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Here's a better idea - show Microsoft that you don't accept this type of behaviour by switching products/services. I'm aware that Windows 10 is a "free" OS, but trying to ram this type of behaviour down my throat is despicable unethical behaviour and I don't condone it. It is why I've switched to Linux for my daily computing needs.
> how to turn them off Switch to Linux. Windows 10 Home is now $119 and tracks you. Microsoft is trying to sell you a product and monetize your behavior. They are pursuing a way to maintain their cash cow and have an avenue to push Google out.
This works well if your hobbies include manually editing obscure config files and replacing perfectly good hardware, and if your hobbies do not include playing games. I frequently explore the possibility of switching to Linux, and while it's not the garbage fire it was 15 years ago, it's still just not a peer to Windows for the way I use my computer.
If you feel the urge to turn it off, switch to GNU/Linux. Turn annoying things off is not a solution, it is an excuse.
This sucks, of course. Yet all the comments on this thread saying the solution is to simply switch platforms ignore something very fundamental. I like to say "Nobody goes to Home Depot to buy a drill bit; what they want to buy is a hole." I don't use Windows because I want to use Windows. I use it because there are things I need to do that can only be done with it. The "just switch to Linux" reaction is an understand…
> how to turn them off Switch to Linux. Windows 10 Home is now $119 and tracks you. Microsoft is trying to sell you a product and monetize your behavior. They are pursuing a way to maintain their cash cow and have an avenue to push Google out.
Here's a better idea - show Microsoft that you don't accept this type of behaviour by switching products/services. I'm aware that Windows 10 is a "free" OS, but trying to ram this type of behaviour down my throat is despicable unethical behaviour and I don't condone it. It is why I've switched to Linux for my daily computing needs.
That would make sense if the benefits were more than the costs. Which, for the average people, aren't.
Just the hassle of using a new interface, much less one that needs more admin work like Linux, is enough. And let's not go with compatibility with the various tasks people do.
(And no, most people don't just "browse and read email". They also want to be able to see all kinds of videos, they want to be able to do stuff with Office documents they receive, they want to transfer and/or edit their daughter's birthday videos, and so on...).
Earlier quoted context omitted.
This works well if your hobbies include manually editing obscure config files and replacing perfectly good hardware, and if your hobbies do not include playing games. I frequently explore the possibility of switching to Linux, and while it's not the garbage fire it was 15 years ago, it's still just not a peer to Windows for the way I use my computer.
I really can't underline how stupid you make yourself sound by writing that utter toss, so I simply conclude that I very much doubt you have any idea what Linux was like 15 years ago – considering that you have no idea what it's like now – so why refer to that at all?
This sucks, of course. Yet all the comments on this thread saying the solution is to simply switch platforms ignore something very fundamental. I like to say "Nobody goes to Home Depot to buy a drill bit; what they want to buy is a hole." I don't use Windows because I want to use Windows. I use it because there are things I need to do that can only be done with it. The "just switch to Linux" reaction is an understand…
The enterprise does not want to hear this. To learn in hindsight their early decisions to take easy paths with well advertised and pressured products would end up stabbing them in the back over the long term can quickly bring your decisions into question and make you emotionally defensive.
But the solution is to acknowledge mistakes and work towards fixing them, rather than just kicking the can down the road and ignoring the problem.
Every year the sectors that consistently say they cannot switch to Linux continue to pay for the Windows-only closed ecosystems they depend on directly sabotage their future potential success by funding their own antagonists. But they are not technically minded, or maybe just not informed enough, to know that the solution is not that complicated. Keep self-sabotaging on proprietary ecosystems that rob your freedoms, but also dedicate funds to correct your accrued technical debt by funding (if not using) the FOSS competition in that domain - and if none exists, start funding it yourself.
> We could not care less what OS is under the hood.
The whole point of this discussion - from the OP on - is that people, on Windows, do care when Microsoft behaves against their interests and forces those decisions upon them. They have no say because that is what they signed up for, but this is exactly the ignorance to the technical debt of business I speak of.
Here's a better idea - show Microsoft that you don't accept this type of behaviour by switching products/services. I'm aware that Windows 10 is a "free" OS, but trying to ram this type of behaviour down my throat is despicable unethical behaviour and I don't condone it. It is why I've switched to Linux for my daily computing needs.
Last time I used Linux (well, Ubuntu specifically) every time I searched for anything in the file system I would see at least half a dozen ads for products on Amazon. Significantly worse than anything I've ever seen in Windows 10 personally. Uninstalled it and never using it again.