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Microsoft is using malware-like pop-ups in Win11 to get people to ditch Chrome

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Re: Microsoft is using malware-like pop-ups in Win11 to get people to ditch Chrome

#321
post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is Google doing to Chrome?

Well, here's one I noticed the other day. Go to settings / Privacy and Security / Ad Privacy. By default, you give permission to: a) mine your history and provide it to websites / ad services b) mine your use within a website and provide it to ad services. c) feed telemetry back to ad services. So much for consent. You need to manually opt-out of settings you didn't even realize were there.

This seems like very recent addition. I didn't initially see it in settings but I noticed Chrome wanted to update (I normally use Firefox). After updating there actually was a popup telling about the settings Ad Privacy with option to open the settings page. While it being opt-out setting is not great at least they did have decadency to inform me about the change which often is not the case. I forgot to take a screenshot but it did look like following: https://www.ghacks.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/new-ads-pr...

Re: Microsoft is using malware-like pop-ups in Win11 to get people to ditch Chrome

#322
post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a big fan of PopOS after using it for over a year now. I hadn't used desktop Linux for over a decade and expected the usual hassle and obscure fiddling, but in all honesty I've found it easier to use than not just Windows (obviously, it's a shitshow these days) but even Mac too (which wouldn't let me configure my suspend settings without running obscure shell commands copied off the internet, and required me to s…

I fled to pop os after the arch devs decided that shipping a broken build of grub master branch (nightly) was totally acceptable, and if I didn't like it I should 'use an easier distro'. They left millions of users in an unbootable state and weren't the least bit apologetic about it. Easiest decision I ever made.

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Re: Microsoft is using malware-like pop-ups in Win11 to get people to ditch Chrome

#323
post #53

I'm a big fan of WSL, which has kept me on Windows for years more than I otherwise would have. But I can't stand the scammy adware infused OS Windows has become and will be moving to Apple Silicon full-time when the next gen M3 Desktop hardware is out. As a recent M2 Macbook Air owner I'm surprised how much software supports ARM/Apple Silicon natively, where everything I use daily as a .NET developer worked OOB [1].…

I wanted to add a new user account on my new Windows 11 system. It came with Windows Home right. So when I went to add one, it told me that feature is disabled because I have poor man's Windows, go to this other program. So I go to program B. Guess what program B told me? It told me I was using poor man's Windows to go back to program A to add a new user. I had to do it via command line. After I was about to remove m…

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Re: Microsoft is using malware-like pop-ups in Win11 to get people to ditch Chrome

#324
More:

- Excel on iOS won’t let you open files without signing in. Then it loses the session and you have to sign in again.

- Microsoft AutoUpdate on macOS jumps in your face every day multiple times. No way to uninstall it.

At this point, I treat Microsoft as cancer. Avoid touching anything from them at all cost.

Re: Microsoft is using malware-like pop-ups in Win11 to get people to ditch Chrome

#325

I got a Windows Notification the other day while playing a game telling me about a "Grand prize giveaway" Nope, not malware. Just Windows. https://i.imgur.com/xVstzqc.png https://www.reddit.com/r/microsoft/comments/15u6gx8/windows_...

Wow. That's incredible!

Re: Microsoft is using malware-like pop-ups in Win11 to get people to ditch Chrome

#326

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You start off with a maybe interesting point (Matthew 7:3) and then instead of the obvious conclusion "all software / operating systems are full of flaws, their advocates don't notice the familiar ones and do notice other ones" you go for "windows users are dumb hurr hurr"? Isn't the point of your frame of reference story that it's not "headteacher smart, students dumb" but "headteacher attention drawn to different t…

> You start off with a maybe interesting point... Uh, thanks? The phrase, "damning with faint praise" comes to mind. Indeed, my point was precisely the one you, yourself, referenced, but then you turned "most people just don't even notice any more," (because they don't see it like the people on this forum do) into "Windows users are dumb." I simply didn't say that. If you're implying that because I said they don't kn…

> ""Windows users are dumb." I simply didn't say that."

What's your reason for saying that Windows users who use Windows for things other than games "do not understand computer annoyances" or how to turn them off?

--> https://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/1992/12/02

> "They just don't feel it's worth the effort."

... of course we do. The same way, and for the same reason, you swat spam. And no we don't have 10,000 unread emails because we also get rid of spam.

Re: Microsoft is using malware-like pop-ups in Win11 to get people to ditch Chrome

#327
It was funny when forever the first thing everyone does on any windows system is open Edge, type "download chrome", and watch the effort Microsoft tries to convince you, even now coerce you into NOT escaping their products.

I had this exact situation last week on a Windows 10 VM I normally never browse from, and literally Microsoft was trying to add that same banner pointed out here over it! It literally disgusted me, and I couldn't close Edge fast enough, disgusted I had to see what Microsoft has once again become.

This is why I use Linux, windows only lives here to run Visio on in VM.

Re: Microsoft is using malware-like pop-ups in Win11 to get people to ditch Chrome

#328

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Apple isn't too annoying I find Apple to be too annoying for my tastes. Less annoying than Microsoft, but that doesn't mean much.

It's that vs the annoyance of using Linux. Which is worse? I've been there, diagnosing bluetooth and wifi issues, dealing with free vs non-free drivers, finding out Netflix won't run in 1080p/4K, going down the Flash rabbit hole back then, dealing with sleep issues, having sound not work, jumping ship to whatever DE is best supported, messing with WINE for the plethora of non-Linux-supported apps, it never ends. A "h…

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Re: Microsoft is using malware-like pop-ups in Win11 to get people to ditch Chrome

#329

Microsoft confuses me. They’ve been building up all this goodwill with frankly outstanding software and services. Then… they go and ruin it all with windows. What the heck is going on over there? Whoever leads that division probably needs to be replaced. I’ve heard installing windows with language set to English Europe or world makes the experience a lot better. Is that true?

The answer is not complicated, and it has two parts:

1. Microsoft isn't a person and doesn't have values.

2. Businesses behave their worst when they are dominant players in a space, and their best when they are weak or marginal in a space.

Microsoft has been responding to their relative weakness when it comes to certain kinds of developer tooling with relatively user-friendly 'open core' freeware. They have nothing forcing them to 'play nice' when it comes to their desktop operating system. So they won't! And they haven't, for a very long time. Windows has a host of other defects (stability, UI inconsistency, etc.), but aside from those its enshittification (infestation with adware, push towards online accounts via dark patterns, continual piling on of more telemetry, etc.) has been going on longer than the 'new Microsoft'. It's not a turning away from some newer, nicer Microsoft in any way— it's been continuous and simultaneous with that new Microsoft the whole time.

Re: Microsoft is using malware-like pop-ups in Win11 to get people to ditch Chrome

#330
post #53

I'm a big fan of WSL, which has kept me on Windows for years more than I otherwise would have. But I can't stand the scammy adware infused OS Windows has become and will be moving to Apple Silicon full-time when the next gen M3 Desktop hardware is out. As a recent M2 Macbook Air owner I'm surprised how much software supports ARM/Apple Silicon natively, where everything I use daily as a .NET developer worked OOB [1].…

Apple is so user hostile in so many ways. I don’t understand what people see in it.
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