9mo ago

Microsoft stoops to new low with ads in Windows 11, as PC Manager tool suggests your system needs ‘repairing’ if you don’t use Bing

www.techradar.com Microsoft stoops to new low with ads in Windows 11, as PC Manager tool suggests your system needs ‘repairing’ if you don’t use Bing

PC Manager app is only available in some regions, but could come to the US eventually

196 comments

Reclaim your PC. Make it yours once more. Join the penguins.
- I dualboot to accommodate a handful of apps. Linux loads up fast and awaits my command once logged in. Meanwhile my pretty much fresh windows build sets my cooling fans on full before I’ve even touch the mouse.
  I admit it was a bit of a learning curve getting things set up as I like, but man Linux is such a better experience.
  
  You might like a VM for Windows instead, so there's no risk of a windows update taking a hammer to your bootloader
  
  There’s something refreshing and simple about the computer doing what you tell it to do and nothing extra.
  When you don’t want or need your hand held, there is a simple beauty.
  
  Do you have your fans controlled by the bios or a fan controller?
- I finally did this last week, nuked out my Win 11 laptop install and switched to Ubuntu. I have yet to find anything I would need to go back to Windows for.
  
  I was not so brave. I installed in dual boot, but I just never booted back into windows.
- Or the pirates
  
  Or stay on Windows 10, if the pattern holds true Windows 12 might be decent again.

Idk what I can say about this except "lol"
- My reaction too. Next thing they'll have a hand reach out from the monitor and slap you in the face every time you log on. And people will still put up with it.
  
  A lot of people don’t have a choice

Microsoft needs to be broken up.
Any company that can be so blatantly anti consumer and still makes boatloads of money is obviously abusing its dominant position on the market.
- Didn't happen with Apple, or IBM, or Google, or Facebook, or....
  
  Wasn't IBM broken up into different hardware and software companies? Or an I thinking of someone else
  
  Not yet…

This time the software giant is trying out having PC Manager suggest that you 'repair' your system by reverting to Microsoft's default search engine, Bing.
These are sound like things that are just begging European union to milk out some cash from Microsoft through fines.
- They probably already set it up to not happen in Europe
  
  Or set aside the cash as a neccessary expenditure to greater income.

Turned on my computer yesterday and this popped up. No option to decline. I had to go into the registry last week get all traces of OneDrive out. It's worse than just ads; it's also forcing its other products. Like: Bitch, I'm just here for your OS. Fuck off with all your neediness.
"Let's finish setting up your PC Your PC needs to be backed up and connected to a few more Microsoft services to help you work more easily and securely acrossall your devices.
Back up your files with OneDrive cloud storage Have peace of mind knowing they're backed up and available acrossyour devices
Enhance your web browsing experience Restore Microsoft recommended browser settings.
Achieve more with a Microsoft 365 subscription Get premium Microsoft 365 apps, 1 TB of cloud storage to back up files and photos, and more
Back up your phone to your PC Access your phone's photos, texts, and more, right on your PC.
Sign in quickly with Windows Hello Securely unlock your device with a touch or a smile.
Remind me in 3 days or Continue"
- I switched Linux distributions last night and it took maybe 15-30 minutes (including download time) and I've had no issues (once again). I'm so glad I don't have to deal with that crap anymore.
  
  I dont think the install time is what is putting people off switching OS, lol.
- You're the b*** using their OS
  
  Is Linux supposed to be the 1 for 1 swap over?
  
  Ha. You're not wrong.

When I made this, I did not expect I'd use it much. Then...Windows 11.

Windows: System needs repairing Me: proceeds to install linux mint
- https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2021/01/how-to-install-edge-on-ubuntu-linux

They about to find out the only reason people don't use Linux is because Windows is 'convenient.'

