Microsoft is using malware-like pop-ups in Windows 11 to get people to ditch Google
Microsoft is using malware-like pop-ups in Windows 11 to get people to ditch Google
It's because of shit like this that I'm glad I switched to Linux.
I wish I could. My gaming rig has an nvidia gpu and linux support really sucks because of the proprietary driver situation...
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Steams new gamepad ui is a slideshow running at 5fps and I loose HDR so I have to remain on Windows for now. Every other desktop I own is UNIX tho.
linux support really sucks because of the proprietary driver situation.
Stop listening to everyone online. The driver situation "sucks" because of ideologies (which I happen to agree with), but from a functionality perspective Nvidia's Linux drivers are solid.
The same driver you install is the same driver they use in their half a million dollar DGX AI systems. And those systems don't run Windows. Only Linux.
A few others have mentioned Pop_OS! for their Nvidia driver support which is what I'm running too. I think I'm on version 535.93 or something like that. Most of the Ubuntu downstream (Ubuntu, mint, pop_os, etc,.) already include The proprietary drivers in their repos. Pop_OS is known for Nvidia support being a bit quicker than the others.
I'd suggest looking into dual booting (thats what I do, there are a few things that work better on windows). It's super easy to set up, and it's an easy low risk way to see if it works for you.
My gaming rig has an Nvidia GPU as well, and it runs mostly without any problems (I've had to manually update drivers a couple of times) on POP!_OS
I use a gaming laptop with an Nvidia GPU and linux support does not 'really suck.'
The only downside I have is one you wouldn't experience because you're not using a laptop.
I want to dual boot because I prefer Linux for everything but some niche games. Just never got around to it. This is pretty motivating.
Check https://www.protondb.com to check the status of compatibility of the game on Linux
My reason was that I had heard windows 11 was considering ads in their file explorer. Win10 already has enough prompts pushing edge and OneDrive. That, and many of my professors use Linux, and the ease with which they would install Python or C compilers was too much.
Do it. It's not as hard as it used to be thanks to systemd-boot existing. I literally reinstalled Windows the other day and nothing happened to systemd-boot. GRUB, is a bit of a mess though.
The only issues I had with dual booting is an out of sync clock (due to Windows using local time), and Windows wiped one of my Linux drives (I installed Windows second, so unplug any unused drives before installing Windows). The last issue I am still unsure what caused it, however I remember installing Windows and the next time I use Linux the drive is empty.
This is a good way if someone really Like some games not working on Linux. Also it can keep work and fun separated.
I can recommend setting up encryption when installing Linux system to make Windows programs unable to access your files.
My man! (y)
Lookin' good!
Just a reminder that if you're using Windows, it's not your property but Microsoft's one
Nothing Microsoft does is good. Nothing google does is good.
Choose an alternative that values you.
Linux and Firefox with uBlock Origin.
I'll settle for one that has a vague indifference to me.
Slackware
The problem is that Linux's user experience is simply not good enough for normal users.
It's absolutely correct to blame Microsoft and Google. But Linux also needs to do more to appeal to non-tech people.
Hi, average user here, I've been daily driving Linux (primarily Ubuntu) for a decade or more. Most of my life in a computer is spent in a web browser, word document, or maybe a spreadsheet. Even at my office job it's the same, except for some proprietary time tracking and billing software. I'd imagine 90 percent of consumers spend the vast majority of their time on computers in the web browser. Most people don't mess around with much beyond that.
I just don't understand what is lacking in the Linux user experience. It's not any different from a Windows user learning to use a Mac computer. Figure out how to connect to wifi, figure out how to mess with the volume, open a browser and that's it.
With the way the average person uses a computer, the Linux user experience would probably melt their brains. No offense to the average computer user, but we have seen time and time again that they are not the brightest when it comes to tech literacy or just don't care and refuse to care since it goes against the grain, so to speak.
That’s probably not going to happen
Meh gamepass is cool for now. It will probably go up in price and become shitty when they get enough market share but until then it is super cool. And honestly I think bing/edge is now the better choice as a search engine/browser compared to Google/chrome. But no way I will give up my Firefox.
