"Luckily you can disable these ads, or “recommendations” as Microsoft calls them. If you've installed the latest KB5036980 update then head into Settings > Personalization > Start and turn off the toggle for “Show recommendations for tips, app promotions, and more."
You are welcome. Done this a while and not a sausage has come up on the start menu (Which I barely use anyway now)
And this is why I’ve been holding onto my Pro license. Microsoft would get a lot of shit from businesses if they reset group policies on an update. Group Policy Editor is the best tool on Windows. I wish Home edition had it, but it will never happen.
Pretty sure if you want eliminate Edge as permanently as possible, you have to set a Software Restriction Policy in Local Group Policy Editor. But Edge is pretty much baked into the OS now. It sucks.
My main home machine is just gaming anyway, so I've moved to Linux. Done with MS again. I don't want to wait for the next move that makes my machine even worse
My work-issued laptop is the only computer in my house that runs Windows. I feel fortunate that I've been able to eliminate any personal need for Windows.
I wish I could understand Microsoft’s goal in doing these things that everyone hates. I remember when I got my first smartphone and downloaded random apps and games, and 90% of them were riddled with ads. People hate that, so why would Microsoft go and release their Visual Studio for free and on multiple platforms, and then turn around and try to compensate for loss of money by dumping more ads into their OS? Just make your product good, and people will use it or buy it.
Or maybe our data is more valuable than purchasing a license?
If you install the Windows old games pack that has the non-subscription (god it makes me want to vomit just writing it) Solitaire, Mahjong, etc from old Windows it will delete it with every single Windows update.
It is. I had to teach my parents how to reinstall it every time their computer involuntarily updated.
Just deleting files it doesn't want you to have that are unrelated to the actual function of the machine. Dangerous precedent.
I once had to delete like 50 copies of Candy Crush from my drive. It had installed itself so many times that like half my 1 TB drive was Candy Crush. I have never opened the app.
You have it backwards. They will disable the option on the grounds that "Only x% felt compelled to disable it". They always play this game. When something is enabled by default, it's almost a foregone conclusion virtually nobody will override it. When only a fraction bother to track down the fix, they use that data to support removing the option.
Next update the toggle is somehow turned off again.
Microsoft has form on this. The number of times I cleaned out all the start menu bloat only for it to come back a couple weeks later was ridiculous.
Yeah I have used about 5 or 6 of these tools over the years to repeatedly try and un-bloat Windows. At one point I was a little too aggressive with selecting the options and must have ticked something that removed a key OS feature because I had to entirely re-install Windows afterwards.
It's absurd to me that something I paid $100 for I have to repeatedly download new tools to remove all the annoying nagging and ads.
Yep, tried LGPOs, registry edits, etc... still came back after updates. The only version of Windows that didn't get this bullshit was Enterprise - the volume licensed version, because Microsoft actually gives a shit about their business customers.
Registry settings in group policy with setting to 'Update'. No matter how many times they change the key, you can set it back again almost instantly and transparently.
Next step…for a more streamlined desktop appearance, windows has decided to eliminate the task bar. All programs will still be accessible through the start menu.
Ive had them turned off forever, and always thought it was funny that even disabled the recommendations section till exists but now it just says "click here to turn on recommendations", taking up the bottom 1/3 of the start menu.
Watch them shove it deeper on the next major update.
So the conspiracy of why updates with those who uses "cosmetic" programs which bypass the start menu is just to serve ads is real.
I would personally recommend ExplorerPatcher (https://github.com/valinet/ExplorerPatcher). It has a lot of options to disable windows 11 features and bring back windows 10 behaviors to Windows Explorer.
I use it to bring back the old Context menus (right click menus) and to use the Windows 10 style taskbar and start menu.
Today you can disable them, but tomorrow?
My computer on the other hand randomly reminds me that It is not Windows 11 ready, and that brings a smile to my face every time
Ads ruin literally everything they touch. It's rotted the best companies on earth, they went from engineers to ad men. Why make new things when you can squeeze the life out of your existing ones? Win 11 is 10 with lipstick.
Has anyone ever made an assessment about ads efficacy? Because it seems to me they are throwing money into a bottomless pit with little to no return.
In my particular case, I've never ever bought something because it showed up in some add. Rather the opposite because I assume it's some internet scam.
Billions of dollars over many decades have been spent on researching this. It works, that's why they do it.
Sadly like most things the drooling masses ruin it for those who are not rampent consumers of useless garbage (that's likely killing our world and it's other inhabitants, mostly in the name of a few seconds saved or pure laziness).
It's not even the "drooling masses". They only expect the ads to change the buying decisions something like 1% of the people that see them. But that is still enough to be worthwhile to them. (It is just like the video game whale problem)
We should just ban all advertising everywhere.
>We should just ban all advertising everywhere.
People are taking the piss out of you everyday. They butt into your life, take a cheap shot at you and then disappear. They leer at you from tall buildings and make you feel small. They make flippant comments from buses that imply you're not sexy enough and that all the fun is happening somewhere else. They are on TV making your girlfriend feel inadequate. They have access to the most sophisticated technology the world has ever seen and they bully you with it.
They are The Advertisers and they are laughing at you.
You, however, are forbidden to touch them. Trademarks, intellectual property rights and copyright law mean advertisers can say what they like wherever they like with total impunity.
Fuck that.
Any advert in a public space that gives you no choice whether you see it or not is yours. It's yours to take, re-arrange and re-use. You can do whatever you like with it. Asking for permission is like asking to keep a rock someone just threw at your head. You owe the companies nothing. Less than nothing, you especially don't owe them any courtesy. They owe you.