Here's a tool to permanently fix your windows installation from all this BS.
ᶠᵘˡˡ ᵈᶦˢᶜˡᵒˢᵘʳᵉ ⁻ ᶦᵗ‘ˢ ᵃⁿ ᶦⁿˢᵗᵃˡˡᵃᵗᶦᵒⁿ ᵍᵘᶦᵈᵉ ᵗᵒ ᴸᶦⁿᵘˣ ᴹᶦⁿᵗ
- I think today might be the day. I'm tired of every piece of tech's infuriatingly enshittification of things. I wanted to google something normal only for the AI to spout nonhelpful, sponsored links. I'm sick of it ALL!!! I wanna burn silicon valley down and start fresh at this point
  
  Do it, fucking go crazy, let all your weird fucked up dark fantasies out, as both a very chaotic person but also a very thoughtful and caring person, fucking now is the time to do it.
  Linux has gotten really good, drivers are good. You can do it and your headaches will be so much less in the end.
  Come over to the bright side.
  Let your dark fantasies about doing lots of dirty things through the command line or whatever come true. Install a bunch of open source software and don’t even tell your husband.
  It is 2024 do whatever the fuck you want, corporations have completely folded their hands and completely quit even playing the game of providing you (not rich person) with functional visions of products or even functional products. Why? I don’t even know honestly, I mean I am definitely a nerd about open source software and a raging socialist but it is truly astonishing how quick enshittification is in this late stage of 2024, it is the continual experience of standing im front of a massive glacier and watching square kilometer chunks calving and collapsing for no apparent logical reason.
  
  searxng is awesome. Meta search of as many or as few engines as you want with no bullshit.

Pathetic.

I just switched all my systems over to mint. I used to think Linux was the "just at work" environment. But now I'm flipping it. I'm sick of Windows, I know it's less hassle but my digital well-being needs a break from ads.
- It is truly the year of the Linux desktop.

Hey, my weekly reminder to tell you that I, a Windows 11 user on five computers without any special tweaks, have never seen a single one of those ads people keep talking about on Lemmy.
- The subtitle of the article says it's not available in the US -
  PC Manager app is only available in some regions, but could come to the US eventually
- So you're saying you, a windows 11 user on five computers running Microsoft's default preferred configuration don't receive any nagware notifications for deviating from Microsoft's preferred configuration? Fascinating
  
  People have been talking about start menu ads for over a year, never seen one
  I don't use Edge, never seen a pop-up asking me to switch
- Big corps love A/B testing, slow rollouts and geo-restricted features. You might be in a different group than people that get all these ads.
  
  On five computers, for something I've been reading about for over a year?
- Lemmy demographic feels like mostly Linux users.
  Lemmy posters are on vegan level of promoting Linux, and sith level of hate on Windows.
  
  Join the dark side! We have penguins!
  
  Microsoft always treated linux and foss with such disdain while under Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer. Their current CEO is an outlier, openly embracing and extending foss and linux. After years of abuses from Gates and Ballmer, many people in the linux community won't be so quick to trust them.
  
  For me, as a vegan Linux user, who really doesn't like the concept of the Jedi sect, this sounds like a compliment.
- Same? I'm really confused which ads they're taking about
  
  I just installed Win11 on a work computer last week, and there were at least 3 screens of the installer trying to push o365 or one drive.
  Then you have the start menu where if you look for a software, 90% of the menu is an ad trying to push you a software. At the bottom, you have your search results.
  And then there is the pop ups on the bottom right of the screen trying to sell you Candy Crush or another bullshit software.
  That's awful and I'm glad it wasn't my computer
- You must be in the B group or something, do you use a Microsoft account to login with or a local user?
  
  Some with and some without Microsoft account
  
  I see the same behavior, both as a local user and as a user connected to a cloud account.
- Same here. No idea how it works and where those ads are...
- right? the clickbait is just absurd. and i say this as someone who lived through the whole slashdot "m$" phase where you couldn't blink without seeing an anti microsoft piece on there
- I love how the lemmy FoSS Linux hivemind still down votes you to almost oblivion.
  They still haven't figured out this isn't reddit. Shouldn't downvote just because you don't agree with something my dudes...
  
  It's just a "I disagree" button for most ppl. Also windows do be that bad, you've used it so long you don't notice or know any better.
  