There needs to be a legally mandated option to turn off all recommendations and tracking, and to require consent to enable it in the first place.
So pretty much just an extension of GDPR. Sounds good.
Or the courts should force MS to split off into an os company, an online services company, an office productivity software company, and a gaming company.
As usual, it's only Big Tech that's able to compete with Big Tech. They all love to throw their weight around when they can, and join forces when it's convenient.
Neither corporation should be defended or trusted with your data.
The only thing that's kinda funny here is the irony of Microsoft tryna poach Chrome users into their own... wait for it... Chromium-based browser.
Both of them also like to lease out their software and not actually let you own anything, expecting you to be happily complacent.
I've been using windows for nearly as long as it has existed and I used to always be happy with updates. Even windows vista, despite all its problem, still felt like an upgrade compared to xp.
Then windows 8 started changing things in a direction I was not happy with, but at the same time it also had improvements over win7. Windows 10 repeated that with plenty of bad things but still overshadowed by massive improvements in many areas.
At this point windows was at its peak in some areas, like stability (when was the last time you saw a BSOD without actual faulty hardware?) and usability. Multiple Desktops, WSL2, the new Terminal...so many great things added in win10 updates.
And then comes win11 and shits at everything. Removed a ton of core features that didn't need removing, broke a lot of compatibility with older stuff (something that Microsoft used to care deeply about) and adds... Nothing. It's been quite a while since win11 released and there's still nothing I can point at and say it does better than win10.
If you're going to do all sorts of stuff with my data you should at least try to make me happy with your product in exchange, not make me dread using it every time.
I'm sorry, but I just have to mention that I find funny that the features you chose to illustrate “peak” Windows are all prime Linux features. Including installing Linux itself as a sub-system. At that point might as well cut-out the middle man.
I do use Linux every day as well. It has its own set of problems, but not the subject here.
Which core functions did they remove and which did they break?
I can't say that I miss anything from Windows 10 or before that. I disliked the new settings they introduced at first but I think it has seen some improvments (or maybe I am better at navigating it?) but it has really grown on me.
Being backwards compatible can be important (I really appreciated it when I wanted to install a game for Windows 95 on Windows XP) but you have to cut support at some point in order to implement features otherwise not possible, or to just save time and money doing it. It is like trying to develop for the web and you still see people talking about support IE6 (or IE in general).
Well Windows 11 got me to use arch, for which I use btw
Hahahaha perfect
Sometimes Microsoft is such a turd... I've seen this thing posted several times, however I didn't see the fix in this thread, so I'll post it here. Sorry, I couldn't find the Lemmy post that had the information on how to remove it, but I found one on Reddit:
https://www.reddit.com/r/computerviruses/comments/149x25h/bgaupsell_what_is_this_bing_popup/jp896s0
It's basically a combination registry changes, and also directory modifications to prevent writing to the directory where BGAUpsell.exe resides.
It's pretty shitty we have to do this. Please, hold all your "switch to Linux" comments, because they are stupid, and superfluous; I see that dumb shit all the time since I came to Lemmy.
Finally, a person with an actual voice. I feel like the, "Switch to Linux," don't realize they sound like, "Just get an iPhone people." To me it all sounds like, "well if you don't like being in this country then just leave."
Linux is not the answer for all people the same as switching to an iPhone should never just be the answer.
What else would be the answer, then? Windows is a commercial product by Microsoft. They will never get better unless forced to. They will keep getting worse for profit because, well, that's what they do.
The whole point about an open-source operating system is that you can make it yours, and nobody can take that away from you. And the more people use linux, the better it gets. Commercial closed sources products can never have the same qualities.
I don't get it. If a product sucks, why wouldn't you switch away from it?
"Don't suggest I leave my abusive husband, instead I'll complain about him to my friends until he magically gets better."
Christ, you guys sound like you have Stockholm syndrome.
Penguin sighing noises.
