Windows 10: How to get rid of all of the unwanted crap that the 20H2 update forces onto me?

As you can probably guess by the title I'm not a fan of this update (or maybe some other that got installed along with it). This is the list of reasons why:

• It made some annoying graphical changes I didn't ask for, but it's a minor issue, I managed to fix most of them.
• It installed Microsoft Edge and set it as a default program to open some kinds of files. I never wanted to use Edge and don't want this crap on my hard drive. Even if I wanted to use it, it's not okay to forcibly put it in my system so it can't be uninstalled in control panel. It also doesn't show in autostart (and yet has five processes opened for absolutely no reason until I kill them) and when I try to cripple it by deleting some of its files, it just fixes itself after restart.
• It installed Cortana. It's an even worse piece of excrement I don't want here. I found a way to keep it from working properly (I hope) by adding a register key but it can still create processes that do hell knows what.
• I found out the Microsoft Web Store has automatic updates for applications allowed and I'm pretty sure I changed it before. It could be some older update that changed it against my will and without notifying me though.
• I tried to uninstall this update and it didn't change anything.

My question is: how do I delete or cripple as hard as possible both Cortana and Edge? Are there any other annoying changes I missed and if so how can I fix them?

submitted by /u/Varflock
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:)

 

Update 20h2

Hi Wicki,

I am Sumit, an Independent Advisor and a 3 year Windows Insider MVP here to help.

20H2 should not be installed right-away on your device - MS said the rollout is only to a fraction of users and would be labeled as an optional update initially. Are you enrolled in WIP?

You may uninstall 20H2 using the steps below:

https://www.yourwindowsguide.com/2020/10/uninst...

Content on the above blog is written by a Microsoft MVP so it is safe. However, do watch out for the ads.

 

Update History is not showing v.20H2

Hi Dominic

I am Dave, an Independent Advisor, I will help you with this . . .

This is normal behavior in Windows 10, typically when you install a Feature Update like 20h2, the update history is wiped, this is to prevent the user from trying to uninstall an update that was prior to the Feature Update, which would de-stabilize Windows
10, the list should start building again, when some updates are applied to version 20h2 . . .

 

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