  If only there was a convenient way to indicate they don't agree with someone's comment/point...maybe the technology doesn't exist
  
  Just turn off "show scores" in your profile and you'll be happier. It's a meaningless number anyway.
  
  They still haven’t figured out this isn’t reddit. Shouldn’t downvote just because you don’t agree with something my dudes…
  Well, that's not a feature of reddit after all. People are the same, no matter where they are.
  
  this isn’t reddit.
  Correct, hence downvoting here is meaningless.

My grandma call me saying she's sick of Widows and its shenanigans and asked me to install gentoo on her machine next time I come around. Gonna be a fun weekend.
- Grandma choosing USE flags already, get that bloat outta here

I just rolled back my Win 11 to Win 10 only to use temporarily while I test some other distros to see which one(s) I like.
Shout out to Ventoy, my new favorite usb utility.
- better than flashing usb flash drives to install operating systems.
  
  Truly a "where have you been all my life" moment. It even works with recovery ISOs!
  I'll never flash another usb again if I can help it.
  I have a 128gb usb c flash drive that I just dropped a ton of distros onto and went to town. So far, EndeaverOS has been my favorite.
- Even 10 has annoying popups all the time. And they added AI to the bottom right hand corner where I've accidentally clicked on it twice now.

"[...] switching the default search engine back to Bing [...] from Google Search (or whatever other browser is set as default)."
Google is a Browser now, neat. And somehow it's relevant in a post about search engines.
"Microsoft Edge, the default browser pre-installed on Windows machines, and Bing Search aren't bad products by any means - they are solid alternatives to Google's own Chrome and Search."
They may be good compared to Chrome and now also Google. But even rotten eggs are better than literal shit, at least for most people.

I fully switched to Fedora for a week now and it felt like a fresh air

And that's why I switched to Linux.
- Switching to Linux won’t save you if Microsoft Edge takes such a huge market share that a lot of the internet starts to basically require it.
  
  What would that be? Microsoft Edge is a Chromium browser, it can't do more with webpages than Chrome or any other of the bunch can.
  Oh and Edge is available for Linux, so there's that. Not that I'd use it...
  
  I promise you that unequivocally will not happen

Stockholm Syndrome is the only explanation I can come up with at this point.
- Stockholm Syndrome
  Completely off topic: Stockholm syndrome gets its name from a hostage situation where the police seemed to show no care or concern for the hostages' safety and the captors did more to protect them than law enforcement. Of course the hostages' felt more empathy towards their captors.
  According to accounts by Kristin Enmark, one of the hostages, the police were acting incompetently, with little care for the hostages' safety. This forced the hostages to negotiate for their lives and releases with the robbers on their own. In the process, the hostages saw the robbers behaving more rationally than the police negotiators and subsequently developed a deep distrust towards the latter.[9] Enmark had criticized Bejerot specifically for endangering their lives by behaving aggressively and agitating the captors. She had criticized the police for pointing guns at the convicts while the hostages were in the line of fire, and she had told news outlets that one of the captors tried to protect the hostages from being caught in the crossfire.
  
  That's a really interesting bit of nuance that I'd never taken note of! Thanks!
- Honestly I think many consumers go buy “computer” & have no concept that it has an operating system or that you can change it.
  If you know there is an alternative, then yeah… wtf
  
  100% true, I should have acknowledged that!
  
  I remember the day when you had to buy Windows separate, and pay full retail. Later, you got a massive discount if you bought the disks with your computer. Then, it came preinstalled. Then, it started to get crappy and more buggy.

