Microsoft Teams (Free version), Skype, Mail, and Calendar (often superseded by Outlook ) Movies & TV, Disney+, Spotify, Amazon App, Kindle, and News Gaming Xbox Console Companion, Xbox Live, and Solitaire Collection Productivity

Fresh installs often feature "stubs" or shortcuts for apps like TikTok, Instagram, Spotify, or casual games like Candy Crush . These are essentially paid advertisements within the Start menu, occupying space and system resources.

Trials for antivirus software like McAfee or Norton, and productivity apps like Spotify.

In response, a cottage industry of debloating scripts (e.g., Win11Debloat , Chris Titus Tech Utility ) has emerged, using PowerShell to forcibly remove these apps. However, these tools are risky; removing StartMenuExperienceHost or ShellExperienceHost can crash the entire operating system. The fact that users must resort to command-line hackery to achieve a clean system is an indictment of Microsoft’s design philosophy.