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Windows 11 KB5023778 update adds promotions to the Start menu

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Re: Windows 11 KB5023778 update adds promotions to the Start menu

#52

I feel like I'm on crazy pills when I complain about these things and all the other intrusions Windows pops up at me every time I use the operating system... Yet, the people who use it (mostly gamers), seem to think it's all fine and the operating system is great.

I use Windows and largely my computer usage these days is gaming and some related activities, and things are most definitely not fine and I don't know of anyone else who thinks they are. What they are, is basically all we have. Thanks mostly to WINE and Valve, Linux gaming is now almost completely tolerable, but it certainly isn't perfect and there are huge gaps in capability (VR, for one). So as much as we hate what…

Lack of VR on Linux is why my custom tower spends most of its powered-on time booted into Windows at this point. I play Beat Saber custom maps for exercise and that's not easy to replace.

Re: Windows 11 KB5023778 update adds promotions to the Start menu

#53
It is death of an operating system. Before our eyes. Microsoft is trying desperately to squeeze a bit more cash out of it but the failing culture within Microsoft is unable to recognise they are driving users off their own product.

I already got fed up enough that I basically banned Windows at home and I am impatiently waiting to kill one last Windows box. It is our gaming machine that is generally available to entire household of 5 (3 adults and 2 kids). All other machines (we have 7 other machines, 6 laptops and a desktop) are either Windows laptops converted to Linux or new Macbooks and it seems we will only have more MacOS now that Apple got a bit more sane with their hardware choices.

I may leave one Windows instance running in Proxmox just in case if somebody needs it.

Re: Windows 11 KB5023778 update adds promotions to the Start menu

#54

I feel like I'm on crazy pills when I complain about these things and all the other intrusions Windows pops up at me every time I use the operating system... Yet, the people who use it (mostly gamers), seem to think it's all fine and the operating system is great.

most people just accepts ads as a part of life

Re: Windows 11 KB5023778 update adds promotions to the Start menu

#56
post #9

I feel like I'm on crazy pills when I complain about these things and all the other intrusions Windows pops up at me every time I use the operating system... Yet, the people who use it (mostly gamers), seem to think it's all fine and the operating system is great.

If you’re a gamer, how do you interact with the computer? You launch Steam, see a bunch of ads, launch Epic Game Store or GOG Galaxy and see a bunch of ads, so why wouldn’t you see ads in the start menu? Hell, you have to log in to an account for the “GeForce Experience”. Just to keep your graphics card drivers automatically updated. As soon as you’re in a game, the game is full-screen. You’re not switching apps, you…

> Just to keep your graphics card drivers automatically updated.

Auto-updaters are a bane unto themselves of annoying crap running in the background.

As are "quicklaunch" agents, or anything which claims to be some sort of "agent" to improve the user experience of their software.

Most of it delivers very little value, and who knows what the hell data it is hoovering up.

Re: Windows 11 KB5023778 update adds promotions to the Start menu

#57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Yet, the people who use it (mostly gamers), seem to think it's all fine and the operating system is great. A lot of assumptions in such a short sentence. I suspect there's more than a complex set of opinions around Windows, Windows 10, Windows 11, using Windows for gaming, thinking it's all fine, thinking lots of things suck, thinking it is a great operating system, thinking it's a shame it does things outside of t…

Actually I am very frustrated by the advantages it does have, because I want to stay on 10 badly. But there are two nice ones - - WiFi 6(e) 6Ghz band support is only in Win 11 - Direct GPU access from WSL2 for things like CUDA/ML programming is Win 11 only

Sorry - I meant to say "advantages for me" specifically!

Re: Windows 11 KB5023778 update adds promotions to the Start menu

#58
If a third party other than Microsoft remotely administered something like this it would probably be labeled a "botnet". No doubt the amount of data that Microsoft exfiltrates about Windows users is at least as much as any "botnet" would, probably much more. Customers have about as much control over what Microsoft decides it wants to do as they do over so-called botnets. As an original Windows 3.11 user (LAN-only, no internet), it's amazing to see how far from sanity things have gone. Computer owners born into this new world of always-on, uncontrollable remote administration would have little reason to know any different. (HN readers or similar being an exception.)

NB. I use the term "remote administration" in a general sense, not only in the "remote desktop" sense. Wikipedia's definition is "any method of controlling a computer from a remote location". For example, automatically connecting to a remote computer, downloading, installing and running code that controls the computer, without any user intervention.

Re: Windows 11 KB5023778 update adds promotions to the Start menu

#59

Every couple of weeks Windows shows a FULL SCREEN advertisement during boot/login which requires several clicks to get rid of. They advertise everything starting from Microsoft Accounts, OneDrive, MS Edge ( https://www.windowslatest.com/2020/11/15/windows-10-is-now-n... ) , Windows 11 ( https://mspoweruser.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/167013949... ) , and a long etc. This is not a small advert in a small corner of…

It also infuriates me that they won't let you actually say no. It's always "remind me later" or "skip for now" or "try again in 3 days". What has gotten into the minds of these people? Why do they think this is at all acceptable?

> Why do they think this is at all acceptable?

You're still a Windows user, aren't you? (No judgement, just answering the question!)

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