Microsoft Is Putting Ads on the Mail App in Windows 10 • Hacker News Board

Re: Microsoft Is Putting Ads on the Mail App in Windows 10

#101

Post by Someone1234 » Fri, Nov 16, 2018, 5:55 PM UTC

vezycash wrote: post #70

Someone1234 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

After installing Windows 10: Go to Settings -> Privacy, and slide many (most?) things to off. Including Diagnostic & Usage Data to Basic. Settings > Personalization > Start and slide "Occasionally show suggestions in start" to off. Settings -> Personalization -> Lock Screen and slide "Get fun facts, tips, and more from Windows and Cortana on your lock screen" to off. Settings -> System -> Notifications & actions -> "…

Just use Spybot Anti-Beacon software and do most of the above steps in a click. Edit: Sorry. It's now a paid software. Checking for free alternatives. Found one: shutup10 Lastly, install Unchecky. It'll automatically uncheck options for additional unwanted programs, adware, toolbars... when installing software.

Be careful with those scripts/software. Many of them essentially break Windows 10 by design.

If you stay within the Settings UI then you are working within Windows 10's supported design. When you run a script that disables a system service (e.g. Cortana) things start to get quirky/broken.

Several of those break Windows Update for example.

Re: Microsoft Is Putting Ads on the Mail App in Windows 10

#102

Post by wild_preference » Fri, Nov 16, 2018, 5:56 PM UTC

x0x0 wrote: post #66

melling wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Microsoft has had 90% marketshare for 20 years now. You know who has demonstrated that they are their own worst enemy? Consumers. People vote with their pocketbook. Now you have to live with that result.

To be fair, the only serious competition for home users has laptops that (now) start at $1200, plus tax, applecare, and dongles (oh, you wanted a USB-A connection like basically every device in the world uses? Jony is about to courage your wallet. You want to be able to connect it to the odd tv via HDMI, what everything in the world uses? More courage!)... so basically $1500 to walk out the store. I'm aware you can g…

At the same time, how many cheap Windows laptops are only so cheap because they come with a lot of pre-installed bullshit?

Also, 5 year old Air for $1k? That's almost how much they cost new. I'm seeing half that on Ebay/Craigslist. My sister has a new $450 Toshiba and my 5 year old Air runs much better. I got a new battery for it and gave it to her.

Unfortunately you went way too far with your rant and buried your point about Windows' real competition being more expensive. But the low end of Windows laptops is pretty atrocious. Someone stuck buying those aren't doing it because Airs lost their SD card port. They're doing it because they can't afford anything other than a computer that serves them ads, has 3hrs battery life, and struggles to buffer 1080p video on Youtube like my sister's new Toshiba.

Re: Microsoft Is Putting Ads on the Mail App in Windows 10

#103

Post by dorianm » Fri, Nov 16, 2018, 5:56 PM UTC

Semaphor wrote: post #93

andrewmunsell wrote: post #22

Is it at all ironic that I get a page that is trying to force me to turn off my ad blocker when I am trying to view a link about Microsoft putting ads in their Mail app?

Weird, either you need to get a better adblocker, or they don't show that in EU.

I am in EU, I got the adblocker pop-up

Re: Microsoft Is Putting Ads on the Mail App in Windows 10

#104

Post by kemitche » Fri, Nov 16, 2018, 5:57 PM UTC

ryanianian wrote: post #67

_uhtu wrote: post #47

Amazon has lately been putting ads on prime video for other prime video shows. I have a feeling we're rapidly going towards most paid services having ads. Also, on prime video, occasionally, pressing the fast forward button won't skip the ad. I'm sure it's one of those "bugs" that just happens to force the user to do something the company wants but the user doesn't but I have a feeling it might just stop working all…

This is infuriating. I'm paying for the service--that's supposedly what's sustaining it--why are there ads? If you (Amazon) decide you want more money, let me decide to pay more to eliminate ads. Similar things abound with Hulu. Even the more expensive "ad free" version has some ads for certain shows/movies due to "licensing agreements" (read: Hulu wanting more money).

Wow, glad to hear about that Hulu situation. I used Hulu for a while, then dropped it when they added ads to my paid account. When I heard they had an ad-free version again I thought I might come back - but if the ad-free version is not ad-free then I'll just keep my money.

Re: Microsoft Is Putting Ads on the Mail App in Windows 10

#105

Post by aikah » Fri, Nov 16, 2018, 5:57 PM UTC

mav3rick wrote: post #65

jammygit wrote: post #44

All I want is to be able to give companies my money in exchange for not being spied on, manipulated, or locked into some walled garden. I can't for my OS - I have to use free gnu/Linux because everyone else treats me like crap. Is my money not good enough for them? This is getting absurd

The money you would likely pay would be less than what they can make by selling you ads (as a whole). If you were willing to pay > $1000 for software and services there was no reason for companies to maintain an Ad business.