Please, hold all your "switch to Linux" comments
Linux is not as great a replacement as every one makes out to be. The community is hella toxic. Frequently leads to them shooting them selves in the foot. Right now they're trying to pick a fight with Nvidia because they dared to call Linux's sacred GPL syscalls
The Linux community is full of elitist assholes who think they're special because they have the ability to install an OS. However, there are also amazing people making amazing tools, completely free of charge. You can't paint everyone with the same brush.
Honestly, I wish our governments would pump money and resources into open source operating systems so that we're not all bound to one OS under the complete control of one company.
My understanding of the Nvidia situation is that they are not respecting the kernel's GPL license, which isn't right. Nvidia has always done awful, selfish things, which makes sense as they are a market dominant company. It doesn't mean the Linux developers have to allow them to break the license agreement. Intel and AMD seem to be doing just fine, it's always Nvidia...
Yeah well said.
I see it here on Lemmy all the time, and you can just see it in this whole comment thread too.
I've been a software engineer for decades. I know my way around Windows, OSX, and Linux systems. I'm not a casual computer user. I AM a gamer though, and jumping through hoops to play games on Linux is not worth my time. Unless there is a native Linux distribution of the game, you're jumping through hoops trying to get it to run through Proton, or whatever other means. Driver support is another thing... Yeah it's gotten better, but sometimes it just like forcing a square peg through a circle hole.
No thanks, I'm very happy with my native gaming experience.
And sure, for dev systems, or servers, Linux is great. All of my professional work is interacting with Linux based systems, containers, etc. I also work on a MacBook Pro, so I understand the tooling for Unix systems is great for that work.
My personal life though, I'm not fighting Linux just to game.
BTW Starfield is great... Check it out lol. I just did a quick search for "Starfield on Linux". First results are something like "Runs on Proton after some tweaks". I'm good.
Linux people like security, it's a security concern to give Nvidia's proprietary drivers such low level access
If their calls violate GPL then I don't even know why you're being sarcastic. Not acceptable. Copyleft licenses HAVE to be respected legally. Silly to pretend like the license shouldn't have to apply to Nvidia. If a user wants to install proprietary Nvidia drivers, they still can. But Linux isn't picking a fight, GPL is what makes Linux Linux.
I did this with the registry edits on my personal computer. However. This does nothing at all to help with those of us still seeing this stuff on work computers or places where we are not the administrator.
Know how to tell which Lemmy users are running Linux? Don't worry, they'll tell you.
Sometimes I doubt my OS choice ... but then suddenly microsoft reminds me why I chose it ;)
I installed Pop OS on my laptop since it's pretty gaming friendly. Between that and the Steam Deck, Windows 10 might be my last version of Windows for personal use.
It's in Windows 10 now too
Peachy. Thanks for the heads up. I haven't noticed anything intrusive yet.
Coworkers have been complaining on Teams all day about how the Bing bar is suddenly showing up on their desktops. When did Microsoft stop giving a fuck about businesses? I wish to fucking god we could run Linux on our work machines.
I am so glad it wasn't just me! Like the article said, I legit thought I had some sort of malware on my machine. Which I guess is true, they just call it windows. I really only use my machine for gaming and every time I've tried to switch to linux I had all sorts of compability issues.
Open question to all. Is SteamOS all that it's cracked up to be? I'm still gonna have game by game issues right?
The only machine you wanna be using SteamOS on is the Steam Deck. Use a standard Linux distribution like Ubuntu if you're gonna do it on any other machine. The reason being that the version of SteamOS for generic PCs is horribly outdated, and the one on the Deck is very much built exclusively for the Deck's hardware.
Gaming mostly works out of the box with almost all games on Steam on Linux (SteamOS is not special in this regard) but there is an important caveat; be careful of games that use anticheat software - some work but others do not or may trigger bans. Check ProtonDB for your specific games to see if there are issues.
SteamOS is mainly for the Steam Deck not regular PC or laptop. For a gaming distro I would recommend one of PopOS, Manjaro or Garuda.
I suggest grabbing the live image for each of them, booting it, and seeing how it feels without committing to anything. I usually test to see if everything works out of the box on the live mode — music, video, network shares, wifi, any peripherals you might have like headphones, fancy mouse or keyboard etc.