Damn I'm somewhat indifferent to windows as my main PC os, mostly because I've got all my weird music hardware and a couple of decades worth of plugins working nicely. But this shit is getting annoying, so...
I have extensive experience with Linux on servers and I keep umming and ahhing about switching to it as my main desktop OS—let's see if anyone here is in the venn diagram that can answer this:
I'm a software engineer, all of that is cool, but I'm also pretty into music production
I would need to run Ableton with a Push 3 and Maschine with my M+. I've got simpler controllers like a beatstep pro, but I'm expecting those to be fine. And then would I be able to use my expert sleepers modular interfaces properly? Obviously I want this all with low latency.
After hardware I've got all sorts of vsts across tens of companies, some need my ilok key, I've got my Steinberg stuff too, but they've moved to online licensing finally.
Alternatives to the software are great (I know I can use bitwig natively, for example), but it's a non starter unless I can run it all, I've got years of projects that I would want to be able to open and start messing with the music, rather than spending most of my time messing with the software and losing what inspiration made me open the software in the first place
From someone with experience in this area, how viable is this?
- Steinberg plugins are not working at all for me. I have Absolute 4 and Cubase Artist 12.
  The licensing app installs fine. However, the download center cannot be installed. If you download the installers directly from Steinberg, those don't install.
  I did have some luck with downloading Steinberg installers on a windows pc with download assistant, and then opening THOSE installers on Linux. They installed correctly this way and Yabridge (vst bridge for Linux) even identified them correctly. But the vsts would crash on start.
  Yabridge is essential to using VSTs on Linux. Works great from my experience, IF the vst actually can start at all. But that is never a Yabridge problem, always a VST specific Wine problem.
  Arturia stuff can be installed without any problems (through wine)
  Spitfire's recent update broke things.
  From what I've seen, Ableton is pretty nicely supported by the Wine community. But any Ableton or Wine update can break things, so you'll need to have Wine and Ableton updates freezed if you want a hasslefree life.
  Hardware stuff I had no problems with for now, but I have mostly simple midi controllers. I have an external soundcard (UR22 mk2), so my latency is as low on Windows. I use Pipewire, because PulseAudio seems to sometimes give problems being detected by VSTs.
  For now I cannot recommend anyone that has extensive VST libraries to fully commit to Linux. The support is simply not there yet. Wine is not reliable enough, and I would hate to be stopped by a Wine error when inspiration hits. You'll be troubleshooting for days to hopefully get your favourite VSTs working, and pray they don't break when they update.
  I dual boot for now. Music and VR on Windows, all other tasks on Linux. I'm considering making stems for all my projects so I could switch to a different DAW with only Arturia plugins in the future. But I'm not ready yet.
  I'm not a super expert, but I did try very hard to get my steinberg stuff and Spitfire Labs working. Feel free to ask any followup questions.
  
  Firstly, thanks for the detailed response!
  It's promising to hear that Ableton has a lot of support from the community. I suppose given the versioning issues something like nix could be used to manage the wine versioning more deliberately.
  I've got a focusrite interface, so if your latency is low, I imagine I'd probably get the same experience. I know I'll probably lose the iPad remote control features too as I think that's baked into the windows driver.
  Given I do have a pretty extensive VST collection, it's a shame, but you're probably right. Do you know how heavily developed Yabridge is? Do you think the industry moving slowly to CLAP plugins might improve this situation?
  Maybe dual-boot is a better option to start with, I guess that way if I feel like trying to get it working I can give it a go.
  Do you have any plugins that use iLok? Either software or a hardware key
- I'd say keep that machine as is, and whenever you build a new one, just put whichever distro you like. If possible I'd roll back to win10 and after support ends, keep that machine VLAN'd off the internet. This way you turn it into a music production appliance without disrupting your workflow
- I am in a very similar position. Ableton and some other, smaller stuff is the only program that keeps me from switching to Linux fulltime. Bitwig did not click for me yet, I have to give it a try again soon. But the problem of unopenable projects persist. There are roumors, that the push 3 standalone runs a Linux port of ableton. So maaaybe there will be a Linux version in the future? That would be wild! Until then I just dualboot. I will soon reinstall my windows partition for ableton only.. I am pretty shure if bigger companies would start supporting Linux, it would take off like crazy

