Windows 11 Now Officially Adware as Microsoft Embeds Ads in the Start Menu

[Vayra86]

We want innovations, but not today.
After each new Windows, we cry for the old one - does this help? No?
In our new world, there are ads everywhere, I don't like them and remove them, but we need to adapt.

Before 20 years games were full games for 20$ today we need to buy DLC, in-game money... I don't like it, but there is no way.

20 years ago we paid 49,99 just the same and had a full game that we owned.
Now we pay 69,99 and get an online subscription with an MTX store and tomorrow the server might close and you're out of luck.

We have regressed. Don't be living in denial. A large part of the gaming market has corrupted itself because mainstream money entered the game. Its not suddenly a lot more complicated to make games. That's a self-imposed reality. Indie devs prove gaming can work as it always has, just fine.

Just because corporate wants more profit, doesn't mean its necessary. Its bullshit.
You cán still vote with your wallet. I do, anyway. Triple A isn't getting a dime from me. Online only? GTFO.

You simply get what you pay for. We have ourselves and ourselves alone to thank for the regression in quality.

 

[AusWolf]

We want innovations, but not today.
After each new Windows, we cry for the old one - does this help? No?
In our new world, there are ads everywhere, I don't like them and remove them, but we need to adapt.

Before 20 years games were full games for 20$ today we need to buy DLC, in-game money... I don't like it, but there is no way.

I disagree. You have Windows 10, you have Linux, you still have lots of affordable, full games with no DLC avalanche, or you can just wait for the discounted GOTY edition.

No one needs to adapt to what corporations want, because all they want is money.

Edit: Also, lots of DLCs are optional. Do I need to spend £239.38 to get every single paint job and every single cabin toy in Euro Truck Simulator 2? Of course not, it would be insane.

 

[AVATARAT]

I disagree. You have Windows 10, you have Linux, you still have lots of affordable, full games with no DLC avalanche, or you can just wait for the discounted GOTY edition.

No one needs to adapt to what corporations want, because all they want is money.

I was on Win 10, I upgraded to 11(free), and now I just clean and block what I don't want and it works as or better than 10 - why do I need to turn back?
When 12 is alive there probably will be a way to upgrade to it free again.

Yes, I agree that corporations want more and more... and we need to do what's needed to dodge that as much as we can.

 

[AusWolf]

Yes, I agree that corporations want more and more... and we need to do what's needed to dodge that as much as we can.

Exactly. The best way to do that is by being conscious of what you upgrade to, and especially of what you buy. As for me, I'm fine on Windows 10.

 

[gurusmi]

We want innovations, but not today...

Nope.I don't want and i don't need all that sh*t somebody pulled out of his nose. I need and i want a stable system. Running smooth. I need to test my software i use in business everytime time a change is rolled out. Just because i use my own developed software at my company. This is the major reason that i'm on the way towards Linux. For the whole comany. For all IT-Systems. M$ is loosing not that less money i won't pay anymore. Those are estimated by at least 10k every 2 years.

...After each new Windows, we cry for the old one - does this help? No? ...

Nope. They do what they want to do as long as the people buy that OS.

...In our new world, there are ads everywhere, I don't like them and remove them, but we need to adapt...

Also here nope. In my company i have nearby no ads. I don't care about Influencers because of manipulation. In my car i only hear the news and all the other time to my DAP. At TV, if i watch a movie, it is played from an AVI taken from a bluray. I don't use that so modern social media actively. And in my business i hope that nobody does it like me. Because if i wiould throw out a hell of money for my own advertising.

On Topic:
In my own Win11 installation i have deactivated the recommended section of the start menu. I got that new update. But i didn't get that discussed advertising.

 

[mb194dc]

What's really ridiculous about this, is that (like with all the streaming services and escalating costs now), honest users get shafted, meanwhile people who go the other route can enjoy Windows 10, updated for another 8 years with no ads at all. Nor do they have to worry about MS breaking their OS every time they do a feature update.

Strategically, it might help these companies with the next quarter or twos earnings, but medium and long term it'll be utterly destructive to their businesses.

 

[AVATARAT]

This is the major reason that i'm on the way towards Linux.

I was there, I think about Linux from time to time but for the moment - no.

Also here nope. In my company i have nearby no ads. I don't care about Influencers because of manipulation. In my car i only hear the news and all the other time to my DAP. At TV, if i watch a movie, it is played from an AVI taken from a bluray. I don't use that so modern social media actively. And in my business i hope that nobody does it like me. Because if i wiould throw out a hell of money for my own advertising.

I am more aggressive about that. Did that help for a better world, no, only on me. Corporations get bigger.

On Topic:
In my own Win11 installation i have deactivated the recommended section of the start menu. I got that new update. But i didn't get that discussed advertising.