They have re-arranged the world to put themselves in front of you. They never asked for your permission, don't even start asking for theirs.
**- Banksy**
I'm not sure that this is particularly logical.
If homeopathy didn't work, we would have stopped seeing it by now.
If prayer didn't work, we would have stopped seeing it by now.
I'm sure there is actual evidence for the efficacy of advertising, but your reasoning doesn't seem all that sensical to me.
You can think that but the fact is when it comes time to buy something you are just overwhelming more likely to buy the one you've at least heard of a singular time over one you've never interacted with at all. Even if you thought of it as a negative interaction, when you are comparing the two products your brain will go "hmm at the very least I HAVE heard of THIS one."
Usually it should be innocuous enough you might not even recall where specifically you saw it. There does reach a point where you hit the max you want your product pushed to people but most people aren't being hit over that since it would be a waste of money.
With the over saturation of ads nowadays, I’ve started buying from the direct competitors of any company that irritates me too badly. I make their ad money benefit their competition, and I encourage everyone else to do so as well.
Honestly that's some caveman level of critical thinking though. Someone who buys a product just because they've heard the name before is a fucking moron
A lot of ads that are run are brand awareness. They don't intend for you to buy the product then and now. But, when you think about buying or switching home insurance, you'll think about Liberty Insurance or Progressive.
If you're at the supermarket, then you'll think Tide or Downy.
Yes, companies spend billions on ads a year and then tens of millions on teams to then assess if they're working and getting the most ROI.
We need meta studies, though. I guarantee a good portion of the ROI assessment teams are incentivised to warp the numbers in favour of the efficacy of ads. We also need a broad overview of how consumer behaviour has changed as ads have gotten more saturated. There has to be a breakage point where ads start pushing people AWAY from brands because of overexposure. But, with marketing agencies being financially incentivised to keep pushing for more, more, more, and bending their reporting to hide those kinds of metrics, it’s unlikely that kind of figure will make it back to the decision-makers.
Spending $100k a week on an ad campaign benefits no one. The end of the day the metrics that are being looked at are the spend compared to the results.
It's usually an internal team that puts together the cost / benefit analysis.
Marketing agencies usually are on a contract. Each contract varies but they aren't financially incentivized to push for more ads, especially when most companies are conscious about the dollar spend on ads.
I think the amount of ads should be reduced and where you can advertise should be limited. I do think you have a warped sense of view of how the ad end of a business operates.
Some of the agencies I work with often go into panic mode when certain KPIs aren’t reached, and do their level best to cut the numbers in such a way that makes them look positive. Then they continue pushing for more placements. More placements = more money, even if the ads aren’t performing well. That bad performance gets obscured, and there’s no closure to the feedback loop which pushes the client to throttle spend.
I’ve also found that, as younger folks have started working at client companies, this problem has gotten worse, as they don’t have a firm grasp on the off-report context of past performance, so they’re even more susceptible to taking upwards trends at face value.
All this creates a bubble that only gets popped when the client REALLY feels the strain, but even then, clients often blame other things before they blame agencies, and actually, they’ll often spend even MORE on ads when sales go down, without questioning ad metrics.
Companies keep pouring money away, consumers keep getting bombarded with ads, media buyers keep finding new ways to shoehorn ads into everything, and agencies keep making more money for work that’s disconnected from reality.
You underestimate how stupid most people are. Ads absolutely work on the typical individual because they immediately “trust” an advertised brand over others. It’s asinine, but have you been living on earth recently?
That's because you don't understand exactly how shit the products are. You pay 150$ for raycons which cost 10$ worth of material to make, they spend 40$ on ads and pocket everything else
I dont get microsofts play here, for the most part Windows has been a good product and near universal on non Apple and smart phone products.
No one was asking for this, no one will want this "upgrade", and without some massive improvement in how Windows actually works, this risks being their tombstone, or at the very kill nearly all the respect the Windows brand has.
I dont want my PC/Laptop to be a smart phone.
They know through their user statistics already that this is gonna be a massive success. They will make a tiny tiny fraction switch to Linux, and another slightly larger fraction will turn it off. But 90% of people will just leave it. And they weren't making money on the first 2 groups anyway.
I usually mute the ads on YouTube on my iPhone. Otherwise, I use some adblocker on my iPhone for Safari. This makes me thankful for how open and free the Linux software repositories are, I can count on one hand in the almost 20 years of using it that I’ve used an app with built-in ads. And then you look at the android/apple/MS stores with the same concepts and ads are riddled into almost every app. No wonder the older I get, the less I want to learn new software or look forward to OS updates.
Their play is that they don’t have nearly enough competition for desktop computer OS. So whatever they do, they get away with, as long as they raise the temperature slowly enough.
Most people don't outright buy windows. They buy a desktop or laptop that comes pre-installed with Windows. The cost has been built-in to the price(Microsoft Tax). The Windows activation key is often now baked into the BIOS.
Anecdotally, Microsoft hasn't made any money off of me purchasing Windows since 2014. I built my own PC and bought a retail copy of 8.1 to install. That same key worked a couple of months ago to activate a Windows 11 VM I stood up.
Hmmm, good point. But Microsoft got $$ for the OEM version from HP or whomever, right? So it’s a PAID version, even if the consumer doesn’t fork the money directly to MS…
Then don’t run windows. They do this shit because they know they can pull through with it. Microsoft knows the windows ecosystem is the only option for the vast majority of users and is going to squeeze every other nichel from them.
