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Windows 10 is bringing ads to File Explorer – how to turn them off

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Re: Windows 10 is bringing ads to File Explorer – how to turn them off

#61

Post by cyberpunk »

booleandilemma wrote: post #23
chc wrote: post #12

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.

Completely agree. I tried Ubuntu a few years ago because I heard that distro was comparably easier to use and my experience was frustrating. It took me 3 hours just to get the speakers to work, and the wifi connection would regularly drop off. Windows just works, and I'll happily pay money for a good product.

I have a reasonably noob-unfriendly linux distro (arch) on my bleeding edge kaby lane xps 13 laptop (month or two old) and even the touchscreen worked without any messing around with config files and so on. It came with ubuntu pre-loaded and I assumed they tweaked the arse out of the configs for it, and so expected pain when I replaced the OS. Turns out I was wrong. Vanilla with a minimal distro and even the touchscreen and suspend worked.

Woah? I was impressed anyway..

As someone who's suffered OS pains you wouldn't believe (I mean.. I ran solaris 10 on a hp probook as my main workstation for a year one time...) and for well over a decade -- things are MUCH better these days then they were.

Windows? Fair enough for you I guess. I'm not trying to convert you...

I'll come off badly here, but I'll be honest: I kind of judge people who use MS tech by choice and while claiming to be technologists as being in the lower end of the skills spectrum.

I'm not an elitist or at least; I'm really not trying to be.. Please don't take me wrong. At the same time I'm don't understand how anyone with who works in tech and is thus capable of really understanding these things would voluntarily pick this stack as their daily driver.

If you're a photo editor or a journalist or writer or something, sure -- I get why that stack works.. Programmer? Sysadmin? I can't get my head around it.

I'd like to understand, though.. What do you do? What tools do you use? Are you just living inside some IDE all the time and not interacting with lots of different tools?

Thinking out loud as I type, maybe that's the difference here then? We *nix folks tend to use lots of small tools and if you're just sat in one big IDE perhaps the OS around it doesn't matter so much to you as it does to us??

Re: Windows 10 is bringing ads to File Explorer – how to turn them off

#62

Post by lutusp »

There's an opportunity here for a young, ambitious programmer -- create a PowerShell script that automatically goes through the Windows registry, creating/resetting options to disable all advertising (Start menu, File Explorer, OneDrive, Edge's annoying gripes when you launch a competing browser, and others). I suggest this because as time passes the manual approach to disabling the many sources of Windows advertising is becoming somewhat baroque. Such a script would be a great public service.

I won't personally benefit -- I've run Linux exclusively for almost 20 years -- but when I visit Windows in connection with my work, I feel compassion for those who put up with it. I think, "Wait ... people pay to be abused this way?"

Re: Windows 10 is bringing ads to File Explorer – how to turn them off

#63

Post by AndrewHMoore »

alistproducer2 wrote: post #46

Serious question: does MS sell a version of Window 10 outright that doesn't include all of the snooping? I've been a Windows user my whole life but I will NEVER use an OS that collects data on the OS level.

I'm also interested. Can a person buy/subscribe to a LTSB version? I've found news links saying it was to be both for volume enterprise customers and also subscription based? What happened to that?

Re: Windows 10 is bringing ads to File Explorer – how to turn them off

#64

Post by criddell »

TAForObvReasons wrote: post #16
userbinator wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's why the parent put "free" in quotes. Unlike all the previous versions of Windows, MSFT decided to make this upgrade "free" for a while, but AFAIK it's still ridiculously easy to pirate Win10, and the "accessibility technologies" free upgrade loophole, which was said to be closing "very soon" many months ago, is still open. In other words, if you really don't want to pay, Microsoft still seems desperate to get…

> As a mass-exodus to Linux and macOS curretly seems unlikely, their strategy appears to be winning so far. ... or people just install windows 7 / avoid upgrading to 10. Hard to call that a "win" Take everything with a grain of salt, but metrics still point to Windows 7 dominance: http://gs.statcounter.com/os-version-market-share/windows/de... https://www.netmarketshare.com/operating-system-market-share...

Isn't Microsoft starting to block updates to Windows 7 on new hardware?

Re: Windows 10 is bringing ads to File Explorer – how to turn them off

#65

Post by cyberpunk »

Klathmon wrote: post #56
besselheim wrote: post #43

Doesn't seem that big a deal, it's an upsell for Microsoft's own file synchronization services, not some third party ad. And you can easily disable it.

It's amazing how much this story has blown up, along with the "Google home has ads" story. In both cases they seem almost insane how many people are up in arms about this. It's them pushing a service of theirs in their os. Apple does it, Google does it, Ubuntu does it, everyone does it. And it's such a non issue. They are promoting a service that is very tied in to the OS that a lot of people want and don't know exis…

You think it's not a big deal that you pay microsoft $119 for an OS and they're injecting ads into the local file browser?

