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Microsoft plugging more ads into Windows 11 Start Menu

theregister.com

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Re: Microsoft plugging more ads into Windows 11 Start Menu

#281

Post by sleepybrett »

spicyusername wrote: post #10

The only reason I use Windows in 2023 is for video gaming. Every other non-gaming PC I own is running Linux. Windows has become inferior to Linux in every other way. More upgrade headaches, worse resource utilization, worse desktop environment, more crashes, data collection, and now embedded ads. These technology companies have really demonstrated over the past few decades that they are unable to maintain reliable pr…

I haven't done the research but I think if I could get overwatch2 (and diablo4 if they don't fuck it up) running on my steamdeck I'm not sure keeping a windows box around makes much sense to me anymore because... yeah, it's pretty much an expensive xbox at this point.

Re: Microsoft plugging more ads into Windows 11 Start Menu

#282

Post by 2OEH8eoCRo0 »

causi wrote: post #59
whywhywhywhy wrote: post #51

Please please MS just put someone in charge with taste who can veto this trashy rubbish. Whatever gains you're perceiving from this on your profit chart isn't worth the compounding deterioration of your products experience.

You should've learned having taste is an instant disqualifier for employment at Microsoft after Windows 8.

I think they have excellent taste but money has the highest priority.

Re: Microsoft plugging more ads into Windows 11 Start Menu

#283

Post by UberFly »

pengaru wrote: post #96

MS Windows is the daytime television of operating systems: If you're still using it in 2023 you have only yourself to blame. It's not like there aren't better options at your disposal...

"It's not like there aren't better options at your disposal"

For what exactly? For many, many things, windows is your ONLY option. Switching to Linux or Apple would mean kissing away so much software availability.

Re: Microsoft plugging more ads into Windows 11 Start Menu

#284

Post by baggachipz »

copper-float wrote: post #181
JCWasmx86 wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I recently installed Windows 10 in a VM to port a program to Windows (Was a horror story). On the left side in the start menu I have ads and other crap: "Trending searches", "Trending videos from the web", "Games for you", "Trending news" and some other stuff like a reminder for the International day for Monuments and Sites. On the right side I have a weather/news widget from some really shady or local newspapers abo…

All of these gross advertising decisions baked into the operating system disgust me. Not to mention all the tracking they probably do to you on top of it. The best solution I've found is Windows 10 IoT Enterprise. It feels like an alternate timeline where Microsoft didn't dive headfirst into manipulative advertising practices. None of those pointless bloatware apps, no blatant advertising loitered across the OS. I do…

> I don't want tabloid trash baked into my start menu. It would be one thing if we were actually allowed to curate and choose the news, but it's all selected for us. It feels like they're trying to manipulate the way people think with decisions like that.

No, they're paid handsomely by others who are trying to manipulate the way people think.

Re: Microsoft plugging more ads into Windows 11 Start Menu

#285

Post by cduzz »

alex_young wrote: post #262
cduzz wrote: post #251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please define "Customer" in this context? There are several parties at this party. One is the person who bought a computer with an operating system on it; possibly they even paid for the operating system itself, though more likely they are using the operating system that came on the computer they're using. Another party is the one who bought a license from microsoft; occasionally they're the same party but more typic…

If you buy a car from a dealership does that make you less of a customer of the manufacturer?

If you buy a car from a dealership, then yes indeed you are "less" of a customer of the manufacturer.

Consider this relationship:

Toyota makes a car to the specifications of general motors, who brands the car as a "Pontiac Vibe" and sells the car to a Pontiac dealership. The Pontiac dealership then sells you the car at mostly a wash because you're also financing the purchase and they want to sell "your" loan to a loan bundler and reseller.

So -- everyone gets a cut, and almost nobody's actually got a direct interest in how the schlub who buys a car feels about the car.

Re: Microsoft plugging more ads into Windows 11 Start Menu

#286

Post by ok_dad »

I recently bought a MacBook for myself, moving from Linux because it was a pain to manage with the amount of time I have to manage it (zero). My wife also got the same model, moving from Windows because of 11 being shitty.

Where MS has changed the Windows UI look and flow a million times since I started using it with Windows 3.0 or so, I still recognize extremely similar or exactly the same UI on my MacBook as on a MacBook I owned in 2013, and on the Macs I used as a kid in like 1990! It's absolutely awesome that the UI is improved, but the same-ish.

Re: Microsoft plugging more ads into Windows 11 Start Menu

#287

Post by sleepybrett »

dabluecaboose wrote: post #266
oh_nice_marmot wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Beginning with the XP I became a heavy Windows user until version 7. Those releases were the heyday for Windows IMO. But since 8 and, worse of all, 11 I ditched it altogether and none of the computing devices in the house run Windows. This is all to say that my main gaming rig runs Ubuntu 22.04 LTS with Gnome, heavily tweaked, to look and behave like MacOS and.... Its a dream. Heck, in fact I like it so much that I p…

I've been looking more and more at this since I got a Steam Deck and found surprisingly good compatibility on almost every game. If Steam OS was made available for your run-of-the-mill gaming rig I'd install it in a heartbeat and give it an earnest test run. That said, there is still a latent unease from my last misadventure with a Linux gaming PC from 2017, which ended in a LOT of restarting into Windows whenever th…

I haven't tried it yet but: https://store.steampowered.com/steamos/buildyourown

My only speedbump at this point is non-steam games, specifically in my case overwatch2 and diablo4. Can I run the battlenet launcher and it's games on steam os .. can i do it and not be banned by their 'anti cheat' spyware?

Re: Microsoft plugging more ads into Windows 11 Start Menu

#288

Post by giantrobot »

MichaelZuo wrote: post #231
mihaaly wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not paying them, perhaps? : / Not buying their products.

I highly doubt people buying a Windows 11 license with their own money is even 0.1% of the installed base. If they had hundreds of millions of people, or OEMs, sending them $150 USD per license, it would be unlikely for them to put in ads. As in windows 7. But when it's almost freely given away...

> But when it's almost freely given away...

If that's a problem it's one created by Microsoft themselves. They're the one that sets their license fees. Their execs set stock guidance.

Re: Microsoft plugging more ads into Windows 11 Start Menu

#289

Post by yarg »

pbz wrote: post #167

These kinds of changes just make the OS look cheap (like a bazaar of sorts). They're visually ugly, but easily ignored (I rarely open the start menu). What I'm more concerned / annoyed by is the trend of Windows fighting with you. For example, try to disable the real-time antivirus protection. The UI makes it look like it's off, but then it turns back on by itself. Then you go to group policy to make it explicit that…

I tried to play spider solitaire not too long ago.

It used to be a clean simple application, now it's adware - literal adware in the professional version of a non-free OS.

Utter fucking madness.

I quit in disgust and had another go at Tumbleweed.

Windows 11 made KDE better.

Re: Microsoft plugging more ads into Windows 11 Start Menu

#290

Post by snvzz »

bigger_inside wrote: post #85
JohnFen wrote: post #54

> As Microsoft puts it: “We are continuing the exploration of badging on the Start menu with several new treatments for users logging in with local user accounts to highlight the benefits of signing in with a Microsoft account (MSA).” What is Microsoft really thinking here? You have to go out of your way (and probably do a web search) in order to figure out how to install Win 11 without using a Microsoft Account. So…

I've never used linux. After a hundred frustrations with my new laptop that runs Win11, I'm now looking to install ubuntu. Windows pushed me there.

Arch Linux.

Great community and excellent documentation wiki that'll hold your hand every step of the way.

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