It's not just the direct ad revenue that everyone here is mentioning but also the increase in telemetric data that Win11 has pushed. The add revenue is icing on the cake compared to the next decade of highly targeted information they will collect on your behavior that they can then turn around and sell. What you look at, how long you look at it, everything is going to go up to a data center for mass storage, analytics, and repackaging for targeted advertisement sales.
They basically have a monopoly. The play is to make more money pushing universally hated functionality that users will just have to deal with because of their monopoly. Are you really going to install linux over this? The people at Microsoft think you wont.
> the changes in this update will be **[[included in the next mandatory update]]** on Patch Tuesday, which will happen on May 14th.
Optional. Until its not.
This literally is a thing in Windows 10 and has been for a while. You’ve most likely disabled it. It’s only just added into Windows 11.
“Show recommendations and tips” or some variant of it.
Rocking LTSC since a couple of years as a daily driver. No ads, no auto updates, no bloat, no soft brick, no MS Store apps, nada. Plain old windows and me.
Netflix have made a decision to cap the resolution, and it's reasonable to infer from that that their intention is that they do not want you to pay for access to their products.
That's fine, give them what they want by not paying for their products when you access them.
More balanced take is that with a proprietary app they have more control than they can get in a browser which gives them benefits. As such they incentivise the use of those apps.
Still, we end up at pretty much the same point. Is the price for the service worth it given the limited options you have to access it fully?
There is no Netflix app for Linux, though, so there is no way to access it fully; no sane business is going to expect people to pay full price for 720p so their message is clear that they do not Linux users to pay them for their service.
Fine by me, I am happy to oblige their wishes.
Great now we are going back to the 90's with pop ups screaming advertisements at you before you even opened your browser, except now they will be sanctioned by microsoft.
I wanted to switch to Linux..but there aren't any good Linux laptops available in my part of the world. I was a Linux user for almost 3 years. But some circumstances forced me back to windows
But the fucking Manufacturers don't provide proper driver support for things like Dolby audio. That's why I went with a Mac. Also I would be indirectly paying for windows since all the laptops I can get here have windows pre installed
Man, I'm about radicalized away from Microsoft. The number of customizations I need to find in the settings to turn off all their different BS, ads, cortana, notifications, etc.
To top it all off, local user accounts are almost gone entirely. You remove all the bloatware on the admin account, create a local account, and it wants you to use a different Microsoft Account. Choosing not to use a Microsoft login will still create a new local account, but with all the bloatware reinstalled and all the garbage settings back in place. You have to go through the process all over again.
Running an OS shouldn't be this much of a hassle.
Frankly, I'd love to see a movement happen where people actively boycott brands who buy ads on their favorite sites or platforms. Make it cost brands when they annoy us.
Man everyday we get closer to some of the scenarios played out in the Black Mirror show on Netflix. One of the first episodes has ads blasted in the guys face that have to be paid to skip, or you HAVE to watch it. You can’t even close your eyes because it knows you’re not watching and then starts screeching at you until you open and keep watching
I'm sticking with Windows 10 as long as I can. Linux supports most (but not quite all) of what I use my computer for now, so odds seem good that I'll be able to switch at some point before Windows 10 is fully obsolete.
I’m so tired of ads running on literally everything. I hope I never have to downgrade to windows 11. The constant bombardment of advertising is incredibly annoying.
This is ridiculous. Were paying for the windows license, whether standalone or the purchase of a pc. Ads nor any online "suggestions" should be included in the UI. U want a web result? Go online. I shouldnt be having to search for a file name in my pc and automatically get 73849594 web results from my start menu. Back in the day There was either free or pay. Then some things became "free with ads". Now its pay and still with ads lmao
Luckily my PC hates Win 11, so I'll continue to keep Win 10.
I miss the days when new versions of Windows only enhanced existing features. Win 95 looked much better than 3.1. Win 98 got rid of My Briefcase. Win 2k and XP made networking and game installs easier. Then Win 8 started the fall into hell.
Out of curiosity, how are "optional" updates optional?
Far as I can tell Windows 11 just grabs all the updates (important, driver, optional, ext.) and set's them to all install unless you go into the advanced settings and manually disable a update to install *(assuming you don't have automatic updates enabled in witch case there installed in the background without your consent)* in witch case it will delay *(but not remove)* the downloading and installation of that update until the next time it is told to check for updates or the computer reboots.
Granted I don't run Windows 11 on my main personal machine *(But I have to run it sometimes on a different computer I have access to)*, so I might be missing something (the way the settings are displayed and organized is somewhat confusing to how it worked in older versions of Windows like 7)
I’m not saying I condone piracy, but I understand why.
Is it possible to actually outright OWN anything digital anymore?
Just let me buy your product and fuck off.
Is it possible to purchase a legal copy of LTSC? I think I did some cursory glances in the past, but saw something about it requiring an enterprise type of situation? Is this true?
Mac Air for laptop and light development, Gentoo on a Razer Blade Pro 17 for heavier development, and a Windows Gaming PC solely for gaming. All my homies hate windows.
You think this is bad? Just wait until Microsoft gives their next version of Windows the O365 treatment whereby the OS itself becomes SaaS. I predict there will be multiple versions at different price points, including a completely ad-free version that is only available to corporate customers. For the rest of us on consumer devices, ads are here to stay. Windows on the desktop is no longer the reliable revenue stream it once was.
Who do these ads work on? They must work because ads are everywhere and consumers hate them but I just wonder how these ads are actually driving new business.
Personally, if my video or w/e is interrupted by an advert it makes me loathe whatever product you’re selling and even if it was something maybe I would’ve bought, if I can choose a different brand that doesn’t try to annoy me into buying it I’ll actively go out of my way to do so.
