Privacy @lemmy.world aa1 @lemm.ee 1 mo. ago

Microsoft now testing app ads in Windows 11's Start menu

www.bleepingcomputer.com Microsoft now testing app ads in Windows 11's Start menu

Microsoft has started testing ads in the Windows 11 Start menu, a new experiment the company says will help users find new "great" apps in the Microsoft Store.

33 comments

And I thank them for finally pushing me to fully adopt Linux as my main OS, although they did that months ago when I 'upgraded' to Windows 10 and my frustrations with Windows began (8.1 wasn't to bad really). This just seals the deal.
- 8.1 was peak windows.
  
  7*
  
  8 was all sorts of weird and clunky in the ui
  
  Personally I feel like Windows has been progressively getting worse after it peaked at Windows 2000.
  
  Unless of course you're willing to expend the effort to set up Windows Server as a desktop and put up with the limitations you get there.
Looking increasingly likely that my current Win10 machine will be my last hardware with MS software on it. Win11 is out of the question entirely.
Didn’t they also announce recently that they’re gonna block 3rd party start menu replacements? Must just be a coincidence.
- Not so much “announce” as just start doing it in beta builds.
  
  Do you have a link to this? I'm curious
Honestly, I wish Lemmy would be more about how you can block or circumvent stuff like this. Instead, it's all Linux. Look, I've been on Linux since 2008 and I still use Windows. For work, I have to. Not everyone can switch.
- I get where you're coming from as someone who has no option but to use Microsoft for everything at work, and no admin permissions to turn off spyware.
  
  There are probably Windows Registry tricks, Group Policy edits, de-bloaters and ad blockers you can acquire to get around every awful change Microsoft makes, I know a few have been posted in the past (being able to uninstall Edge as an example)
  
  However, the issue is that you remain at the mercy of Microsoft to allow a trick to keep working. They have every ability to change your setting back after an update or simply ignore your settings and put whatever on Windows it pleases.
  
  (The until recently uninstallable) Edge, Teams, the new mail-stealing version of Windows Mail/Outlook, the Github Copilot shoehorned in, so on and so forth. Needing to come up with clever ways to block every shitty thing thrown into Windows is going to be a losing battle. The best strategy is not to play, so I've stopped spending energy on it. The only area worth actioning is to pester companies to stop using Microsoft rubbish and governments to stop contracting with them and stop their abuse of their position in the market.
  
  Linux isn't perfect, it's not for everyone either and perhaps Windows is more suitable for some, but I'm long over trying to "fix" Windows and fully into helping people use Linux.
  
  I just apply said tricks then disable windows update. If it's an enterprise edition of windows it's alright. I still haven't left 10 though.
- Maybe we need to start a community with that type of content. Call it "UnFuckWindows" or something else(probably something less potentially offensive).
  
  I am fortunate enough to not need windows at the moment, but you could be the change you want to see.
- Follow up to this comment. Just 6 days after this discussion, MS comes up with another way to annoy users. A Lemmy user posted this link to this thread. That article has written in it, how you can turn it off.
  
  Thanks for sharing!
Well... it's time to block ads via host file
And now I am reimaging my only Windows machine with Debian, so it can join all my other Linux systems. Thanks for being so toxic and enshittifying your OS, Microsoft!
lesss goo! This means more linux users, right?
They keep trying this shit like it ever works.
Great. The more of that Microsoft does, the more people maybe realise what piece of shit it is. Hopefully.
Ugh. Has anyone had any serious success using CAD in Linux? I used bricscad thinking it might be the answer but it's slow. Or maybe using wine with inventor (my typical program)?
- I designed an entire theatre using QCad Pro ; architect was on some unlicensed, outdated AutoCAD and engineering on Vektorworks. But for engineering, which I had to require .dxf exports from, I was able to work, integrate and send back to everybody from QCad. QCad is free and FOSS, the Pro version is $40/year and offers more import-export format and some neat scripts. If you don't want to fork out the $40, ODA File Converter will do the .dwg-.dxf conversions for you.
Simplewall + Pi-hole, all I've had to do with this setup is a quick regex change that blocked all the Xbox stuff. Despite what people want you to believe, you don't have to use Linux
Portmaster or nextdns (or other pihole like filter) works too. I think the point is, why give your money to these companies for a shitty product if there is a viable alternative?
- For now. I wouldn't be surprised if Microsoft enabled DNS over HTTPS by default "for security" and then made it impossible to turn off or change for the ads
  
  I could totally see them doing this

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