I just bought my ~55 year old mother an HP laptop. It was completely strange how difficult it was to install Chrome on Windows 11. I couldn't run the MSI installer for Chrome and found out that by default the OS was in something called "S mode" which I had to disable by doing an odd series of steps via the Microsoft store. After finally installing, I got all the weird pop-ups that the articles mentions suggesting in various ploys that Edge was the superior browser. It was also made difficult to convenience the OS that I wanted Chrome as the default browser, it required changing several preference options. I then found that there was no way to disable Edge, as you can some other Windows applications. By using the SysInternals tool Autoruns I found that Edge had at least half a dozen means of persistence / continued execution by launching updaters and background processes doing unknown tasks.
Microsoft’s new Windows prompts try to stop people downloading Chrome
261–270 of 433 posts
Re: Microsoft’s new Windows prompts try to stop people downloading Chrome
#262Earlier quoted context omitted.
"You shouldn't want that thing that you want." No. If I type eba{Tab}query, firefox should search ebay for query. If I have to go to settings once and tick a box to enable this functionality, I will. I won't stop wanting what I want.
I don't understand, Firefox has this functionality. For example I have it set up so if I type 'y cats' it will search Youtube directly for cats. You can do the same with ebay. Similarly if I type 'yout cats' it will do the same search. Also, if you like it so much, you can configure Firefox to not put things like bookmarks and history before search results in tab-complete search suggestions. Firefox's address bar is…
Firefox search bar is so much superior to other browsers, I don't understand why almost no one points this out. Chrome is so frustrating when it keeps prioritizing search suggestions over history.
Re: Microsoft’s new Windows prompts try to stop people downloading Chrome
#263Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm convinced there's an alternate universe where Windows 9 brought all the improvements of Windows 10 without treating the user like a contemptible moron.
I'm struggling to think of any improvements since Win7. The only thing that might qualify is WSL, but that's still experimental and buggy (yes, I know some people have had success with it, anyway). IIRC Win7 was the one that started installing most drivers without any user effort, which was really nice. It also bloated minimum disk size to many times that of XP (or a very full-fat Linux install, so the drivers can't…
Amen. I'm pretty sure 7 is the last Windows ill ever feel happy about installing.
Re: Microsoft’s new Windows prompts try to stop people downloading Chrome
#264Earlier quoted context omitted.
Is it still impossible to set your default browser on iOS? That to me is even more hostile than just having me click an extra button once to download it.
I don't think so. Didn't a recent software update change this?
Started with iOS 14, so a little over a year ago.
Re: Microsoft’s new Windows prompts try to stop people downloading Chrome
#265Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Who on Earth would continue using a browser that has such hostile behavior and dark patterns all over the place Every kind of technology today has clear and visible dark patterns. In the past it was advertisement everywhere and now it is user-hostile design. See any discussion about smart tv, subscription services, webshops, smart devices, phones, apps or any other technology topics and the issue of dark patterns w…
There is no darkness in the world of FOSS, it's an actual, currently functioning, computing utopian dream. Let Caeser have his awful stuff. We can all push for fun, and free computing.
I agree, I honestly feel like the FOSS world is tech's last bastion when it comes to this stuff. There's a lot of bullshit too but it's nowhere near the mass surveilled dark-pattern galore the current tech era is.
Re: Microsoft’s new Windows prompts try to stop people downloading Chrome
#266They should have a popup saying "Try Firefox", then I'll believe it's based on a genuine concern for their users.
Re: Microsoft’s new Windows prompts try to stop people downloading Chrome
#267Earlier quoted context omitted.
maybe Windows guys should. "look at all this cool stuff Windows can do, that the stuff i was mocking could do 20 years ago". The way Windows people talk about all the "revolutionary" stuff Windows can do, like just piss off. This is like the jocks bullying kids for wearing Metallica shirts or NIN shirts freshman year only to act like the biggest fans 2-3 years later. It's like Star Trek fans getting mocked for decade…
there's a lotta people that use windows but you're imagining they're all the same as the people you hate. That's hate.
people that accept the default choices in life are always the ones swinging at people who don't and it remains true even when what was once is obscure all of a sudden has cultural/business momentum to escape that relative obscurity.
Re: Microsoft’s new Windows prompts try to stop people downloading Chrome
#268Back when Edgeium was new and just Chrome but with a lot of Google cruft removed, I actually used Edge instead of Chrome when I was on Windows. It was the same browser with some additional tweaks that I quite liked. Then Microsoft started this aggressive, disruptive push to bring it to iOS Safari's level as the only browser people should use. I don't know any good operating systems for normal people anymore. Windows…
> macOs.... doesn't run most programs people need (because the business world is still Windows oriented) This is not only not true for many years anymore, it's even got so far that it's almost the opposite now. Most successful businesses nowadays are increasingly led by tech-savvy leaders, because otherwise they wouldn't be successful anymore, and those people make their own software now increasingly better on macOS…
>Even Microsoft's own software ironically works MUCH better on macOS than Windows. Try Office on macOS and you'll be surprised how good it is compared to Windows
That has not been my experience (though I wish it were).
Excel on MacOS still feels clunky and has significant performance problems with big files - including crashes.
Re: Microsoft’s new Windows prompts try to stop people downloading Chrome
#269Operating systems are getting ever more user hostile, even though their main reason to exist is moving more and more in the direction of being there to run a single application: the browser, with ChromeOs being the current representative of that trend.
I'll shed a small tear for the people that are still forced to use Windows, but Google is at least as bad with this in pushing Chrome at the expense of other browsers.
And users are caught in the middle. OS vendors should STFU, stop pushing their services, ban telemetry and other invasive stuff and put the user centric. Fat chance of that happening any day soon though, after all, the only reason that users exist in the first place is to be ripped of or squeezed like so many lemons until the last penny has been forced out of their pockets.
Re: Microsoft’s new Windows prompts try to stop people downloading Chrome
#270Earlier quoted context omitted.
> macOS only runs on very expensive hardware and doesn't run most programs people need (because the business world is still Windows oriented) This is an outdated take - it's functionally untrue in most business settings. Gaming on the other hand, is very much still mostly Windows only.
> Gaming on the other hand, is very much still mostly Windows only. I game a lot, I haven't rebooted into Windows in well over a year. Luckily I don't really play games that require stupid DRM/anticheat (although, that is being worked on) I would probably start playing Apex Legends again if they allowed EAC Linux support. Epic added support, the devs just need to support it -.-
I've had a great experience with Lutris for Linux.