Does anyone have any insight into how much benefit MSFT actually gets from these decisions? I understand that the intent is to 'make line go up', but as a simpler user I can't really imagine how telemetry and shilling OneDrive actually leads to meaningful revenue growth. On the other hand, people have been loudly complaining about this since the Windows 7 days, and I imagine that there must be some reason they're doubling down on such an unpopular strategy.
Windows needs a change in priorities
51–60 of 884 posts
Re: Windows needs a change in priorities
#52Like every Windows user, I have had a lot of frustrating experiences with the abusive behavior and dark patterns that have taken over the platform. Like when they started having Skype silently run in the background logged in with the user's Microsoft account without any notice or human intervention, and removed the setting to disable it from launching at startup so that it couldn't be prevented. I had to completely u…
> Nobody at Microsoft who has decision-making authority actually cares
"The only problem with Microsoft is they just have no taste" -- Steve Jobs
Re: Windows needs a change in priorities
#53This post resonates with me a lot, as I share many of the same complaints. The UI inconsistencies are one thing (that you would hope get ironed out over time), but the level of ads creeping ever higher is alarming. The “accidental” inclusion of an ad in Windows Explorer this week may have tipped their hand - if that’s the direction they are going, I’m moving off the platform entirely.
>The UI inconsistencies are one thing (that you would hope get ironed out over time) Windows 8 was released ten years ago. All the old-style control panel dialogs are still with us. Regedit will never get ported to the new UI toolkit.
WHY, though? It's genuinely infuriating
Re: Windows needs a change in priorities
#54Windows 7 is the last version made by Microsoft as a software company. Starting from Windows 8, Microsoft became a cloud company, pushing users all these craps.
Re: Windows needs a change in priorities
#55If they shipped a version of Windows sporting the Windows-11 kernel, so running all the recent software, but with Windows 2000 UI for a thousand dollars I would buy it immediately.
It’s not quite Windows 2000, but the LTSC edition has much of the bullshit stripped out. It does not support the store therefore Candy Crush is not installed by default. And I don’t think it’s quite $1000, if you can figure out how to buy it.
It's available in volume licensing, with a 5 license as minimal order.
Re: Windows needs a change in priorities
#56Talking about dark patterns, here are a couple I've noticed.
In Windows, I'm very careful about NOT signing in to anything Microsoft, unless I have to. I make sure I use a local administrator account instead of a Microsoft account.
Yesterday I had to open Microsoft Edge for something that would only work in Edge, and lo-and-behold, Microsoft had taken my Xbox Game Pass sign-in and applied to Edge, then informed me they are syncing all my browser history to their servers for my benefit..
It's even worse when you activate Office 365. There is a small checkbox at the end which if you don't uncheck, converts your local administrator into your Microsoft account.. Going back to a local administrator account is not an easy task.
Re: Windows needs a change in priorities
#57Earlier quoted context omitted.
You're not wrong, but office users should be locked to a browser in 2022 anyway. What do they need Windows for? They can all use a web browser. Microsoft has done an amazing job convincing the office world they need Windows, when they don't need a single feature that it provides in 99% of cases.
As an officer worker, there are many many things I do that cannot be done in a web browser. File comparison tools, macros and complex excel queries, hard applications for both new and legacy critical programs... Can this be done on Linux? Frequently. Can it be done in a web browser? Rarely effectively and often not at all.
That's fair - I would still be curious to know what percentage of office workers run Windows that don't actually need to.
Re: Windows needs a change in priorities
#58It's mind boggling how user-hostile one can make a piece of "premium" software.
You pay 145€ for the Home or 259€ for the Pro Edition and they treat it like it's freeware.
I want my computer to support me in achieving what I want to do, but Windows just keeps grabbing attention with intrusive ads and never-ending notifications.
Re: Windows needs a change in priorities
#59Windows does what Microsoft wants. Period. Public discussion is just noise. Even more so, Apple.
If you want a computing environment that is responsive to your needs, you need to step away from products of those autocratic organizations.
Re: Windows needs a change in priorities
#60This menu is familiar to me because that’s what the Windows API allows you to create (as long as you are not creating it through Windows Forms.) There is no dark theme for this, but at least there are rounded corners.
That is just a huge WTF. Since the very earliest versions of Windows there has always been the option of a dark (or white, or rainbow, or ...) theme, where you could adjust the colours and sizes and fonts, and everything using Win32 would follow it. Here's Win95 example:
https://64.media.tumblr.com/6d3e8c64cd9a38e70d24c0b1b2c73cb5...
Yet if I'm understanding correctly, in Win11 that stopped working completely? It really sounds like the Windows team has no one left who knows what used to be possible but isn't anymore, being replaced with probably younger developers making constant excuses to "modernise" by rewriting and breaking stuff. To use an analogy, they're not just reinventing the wheel but making it square.