I use a mixture of Linux and Windows 10 LTSC on my PCs/servers/VMs. I will be the first to admit that Windows does sometimes make sense to use. My desktop PC and my dev environment are both Windows 10.
That being said, what is the advantage in using Windows 11 over 10? As far as I can tell, it's worse in every way. Built-in ads, a crappier UI, forced obsolescence with TPM requirements, and "feature" bloat that nobody asked for.
10 was a clear improvement over 8, but 11 just seems all-around worse.
- what is the advantage in using Windows 11 over 10?
  Many years ago, I was at a Windows XP launch event and the Microsoft Rep had a really honest line:
  "Why should you start using Windows XP? Because we're going to stop supporting Windows 98!"
  And ya, that's pretty much been the cattle prod Microsoft uses to push new versions, eventually you stop getting security updates for the older OS and at some point there are enough security vulnerabilities which make it no longer safe for daily use. That said, with Windows becoming more and more user hostile, other options start to make more sense.
  
  I'd like to hope that by the time Win10 is no longer supported, we have Win12 that doesn't suck. The way things are going, though, I doubt it. I'm expecting that Win10 will be the last version of Windows I use.
  I still prefer Windows over Linux for gaming and software development, but everyone has their limit. I am strongly opposed to advertisements, and when I can no longer block ads from my operating system, it's dead to me.
  
  I never upgraded software-wise. Moreso my tech got so outdated that new hardware I'd get (I only use Windows for gaming) would have the latest Windows installed - exactly what Microsoft wants.
  I think Proton/Linux in the past year is going to really disrupt that strategy.
- That being said, what is the advantage in using Windows 11 over 10?
  Windows 11 re-introduced Clippy as an emoji:
  
  Holy shit, really?
  My change controls written in comic sans are going to a new level!

Please microsoft, become the ad platform you're destined to become and give users a reason to move to linux.
Anti Commercial-AI license

That's because they've integrated it into the start menu. Evil, yes. But technically correct.
- This is the one thing that justfied buying an enterprise licensing model for my C level overlords.

So much of this shit apparently going on 11 but I've never seen any of these changes on mine.
Is this only for US or?
- I'm in the US and I've not seen any of it either.
  Windows 11 kinda sucks, I don't know why it's so hard for them to design a consistent UI, but I've not seen this ad nonsense.
  I am using adguard DNS across my network, so maybe that's why?

these clickbait anti microsoft ads weren't amusing in the late 90s on slashdot and they aren't amusing now.
- What is a slashdot?
  
  my sarcasm meter is broken so i hope this is sarcasm but if not oh you sweet summer child
- I've read several articles about win 11, putting ads on the start menu.

How is this not fraud?
It's a simple question. They are deliberately misleading and lying to customers for unlawful corporate gain.

Windows, WHY???

It's Bingin' time!

Isn't this exactly what got them broken up last time?
- Yeah, but back then you Americans had a government. I can't see it happening with your current circus.
  The EU, however, is already looking at MS over teams monopoly practises (fucking finally!), I'm hoping edge and copilot/bing are on their radar too!

I fought with Broadcom's shitty website for hours, but finally have Workstation Pro, in which I will test my workflows in Linux.
Games and Lightroom will be a challenge, but I'm going to avoid Win11 at all costs.

Lol, I don't even use Windows... heh !!!

Imagine you have a computer that’s been compromised by malware. What do you think the search engine will be set to? Not Google, not Bing, probably some third party one that has ads and malware. Changing that to Bing would technically qualify as a repair.
They could easily improve this by just adding a list of common reputable search engines, and adding those to an allow list.
- As a Linux aficionado, I appreciate you trying to bring an argument for Windows in good faith and a potential way for Microsoft to improve it. This is even if steering people to Bing is Microsoft's intention with this move so they are unlikely to improve it in the way you suggested.
  Since forever, Microsoft-affiliated products are often the only things that get the "trusted" label within the Microsoft ecosystem.
  
  Yeah it’s not ideal. I just don’t see a world where Microsoft will set people’s search engine to DuckDuckGo
- What a fucking stupid argument.
  
  Glad you had something useful and helpful to add to the discussion. Have you ever in your life heard of “playing devils advocate”? Read a book some time.

196 comments