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The dark defaults of Microsoft Edge

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Re: The dark defaults of Microsoft Edge

#351

Post by sph »

2fast4you wrote: post #282
KronisLV wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You are right about one thing: I refuse to purchase a Windows computer, and have been refusing for a decade. I still use Windows on my personal machine due to gaming still not being comparably good on Linux across all of the titles I want to play - sometimes native releases aren't available, other times even Proton has issues running stuff on Steam. Apart from that, there is actually very little holding me back, si…

GPU passthrough has been a game changer for me. I stream all my games from a computer in a closet running Proxmox. Windows is still there in the background, but I almost never have to interact with it

GPU passthrough is not streaming a game.

The game output is pushed out of the GPU exactly as if you were playing on bare metal. Streaming assumes some form of processing and pushing bits down a pipe.

Re: The dark defaults of Microsoft Edge

#352

Post by xigoi »

specialist wrote: post #258
unxdfa wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep. I’m in the middle of switching from macOS back to windows because I need to do things I can’t do on macOS. I’ve had to build out a locked down windows 10 LTSC build to get anywhere near a sensible outcome for me. I think we should start a revolt in the IT sector against this shit really. I’d start one but I don’t know where to begin.

Any chance ReactOS (the FOSS clone of Windows) can fill in? Or maybe use VirtualBox or VMware?

Quite an unfortunate name. It sounds like the operating system is built using React.js, to which any sane person will go “nope”.

Re: The dark defaults of Microsoft Edge

#353

Post by phendrenad2 »

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…

Most people want free grammar-checking, what are you suggesting exactly?

Re: The dark defaults of Microsoft Edge

#354

Post by Dalewyn »

jnsaff2 wrote: post #347
Dalewyn wrote: post #342

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Linux is by far the most expensive OS, because I need to spend time tinkering with it before I can even pretend to get anything done. And you know what they always say about time: Time is money.

This is changing goal posts. In windows you need to spend time to work past ads, annoyances, shit not working as well. If you don’t you get bombarded with ads in which case you either run the risk of spending money buying garbage advertised or constantly need to expend energy to not be distracted.

If my sole interest was to just get shit done on Windows, I can just go and do it. Immediately. No setup time required. Yes, I could spend time tuning Windows to my liking (and I do as a power user), but it's optional.

On Linux, I have to tinker with it before I can get shit done with it. It's not optional.

$100~200 USD spent on a Windows license, or $0 by either not activating or using an old 7/8/8.1/10 license, is cheaper than the time-converted-to-money spent on Linux.

Re: The dark defaults of Microsoft Edge

#355

Post by Mikho »

This huge blue Bing icon in the toolbar near the address bar is really abusive. It's too big and really provides no real value except offering users to sign up for a waiting list. There is a hack to remove it. The simplest option is to:

Step 1: Add in the properties of the shortcut icon that launches the Edge browser additional flag:

--disable-features=msEdgeSidebarV2

So, it would look something like this:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft\Edge\Application\msedge.exe" --profile-directory=Default --disable-features=msEdgeSidebarV2

Step 2: Disable in the browser's Settings in the "System and performance" section "Startup boost" for it to not launch the browser in advance without the flag.

Step 3: Restart the browser.

P.S. I used to love the Edge and switched everything to it from Chrome. But OMG! Microsoft with every update ruins the experience even more and tries to shovel an even more irrelevant introduction to other services that have nothing to do with a browser. Microsoft abuses users' trust. I already think about abandoning Edge. I've read recently that next it will try to integrate a crypto wallet into the Edge.

Re: The dark defaults of Microsoft Edge

#356

Post by PufPufPuf »

kzrdude wrote: post #196
throwbackhere wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your comment reminded me of the new grammar checking feature on my phone. It better not be what I think it is. EDIT 1: I just checked and, fucking hell, it's grammarly! Samsung sneaked in an update that was silently leaking everything I wrote to fucking grammarly. This can be disabled by pressing the gear button and accessing the hidden writing assistant menu. Good hardware is not worth risking my private information…

Thanks for the notice, so that I could turn it off. My kbd is Gboard though, so it should be unaffected, by that particular thing. I would recommend Gboard. I use it for better multilingual support.

If you don't want your text sent to a corporation, I don't think Gboard is the answer

Re: The dark defaults of Microsoft Edge

#357

Post by kzrdude »

PufPufPuf wrote: post #356
kzrdude wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for the notice, so that I could turn it off. My kbd is Gboard though, so it should be unaffected, by that particular thing. I would recommend Gboard. I use it for better multilingual support.

If you don't want your text sent to a corporation, I don't think Gboard is the answer

I think it has settings for that

Re: The dark defaults of Microsoft Edge

#358

Post by soundnote »

Karunamon wrote: post #335
soundnote wrote: post #281

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is heavy but mostly very good?

You're kidding, right? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32932137

TurkishPoptart's post is pretty much 100% contrary to my own experience. Teams is a huge resource hog, but switching between desktop and mobile participation is smooth and convenient and the app's never crashed for me.

Re: The dark defaults of Microsoft Edge

#359

Post by deafpolygon »

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…

Well, here is what Microsoft says on the privacy for this service:

> By default, Microsoft Edge provides spelling and grammar checking using Microsoft Editor. When using Microsoft Editor, Microsoft Edge sends your typed text and a service token to a Microsoft cloud service over a secure HTTPS connection. The service token doesn't contain any user-identifiable information. A Microsoft cloud service then processes the text to detect spelling and grammar errors in your text. All your typed text that's sent to Microsoft is deleted immediately after processing occurs. No data is stored for any period of time.

So, they don't keep any data using this.

But it's unclear since they also do text prediction; which can be toggled separately in Edge.

> If the Use text prediction toggle is turned on, Microsoft Edge sends the text in the text box, your top language from the browser setting, and a text box identifier to a Microsoft cloud service over a secure HTTPS connection. The text box identifier is not associated with your account. The Microsoft cloud service processes the text to generate a relevant text prediction. Typed characters and text predictions are cached for up to 30 days, for service quality and performance improvement purposes only.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-edge/privacy-whi...

Re: The dark defaults of Microsoft Edge

#360

Post by CatWChainsaw »

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.

I think you realize how unrealistic and out of touch that is, and just take pleasure in being a pill.
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