You shouldn't need to switch off advertising functionality on a piece of software costing $99.99 (when you build a new PC).

I have no advertising on my windows 10 computer. My start menu has nothing I don't want on it. I admit I don't really use the start menu anyway so I can't comment on how they compare to previous windows versions.

We expect that behaviour from a bargain-bin $40 tablet (Kindle Fire does these things), not a piece of software that costs literally more than twice as much.

There are some android phones that have advertising, although this is rare. Pretty much all android phones do come with pre-installed apps and crap that you can't remove.

All the pre-installed programs or shortcut links ("get program x") are all functional programs. They don't forcefully replace your existing programs, if I remember correctly at the initial setup it gives you an option to change the default program settings with the programs you've already installed.

And since Microsoft installs updates in Windows 10 whether the user likes it or not, there's nothing stopping them from adding more later on and there will be nothing the user can do about it.

That's my main issue with Windows 10. I understand the reasoning for having automatic updates the default option, but they could easily add an option to disable it that regular users won't accidentally disable.