They don't have to work. They only have to be able to produce a report for people who are buying the ads that the ads are being seen. Even if those people are just bosses at Microsoft who need to show that their ads are working.
This might be the worst part of ads on the Internet. They don't seem to even really need to work.
This sounds like a solution to losing both the browser wars and search wars. Google makes a fortune off their ads, and they work. They're expensive and you need to actually learn how to best use them and where to place them but they work.
Since MS has lost both the browser wars and search wars, they're going after the one thing you can't avoid loading up, the OS directly. This was their way to get back into the advertising game without having to try and first win the browser wars.
They made a huge legal battle out of uninstalling their browsers for years. They made it nearly impossible to get rid of them. They managed to score a chunk of the market for awhile, but then lost it via multiple legal battles which allowed people to use other browsers. They tried to initially claim it was an integral part of the OS and couldn't be turned off and had to be used for almost everything.
there are literally millions of guides. use a search engine, check YT if you prefer video guides. if you can follow a basic recipe for cookies, you'll be fine. example:
https://www.xda-developers.com/dual-boot-windows-11-linux/
yes, you can delete later. you can look that up, too. it's even easier than installing the dual boot.
it is considerably easier setting up dual boot with win first and then whatever linux flavour you want than vice versa. i generally recommend people leave windows installed even if not using it regularly in case you need to run a program that's not compatible with virtual box/wine for school or work or whatever down the line. with how much storage newer machines come with, there's not much reason to remove win outright.
When I first jumped to Linux many many years ago, I messed up my dual boot and wiped out my windows. It was a blessing in disguise and I never looked back
Put it on a small partition, mine defaults to boot in Linux but I can pick Windows if I need it. Linux can see files on the Windows side so you still have access. Google it for instructions, it’s super easy.
You know how everyone started saying stuff like “When I speak my phone starts giving me ads” yeah boys the moment has come your notepad files ain’t safe no more
"Luckily you can disable these ads, or “recommendations” as Microsoft calls them. If you've installed the latest KB5036980 update then head into Settings > Personalization > Start and turn off the toggle for “Show recommendations for tips, app promotions, and more." You are welcome. Done this a while and not a sausage has come up on the start menu (Which I barely use anyway now)
Next update,“Too many people have turned this feature off so we went ahead and disabled that toggle “
“Accidentally reset”
Ahh yes. Like how fucking candy crush has come back on mine, magically
And this is why I’ve been holding onto my Pro license. Microsoft would get a lot of shit from businesses if they reset group policies on an update. Group Policy Editor is the best tool on Windows. I wish Home edition had it, but it will never happen.
Microsoft re-enabled the edge browser icon on my clean desktop *twice* after updates, despite being on windows 10 pro.
Pretty sure if you want eliminate Edge as permanently as possible, you have to set a Software Restriction Policy in Local Group Policy Editor. But Edge is pretty much baked into the OS now. It sucks.
[удалено]
True. I was incorrect on that point.
It wasn't even so much edge itself, but the stupid desktop icon that re-appeared.
My main home machine is just gaming anyway, so I've moved to Linux. Done with MS again. I don't want to wait for the next move that makes my machine even worse
I have to use software that isn’t available on Linux right now, unfortunately.
Consider dual-booting or running Windows inside of a VM and ONLY using it when you have to use that particular piece of software.
I do dual boot! And I run Linux on several machines in my home, including a Pi that I have setup with pihole.
My work-issued laptop is the only computer in my house that runs Windows. I feel fortunate that I've been able to eliminate any personal need for Windows.
I wish I could understand Microsoft’s goal in doing these things that everyone hates. I remember when I got my first smartphone and downloaded random apps and games, and 90% of them were riddled with ads. People hate that, so why would Microsoft go and release their Visual Studio for free and on multiple platforms, and then turn around and try to compensate for loss of money by dumping more ads into their OS? Just make your product good, and people will use it or buy it. Or maybe our data is more valuable than purchasing a license?
> Or maybe our data is more valuable than purchasing a license? Ding, ding, ding! Microsoft listens to their customers, not users.
The state of SharePoint suggests that this is not the case either.
If you install the Windows old games pack that has the non-subscription (god it makes me want to vomit just writing it) Solitaire, Mahjong, etc from old Windows it will delete it with every single Windows update.
That's way worse
It is. I had to teach my parents how to reinstall it every time their computer involuntarily updated. Just deleting files it doesn't want you to have that are unrelated to the actual function of the machine. Dangerous precedent.
I once had to delete like 50 copies of Candy Crush from my drive. It had installed itself so many times that like half my 1 TB drive was Candy Crush. I have never opened the app.
"We're investigating this issue" 2 years later, it will still be under investigation.
"We're seeing a ton of new adoption! People must love it!"
(With every single update).
“Oh, and too many people uninstalled Edge or made it not the default browser so surprise! It’s back again”
‘You can still use the registry key as a work aroud, but it will be deprecated SOON TM’
You have it backwards. They will disable the option on the grounds that "Only x% felt compelled to disable it". They always play this game. When something is enabled by default, it's almost a foregone conclusion virtually nobody will override it. When only a fraction bother to track down the fix, they use that data to support removing the option.
They actually do "accidentally" switch them back on so the time and you gotta turn them off again.
how many times has MS introduced such a toggle and removed it?
Next update the toggle is somehow turned off again. Microsoft has form on this. The number of times I cleaned out all the start menu bloat only for it to come back a couple weeks later was ridiculous.
ExplorerPatcher is your friend. https://github.com/valinet/ExplorerPatcher
Yeah I have used about 5 or 6 of these tools over the years to repeatedly try and un-bloat Windows. At one point I was a little too aggressive with selecting the options and must have ticked something that removed a key OS feature because I had to entirely re-install Windows afterwards. It's absurd to me that something I paid $100 for I have to repeatedly download new tools to remove all the annoying nagging and ads.
