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In an enterprise environment where I control the apps that I install for my users, what are the ramifications of removing the Windows store and all of its apps from my Windows 10 setups?
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Ask Soylent: Ramifications of Removing Windows Store from Enterprise Installs?
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Hacking's just another word for nothing left to kludge.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by bzipitidoo on Friday March 31 2017, @03:54AM (11 children)
You don't need the store. However, they try to make it painful to live without.
I don't like any of the stores, and always remove them from prominent positions. I'll leave them buried among the list of all installed apps, if they behave and don't pester me with ads. I have never used an iWhatever, so am not familiar with the Apple Store. Been sticking to Android.
I find the Android Store near useless. Jailbroke one of my older devices, and tried to fool the store. The original Store is programmed to insist on some personal data before it will let you install even free things, and the one item I refuse to give them is my credit card number. Tried a real name and address that isn't mine, and a generated credit card number, but the damn thing checks the validity. I tried to work around it by installing Google Opinions to generate some store credit so I can "buy" free things, but it wouldn't work. Kept telling me it would activate after my info had been verified. Makes it sound like a person will check the info some day. So I gave up on the Store, and I use sideloading to install stuff. Only things I can install through the store are free, ad supported apps advertised in other free, ad supported apps.
What's really obnoxious is the way major retailers have jumped on the Store bandwagon. Amazon's Fire tablet comes with the Amazon store installed. WalMart has their own cheap tablet with their store app preinstalled. HP has its own store that'll try to sell you printer supplies. And the Windows Store? I have Windows 10 and 8, and have never used the store. I do not hesitate to remove it from the quick start bar. Do not need or want.
(Score: 2) by inertnet on Friday March 31 2017, @09:03AM (8 children)
I have never had to enter a credit card number for an Android or Apple store. Maybe that's because I live in Europe, where people are not automatically expected to have one. I think you can just skip the question (I can't remember exactly). Also there's the f-droid store for Android with useful stuff like OsmAnd~ (offline maps).
(Score: 3, Informative) by driverless on Friday March 31 2017, @11:58AM (3 children)
I used a prepaid (anonymous) card. Fake address, fake name, done.
(I'm under no illusions as to how private it really is, Google knows my home location and lots of other stuff, but at least they don't have any details I gave them directly).
(Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Friday March 31 2017, @04:02PM (2 children)
I thought of the prepaid card with bogus personal info idea too, but decided it wasn't worth the trouble. I'd done that once, for a game and also to test the idea, and it worked.
(Score: 2) by driverless on Saturday April 01 2017, @07:32AM (1 child)
What about using a prepaid Google Store card from a supermarket? Or do they require you to register a credit card?
(Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Saturday April 01 2017, @10:03AM
You can pay cash for a Store card. And since those cards are meant to be usable as gifts, they can't very well insist you tie your name to it when you make the purchase. I haven't done it, so can't be 100% certain it'll work but can't think of any reason why it would not.
(Score: 4, Informative) by Nerdfest on Friday March 31 2017, @01:57PM (2 children)
No need for it here in Canada either. There's a "Skip" button. Just like there's a "Skip" button to setting up any Google accounts at all on the phone, yet people insist that they are required.
(Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Saturday April 01 2017, @10:41AM (1 child)
I've often seen howtos that can't be followed because somewhere around step 5, it'll instruct you to choose a menu option or button that is not present on your particular system. Happens a lot in Windows. When you dig in to the details, you find complexity. There may be other options that determine which options the user sees. It may be simply not present on low end "Home" versions of Windows.
Windows is especially frustrating in that you can't trust MS not to change your choices behind your back. Recall how much trouble it was to stop Windows 7 and 8 from nagging the user to upgrade to Windows 10. Just when you finally thought you had the correct "updates" blocked. MS would change the updater to unblock them and bring back the upgrade nagger. Nor can you be sure what the consequences are of disabling something. For instance, I thought I would disable this fingerprint reader service in Windows, as I don't have one and don't plan to get one. But somehow that functionality is tied to the ability to log in at all. With it stopped, logging in was much harder, taking 5 minutes to get around to displaying a password prompt, when it would enable the user to log in at all.
So I didn't see any "Skip" option. Maybe it isn't present in older versions of Android? Or, you can Skip, but then you will be unable to purchase even free items from the Store, and when you try, it again brings up the screen demanding a credit card number.
(Score: 2) by Nerdfest on Saturday April 01 2017, @01:40PM
I'm pretty sure it's always been there, and you can purchase free items in the store. I'll add that I can only say this for sure about Nexus devices and CyanogenMod, but I think it's part of the Google Play application, so it should apply to all. Same for adding GMail accounts for phone setup (although you do need a GMail account for Play Store setup).
(Score: 3, Interesting) by jmoschner on Friday March 31 2017, @03:00PM
Here in the US, I've never needed a credit card for downloading free apps on either Google Play or the App Store. That bit was always skippable for me.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 31 2017, @09:59AM
There is a "skip" option when the prompt for payment method comes up on free downloads from the store. Both in the US and in the EU.
(Score: 2) by fliptop on Friday March 31 2017, @01:29PM
After installing Ubuntu Touch on my LG Nexus 4, I found the Ubuntu Store quite unobtrusive and full of cool goodies.
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