Maybe it’s local, I am in the UK and every computer I bought with Windows installed up until about 8 years ago came with standalone Word bundled. Works was there too but unused.

Reminds me what Microsoft once was, Word often would be bundled free at source with Windows because people need a word processor. Notepad was provided as a very light way to get down notes and edit, and then additionally Wordpad was a place between them. I have used Notepad more than any other application, you could even use it as a cheap and cheerful hex editor. Now Word is a subscription, Wordpad is being removed from Windows - even that sentence looks wrong, and Notepad is to be bloated into probable redundancy. I have no real idea why Microsoft is squandering it’s legacy, we grew up with these things.

I think maybe it is a switch in emphasis, Microsoft of old built things people needed and took money for that. Modern Microsoft is trying to get money from people and building things to do that.

But even if that is their semi-delusional master plan why scupper it by association with such a bad idea. There was not one person in all the hours of talk they must have spent on this that wondered if every device taking a screenshot every few minutes was a good idea. No matter the security it will be breached and this feature could be astoundingly destructive.

So by implication they have not been telling their teams that since when, Windows95?

Even the cancellation is not good enough. The fact that this was even entertained shows how disconnected Microsoft is from the real world. If they can get this so wrong what else are they getting wrong.