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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)

#151

Post by skohan »

dantondwa wrote: post #101

This is so stupid. I was wondering if I could recommend to less technically-skilled family members to just stick to Edge, but I've decided that I definitely won't, as I do not want to explain countless times how to switch back to Google from Bing, etc. Bing is simply terrible and Microsoft's push of it is ridiculous. I'll keep recommending Firefox + uBlock to everyone. Also, I find it disrespectful to its customers.…

Yes exactly, this has been the best part of switching to Linux at home. It just does what I tell it, when I tell it, and that's so relaxing. Using corporate platforms is like inviting a Microsoft/Apple/Google representative into your home. Imagine if when you bought an Ikea kitchen setup, it came with an Ikea rep who lived with you and reminded you periodically that the cabinets "work best with Ikea flatware(tm)!".

A computer should be an appliance which executes instructions on command, and that's it. Everything else is electricity theft as far as I'm concerned.

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

#152

Post by Macha »

amysox wrote: post #9

And people wonder why I still don't trust Micro$oft, even if they say they're supporting open source.

Microsoft has always been a famously schizophrenic company: https://bonkersworld.net/organizational-charts

As a result, I'm happy to trust e.g. the VS Code team, while I would not extend that trust anywhere near the Windows team.

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

#153

Post by Macha »

JCWasmx86 wrote: post #117
tartoran wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I moved on to linux and use windows 10 sparinngly on a different image to watch netflix. I removed all the features, registry hive, autoupdates and all that, disabled Cortana, Im pretty sure I castrated the thing. And as soon as Im done with whatever I need it for I shut it down. Works out quite well like this. When I think of people who just accept all that from MS I feel a bit sorry for them but since they don’t se…

Why don't you watch netflix on linux? DRM is supported there, too. Or do you want to use linux only for software you trust?

Is it? You don't get 4k netflix on Linux. just 720p. There used to be a workaround to use an extension to change your user agent and then a later one to swap out some player JS but pretty sure both have been broken since late last year.

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

#154

Post by alexeldeib »

hakfoo wrote: post #93
alexeldeib wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh this is diabolical IMO. I just tested it to understand what's happening. Below "search the web", there is always a "search in sidebar" option. "Sidebar" basically splits your window and loads your search in the new pane. I assume this is some custom webview, but it looks very, very similar to a new window/tab. The kicker: only Bing search can be loaded in the sidebar. So when you change your default search engine…

I can see a modest excuse for restricting the sidebar view to Bing, in that you need to have a reasonably suitable display format for the results. Microsoft can be aware of and support the case from both sides, but I could imagine Google detecting "User-agent = Edge and the window width=300px", and sending some experience-ruining CSS or JavaScript to try to nudge users back to Chrome. I know there was a while where v…

I agree and did try messing with the views a bit vs. bing.com and realized it's not the same. Fair enough!

But to introduce a sidebar in a chrome-based browser just to ship Bing? and then add it to every right click context for only Bing, overriding your other search preferences? and the sidebar just redirects you to open the search in a new tab/window anyway (was at the bottom of the screen for me)?

I didn't love it.

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

#155

Post by fartcannon »

judge2020 wrote: post #44
anm89 wrote: 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).

Wine/Proton handles all that these days.

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

#156

Post by Macha »

executesorder66 wrote: post #127
BartekG wrote: post #124

When you pay for Windows you are the product. When you don't pay for Linux, Linux is the product. The only thing that keeps me in Windows is the VPN connection to work.

Why do you need windows to connect to a VPN? Does openconnect or openVPN not work?

Several VPN applications check for a correctly configured endpoint as a prerequisite to join the VPN. This can involve enforcing OS, OS updates, AV programs, etc. depending on how your system admin has set things up. In such a company performing an end run against this check can get you into trouble

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

#157

Post by hvidgaard »

whyoh wrote: post #109
ridiculous_fish wrote: post #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

The difference is that ads on websites are somewhat expected and usually easy to block and contained inside a browser. Ads inside an OS are in a different category of annoying. Especially on Windows where it's not just one setting to turn them off, but they're scattered through the OS, they get re-installed with updates and it's a constant game of whack-a-mole to get rid of them. I don't get the point of comparing Wi…

I think the point is that if Google didn't do that and been successful at that, Microsoft would probably not feel the need to promote this as much as they do.

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

#158

Post by skohan »

zeta0134 wrote: post #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…

I had a similar experience when trying out the Minecraft RT beta some time ago. I had gotten a GPU with ray tracing capabilities, and I wanted to try it out, so I went to download the beta. To actually use it, you have to have a Microsoft account, and an "XBox Insider" account or something like that. When you have both of those, and opt-in to the beta, the MS store is supposed to know you want to get the beta version instead of the normal one, and download it for you. Of course that didn't work, so I had to delete the app and re-install multiple times, and even restart the whole system to get it to take. On the restart, I got a new popup about opting in to sending my usage data to MS.

Finally I got it working, and it was a half finished mess. The home screen is full of micro-transactions (and this is a game which is supposed to be for children) and I had to go to a separate guide, not provided by Microsoft, to figure out how to get the special RT maps so I could actually see this feature working. And even then you could not just load up a new game and see raytracing, I had to do some manual work in the file-system to create a texture pack which could be used with an arbitrary map.

The whole thing just reeked of a room full of product managers trying to optimize a KPI around account creation without having taken a moment to go through the process and see what they had created.

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

#159

Post by PetahNZ »

whyoh wrote: post #109
ridiculous_fish wrote: post #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

The difference is that ads on websites are somewhat expected and usually easy to block and contained inside a browser. Ads inside an OS are in a different category of annoying. Especially on Windows where it's not just one setting to turn them off, but they're scattered through the OS, they get re-installed with updates and it's a constant game of whack-a-mole to get rid of them. I don't get the point of comparing Wi…

The OS is basically a website now.

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

#160

Post by valvar »

AnonymousPlanet wrote: post #145
cm2187 wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To Microsoft's defense everyone does it. Everytime there is an OS update on iOS, I know I will have to go through a dozen of modals that nag me for apple services.

No. Neither my Mac nor my Linux pop up ads or promotions out of the blue during normal operation. So your statement that everyone does it is simply false.

Maybe if you already use the things that they are pushing on you, you won't notice anything. But every time I've updated my work laptop Apple have tried to make me opt-in to Siri after restarting with the new update -- they even add the obnoxious Siri button back to the touch bar even though I've removed it several times.
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