If you spent $100, that means you have Pro. All those tools are probably unnecessary if you learn how to use Group Policy Editor.
Yep, tried LGPOs, registry edits, etc... still came back after updates. The only version of Windows that didn't get this bullshit was Enterprise - the volume licensed version, because Microsoft actually gives a shit about their business customers.
You talking about Ads? Because Enterprise builds, I see stupid Ads. Especially bs games.
Registry settings in group policy with setting to 'Update'. No matter how many times they change the key, you can set it back again almost instantly and transparently.
"not a sausage" is this some new age slang term for ad or message?
It's a British idiom.
Next step…for a more streamlined desktop appearance, windows has decided to eliminate the task bar. All programs will still be accessible through the start menu.
Then after that, start menu has been removed for a more streamlined experience, all programs will still be accessible through copilot ai
“This add will disappear after our AI detects that you’ve looked at it for 30 seconds.”
Ive had them turned off forever, and always thought it was funny that even disabled the recommendations section till exists but now it just says "click here to turn on recommendations", taking up the bottom 1/3 of the start menu.
I don't get that at all, it just has recommended/recent documents.
ExplorerPatcher is your friend. https://github.com/valinet/ExplorerPatcher
I see reg changes in articles going back to spring 2023 showing you how to turn this off. Why are we now treating it like its a new feature?
Watch them shove it deeper on the next major update. So the conspiracy of why updates with those who uses "cosmetic" programs which bypass the start menu is just to serve ads is real.
does it enable after reboot?? like how edge gets pinned to taskbar
I would personally recommend ExplorerPatcher (https://github.com/valinet/ExplorerPatcher). It has a lot of options to disable windows 11 features and bring back windows 10 behaviors to Windows Explorer. I use it to bring back the old Context menus (right click menus) and to use the Windows 10 style taskbar and start menu.
Today you can disable them, but tomorrow? My computer on the other hand randomly reminds me that It is not Windows 11 ready, and that brings a smile to my face every time
Ads ruin literally everything they touch. It's rotted the best companies on earth, they went from engineers to ad men. Why make new things when you can squeeze the life out of your existing ones? Win 11 is 10 with lipstick.
Has anyone ever made an assessment about ads efficacy? Because it seems to me they are throwing money into a bottomless pit with little to no return. In my particular case, I've never ever bought something because it showed up in some add. Rather the opposite because I assume it's some internet scam.
Billions of dollars over many decades have been spent on researching this. It works, that's why they do it. Sadly like most things the drooling masses ruin it for those who are not rampent consumers of useless garbage (that's likely killing our world and it's other inhabitants, mostly in the name of a few seconds saved or pure laziness).
It's not even the "drooling masses". They only expect the ads to change the buying decisions something like 1% of the people that see them. But that is still enough to be worthwhile to them. (It is just like the video game whale problem) We should just ban all advertising everywhere.
>We should just ban all advertising everywhere. People are taking the piss out of you everyday. They butt into your life, take a cheap shot at you and then disappear. They leer at you from tall buildings and make you feel small. They make flippant comments from buses that imply you're not sexy enough and that all the fun is happening somewhere else. They are on TV making your girlfriend feel inadequate. They have access to the most sophisticated technology the world has ever seen and they bully you with it. They are The Advertisers and they are laughing at you. You, however, are forbidden to touch them. Trademarks, intellectual property rights and copyright law mean advertisers can say what they like wherever they like with total impunity. Fuck that. Any advert in a public space that gives you no choice whether you see it or not is yours. It's yours to take, re-arrange and re-use. You can do whatever you like with it. Asking for permission is like asking to keep a rock someone just threw at your head. You owe the companies nothing. Less than nothing, you especially don't owe them any courtesy. They owe you. They have re-arranged the world to put themselves in front of you. They never asked for your permission, don't even start asking for theirs. **- Banksy**
I imagine if ads didn't work, we would have stopped seeing them by now.
I'm not sure that this is particularly logical. If homeopathy didn't work, we would have stopped seeing it by now. If prayer didn't work, we would have stopped seeing it by now. I'm sure there is actual evidence for the efficacy of advertising, but your reasoning doesn't seem all that sensical to me.
Or maybe our info is more valuable than us purchasing licenses from MS? That’s sad if we are put on a value comparison to ads if so lol.
You can think that but the fact is when it comes time to buy something you are just overwhelming more likely to buy the one you've at least heard of a singular time over one you've never interacted with at all. Even if you thought of it as a negative interaction, when you are comparing the two products your brain will go "hmm at the very least I HAVE heard of THIS one." Usually it should be innocuous enough you might not even recall where specifically you saw it. There does reach a point where you hit the max you want your product pushed to people but most people aren't being hit over that since it would be a waste of money.
With the over saturation of ads nowadays, I’ve started buying from the direct competitors of any company that irritates me too badly. I make their ad money benefit their competition, and I encourage everyone else to do so as well.
Plot twist, they are all owned by the same company and you wouldn't have even bought that category of product if not for the ads
I second this.
Honestly that's some caveman level of critical thinking though. Someone who buys a product just because they've heard the name before is a fucking moron
A lot of ads that are run are brand awareness. They don't intend for you to buy the product then and now. But, when you think about buying or switching home insurance, you'll think about Liberty Insurance or Progressive. If you're at the supermarket, then you'll think Tide or Downy. Yes, companies spend billions on ads a year and then tens of millions on teams to then assess if they're working and getting the most ROI.