How are those being targetted?

Ads on sites and apps -- yeah okay. We got to pay the rent for the content we're viewing..

Ads baked into the OS, especially one you'be paid for, is disturbing.. For me anyway..

I've not used windows in a long time, but I'm kind of dissapointed in the way they've been going. They appeared to be going in a good direction with the new guy after balmer -- for a while I thought they'd buy github.. More OSS, some cool tech -- but they've been slowly getting into the data business and when that happens by degrees it's hard for people to be outraged enough to call them on it.

Don't stand for this shit. Even if we don't, though, it won't make much of a difference since we're the minority who can even understand what's happening...

Re: Windows 10 is bringing ads to File Explorer – how to turn them off

#66

Post by criddell »

cyberpunk wrote: post #61
booleandilemma wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Completely agree. I tried Ubuntu a few years ago because I heard that distro was comparably easier to use and my experience was frustrating. It took me 3 hours just to get the speakers to work, and the wifi connection would regularly drop off. Windows just works, and I'll happily pay money for a good product.

I have a reasonably noob-unfriendly linux distro (arch) on my bleeding edge kaby lane xps 13 laptop (month or two old) and even the touchscreen worked without any messing around with config files and so on. It came with ubuntu pre-loaded and I assumed they tweaked the arse out of the configs for it, and so expected pain when I replaced the OS. Turns out I was wrong. Vanilla with a minimal distro and even the touchscr…

> perhaps the OS around it doesn't matter

Of course it doesn't matter. Windows, macOS, and Linux are all good enough. More than ever, you pick the operating system and hardware to support the applications you want to run.

Re: Windows 10 is bringing ads to File Explorer – how to turn them off

#67

Post by givinguflac »

cm2187 wrote: post #28
unholiness wrote: post #24

In browsers, ad blockers are being used more and more commonly for even non-technical folks. In native apps mobile apps, there are some okay ad-blocking solutions. But when the ads are baked into the operating system itself... I have a hard time seeing Microsoft or Apple losing the ad blocking battle. So, instead of getting ads somewhat sandboxed inside a browser, in the future we may be getting ads inside the start…

When companies think their business is to monetize their customers to the last penny instead of making a product people want, it is the beginning of the end. True for Microsoft, true for Apple. I think, long term, we will look back at 2016 as the turning point.

Serious question, where do you see Apple monetizing customer data? I can't think of any way they monetize customers beyond hardware and app sales.

Re: Windows 10 is bringing ads to File Explorer – how to turn them off

#68

Post by criddell »

LeoPanthera wrote: post #47
alistproducer2 wrote: post #46

Serious question: does MS sell a version of Window 10 outright that doesn't include all of the snooping? I've been a Windows user my whole life but I will NEVER use an OS that collects data on the OS level.

The LTSB edition is supposed to be this version, except it still includes the ads for OneDrive, so who knows what they're doing.

Consumers can't buy that edition though.

Re: Windows 10 is bringing ads to File Explorer – how to turn them off

#69

Post by cm2187 »

cyberpunk wrote: post #61
booleandilemma wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Completely agree. I tried Ubuntu a few years ago because I heard that distro was comparably easier to use and my experience was frustrating. It took me 3 hours just to get the speakers to work, and the wifi connection would regularly drop off. Windows just works, and I'll happily pay money for a good product.

I have a reasonably noob-unfriendly linux distro (arch) on my bleeding edge kaby lane xps 13 laptop (month or two old) and even the touchscreen worked without any messing around with config files and so on. It came with ubuntu pre-loaded and I assumed they tweaked the arse out of the configs for it, and so expected pain when I replaced the OS. Turns out I was wrong. Vanilla with a minimal distro and even the touchscr…

It's easy to forget how obscure is a technology to someone who doesn't have the experience and understanding of all the underlying concepts. I tend to do the same with programming. I tend to think certain things are trivial, until I see a beginner struggling with concepts that are so obvious I didn't think it was worth spending more time than just mentioning them.

I am a beginner on linux, and outside of a few basic settings, I find myself very quickly in front of a terminal window, trying to guess the state of the system or what syntax could work and not break anything.

Re: Windows 10 is bringing ads to File Explorer – how to turn them off

#70

Post by SN76477 »

unholiness wrote: post #24

In browsers, ad blockers are being used more and more commonly for even non-technical folks. In native apps mobile apps, there are some okay ad-blocking solutions. But when the ads are baked into the operating system itself... I have a hard time seeing Microsoft or Apple losing the ad blocking battle. So, instead of getting ads somewhat sandboxed inside a browser, in the future we may be getting ads inside the start…

Advertisers get things so terribly wrong :(
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