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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)

#82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The most egrigious offender was the Google+ and YouTube integration. https://johnrockefeller.net/google/

And how Google degraded their search functionality by removing the + operator (which required that the following word be present in every result) because it allegedly interfered with idiotic "Google Plus." And did they restore it after shitcanning Google Plus? No.

Putting a word in quotes achieves the same effect nowadays

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

#83
post #3

I'm not surprised by this anymore. They've gone from full anti-trust lawsuit for Internet Explorer, to just riding the cliff edge of what they believe they can get away with. See: Skype, Teams installer, Office. This will continue as long as it's in their interest to be in control of as much of the software stack as possible. Another side of their underhanded marketing is where decision makers looking at collaboratio…

The Teams installer is the worst. Every time I open Teams, the damn thing installs itself in the login items on my Mac. This is straight up malware behavior. I wish I could report this to Apple.

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

#84

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" softwar…

I don't get the hate towards Corporate Memphis. I'm not sure what would be better instead; a stock photo seems just as bad.

To me the problem isn't in what the ad looks like, but that the ad is there. I also don't like that the ad is shown to a particular group of people, i.e. ones who aren't doing what lies in the company's best interests.

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

#85

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…

> Microsoft... what happened? Intense jealousy of Apple

That explains a lot of the poor decisions Microsoft has made over the years. In particular the changes to the Windows UI. The trouble is they don't have enough taste to pull it off.

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

#86
post #7

The ways Microsoft wants to trick users into using edge, using all sorts of dark-patterns, has rapidly increased with the launch of chromium edge. Opening Edge on startup, asking in Windows update-screens, putting Edge on the desktop and taskbar, asking to change to Edge when clicking on links, dissuading users when searching for browsers on bing, advertising Edge in the start-menu, it goes on... Chromium Edge is bri…

A recent Windows update added a large “News and Interests” widget to the taskbar. Clicking any of the news headlines or weather links in the widget opens a web page in Edge, even if your default browser is set to something else. Microsoft is pushing Edge anywhere they can.

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

#89

Put it into the Dark Patterns Hall of Shame I think programmers could take some inspiration from the Engineer's Ring creed: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Engineer%27s_Ring

You are not the first to think such things: The Programmer’s Oath:

https://blog.cleancoder.com/uncle-bob/2015/11/18/TheProgramm...

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

#90
post #43

Why would anyone even use windows at this point? This has always been the default operating mode for Microsoft. If you are still signing up for it after 30 years or whatever, I can't say I have much sympathy for you.

Game support is unparalleled, probably (partly) because you can use 10-20 year old design primitives and fully expect it to work on Windows for the foreseeable future (well, ARM desktop machines might be coming, so we'll see if that causes some pain in the industry).

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