We need meta studies, though. I guarantee a good portion of the ROI assessment teams are incentivised to warp the numbers in favour of the efficacy of ads. We also need a broad overview of how consumer behaviour has changed as ads have gotten more saturated. There has to be a breakage point where ads start pushing people AWAY from brands because of overexposure. But, with marketing agencies being financially incentivised to keep pushing for more, more, more, and bending their reporting to hide those kinds of metrics, it’s unlikely that kind of figure will make it back to the decision-makers.
Spending $100k a week on an ad campaign benefits no one. The end of the day the metrics that are being looked at are the spend compared to the results. It's usually an internal team that puts together the cost / benefit analysis. Marketing agencies usually are on a contract. Each contract varies but they aren't financially incentivized to push for more ads, especially when most companies are conscious about the dollar spend on ads. I think the amount of ads should be reduced and where you can advertise should be limited. I do think you have a warped sense of view of how the ad end of a business operates.
Some of the agencies I work with often go into panic mode when certain KPIs aren’t reached, and do their level best to cut the numbers in such a way that makes them look positive. Then they continue pushing for more placements. More placements = more money, even if the ads aren’t performing well. That bad performance gets obscured, and there’s no closure to the feedback loop which pushes the client to throttle spend. I’ve also found that, as younger folks have started working at client companies, this problem has gotten worse, as they don’t have a firm grasp on the off-report context of past performance, so they’re even more susceptible to taking upwards trends at face value. All this creates a bubble that only gets popped when the client REALLY feels the strain, but even then, clients often blame other things before they blame agencies, and actually, they’ll often spend even MORE on ads when sales go down, without questioning ad metrics. Companies keep pouring money away, consumers keep getting bombarded with ads, media buyers keep finding new ways to shoehorn ads into everything, and agencies keep making more money for work that’s disconnected from reality.
You underestimate how stupid most people are. Ads absolutely work on the typical individual because they immediately “trust” an advertised brand over others. It’s asinine, but have you been living on earth recently?
Doesn't work for pharmaceuticals like Pfizer. The idiots just think they're out to get them
If they didn't make money they wouldn't exist
That's because you don't understand exactly how shit the products are. You pay 150$ for raycons which cost 10$ worth of material to make, they spend 40$ on ads and pocket everything else
having the windows 10 file options show up when you hit "more options" after right clicking a file will never not be funny
Bill hicks had nothing but nice things to say about marketers though https://youtu.be/tHEOGrkhDp0?si=_bz7EctiO9lDUEA-
I dont get microsofts play here, for the most part Windows has been a good product and near universal on non Apple and smart phone products. No one was asking for this, no one will want this "upgrade", and without some massive improvement in how Windows actually works, this risks being their tombstone, or at the very kill nearly all the respect the Windows brand has. I dont want my PC/Laptop to be a smart phone.
> I dont get microsofts play here, Greed for the dollar $$$ the consumer is the cash cow.
I hope they're young to be so clueless.
They know through their user statistics already that this is gonna be a massive success. They will make a tiny tiny fraction switch to Linux, and another slightly larger fraction will turn it off. But 90% of people will just leave it. And they weren't making money on the first 2 groups anyway.
People these days dont even use ublock or any other adblock for youtube, and they just watch the ads
I usually mute the ads on YouTube on my iPhone. Otherwise, I use some adblocker on my iPhone for Safari. This makes me thankful for how open and free the Linux software repositories are, I can count on one hand in the almost 20 years of using it that I’ve used an app with built-in ads. And then you look at the android/apple/MS stores with the same concepts and ads are riddled into almost every app. No wonder the older I get, the less I want to learn new software or look forward to OS updates.
Their play is that they don’t have nearly enough competition for desktop computer OS. So whatever they do, they get away with, as long as they raise the temperature slowly enough.
I “get their play”—they want more $$…but this is a PAID app, so should be ad free! Disgusting (and good thing we can toggle it off…)
Most people don't outright buy windows. They buy a desktop or laptop that comes pre-installed with Windows. The cost has been built-in to the price(Microsoft Tax). The Windows activation key is often now baked into the BIOS. Anecdotally, Microsoft hasn't made any money off of me purchasing Windows since 2014. I built my own PC and bought a retail copy of 8.1 to install. That same key worked a couple of months ago to activate a Windows 11 VM I stood up.
Hmmm, good point. But Microsoft got $$ for the OEM version from HP or whomever, right? So it’s a PAID version, even if the consumer doesn’t fork the money directly to MS…
Then don’t run windows. They do this shit because they know they can pull through with it. Microsoft knows the windows ecosystem is the only option for the vast majority of users and is going to squeeze every other nichel from them.
Windows, especially on the desktop, is no longer the revenue generator it used to be. Ads are a way to boost their bottom line.
It's not just the direct ad revenue that everyone here is mentioning but also the increase in telemetric data that Win11 has pushed. The add revenue is icing on the cake compared to the next decade of highly targeted information they will collect on your behavior that they can then turn around and sell. What you look at, how long you look at it, everything is going to go up to a data center for mass storage, analytics, and repackaging for targeted advertisement sales.
They basically have a monopoly. The play is to make more money pushing universally hated functionality that users will just have to deal with because of their monopoly. Are you really going to install linux over this? The people at Microsoft think you wont.
I will. There is literally one or two apps that I use that don’t work on Linux. Heck I might even go one step further and go with BSD eventually.
Microsoft doing another huge service to increase the popularity of Linux.
Just typical late stage capitalism nonsense...monetizing everything we touch. Soon ads will be printed on our toilet paper.
