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The dark defaults of Microsoft Edge

thomask.sdf.org

61–70 of 389 posts

Re: The dark defaults of Microsoft Edge

#61

Did you know that out-of-the-box, Edge will transmit the content of your text boxes on web pages to the Microsoft Editor service for the purpose of grammatical suggestions? I have no idea how this concept got past legal but hey, it’s on by default now. Holy shit. :( At what point are some of the major government legal departments actually going to step up and sort this shit out? It is so , so, so, so, so far past ove…

> At what point are some of the major government legal departments actually going to step up

Why would they? It's cheap intelligence on their opponents. Bypasses those pesky constitution laws. Win-win.

Re: The dark defaults of Microsoft Edge

#62
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have Win11 Pro and it really is just those three clicks.

I’m not going to pay MS even more just to get a version that has a “please disable this one specific bit of crap” toggle. This has got to be the worst upsell ever. It’s like you book a hotel room and the TV is on Fox News and you can’t turn the TV off. You ask around but everybody says that they can turn it off just fine, must be you. Turns out that they’re all in the executive suite and they also have Fox News on th…

It was either in 1984 or Fahrenheit 451 where each house was equipped with a radio that couldn’t be turned off but only made quieter.

My Google-fu is failing me.

Re: The dark defaults of Microsoft Edge

#64
post #5
post #3

I’m a longtime Windows fan, and initially I was quite enamored by Edge as well. Base UX is excellent, lots of settings and they’re easy to find. Vertical tab bar, profiles, and it all Just Works. I flat out love its “turn this website into a desktop app” feature. But by now they've shoved their core consumer products so chock full of crap that even I am starting to look for a way out. I got my son a new laptop recent…

It's just three clicks to disable widgets, "Right click taskbar, select taskbar settings, click on slider to turn widgets off".

Do you happen to know how to disable the page of clickbait I get every time I open a new tab in Edge?

I tried setting my "Home" to Google, but that doesn't seem to do it.

Re: The dark defaults of Microsoft Edge

#65
post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. While I get that live tiles and universal apps have their limitations, I vastly prefer a weather live tile that opens to a full screen weather app over the news widget that shows me weather in a random location among clickbait. And if you click weather, you go to an ad-infested web page. Remember when places hired UX designer to, you know, design a great user experience? This is not that. This is one hundred…

Remember when places hired UX designer to, you know, design a great user experience? This is not that Some tortured soul, chained by NDA, not allowed to tell its tale of angst and woe, is hastily linking your comment, to email manager "See!!!! It's rubbish to do this, they hate it, see!!"

I’m thinking that individual has descended into madness by this point and is looking like the Monty Python “It’s” man.

Re: The dark defaults of Microsoft Edge

#66
post #3

I’m a longtime Windows fan, and initially I was quite enamored by Edge as well. Base UX is excellent, lots of settings and they’re easy to find. Vertical tab bar, profiles, and it all Just Works. I flat out love its “turn this website into a desktop app” feature. But by now they've shoved their core consumer products so chock full of crap that even I am starting to look for a way out. I got my son a new laptop recent…

It's so bizarre how all the computers at my work have clickbait on the start menu. That's windows 10, so admin could disable it I think, but defaults tend to stick.

Re: The dark defaults of Microsoft Edge

#67
post #63

It's also obscure what really gets sent to Microsoft, and what not. There was a Linux based OS that warned the user at every single application trying to phone the internet[1], even Gnome Calculator. [1] https://subgraph.com/index.fr.html

There is no reference to GNOME calculator in that page.

Given the extraordinary claim, please link better proof. I cannot imagine GNOME calc phoning home, unless you crashes and you have manually enabled debugging telemetry post-installation.

Re: The dark defaults of Microsoft Edge

#68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How would internal metrics even capture someone using a different computer?

I think you can track pretty well with just the device ID alone, but you combine it with other identities like location information, IP address, cookies, login information and so on. Is that why Windows 11 recently made it impossible to bypass creating an MS account?

Yeah but they're speaking about switching to a chromebook or a mac. How is your device ID going to help with that?

Re: The dark defaults of Microsoft Edge

#69
post #67
post #63

It's also obscure what really gets sent to Microsoft, and what not. There was a Linux based OS that warned the user at every single application trying to phone the internet[1], even Gnome Calculator. [1] https://subgraph.com/index.fr.html

There is no reference to GNOME calculator in that page. Given the extraordinary claim, please link better proof. I cannot imagine GNOME calc phoning home, unless you crashes and you have manually enabled debugging telemetry post-installation.

> There is no reference to GNOME calculator in that page.

It is at the bottom of the page I linked to, under "Application Firewall". There is even a screenshot.

Re: The dark defaults of Microsoft Edge

#70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I sincerely doubt that.

Do you think there is some coordinated smear campaign against Microsoft that is holding them to a higher standard than its competitors, and if so, why do you believe this instead of the simpler explanation that people are fed up with a user-hostile OS/browser especially when it is the only upgrade path from a prior, non-user-hostile one (Windows 7)?

What's the point of introducing a strawman like that? A coordinated smear campaign, really? Nobody said before you. You're painting me as a conspiracy theorist and alienating me from the debate. Why should I bother replying?
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