I use a steam deck for about 2/3 of my gaming and I rarely have issues with games. That said, I mostly play indie games, but there is so much of my library that is supported that I'm never going to run out of things to play. Proton has really done wonders for gaming on Linux. Are you wanting to play multiplayer games or brand new releases? Or are you more of the patient gamer type?
I wouldn't run steamos on a full desktop, but you can still get a lot of the benefits just by using steam on Linux. Definitely recommend trying it out.
That's why they try to sell Windows 10 Enterprise instead of professional. You can block most of that in Enterprise.
I got that popup the other day. I'm this close to switching to Linux
Microsoft IS the malware
The malware's coming from inside the operating system 👀
This is the epitome of what the Linux community loves to read on the internet. Got any distros in mind?
Kubuntu should be solid. Not to hard to install and yeah.
I did 2 months ago. The OS is truly awsome but many many software are just inferior to the windows version. For example there is no proper pdf reader that can sign a pdf and add or remove a page. You have to do it in two separate software or with a CLI application. I'm a daily anydesk user, I have license as well, their console is broken on ubuntu (or just gnome, not sure). I had to weed out certain things from gnome from a javascript file so I can use my PC while anydesk running. So depending on what you want to do it can be a very good experience or a borderline hell trying to replace your basic software with something worse. I will not give up at this point and I stand by it it is not linux's fault, however you are not just using an OS but many software on that said OS and many of those software will suck. Fortunately things like Photoshop no longer an issue as you have Photopea in the web browser. Web3 is really helping linux out.
For example there is no proper pdf reader that can sign a pdf and add or remove a page.
Xournal++ should be a proper PDF reader that can sign a PDF and add and remove pages. Haven't tried doing the latter personally though. It looks a bit old and might be hard to find, but it's always worked suspiciously fine for me and is still in active development.
The "Adobe Acrobat" brand apparently also has a web app for signing PDFs. This is like, the first web search result for "PDF signing".
I've also tried Inkscape import as vector and then reexport, which works fine for visually signing single pages. Just make sure you render the text to paths on import, instead of converting them to SVG text— And don't actually do this, because it's kinda dumb, so just use Xournal++ or the Adobe website instead, but there are options.
Granted, depending on how your experience with Xournal goes, these options are indeed not as convenient or easy as they should be.
Web3 is really helping linux out.
No! This term refers to, like, three three different things already, all of which have largely been either practical failures or grifts. Prescriptivism is usually just pedantry, but HTML5 web apps aren't even on that inauspicious list.
You can sign and remove pages using LibreOffice Draw
For example there is no proper pdf reader that can sign a pdf and add or remove a page.
Unfortunately, pdf signing is problematic still on Linux, I use it as a daily driver and found a compromise with existing functionality. You can try okular, which is able to sign PDFs without altering them, but has a huge signature block and doesn't permit adding a scan of a signature. My workaround: I created a stamp in the PDF reviewing tools with my signature, I can place that on the document and then sign it afterwards. Unfortunately, that doesn't work for pre-signed PDFs as it will alter the signed version.
Alternatively, LibreOffice Draw can sign PDFs, but also can't insert signature scans (yet, there's an open feature request) and is sometimes not understanding when PDFs change to landscape, in general it's not nice to render a many-pages document in LO Draw and hope that it won't mess up the document upon signing.
For adding / removing pages, I agree - it's a pity there's no GUI application, but I have gotten used to qpdf / pdftk and they are quite powerful and more efficient 90% of the time. Still doesn't excuse no GUI application, but it keeps me able to work.
I use Journal++ to sign pdfs. Works with hand written as well as scanned signatures.
I use AnyDesk regularly myself and haven't run into an issue aside from the dark theming of my desktop making some text a bit hard to read.
What's the issue you're having?
Lots of linux communities on lemmy.
