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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

#82
post #60

Microsoft really needs to take a real hard look at Windows and figure out what its place is in the world. I know very few people outside of gamers that have a full computer outside of one given for work. This is one of the many reasons that my windows computer is solely for gaming (and I use a debloated Windows 10 LTS install) and never has anything sensitive on it. Any general computing tasks happen on my Mac. I wou…

Their current approach to Windows seems to be to milk it as much as possible before the desktop dies out.

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

#83
I was so pissed off when I installed a fresh copy of Windows 11 on my parents' new computer. Just more and more BS thrown in your face and it never ends. It made the computer they bought almost unusable for them. I had to spend a good chunk of time trying to debloat it, but my parents still complain about the occasional popup that confuse them.

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

#84
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].…

Why not Linux (depending on your line of work). Wider hardware choice, easier to upgrade, and no corporate oversight. Doesn't cover all use cases but it's a good option these days.

Not the person you responded to, but I'm in the same boat; I went from grudgingly using it due to being the 'best' in practice, to seeing it as something I need to move away from.

I've used the 'big three' (windows/macos/linux) desktop OSs at work and home in recent years. Here's my ranking:

1) Linux 2) MacOS 3) Windows

Where I have control to use what I want, linux is my choice. At work though, I need to jump through endpoint management and security theater nonsense, so I am stuck choosing between MacOS and Windows.

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

#85

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_...

I wonder if this counts as an "illegal lottery": https://www.gamblingcommission.gov.uk/public-and-players/gui...

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

#86
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 my Hotmail user (I just wanted offline only users) I said screw this, and installed POP_OS! instead, installed Steam, and move on with life. I even played the good 'ole Cyberpunk 2077 on Linux thanks to Proton.

I think at this point I have nothing keeping me using Windows other than the rare game that Proton doesn't support, but my old gaming rig still works and plays most games, so I can easily swap. It pisses me off though, because my Windows 10 box for some reason, at some point, any new program I install does not show up in the start menu whatsoever. I've not even been able to find anything on Google that remotely answers why its broken. At least with Steam I dont have to worry about it, but if I hit Windows Key and type anything, I dont see any programs I installed like three years ago. Freaking weird.

Anyway, I think moving forward I'll be buying Mac or Linux Systems. I'll let employers buy me Windows boxes.

Edit: Typo'd Proton as Photon ;)

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

#87
post #41

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_...

> I got a Windows Notification the other day while playing a game telling me about a "Grand prize giveaway" > Nope, not malware. Just Windows. Yeah, I got one the other day promoting some game or game studio. Honestly, there outta be a law. We don't need this kind of "innovation."

We should ban advertising with only very narrow exceptions.

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

#88
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 want so badly be a big fan of WSL, but I just can't, I'm hitting too many issues for it to be productive and I had to jump back into a proper Linux environment...

> But they make it really hard to rely on. From random shutdowns, GPU unreliability to data corruption and performance differences with just using Linux directly, I had to move away from it and back to Linux because I felt like I slowly losing my mind troubleshooting these issues.

> Latest issue was that the virtual disk file continued to grow beyond 500GB large while Linux still reported that it was just 20% full from the inside. So, reading about things, I gave optimize-vhd a try and boom, full disk file was corrupted.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37308850

I wish it was working properly, because I have to use Windows for other things anyways and I don't really care about ads because I don't feel like they're getting in the way when I use the OS. But that WSL basically doesn't work properly is such a showstopper.

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

#89
Running Windows 11 now, and for the first time ever I'm seriously considering running some flavour of Linux with a separate windows partition for games.

The amount of crap they are constantly shovelling down your throat is jaw-dropping. Add in the growing UI inconsistencies, options I turn off re-appearing after every 'feature update' and its just not worth it.

Also, not sure if I'm running on the beta channel right now, but damn is the thing unstable as anything, opening task manager takes FOREVER, explorer is incredibly slow and crashes frequently.

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

#90
post #82
post #60

Microsoft really needs to take a real hard look at Windows and figure out what its place is in the world. I know very few people outside of gamers that have a full computer outside of one given for work. This is one of the many reasons that my windows computer is solely for gaming (and I use a debloated Windows 10 LTS install) and never has anything sensitive on it. Any general computing tasks happen on my Mac. I wou…

Their current approach to Windows seems to be to milk it as much as possible before the desktop dies out.

>Their current approach to Windows seems to be to milk it as much as possible before the desktop dies out.

I'm starting to think that this is what Microsoft's goal is.. pushing people to the mobile platform deliberately and getting people use to it. where there is less control over the experience.

I'm so glad I switched to PopOS[1] Last year.

[1]: https://www.scottrlarson.com/publications/publication-transi...

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