The Bloating of Windows: A Growing Concern

Probably most of you would have noticed the recent bloating of Windows. Windows, which was once an ease of access, has gone in a direction that seems unrecoverable: endless bloatware, Copilot AI, Edge, and other unwanted activities. On my laptop, out of 250GB, 60 to 70GB is just Windows, and going through the RAM, out of 16GB almost always 5GB is consumed at idle.

Photo by BoliviaInteligente on Unsplash

This bloatware, along with the increasing usage of software and the ever growing demand for resources, is becoming a serious concern.

Windows itself has now noticed that people are moving to Linux more than before. It may seem that even purchasing Windows is not enough for their balance sheet, as they have to continuously push bloatware to generate revenue.

Microsoft has made some moves in 2026 to address this, introducing an "Essentials" installation mode for Pro and Enterprise editions that leaves out the most obvious bloat, including third party app promotions and unnecessary preinstalled software. However, Home edition users, who are arguably the most affected by bloatware since they are less likely to reinstall their systems, do not get this option. And even with these improvements, users are still met with daily Copilot notifications, Microsoft 365 prompts, and reminders that their data is being used to improve the product. The fixes are arriving, but the feeling that the operating system is not entirely yours remains.

On the other hand, Linux, which is free, provides significantly more free RAM and storage, and you will notice an immediate increase in speed and performance.

But the world we live in is full of people who do not care about this and will often simply upgrade to better devices, and the wheel will keep on turning.

Posted Using INLEO