Or there's ReactOS: https://reactos.org/gallery/
I remember feeling like this, then I made the switch and I haven't thought about it again
Pretty impressed at just how many notifications, popups and systems MS creates to continually try and funnel you into bing. At some point it moves past being annoying and now I'm just surprised at their tenacity / endurance
Last weekend I talked my wife into trying Linux on her desktop on an extra SSD I had, she loves it. Loves that she can customize everything, says it's faster (especially boot time), we put it on her laptop last night
What distro did you go with? My friend is showing intrest in trying Linux but I'm not sure what to recommend him. I use more advanced distros myself but I want it to work well for him OOtB while also not requiring any tinkering. I'm think of either some ubuntu-flavour or fork, like Kubuntu or maybe Mint.
Mint is for sure a good place to start. I personally run EndeavourOS with Cinnamon desktop and it's been more trouble-free than anything Ubuntu based I've used (shocking, I know).
Mint and PopOS! are the ones I've heard thrown about for "Users First Distro" ever since Canonical decided to do... whatever the fuck it is they're doing to Ubuntu proper.
I'm using Mint now, and have exactly one complaint: I don't like the default Cinnamon Firefox icon so I changed it, but every time there's an update to Firefox it changes back. All things considered, that's nothing to worry about.
Can't go wrong with mint, I've been using it for years.
You're not going to make me feel bad for Google
Nobody is feeling bad for Google ... if I was using duckduckgo, or anything else, I still wouldn't want to see those popups. Then again, that's one of the many reason why I stubbornly stick to linux ;)
This is literally your OS's creator adding a backdoor, it could be anything bit they dont seem to care to do anything other than adware.
That's why win 10 was free, and still is. So is 11. You can still install and activate win 11 pro for free with a 7 pro key, today.
Its a freaking vector for selling you other crap.
You don't even have to activate it at all. It's fully functional forever unactivated. Just a watermark.
A malware company using malware practices. Nothing to see here, gents.
Joke's on them, I switched. To Firefox
Maybe it's because I disable things and go through the settings with a fine tooth comb after a fresh install but I never see this stuff. Not discounting others' experiences either. Can't imagine being inundated with this stuff like some are claiming they are.
Same. With Windows 10, everyone was like there are ads and shit in the Start menu and browser nagging and all that jazz - never ever seen any of them. After fresh install, I do my settings, let it sit for a while to do the Windows Update, delete (uninstall) all the unneccessary tiles from Start and that's it, literally.
I mean, yes, you can do that, but then that brings us to the question: why does the user have to do that, spend a lot of time changing settings to make an OS bearable? Imho, any OS should ship with sensible defaults that have the user in mind.
If there's little to no need to go through the settings, you probably will miss a lot of them and never know.
Also, I think after a fresh install going through some settings to check out what you have, what you don't have and what you can have is not something only power users should do, but that's a power user's opinion 😅
I just got an ad in my PAID for MS Office subscription Outlook. If they start showing me ads, I'll be cancelling and using the free shit.
It's the only place I have seems ads so far..
I didn't feel like it was that much when I used windows either. But then I started dual booting linux, and I realized just how much I had been ignoring. I had just gotten used to closing every notification without reading it. It's kind of cursed knowledge thing. It only takes like <10s a day, but once I noticed it it really bothered me.
Microsoft is using malware-like pop-ups in Windows 11 to get people to ditch Google for malicious google copycat Bing+Edge
I'm never installing windows 11.
I'm switching to full time Linux after Windows 10 becomes 100% obsolete.
I'm praying that the steam deck helps Linux support for games enough to fully uninstall windows
Been using Ubuntu Jammy for about 6months now. Have had 0 issues with any games on Steam.
Takes some slight tweaking for other games, such as RA2 Yuri's Revenge, but it works.
If you have the patience for the occassional Google search you can switch any time.
How far behind do you think Linux gaming is?
Check protondb, I'd be surprised if you couldn't play 9 out of your 10 most played games.
Fuckin A. Same.
I remember an old anecdote from sometime around 2005, that Microsoft did a survey to see what features people wanted added to the Office suite, of the top 10 requested features, 8 were already in the products and the users didn't know about them.
The whole suite was bloated with stuff most people didn't need, or at least very rarely needed, but no one wanted to take time to take a class on Excel, or read patch notes, or whatever.
