The Microsoft Consumer Experience update late last year gave Windows 10 some new quirks to add to the list. You may have noticed a new ‘suggested’ link in the start menu or icons for Candy Crush Soda Saga, Twitter or Minecraft appearing as tiles in the right side of the same menu. This is more of Microsoft pushing their other products onto you and wanting a say in how you run Windows 10. Here’s how to turn off Suggested Apps in the Windows 10 start menu.
You know the saying, if the product is free, you are the product. Nowhere is that more true than in Windows 10. It is an excellent operating system that rights many of the wrongs of previous editions. Yet the entire experience is cheapened with a not-so subtle attempt to upsell and intrude. Fortunately, you can control a lot of that and Tom’s Hardware has covered many of them.
Turn off Suggested Apps in the Windows 10 start menu
There are three main ways to turn off suggested apps.
1. Open the Windows Start Menu.
2. Right click on a suggested app.
3. Select ‘Turn off all suggestions’.
This will turn off the suggestions from then on. The only caveat is that the setting gets reset every time a major update is installed so you will have to do it again.
You can also do this in the Settings menu.
1. Open the Windows Start Menu and select Settings.
2. Select Personalization and then Start.
3. Toggle off ‘Occasionally show suggestions in Start.
Finally, you can use the registry to permanently turn off Suggested Apps in the Windows 10 start menu.
1. Type or paste ‘regedit’ into the Search Windows box.
2. Navigate to ‘HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\’.
3. Create a new key by right clicking the Windows file icon in the left pane and select New, Key.
4. Name the new key Cloud Content.
5. Right click the new Cloud Content folder and select New DWORD (32-bit Value).
6. Call it ‘DisableWindowsConsumerFeatures’ and set the value data to 1 to enable it.
7. Reboot your computer to enable the change.
Those are three ways to turn off Suggested Apps in the Windows 10 start menu. Got any more? Tell us about them below!
More Windows 10 Tips on Tom’s Hardware:
How to get into advanced startup options in Windows 10
How to add a show desktop shortcut to Windows 10
How to run compatibility mode in Windows 10
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