every 6 months...

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/microsoft/windows-defender-bug-fills-windows-10-boot-drive-with-thousands-of-files/
It's somewhat amusing to see these constant blunders. Apparently they issued a fix in the meantime.

In my opinion there are no good operating systems these days. Windows is shit Linux and all it's distros are shit. Mac is shit. The last good OS was Windows 7. My soul for a re-releases of Windows 7.

As much as I try I will never get used to Linux.

The amount of businesses that use Win32 apps must be massive. They'd be insane to do that anytime soon, though I'm sure it's an eventual goal down the road a long ways. Still, like I said before, I am not super fearful that will result in the death of 32bit games. The community is way too on top of such things.

The fact that in 2021 we can play pretty much every PC game ever released since the whole shebang started 40ish years ago should really alleviate fears, IMO.

Oh dude shut up. How about learning some basic social skills. Linux will never gain popularity because people like you won't get out of your own way. Where do you get off on telling to learn how to use it. What makes you think I don't? I probably know it better than you do. Do I tell you to just learn windows because you don't like it. The worst kind of stupidity is the kind that thinks it's clever.

It should be announced now, so there can be migration with conversion apps.

No one has to make 32 bit windows apps anyway. Everything could be in 64