Comment by blackcatsec 4 days ago
Again, let's clarify here.
Microsoft implemented, in its Beta Windows Insider Channel in 2024, ads in the "Recommended" section of the Start Menu. The very section I just described pretty plainly how to turn off.
I mean I don't understand why everyone is so puffed up about this. You read some internet headline and start screeching about it on social media as if it doesn't take 2 seconds to literally turn off.
I think it's critically important that when arguing on the internet you bring data driven information and not emotions. Although I know for many people, particularly in tech, operating system choice is an extremely subjective, emotional-driven, and personal, almost religious decision-making process.
But I like data. And that's what I'm going to stick with. Your experience is not my experience.
That said, I distinctly remember back in the Windows 98 days (inarguably one of the most highly regarded versions of Windows ever released which had extreme staying power throughout the Windows XP era); they used to automatically include the Channel Bar to the right on the "Active Desktop". This bar included links to Disney, AOL, MSN, MSNBC, among other items. No doubt Disney paid good money to be default installed and opened on every Windows PC of the time.
So it's not like including some level of advertising hasn't been a precedent for 30 or so years.
As a reply to this, because it's important. Searching does indeed bring up ads, however, they're to the right and only if you do not have whatever it is you're searching for installed.
I know this is splitting hairs, but I like data and not emotional driven decisions. When I tap "Start" and search for "World of Warcraft", which is installed on my PC, the very first item is the shortcut to WoW on my PC.
In terms of Start Menu Zones (as I'm calling them), on the Left is the "best Match", which links to WoW on my PC. The next zone beneath that is "Apps", which are the multiple permutations of WoW on my PC, and beneath that is "Search the Web", which offers a few search terms related to WoW. Beneath that is a "Store" link to WoW, which links to the Microsoft Store. The right zone of the Start Menu offers a menu of what I want to do with the app: Open, Run as Administrator, Open File Location, Pin to Start, Pin to Taskbar, or Uninstall.
This is the same behavior on all programs I have installed on the PC: I can type "Steam", same behavior. Discord, same behavior, Signal, same behavior, Battle.Net, same behavior, etc.
Now, for items that are not installed on my PC, for example, Half Life. Since I don't have it on my PC, it immediately wants to only search the web. On the right zone, which on installed apps shows a menu of options, this now shows a mini Bing search window which basically has sponsored content at the top with ebay links to Half Life editions (also holy crap those are expensive).
So for applications not installed on my PC? Yeah, it's showing me some search bing ads. For every application installed on my PC? It's not showing any ads.
From what I'm reading, it seems many people have a workflow that leverages the start menu pretty heavily. My workflow since the early days of XP has never included the start menu. In Windows XP, I used the Quick Launch Bar and always had a 2nd row of icons above my taskbar for which I used to open apps. When Microsoft changed this, I simply pin everything to the taskbar instead and use that. The only time I use the start menu to search and load something is usually if I want to CTRL+SHIFT+ENTER to run whatever that is as Administrator. And that workflow has never once "tricked" me into loading any ads, websites, bing searches, or anything. It has always, for over a decade including on Windows 11 25H2 done exactly what I was expecting every single time.
So perhaps our workflows differ for which this is an annoyance for you, but I cannot replicate your specific problem that you mentioned.
It might be different if they didn't push updates every other month that changed settings like default browser back to their products.
You're right that there are simple fixes but the point is that Microsoft is no longer on your side. You're now stuck defensivly scrambling for value in a product where you are no longer the customer.
The Ass-Fucker 3000 fucks you in the arse when you use your car ignition.
But don't get bent out of shape - you can disable it in settings. Takes 10 seconds. Assuming you know it exists and the option doesn't disappear in a future update.
And if it re-enables itself after the next patch? Well, at least the option to disable it still exists! Probably.
Why would you buy a different car? It's so easy to turn off. What, you want to use a BMW? Be a BMW-user? A sheep? All your tools already integrate with our car anyway. There's no real choice, is there - unless you want to be a try-hard. And maybe it doesn't even work properly. You don't want that hassle, do you? Just accept the Ass-Fucker 3000. Next week they'll add the Wife-Beater 2000, but don't worry -that'll have a toggle too.
Cope harder. I wish I had apologists like you for my software.
AGAIN this is NOT what I was referring to... I'm referring to when you start typing in the name of a program you have installed, and you get a short list of matches, with maybe additional results... not a PRODUCT ADVERTISEMENT (not software) from the internet at the top, which is what I got.
It's not a feature that should EVER exist at an OS level... I didn't even mind the adjacent product ads or the Recommended section you mention that much... but it's emphatically not what I'm fucking talking about.
The fact that this was even something that was implemented and tested means that I'm not someone who will buy or choose Microsoft Windows at all from here forward. I have over 3 decades of development experience on/for/with software that runs on Windows.
An even then... It doesn't matter if I can shut it off, it shouldn't have existed in the first place.