Microsoft is using malware-like Windows 11
Removed fluff
How are you guys seeing this? I constantly hear these complaints but never see it myself.
Depends on the laws of the country with the language you picked during setup.
e.g. use UK english or German for setup and change after.
At least until they switch to detect via IP range or whatever.
Oh maybe that's it. I've also never seen any kind of popup or ad (same thing for my Samsung TVs) that I've seen people mentioning.
I had no idea why I might be spared.
I'm in the US, using English as my language. Idk, this is weird.
I'm in the US and the only time I see mention of edge is when installing windows and then again when changing my default browser, which is kinda silly but not something I bother wasting mental energy to care about when it's something that shows up once and then never again. I would love to see legislation in the US match what some of the European countries have but considering how things could be, it's of least concern to me. I paid for Windows once in my life via an OEM license I ordered from a German retailer and I've had about 16 or so computers since then and all of those have either been custom built machines, used computers, or parted together boxes so if they want to bug me about installing their browser which effectively will recoup revenue based on data from me which varies from useless to misleading and probably becomes a net negative and moves them further from their goal. Then sure, I don't mind clicking that "no thank you" button
Yeah, same.
The yes and no button do the same thing.
I assume it's just a test they're running on specific groups of people just to see how effective it is in getting people to switch. I've never had any of these types of things happen to me either, so, yeah.
Makes sense. I guess I've been a very lucky boy.
I'm not sure how this is different from Google pushing popups in every Google app to switch to Chrome.
I don't recall seeing a popup like this from Google, but even still a popup in the os should be for important messages not for advertising
They do, and it's also mentioned in the article. While I agree, for many people the browser is effectively their os, and so we shouldn't discount the weight of browser notifications simply because they're not originating from the host os.
What's your point, exactly? Let's say we accept your premise that this is an unfair double-standard that Microsoft shouldn't have to respect... have you considered the logical conclusion that this creates? That the public should just... blithely accept Google-style nag prompts baked into literally any piece of software or hardware, even when they hold a paid license? I don't think a reasonable person would intentionally advocate for such a thing, so please help me understand what you really meant.
While both companies are predatory I would never use Edge because its so bad and bloated its not even funny.
Edge is just Chromium now.
Always has been.
And I feel like that happened really quickly. It doesn’t feel like that long ago that Edge was a nice, nimble browser. Not this bloated naggy beast it is now.
I find Edge better than Chrome at the very least. Granted, I don't use either as my main options, but between the two Edge seems more responsive and lighter than Chrome (and before anyone misunderstands, I know they both use the same engine, I'm referring to ... well, prior to Google, I would have referred to it as the chrome, but can't really do that now... the application around the engine).
I found edge mysteriously on my phone yesterday I'm not sure if the culprit was the bing app or the Microsoft launcher (not my main launcher I was just curious).
One thing I do know is I didn't install edge myself I use mull.
In what wild wild west can one app install another on your phone?
One where F-droid exists?
That was my thought also I am on Android 13 and even double checked the permissions on the two Microsoft apps I had installed. I'll be watching to see if this happens again or to anyone else as I immediately removed edge once noticing it.
Shouldn't be possible I would never voluntarily download it, yet it got on my device somehow.
I bet the Bing app is full of trackers.
OK, that really makes me suspicious that they're installing Bing via MS Authenticator app as well.. Bing app showed up on my phone and I just noticed it yesterday. Hmmmm.
They also rolled out some change where long pressing on text in android would suggest bing search. I found out that happens if you just have their outlook app installed. Never uninstalled something so fast.
You don't need to add "-like", The Verge. This fits the definition of malware.
The fucking bing bar pop-up!!
Exactly, on the one hand this might pull some users away from Google, which deserves to be knocked on their ass for once. But if this is how it's going to be done, you might just be trading one abusive partner for the next.
I say we let Microsoft pound on Google for a while and then we regluate the both of them into the ground!
I mean... There's no reason to delay the regulation. We'll also need forever to get it done - the bastards will lobby to hell and back, watering the regulation down to nothing... Again.
