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Windows 10 nagging users with Bing advertisements (push alerts)

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Re: Windows 10 nagging users with Bing advertisements (push alerts)

#61

I also have sporadic advertisements on my start bar (when I press the win key), sometimes it suggests an app, which looks just like any other app, the only difference is a "SUGGESTED" header which is easy to miss. I assume when you click on that, it opens the store app. It appears at the very top and AFAIK there's no way to disable it.

Settings > Personalization > Start, turn off Show suggestions occasionally in Start

Awesome thanks! I couldn't find it

Re: Windows 10 nagging users with Bing advertisements (push alerts)

#62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Windows 7 is a fine OS if you don't connect it to the Internet, but it's basically screaming "hack me" everywhere you go online. A few occasional mild annoyances from the marketing team is worth tolerating for a reasonably secure operating system. I'd argue people who feel otherwise need to reprioritize their risks.

This is the sort of BS paranoia-propaganda that is contributing to the propagation of walled gardens and continued mass user oppression and "herding". List the last known remote exploit that will work for someone behind a NAT, and that doesn't involve visting a malicious site with all the default settings of IE or downloading and running an executable (at which point nothing will save you but the most authoritarian o…

> List the last known remote exploit that will work for someone behind a NAT,

NAT is not a firewall (though it's usually paired with one). And the NAT is usually one hop away from the computer, so it provides no protection against an attack coming from the same network (like a worm on a coworker's laptop).

However, AFAIK Windows 7 does have a built-in firewall, which (depending on the settings) might help protect even against an attack coming from the local network.

Re: Windows 10 nagging users with Bing advertisements (push alerts)

#63

If you are forced to put up with Windows, do yourself a favor and use LSTC. Almost all of this garbage behavior seems to be restricted to the retail channel builds and major update packs. Sadly there is apparently no limit to what people will be conditioned to put up with.

Maybe we would if you'd said what "LSTC" is.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/whats-new/ltsc/

"With the LTSC servicing model, customers can delay receiving feature updates and instead only receive monthly quality updates on devices. Features from Windows 10 that could be updated with new functionality, including Cortana, Edge, and all in-box Universal Windows apps, are also not included. Feature updates are offered in new LTSC releases every 2–3 years instead of every 6 months, and organizations can choose to install them as in-place upgrades or even skip releases over a 10-year life cycle. Microsoft is committed to providing bug fixes and security patches for each LTSC release during this 10 year period."

Re: Windows 10 nagging users with Bing advertisements (push alerts)

#64
10 or 15 years ago, this behaviour would universally be called adware and shunned, yet now Microsoft does it too?

In addition to the Windows 10 alert, Microsoft Edge has also gained a new full-screen prompt that advises users to restore the ‘recommended’ browser and set Bing as the default search engine.

...complete with Corporate Memphis[1]. That screenshot sums up just about everything I hate about "modern" software: the infantilising "we know what's best for you" language, the intrusive nature of it, and the bland so-inoffensive-it's-offensive art. The message it gives is "you are not a user, you are the product, now be a good obedient little sheeple and do as you're told." No wonder the Win10 upgrade was "free", and they tried to force it really, really hard.

My personal fuckings go out to everyone working there who didn't stand their ground and say NO when asked to implement this shit.

I'm saying this as someone who actually uses Bing, because I get sick of Google's search results censoring and CAPTCHA-hellban too. But I wasn't forced (or "recommended") to do so, and I'd rather use IE11 than Edge just due to the UI alone.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27107820

Re: Windows 10 nagging users with Bing advertisements (push alerts)

#65
post #40
post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They got slammed for anti-trust with IE and then noticed Apple got away with even worse on iOS. Now they've doubled down.

Google really started this though. And they didn’t use anti competitive advertising practices to kill IE, they used them to kill Firefox.

Some people inside Google's where certainly trying to kill off IE:

Former Google engineer reveals the secret YouTube plot to kill Internet Explorer 6

https://www.theverge.com/2019/5/4/18529381/google-youtube-in...

Re: Windows 10 nagging users with Bing advertisements (push alerts)

#66
It may not be widely known that Gmail users on Windows get a popup telling you to use Chrome [1], and then also an email disguised as a security alert telling you to use Chrome [2]. Google is leveraging their properties to push their browser, and Microsoft is responding in kind. Or maybe vice-versa; either way it's all really obnoxious.

1. https://i.imgur.com/KsD9hFx.jpg

2: https://i.imgur.com/CDs1eIE.png

Re: Windows 10 nagging users with Bing advertisements (push alerts)

#67

If you are forced to put up with Windows, do yourself a favor and use LSTC. Almost all of this garbage behavior seems to be restricted to the retail channel builds and major update packs. Sadly there is apparently no limit to what people will be conditioned to put up with.

Maybe we would if you'd said what "LSTC" is.

Exactly, I was also befuddled by this.

From sibling comment's link, it is actually "LTSC": Long-Term Support Channel.

Re: Windows 10 nagging users with Bing advertisements (push alerts)

#68
This month I picked up a Surface Go, which I've been eyeing for a while as a decent drawing tablet. There I learned the fantastic joys of "S Mode", which helpfully restricts the otherwise general purpose computer from running apps that aren't delivered through the Microsoft Store, forces the browser to Edge+Bing and requires you to sign in with a Microsoft Account before you can disable the nonsense. I jumped through some hoops to get that done without actually leaving the account on the system, but the whole experience left an awfully sour taste.

Microsoft... what happened?

Re: Windows 10 nagging users with Bing advertisements (push alerts)

#69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Genuinely interested, why would Win7 be worse than Win10 if you had the same network setup, same browser (same extensions) and behaved the same as you do with Win10? I ask as even at home, my different devices all use the same browser/extensions, VPN and browsing habits. I use established FOSS where possible and the only problems I have had since Windows 98 are from data breaches (nothing I could have prevented with…

All sorts of security features in the browser only work on newer operating systems: Hardware-enforced Stack Protection: https://www.zdnet.com/article/google-chrome-this-new-feature... Significant improvements to ASLR starting in Windows 8: https://msrc-blog.microsoft.com/2013/12/11/software-defense-... And many more things. New Windows releases aren't just coats of paint.

I would not have thought the improvements would have been that significant (I'm old and ignorant). HeSP is dependent on the cpu? (article noting intel gen 11 and amd ryzen 3 are needed) and ASLR still being implemented on Win7 with http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2639308

We still have to keep a couple winxp and nt boxes alive at work for diagnostic gear (none are online). Thankfully not my job as I am obviously a risk :)

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