> The money you would likely pay would be less than what they can make by selling you ads (as a whole). If you were willing to pay > $1000 for software and services there was no reason for companies to maintain an Ad business.

So people used the same argument with games and loot boxes. But even if videogames cost $500 a copy, there is so much money to be made with loot boxes that they would still exist in these games at that price.

Re: Microsoft Is Putting Ads on the Mail App in Windows 10

#106

Post by jcelerier » Fri, Nov 16, 2018, 5:57 PM UTC

AnIdiotOnTheNet wrote: post #88

Dear Microsoft, As a vocal critic of the Linux Desktop, your horrifically misguided attempts to "improve" Windows since Windows 10 have so degraded the experience of using it that I am now only 2 reasons[0] away from switching anyway, so at least I don't have to pay for the privilege of using crappy software. I would ask you kindly to cease your endeavors to kill off the Windows Desktop and personal computing in gene…

> 1. I hate package managers as an application installation paradigm

wat

so you prefer go to vlc.com for vlc, 7-zip.com for 7-zip, update them by hand or add custom system services constantly running for every program to install themselves, etc etc instead of a `pacman -S 7z vlc krita libreoffice [every other software you need]`

Re: Microsoft Is Putting Ads on the Mail App in Windows 10

#107

Post by x0x0 » Fri, Nov 16, 2018, 5:58 PM UTC

wild_preference wrote: post #102

x0x0 wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair, the only serious competition for home users has laptops that (now) start at $1200, plus tax, applecare, and dongles (oh, you wanted a USB-A connection like basically every device in the world uses? Jony is about to courage your wallet. You want to be able to connect it to the odd tv via HDMI, what everything in the world uses? More courage!)... so basically $1500 to walk out the store. I'm aware you can g…

At the same time, how many cheap Windows laptops are only so cheap because they come with a lot of pre-installed bullshit? Also, 5 year old Air for $1k? That's almost how much they cost new. I'm seeing half that on Ebay/Craigslist. My sister has a new $450 Toshiba and my 5 year old Air runs much better. I got a new battery for it and gave it to her. Unfortunately you went way too far with your rant and buried your po…

The guts are 5 years old in a brand new old-style air.

Re: Microsoft Is Putting Ads on the Mail App in Windows 10

#108

Post by LeoPanthera » Fri, Nov 16, 2018, 5:58 PM UTC

jammygit wrote: post #44

All I want is to be able to give companies my money in exchange for not being spied on, manipulated, or locked into some walled garden. I can't for my OS - I have to use free gnu/Linux because everyone else treats me like crap. Is my money not good enough for them? This is getting absurd

I guess you're assigning "walled garden" to macOS, but macOS is still UNIX underneath, and you can run any open software you want on it.

I still think it's an excellent option for the privacy conscious.

There are plenty of free software based operating systems that will take your money. Red Hat seems like the most obvious one.

Re: Microsoft Is Putting Ads on the Mail App in Windows 10

#109

Post by hadrien01 » Fri, Nov 16, 2018, 6:00 PM UTC

AngeloAnolin wrote: post #68

They also do this on the web version of Outlook. [1]. And you could see that the ads are littered all over the place. And their ads don't really make sense anyway, as for example, the ads that I see are something that: - I am not interested - Irrelevant as the products have no use for me - Unable to purchase as the products themselves are not available locally where I am located. They should probably train their algo…

Outlook.com is also a mail provider, so it's not really a proper comparison. Outlook Web App (OWA), the Web client for Exchange and Office 365, and Outlook on the desktop have no ads.

Re: Microsoft Is Putting Ads on the Mail App in Windows 10

#110

Post by ashrk » Fri, Nov 16, 2018, 6:01 PM UTC

AnIdiotOnTheNet wrote: post #88

Dear Microsoft, As a vocal critic of the Linux Desktop, your horrifically misguided attempts to "improve" Windows since Windows 10 have so degraded the experience of using it that I am now only 2 reasons[0] away from switching anyway, so at least I don't have to pay for the privilege of using crappy software. I would ask you kindly to cease your endeavors to kill off the Windows Desktop and personal computing in gene…

Re: [0], what about them do you hate?

For my part, I've discovered since switching to Mac that I don't like having system packages managed alongside user packages.

It's one thing when I'm all-in on handling everything from the kernel up (it was fine back when I used Gentoo, for example) but the middle ground of massive meta-packages and such mingled with user-installed individual packages on e.g. Ubuntu is a train wreck. MacOS w/ homebrew's great. I can delete the entire directory with my brew installed crap in it and the system's unaffected. System upgrades are separate from my stuff. That plus the occasional drag+drop installed program cover my needs nicely, and better than everything's-a-bespoke-GUI-installer on Windows.