Don't root for any corporation. Root for user choice and user freedom. Root for actions, decisions, and policies they make that benefit the user.
Reward those positive actions with your wallet or usage.
Punish negative ones by switching your services (when possible).
Don't root for Microsoft, Google, Apple, Samsung, IBM, etc. They are heartless corporations that would take your money and leave you in a ditch to die if they could. Think Terminator, but for taking money instead of killing.
They should ditch the pop-ups and instead go ahead and make Edge/Bing the default without permission. There's nothing users can do but complain and accept it.
They are already half way there. File defaults often reset without an obvious reason. It's been happening since 10.
Not sure if you're being sarcastic, but that's how they got in trouble with Internet Explorer in the EU.
I mean on one hand, terrible behavior. On the other, good.
I mean, if it's just a switch to Bing it's not really any better.
Good thing I don't use Windows.
My personal laptop updated itself from 10 to 11, and 11 is infuriating. Never mind the pop ups and ads, the whole thinf just sucks. This was just the extra bit of incentive that I needed to switch back to Linux Mint. Thanks, MS!
Install Linux, problem solved
And instead I simply dropped Windows.
Is that legal?
Probably not but they won't get punished. But if they do, the fine will be smaller than profits.
Pretty sure I remember it seeing something about you (the user) giving them (Microsoft, the actual owners of your computer) the right to do this written somewhere in that EULA that almost nobody reads and you can't even install Windows unless you agree. I'm not sure if it's legal, though. Some things in EULAs aren't legal, but the companies know that we won't challenge them on it.
Was just gonna say till I read that, EULA's become null and void if they conflict with Law
Something something pot called the kettle black
Perhaps I just did something stupid, but I just found Bing and anothernMS app in my Android phone's app list... never explicitly installed those. I do have Authenticator, though (for work). Has MS stooped to piggybacking their crap from others silently now?
Apps cannot install other apps without your permission.
You probably just have a shit phone with loads of shovelware on it.
LineageOS? plus Magisk (yes I have rooted it, so perhaps that allowed an opening somwhere). I will have to watch to see if anything re-appears I suppose.
Since i installed outlook a "search with bing" option appeared in my long-press menu. So yes, it is possible.
yes, I just got a new (referb) laptop for the kids - fuck MS was anoying trying to install chrome on it (yes I know, but all their bookmarks/setting/etc in there...)
Use Firefox. The only major Browser that is not developed by some greedy Big Tech corporation.
lol I use Linux
Man i need to take the plunge but i don't want to screw with my games. Does Linux still hate dual boot? I fucked myself trying with mint a few years ago and spooked myself
Linux loves dual boot, windows is the problem and always has been. But as long as you install windows first and Linux second, there's no problem whatsoever, the installer detects your installation and automatically adds multiboot. Installing windows after Linux means that you will have to restore the bootloader.
Are you confident opening up the computer and replacing the storage device (probably SSD)? Dual boot can't screw up much of anything when you only put one OS drive in at a time.
lol
Lol I tried that, doesn't support like 95% of the apps I use. Or od switch.
Would be nice if they would at least support printing.
Very weird. Switched to Linux and haven't found anything I'm not able to run yet. Maybe takes a little more effort or there are some quirks, but running well most of the time.
If you want to use Linux like windows you most likely won't succeed. You have to be willing to make some changes to alternative programs, but as long as you persevere you will be unplugged from the Matrix and start enjoying the freedom of choices.
Who prints?
Let them fight.
But I already ditched it
Old news, try to get something new to talk about!
And it's pissing users like me off. I have one laptop for work and one for home. My work laptop has a professional work profile and for some of the programs I'm required to use I need Microsoft apps like edge and office. As a result I get these popups non stop when opening edge. I also am not an administrator on the work laptop so I literally cannot just decide to upgrade from windows 10 to Windows 11. If the damn thing would stop blocking my work flow with full page ads, that would be awesome.
After 30 years on MacOS (yes, I am older than dirt), I switched to Windows 11. I love it. With a few software add-ins, notably Better Desktop Tool and Start11, as well as a deep-dive into Settings/Notifications, etc., it's useable, comfortable, fairly Mac-like, and not too annoying. I guess I'm lucky as I don't have any UI/UX baggage from past Windows OSs to drag behind me. Yeah, it's different than MacOS, but I can get stuff done.
