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The dark defaults of Microsoft Edge

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Re: The dark defaults of Microsoft Edge

#171

Post by justinclift »

favaq wrote: post #98
justinclift wrote: post #21

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…

It helps to read TOS/EULA/etc. If you agree to something then you shouldn't be complaining about it.

Oh, there's no chance in hell I'll ever use Edge personally. Learned a long, long time ago not to trust MS.

Re: The dark defaults of Microsoft Edge

#172

Post by dvngnt_ »

godsfshrmn wrote: post #114
pavel_lishin wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don’t understand why MS doesn’t get some sort of internal revolt. From whom? They've got two customer bases: - corporate clients, who get this stuff removed, either as part of the purchase or by their various sysadmins who get paid to secure the purchased laptops - personal clients, who purchase desktops and laptops pre-loaded with Windows, and could no more opt out of using it than I could opt out of using elect…

Yeahhhh this crap is on every computer in the hospital I'm at (minus the ones on XP of course)

I would assume there's a group policy to disable it

Re: The dark defaults of Microsoft Edge

#173

Post by alisonatwork »

lloydatkinson wrote: post #160
skrebbel wrote: 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…

I've been working on automated setup and configuration of Windows for my purposes and for family computers etc. As part of that I wanted to hide the widgets, the pointless search input, move the start menu back to its normal place instead of the dumb place, hide one drive icon from explorer, etc etc This also installs software from Winget. This is what I have so far: https://github.com/lloydjatkinson/configuration/bl…

A tip I got on a previous HN thread was to set HKCU:\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer\DisableSearchBoxSuggestions to 1 so that when you type something into the start menu search box it actually returns installed applications and files on your hard disk instead of internet search results. That's been a huge productivity boost for me, and reverts the behavior to what it used to be a couple years ago.

Also from this thread I have now added HKCU:\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Dsh\IsPrelaunchEnabled to 0 to stop Widgets.exe from executing on startup. Unfortunately it still starts up if you accidentally swipe the touchscreen from the left.

Re: The dark defaults of Microsoft Edge

#174

Post by favaq »

macintux wrote: post #143
favaq wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It helps to read TOS/EULA/etc. If you agree to something then you shouldn't be complaining about it.

10 years ago it would take a month of workdays. I have to imagine it's much worse now. https://www.techdirt.com/2012/04/23/to-read-all-privacy-poli...

Then don't use the software, you can't just sign a contract and then back off because you didn't have time to read it before you signed it.

Re: The dark defaults of Microsoft Edge

#175

Post by justinclift »

web3-is-a-scam wrote: post #141
justinclift wrote: post #21

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…

Why would governments be opposed to free mass surveillance. Microsoft is one of the biggest cronies in Washington.

It also surveils politicians, higher end public servants, and other law-involved decision makers who you'd think would have a problem with it.

Maybe there's a blackmail and bribery department looking at what those people have been writing? (/s)

Lets see if that "backlash against big tech" thing actually goes anyone. One can hope. :)

Re: The dark defaults of Microsoft Edge

#176

Post by dazc »

ChuckNorris89 wrote: post #28
skrebbel wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Buy chromebooks most likely

I've never seen chromebooks in continental Europe though. Maybe it's an AMerican & UK thing.

I don't know what the situation is now but I do recall, circa 6 year's ago, a Dutch colleague being very impressed with my cheap laptop and asking where she would get one.

I remember searching various Dutch retailers to show her how readily available these things were and not being able to find one.

Also, at the same time, Dutch amazon only sold books?

Re: The dark defaults of Microsoft Edge

#177

Post by pimlottc »

xattt wrote: post #62
skrebbel wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

This was also part of the original Max Headroom TV series, except in this was it was a television you couldn't turn off.

Re: The dark defaults of Microsoft Edge

#178

Post by otikik »

favaq wrote: post #98
justinclift wrote: post #21

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…

It helps to read TOS/EULA/etc. If you agree to something then you shouldn't be complaining about it.

Well I have an EULA in my living room closet that allows everyone who wants to complain. If you don’t agree you can find my closet and write your name on the exception list. You must use Cyrillic letters.

Re: The dark defaults of Microsoft Edge

#179

Post by lloydatkinson »

alisonatwork wrote: post #173
lloydatkinson wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been working on automated setup and configuration of Windows for my purposes and for family computers etc. As part of that I wanted to hide the widgets, the pointless search input, move the start menu back to its normal place instead of the dumb place, hide one drive icon from explorer, etc etc This also installs software from Winget. This is what I have so far: https://github.com/lloydjatkinson/configuration/bl…

A tip I got on a previous HN thread was to set HKCU:\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer\DisableSearchBoxSuggestions to 1 so that when you type something into the start menu search box it actually returns installed applications and files on your hard disk instead of internet search results. That's been a huge productivity boost for me, and reverts the behavior to what it used to be a couple years ago. Also f…

That first key is the one I was thinking of, a lot of comments online saying it breaks search for local totally by disabling it.

That second key is new to me I'll be adding that too thanks.

Re: The dark defaults of Microsoft Edge

#180

Post by cycomanic »

shp0ngle wrote: post #109

I am using edge as I like the vertical tabs… the only browser that has this feature, kind of, is Safari; but safari extensions suck (if you tried to ever build one, you would understand why). It’s otherwise very user hostile but just I love the vertical tabs so much

I've been using vertical tabs in Firefox for longer than Edge existed. Currently I'm using the treestyle tabs extension, but there are others.

I find it interesting how we have a perfectly viable alternative in Firefox, but even many privacy informed users still promote Edge or Chrome. The author is a perfect example of this, he says he wants to box his "privacy exposure" to as few companies as possible. That would somehow make sense if all "companies" (in the broadest sense) were equal, but Firefox is made by a non for profit with the explicit goal of keeping the Internet free and private. And for the argument regarding Apple, Apple is perfectly happy to milk you for all your private data as well, they just keep it all to themselves. Why else the locking to their ecosystem.

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