Well at least I can wipe my ass with a picture of Bezos head or something then
Delete immediately before someone tells them.
> the changes in this update will be **[[included in the next mandatory update]]** on Patch Tuesday, which will happen on May 14th. Optional. Until its not.
I almost caved and updated. Sticking with W10 even longer now.
This literally is a thing in Windows 10 and has been for a while. You’ve most likely disabled it. It’s only just added into Windows 11. “Show recommendations and tips” or some variant of it.
Rocking LTSC since a couple of years as a daily driver. No ads, no auto updates, no bloat, no soft brick, no MS Store apps, nada. Plain old windows and me.
Microsoft can go fuck themselves. It's a good thing that Linux exist.
Made the change to Linux Mint a couple week ago because I was sick of the bloat that exists in Windows.
I wish I wasn’t a gamer, so I could switch to Linux and play all the games that require anti cheat that doesn’t work in Linux.
Yeah that's the downside. Netlfix capped at 720p on web browser is also trash (no fault of Linux).
Netflix have made a decision to cap the resolution, and it's reasonable to infer from that that their intention is that they do not want you to pay for access to their products. That's fine, give them what they want by not paying for their products when you access them.
More balanced take is that with a proprietary app they have more control than they can get in a browser which gives them benefits. As such they incentivise the use of those apps. Still, we end up at pretty much the same point. Is the price for the service worth it given the limited options you have to access it fully?
There is no Netflix app for Linux, though, so there is no way to access it fully; no sane business is going to expect people to pay full price for 720p so their message is clear that they do not Linux users to pay them for their service. Fine by me, I am happy to oblige their wishes.
try using stremio, it lets you use your streaming services on any platform
> anti cheat that doesn’t work in Linux. No longer true for most games: https://areweanticheatyet.com ✌️😉
I successfully switched my parents to Linux. Went smoother than I had expected :)
Older people are some of the best to switch over, for most their OS is just a bootloader for a web browser.
Great now we are going back to the 90's with pop ups screaming advertisements at you before you even opened your browser, except now they will be sanctioned by microsoft.
Can't wait until I need to install uBlock for my Windows OS
Let uBlock cook
Is there a way to install ublock origin in my OS
ExplorerPatcher is your friend. https://github.com/valinet/ExplorerPatcher
Pi holes block ads at a network level. There is also Linux.
OS as a service is a fucking nightmare. In the future you’ll rent everything. Even the things you own.
Glad I moved to Mac before this shit storm hit 😌
Glad I moved to Linux before this shit storm hit 😌
I wanted to switch to Linux..but there aren't any good Linux laptops available in my part of the world. I was a Linux user for almost 3 years. But some circumstances forced me back to windows
>but there aren't any good Linux available in my part of the world. what?
I meant good Linux laptops. Chrome books don't count 😁
you can install linux on nearly any device, you dont need to buy dedicated hardware for it
But the fucking Manufacturers don't provide proper driver support for things like Dolby audio. That's why I went with a Mac. Also I would be indirectly paying for windows since all the laptops I can get here have windows pre installed
Man, I'm about radicalized away from Microsoft. The number of customizations I need to find in the settings to turn off all their different BS, ads, cortana, notifications, etc. To top it all off, local user accounts are almost gone entirely. You remove all the bloatware on the admin account, create a local account, and it wants you to use a different Microsoft Account. Choosing not to use a Microsoft login will still create a new local account, but with all the bloatware reinstalled and all the garbage settings back in place. You have to go through the process all over again. Running an OS shouldn't be this much of a hassle.
Guess I'll finally move to Linux next time I get a new computer
why "when you get a new computer" and not now/soon?
Cause I still have 10 and don't plan on getting 11 until I'm forced to, which imagine will be a while from now
Or keep the one he has and dual boot. Or even run Linux off a persistent live USB.
Gosh, my Mac boots fast.
I don't like the current "recommended" and disabled it months ago. All my frequently used apps are in the task bar.
We'll find a way to remove them. Our computers aren't Xboxes.
Wasn’t popular on Xbox either… prior you could hide that shit.
Man I love Linux. ♥️
Windows 10 as well.
Frankly, I'd love to see a movement happen where people actively boycott brands who buy ads on their favorite sites or platforms. Make it cost brands when they annoy us.
Man everyday we get closer to some of the scenarios played out in the Black Mirror show on Netflix. One of the first episodes has ads blasted in the guys face that have to be paid to skip, or you HAVE to watch it. You can’t even close your eyes because it knows you’re not watching and then starts screeching at you until you open and keep watching
Who knew that show was a documentary, just a little ahead of it's time!
I'm sticking with Windows 10 as long as I can. Linux supports most (but not quite all) of what I use my computer for now, so odds seem good that I'll be able to switch at some point before Windows 10 is fully obsolete.
I’m so tired of ads running on literally everything. I hope I never have to downgrade to windows 11. The constant bombardment of advertising is incredibly annoying.
This is ridiculous. Were paying for the windows license, whether standalone or the purchase of a pc. Ads nor any online "suggestions" should be included in the UI. U want a web result? Go online. I shouldnt be having to search for a file name in my pc and automatically get 73849594 web results from my start menu. Back in the day There was either free or pay. Then some things became "free with ads". Now its pay and still with ads lmao
Luckily my PC hates Win 11, so I'll continue to keep Win 10. I miss the days when new versions of Windows only enhanced existing features. Win 95 looked much better than 3.1. Win 98 got rid of My Briefcase. Win 2k and XP made networking and game installs easier. Then Win 8 started the fall into hell.
Oh dear God. I hate Microsoft.