Every OS need to be tuned for each individual needs. I prefer Windows because I play games. I can read news in Lynx, it will ignore all ads, no problem.
So Microsoft adds ads, ok their software their wishes, I will remove it - problem solved.

 

[gurusmi]

I am more aggressive about that. Did that help for a better world, no, only on me. Corporations get bigger.

It does help. Me! And that's important. I don't get annoyed all the time by Ad's. I had it a few days ago. A Movie on TV i thought that that movier vould be a great idea to watch. On TV they cut the movie a lot to integrate all the Ad's ()Sometimes i ask myself how they can put such a big duration of movies in between the Ad's). I changed to my AVI and started about the same like in TV. I use to have the extended versions of movies. To make it short. I watched the extended directors cut. When my movie ended i switched back to TV. There they have shown the smaller version. It took again 15 minutes till they ended. So they used the normal movie version cutted even more, added Ad's and this smaller TV-version took 15mins longer than my extended one. So within they played at least 30 mins of dumb and stupid Ad's. At least 30 min's of trying to force somebody to buy something one never really needs.Those Ad's just waste my time.

 

[AusWolf]

I was there, I think about Linux from time to time but for the moment - no.

Same here, as long as Windows 10 serves me well.

I am more aggressive about that. Did that help for a better world, no, only on me. Corporations get bigger.

No, I am more aggressive on that. I don't give a damn about a better world - if the mobs want to follow their beloved corporations, that's fine. But what I do in my house is my business.

Every OS need to be tuned for each individual needs. I prefer Windows because I play games. I can read news in Lynx, it will ignore all ads, no problem.

I've heard Proton is pretty good these days. And it's integrated into Steam, thanks to Valve heavily relying on Linux because of the Steam Deck.

 

[Vayra86]

I was on Win 10, I upgraded to 11(free), and now I just clean and block what I don't want and it works as or better than 10 - why do I need to turn back?
When 12 is alive there probably will be a way to upgrade to it free again.

Yes, I agree that corporations want more and more... and we need to do what's needed to dodge that as much as we can.

Well, let's reiterate what happened with Microsoft's Metro UI on Windows 8.

People took a major dump on it, and then we eventually got a pretty decent Windows 8, and it evolved into a FREE W10 upgrade that went back to no nonsense, a vastly reduced Metro UI and more of a desktop experience while most of the touch-oriented bullshit was gone.

Our voices matter. Somehow in 2020 and onwards this new Gen Z social media infested crowd seems to think they can live in apathy and it'll all work out, or something. Just crying on social media every day is enough to them, they'll live in the illusion things change that way. Look at us being so invested in the social discourse... its hilariously short sighted, caught in the bubble as they are.

In the meantime though corporate realities encroach on them and they feel helpless, much like you seem to say, despite a history chock full of examples proving otherwise.

Let's look at gaming.
Did we not effectively kill pay to win by now? I think we did. Its an exception, not a rule to see that in games and where it does appear, its not exactly popular and it doesn't want to sell itself as pay to win, but rather 'a small bonus here or there'. Some % extra XP or gold. Barely anything that will allow you to destroy game enjoyment for others.
The lootbox is slowly moving the same direction, with several countries banning it altogether.

Now where do we see the most MTX-oriented games these days? Almost exclusively in the mainstream oriented, youngster crowd optimized dopamine cycle games. Gen Z and younger. They're falling for it hook line and sinker and have no perception of a world without this poison, until the penny drops and they start looking beyond that popular segment.

The bottom line is this: some people always choose the path of least resistance, lack the intelligence, or lack the motivation to do more. And then stuff escalates into a realm nobody wants to be in, people get a reality check, and start caring a little bit more. In the end: you care. We all do. Some just don't realize it yet, because the corporate truck didn't run them over yet. But it will at some point. The question is how deep of a rabbit hole you must climb out of at that point.

I simply do not subscribe to the idea humans have no agency or ability to make choices and decide the fate of the world around them. I do agree its an uphill battle though

I am more aggressive about that. Did that help for a better world, no, only on me. Corporations get bigger.

True. The problem there is the systems we live in. If you want to stop corpo getting bigger, you need to change the way our systems work, and the only way to get there is by voting for change.

Its not a business decision, its a political one that ties in closely with climate. I hope, sincerely, that the climate issue will become that problematic that we're forced to change, and effectively need to move to systems that thrive when we do less instead of systems that are built for growth. Everything gets bigger, not just corpo: the world population (even though there are signs it might stabilize in the next century, it won't be sufficient or fast enough), YoY global pollution and CO2 emissions... We have not managed to shrink anything yet. The energy transition is mostly today just a vehicle for more growth, because change is business and business must grow in our current perception. Everything has to 'make money' or its a bad thing to do in our current perception. In the meantime, all the things we care about that are NOT money, are eroding rapidly. That won't last. Its not a coincidence people started shooting all across the globe lately. We're starting to feel the squeeze.