I find it ironical when a huge company diverts efforts into aggressive marketing instead of improving the product itself, it feels like a loss-loss
I've never seen this pop-up before. Do I already have Bing as default?
Let me check with my psychic powers
I am the only one that use Linux and bing as a default search? (On firefox) I personally think bing have better results than google right now
Check out some alternatives:
searXNG - open source & self-hosted meta-search engine (aggregates results from many others, like google, bing, qwant, duckduckgo - configurable which ones.) list of public instances just pick one that's close to you physically and has a good uptime.
duckduckgo - uses bing for most search results, but is way more private
brave search - uses their own index, has a privacy-respecting privacy policy and the results are pretty damn good
I already know Searxng but never tried extensively, I might give a serious try
I've used duckduckgo but I remember was really slow loading results 🤔
For brave search, I've never took it seriously, I should try also this if you say results are good. But how they found themselves?
If you're using Bing anyways, consider switching to Ecosia, it's a non-profit search engine, they pull their search results from Bing and plant trees across the globe with their profits.
It might not be for extremely privacy conscious people because they do send some of your data (obfuscated IP addresses, user agent string etc.) to Microsoft because they use Bing but it's still orders of magnitude better than using Bing directly.
If you want privacy, I would recommend duckduckgo.
I've tried time ago but it seems to take the results and nothing else (I mean, no summary on top of the results, no table with restaurant number/time of opening ecc..) -> I don't know how to call this
I don't like bing, duckduckgo is much better and privacy-friendly
I also agree bing is nowadays often superior to Google, they're also better than DDG imo.
While it's a good thing that Google gets serious competition, I don't know if Microsoft is the best company for that role. In both cases the incentives are not necessarily aligned with the customer.
This headline should be “Microsoft forces people to ditch Edge by using malware-like pop-ups in Windows 11 to get people to ditch Google.”
this is an extremely funny admission that--much like meta blowing $14b on the metaverse even though it sucked--microsoft spent $10b on bing AI and it didn't move the needle at all
Disable it? I don't see it in W10 and i have disabled show me Windows news features.
Frankly, I have no fucking sympathy for Windows users. They keep putting up with this shit, quit crying about it and take control of your OS.
It "just works" (hah using that quote for windows) though. I probably have the tech knowledge to do everything I want on Linux, but I don't want to have to struggle through it or take the performance hit on non native games
Your impression of Linux might be off by a decade or two.
Using a mainstream distro like Ubuntu, along with Steam makes it fairly seemless - no struggling required.
95% of my Steam library I can install and run without a second thought and the performance isn't noticeably different to Windows. Some non-Steam titles I use Lutris for, but that's only one or two extra steps.
But sadly there are people who have to use it, ex. Adobe softwares, enterprise usage etc... And yes you could dualboot, but the average why would even bother with it.
Anyone who uses windows these days gets what's coming to them.
So sick of people saying stuff like this. Linux blah blah blah. Linux is not suitable for the vast majority of business and home users due to software incompatibility. People don't want to mess around with wine or whatever else just to use photoshop or word.
brave browser
Weird way to spell Firefox
Microsoft really needs an antitrust smackdown with their repeated behavior.
So does Google though if we're being honest.
Microsoft saying “stop using Google” is actually totally fine with me.
But only if they’re saying “go get Firefox.”
Shouldn't Apple be the focus of efforts?
That didn't work in the 90s.
Or in:
Source: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_litigation
In retrospect, DoJ didn't go far enough back then and ignored Microsoft's anti-competitive behavior with BeOS.
Yes they do!
If you need more ammunition they recently also changed it so all links in Outlook opens in Edge even if it's not the default browser. You have to go to settings and find an entirely separate default browser setting to stop it.
I switched to Thunderbird because of that bullshit. It's getting worse. I'll be looking for a good Linux distro for my next laptop.
I didn't think that sort of thing happened anymore