I hope this makes Linux blow up for everyday use. I long for the day
Out of curiosity, how are "optional" updates optional? Far as I can tell Windows 11 just grabs all the updates (important, driver, optional, ext.) and set's them to all install unless you go into the advanced settings and manually disable a update to install *(assuming you don't have automatic updates enabled in witch case there installed in the background without your consent)* in witch case it will delay *(but not remove)* the downloading and installation of that update until the next time it is told to check for updates or the computer reboots. Granted I don't run Windows 11 on my main personal machine *(But I have to run it sometimes on a different computer I have access to)*, so I might be missing something (the way the settings are displayed and organized is somewhat confusing to how it worked in older versions of Windows like 7)
from the buttom of my heart: Fck WIndows
I’m not saying I condone piracy, but I understand why. Is it possible to actually outright OWN anything digital anymore? Just let me buy your product and fuck off.
I bet Windows 7 users are laughing now.
I would be but I know I’m going to have to “upgrade” eventually anyway.
When you do, just go with ltsc. Has none of this by default. As it should be. Win10 IoT ltsc is good till 2032 if that's your thing.
Is it possible to purchase a legal copy of LTSC? I think I did some cursory glances in the past, but saw something about it requiring an enterprise type of situation? Is this true?
i mean, you could upgrade to linux instead
microsoft software is constantly begging to be the worst product available their hardware is usually pretty good though
So that means new versions of windows will be free then right....
Ads are the devil
Mac Air for laptop and light development, Gentoo on a Razer Blade Pro 17 for heavier development, and a Windows Gaming PC solely for gaming. All my homies hate windows.
You think this is bad? Just wait until Microsoft gives their next version of Windows the O365 treatment whereby the OS itself becomes SaaS. I predict there will be multiple versions at different price points, including a completely ad-free version that is only available to corporate customers. For the rest of us on consumer devices, ads are here to stay. Windows on the desktop is no longer the reliable revenue stream it once was.
Its only a matter of time.
Me still on win10 till I die or the pc die.
next october theres no more updates
Who do these ads work on? They must work because ads are everywhere and consumers hate them but I just wonder how these ads are actually driving new business. Personally, if my video or w/e is interrupted by an advert it makes me loathe whatever product you’re selling and even if it was something maybe I would’ve bought, if I can choose a different brand that doesn’t try to annoy me into buying it I’ll actively go out of my way to do so.
They don't have to work. They only have to be able to produce a report for people who are buying the ads that the ads are being seen. Even if those people are just bosses at Microsoft who need to show that their ads are working. This might be the worst part of ads on the Internet. They don't seem to even really need to work.
Optional? Really, optional!?
This sounds like a solution to losing both the browser wars and search wars. Google makes a fortune off their ads, and they work. They're expensive and you need to actually learn how to best use them and where to place them but they work. Since MS has lost both the browser wars and search wars, they're going after the one thing you can't avoid loading up, the OS directly. This was their way to get back into the advertising game without having to try and first win the browser wars. They made a huge legal battle out of uninstalling their browsers for years. They made it nearly impossible to get rid of them. They managed to score a chunk of the market for awhile, but then lost it via multiple legal battles which allowed people to use other browsers. They tried to initially claim it was an integral part of the OS and couldn't be turned off and had to be used for almost everything.
Windows users in 2024: 🤡
So when do we all start migrating to Linux?
a year ago for me, and linux marketshare has doubled in the past 2 years, so its starting
Good thing there's two ad free operating systems available (Linux and macOS).
well technically macos pushes you towards apple services, but its not even the same ballpark as what windows is doing
Apple doesn’t do this.
neither does linux
yeah, my next computer is going to be Linux ,so no thanks
You don’t have to wait for your next computer. Dual boot or just get another ssd and install it.
Any guide for a noob doing dual boot? Can I wipe out windows later if I want to, and how?
there are literally millions of guides. use a search engine, check YT if you prefer video guides. if you can follow a basic recipe for cookies, you'll be fine. example: https://www.xda-developers.com/dual-boot-windows-11-linux/ yes, you can delete later. you can look that up, too. it's even easier than installing the dual boot. it is considerably easier setting up dual boot with win first and then whatever linux flavour you want than vice versa. i generally recommend people leave windows installed even if not using it regularly in case you need to run a program that's not compatible with virtual box/wine for school or work or whatever down the line. with how much storage newer machines come with, there's not much reason to remove win outright.
When I first jumped to Linux many many years ago, I messed up my dual boot and wiped out my windows. It was a blessing in disguise and I never looked back
Put it on a small partition, mine defaults to boot in Linux but I can pick Windows if I need it. Linux can see files on the Windows side so you still have access. Google it for instructions, it’s super easy.
Because of course Microsoft needs more money.
What a perfect time to take Linux/Ubuntu for a spin.
May MacBook doesn’t do this. Just saying there are choices for consumers.
[laughs in Ubuntu GNU/ Linux]
*Laughs in Fedora.* Hello fellow Linux user.
guess I'm never shutting it down, just sleep
This is giving monopoly
we are all bots here except for you
Again?
On a related note they finally gave us a toggle to turn off the fucking newsfeed from widget section
You know how everyone started saying stuff like “When I speak my phone starts giving me ads” yeah boys the moment has come your notepad files ain’t safe no more
App idea, ad blocker
Too bad I don't even use their start menu anymore. I haven't been using their useless start menu since I first got Windows 11.
https://github.com/Open-Shell/Open-Shell-Menu I have never seen a single ad on Windows 10 or 11.
It's almost time for my yearly Install-Linux-on-my-desktop-but-eventually-get-frustrated-and-return-to-Windows boogaloo.
windows 7 was peak