 

[Chrispy_]

Started seeing the Bing popup ads for it's Chrome extension yesterday on a bunch of machines when the OS detected that Chrome was running.

I guess it's time to download the latest .admx files, update group policy, and go hunting for the stupid setting that disables this crap, org-wide. AGAIN.

F*CK YOU, MICROSOFT. When are the EU going to slap them with some more huge fines?

 

[Chomiq]

Win 10 weather app:

Two adds displayed in main screen, another add in Maps section, almost every other section features the same ad.

Search menu, Copilot ad comes back after each boot even if you dismissed it before.

Then there's the "Remind to setup Onedrive account" and all that. The constant requests to set default browser to Edge and so on.

 

[DaemonForce]

Our voices matter. Somehow in 2020 and onwards this new Gen Z social media infested crowd seems to think they can live in apathy and it'll all work out, or something.

That's not what they hope. Every day I see more and more news about that gen, not just here in the West but SEA has the problem, especially in CN, just with a different name (Sanhe gods) and a whole other universe of issues that smell about as bad as the 60's. I can't talk much about it here without massive amounts of Internet screeching but the positives are:
They know they're awful
Not wanted
Are aging in dog years
And passing away after a quarter century (avg).
The trash takes itself out, just like Win11! (=ﾟωﾟ)ﾉ

Now where do we see the most MTX-oriented games these days? Almost exclusively in the mainstream oriented, youngster crowd optimized dopamine cycle games. Gen Z and younger. They're falling for it hook line and sinker and have no perception of a world without this poison, until the penny drops and they start looking beyond that popular segment.

Non-gamer detected. Literally everyone in my circles knows this arrangement as gacha. YUUUUUGE market. You know that's never going away.

The bottom line is this: some people always choose the path of least resistance, lack the intelligence, or lack the motivation to do more.

That is not some people. That is the human condition.
Oh, this thing with a bunch of meticulous moving parts or features works? Lets CHANGE that! (=ﾟωﾟ)ﾉ
I mean this is a board for overclockers too...Every once in a while something happens.

Win 10 weather app:
Maps section
Search menu
Copilot
"Remind to setup Onedrive account"
constant requests to set default browser to Edge and so on.

It's way too early for PL but every single one of these issues will not get any better. I've already yeet'd half the features from my tablet just setting up Win10 again and am still running into runaway threads, junker Atom CPU pinned 100%, excessive memory leaks and randomly dying on the charger again. I know with this CPU alone I'm asking for it but even at 4GB ram it should behave better than this.

Under Win11 the problems straight up explode. Not brave enough to try that again unless I start dumping WinPE to disk as a permanent boot copy and under these conditions I'd really rather not.

 

[Tomorrow]

Total Commander and its analogs are far better than "tabbed explorer", lol

I want a screw driver, not a swiss army knife with million functions i never use and convoluted UI. Tabbed explorer is enough for me. The only feature im missing is the option to pin tabs and for windows to respect single window policy where new links are opened as new tabs in existing window, not new explorer windows.

not only is it STILL as mixed up as it is in 10, now you also have to keep wondering what moved where with each update.

No it's not "as mixed up" because Win11 has more things in the new panel. Also i read these things called release notes that tell me the changes. Plus search exists in both control panels. Also it's not as if i go to control panel every day to change something.

But do enjoy 11. I'll enjoy 10, where things actually just stay largely the same most of the time right now. Its glorious, knowing where things are in an OS. But I understand you prefer constant change instead and praise MS for giving you that.

Tell me what things dont stay in the same place in Win11? You're speaking nonsense and clearly have not used Win11.

What i prefer is a more unified look that Win11 has, what i prefer is to run less 3rd party programs to get functionality and look that i want.
If you dislike constant change then no one is forcing you - go back to XP. You have zero change even with updates.
To me it sounds paranoid to "avoid constant change". ALL software changes to some degree all the time, not just the OS.

As for Vista and XP having rounded corners... nah, not the Apple infused ones, where every 90 degree angle is blasphemy, because its way too efficient a use of space. Can't be having that now, no no. People might get confused if they have to look at more than 6 elements on a single window.

Oh so now we're talking about some sort of "apple infused" corners. I did not know Apple invented round corners. Like i said XP, Vista and 7 all had rounded corners. Win11 merely returned to those. I wont bother arguing corner radius or such nonsense with you here.

So here we are in 2024 with a spanking new OS that is actually still cleaning up its act, and shows far less on a 4K screen than I could view on a 720P in 2005. Yay for progress! At least that half sentence you can read on screen has no jaggies anymore, how wonderful.

I have zero problems with information density in Win11. I run 27" 1440p at 100% scale.

Well, let's reiterate what happened with Microsoft's Metro UI on Windows 8.

People took a major dump on it, and then we eventually got a pretty decent Windows 8, and it evolved into a FREE W10 upgrade that went back to no nonsense, a vastly reduced Metro UI and more of a desktop experience while most of the touch-oriented bullshit was gone.

Win8 never got "pretty decent". 8.1 remedied some of the complaints but it was too little, too late. Win10 was a bugfest when it released on 2015. I moved to it in 2019 due to new hardware that no longer properly supported Win7. Then in 2023 i moved to Win11.

2004-2006: XP. Hated it. Hated the kids toy look and colors.
2006-2009: Vista. I had a very powerful system at the time so i had no problem running it and i quite liked it.
2009-2019: 7. By far the best one. I skipped 8 entirely and 10 by four years.
2019-2023: 10. It was ok but like XP i never really liked it. I only moved to it due to hardware requirements.
2023-????: 11. Ok so far after nearly a year of use. I get some of the criticism and have some of my own but overall i like it far better than Win10.

 

[DudeBeFishing]

What I learned while reading this thread, is that Windows XP and Windows 7 had rounded corners. I used the classic theme for so long, I forgot.

Can't wait for the "Harder! Stronger! More powerful org..." ads in my OS.

 

[CrAsHnBuRnXp]

Then there's the "Remind to setup Onedrive account" and all that. The constant requests to set default browser to Edge and so on.

I NEVER get that for Edge. I use Onedrive personally.

I think everyone is missing this little piece of information

Microsoft over late-Tuesday started distributing the KB5036980 optional update to Windows 11 users,

Its optional and can even be turned off if you install it. Or, ya know, uninstall it.

 

[Logoffon]

As much as I somewhat despise Microdollaroft's way of doing things like this, this is far from being the worst one they did considering that it's just a singular item in a place not too many users would frequently use (the recent files/recommendations, that is).
And unfortunately it also turned people into elitists who would spend hours ranting about every single bad thing in it when something they think it's "awful" is mentioned...

 

[Chomiq]

I NEVER get that for Edge. I use Onedrive personally.

I think everyone is missing this little piece of information


Its optional and can even be turned off if you install it. Or, ya know, uninstall it.

Just launched Edge:

Also you missed this:

While the update is currently optional, the changes contained in it will be made part of next month's "Patch Tuesday" update.

 

[CrAsHnBuRnXp]

Again, can be turned off.

Dont launch Edge? If you launch any browser that is not the default, it will ask you if you want to make it the default.

 

[Tomorrow]

Again, can be turned off.

Dont launch Edge? If you launch any browser that is not the default, it will ask you if you want to make it the default.

Actually Edge is in startup by default and run on first boot. It cannot be closed trough GUI and must be killed trough task manager instead. Then manually removed from startup and then 3rd party script to uninstall it because MS wont let you uninstall it trough GUI.

Even after all that Edge Update remnant remains in the list of installed programs and cannot be removed. I swear they have made me hate edge like a piece of malware despite the fact that i dont even use it.
I would be indifferent to it, if it simply existed as preinstalled program that could be removed and did not run at startup by default.

 

[Vayra86]

Tell me what things dont stay in the same place in Win11? You're speaking nonsense and clearly have not used Win11.

Well let's start at the arrangement of the taskbar, the various popups.

 

[Tomorrow]

Well let's start at the arrangement of the taskbar, the various popups.

Taskbar popups? What?

If you are referring to center icons then these can be relocated back to the left with a simple change in personalization settings. The popups i assume refer to the notification center?

I have been using Win11 nearly a year, and not once have i felt like something has been moved (added/removed) so drastically that i felt things were "out of place".

 

[Vayra86]

Taskbar popups? What?

If you are referring to center icons then these can be relocated back to the left with a simple change in personalization settings. The popups i assume refer to the notification center?

I have been using Win11 nearly a year, and not once have i felt like something has been moved (added/removed) so drastically that i felt things were "out of place".

Okay, well the times I used Win11 I was mostly annoyed with all the little changes. We have one laptop with it. Not a fan.

 

[JohH]

Windows is not only adware but spyware too. I paid $200 for an operating system. Later they update it to detect I'm using the "wrong" browser and to show me ads for their browser instead. What a joke.

I am only half-switched to Mac because of games. But maybe someday.

 

[Eiji]

LMFAO, if it's 11, they could get there too..... back to 10 then, lol

Not seen any ads in Windows 11 IoT Enterprise LTSC 2024 yet.

Runs as smooth as Windows 10 IoT Enterprise LTSC 2021 did on my PC except HDR runs better and I can now use RTX HDR too which requires WDDM 3.1.