cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/3405817
Have to use Windows for work (I’ve asked), the ads have been getting worse and worse on my work laptop. Today got a game ad notification… That’s clearly too far, right? Like I have to clear notifications, so I have to see it
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Why are you getting these? I’ve never once had an ad on my machine, and I run Windows 11.
That would be the Xbox app sending you a notification/advertisement, not Windows itself
It might as well be. It’s a Windows app made by Microsoft specifically for Windows and comes preinstalled. IIRC, you can’t even fully uninstall the xbox bits without powershell or regedit.
Uninstalling the 3 or so Xbox apps was the first reason for me to work with powershell.
Only the shortcut to the app was preinstalled on the build I put together a couple of months ago. When I tried to open it, it had to download and install first. Also, if you press Win+G to open the Game Bar and click the settings gear, under Notifications you can select “Hide notifications when I’m playing a fullscreen game”. Edit: or just turn off the Xbox app notifications if you don’t use it
And this is why I switched to Linux mint. I fucking despise advertisements.
I’m still hanging on to Windows 10 for as long as it lasts. My next OS will absolutely be Linux Mint.
Your IT team should have disabled this bullshit. I never see this stuff on my Surface Pro.
Im sure people do see these ads, and its definitely starting to go a bit far, but I cannot for the life of me figure out how. Ive never seen anything like this using multiple personal and work windows machines for ~10+ hours a day, every day.
Work makes sense, I believe its a couple of GPOs, but even at home when I boot a fresh image I tick like 3 boxes and just never see any ads.
The only situation I can think of is prebuilt machines and laptops with preloaded configurations that people dont bother to change, but even then im pretty sure 5 minutes in settings will sort it out.
When Windows started getting pre installed bloatware is around the time I made my full switch to Linux. When Samsung phones started doing the same, I switched away from them too. Srsly, I will become a luddite before I use any devices that force apps I don’t want on me. It’s abusive and shouldn’t be legal.
Just out of curiosity what phone did you switch to? My Samsungs getting a little old and I’m thinking about buying a new phone.
Yes. Even though not using all this crap may sometimes feel like you’re missing out on certain stuff, it is still the right thing to do. I don’t support abusive behavior, bloatware and spyware, so companies doing that will not receive any money from me if I can help it.
We’re basically just one step ahead of the general population, who basically (still) eats up anything that’s being served by big tech corporations, without any second thoughts or hesitations. The general population IMHO is currently at the stage that nerds were like 25 years ago, in that they tend to be naively enthusiastic about every new piece of tech. But nowadays, tech can be abusive towards their users, and so it’s important to choose the right tech. The general population hasn’t made that realization yet (or they don’t care, which also must change).
The media is also partly to blame for this, for example almost every new review of any Samsung or Apple phone is usually very positive, usually just reporting about the advancements in hardware and UI, without even mentioning any of the downsides these have on the software side. And so when reviews don’t even mention downsides anymore, there’s a lack of information available.
And it’s not even that regular users don’t like the alternatives. For example I convinced a friend to move from a regular spyware-infested Samsung Galaxy phone (which he was using all the time, and he even wanted to buy a new one) to a Pixel with GrapheneOS. He’s not missing anything, even though his transition wasn’t super smooth, overall he’s happier now, and he mentioned that he likes the OS being so clean and unencumbered. He doesn’t particularly care about the privacy and security improvements which he now also enjoys, which is a bit sad, but at least he’s happy with the lean and unmodified Android (open source) experience.
So, as usual, information/knowledge is power. People need to know that alternatives exist and that some alternatives are actually really, really good. And they need to know what the problems are with the “default stuff everyone uses”, so that they can make better informed decisions in the future. They also need to become less dependent on big tech companies. The alternatives have little to no PR and thus little public visibility in comparison, except via word of mouth, so we need to make the most out of that.
On ios one of my peeves is the default permissions for notifications is all on.
I immediately rescind the privileges of any app that shows me an ad, but it’s still annoying that they get even that once chance.
You can uninstall the Xbox app. Why that’s not done by your work domain admin is peculiar, or are you using random consumer installations?
My work forgot to remove game mode and a bunch of the built-in advertisement stuff from the workstation images they were using a while back, and I work for state government.
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If they uninstalled the xbox app they’d have no way of coordinating their sea of thieves matches with the employees that work on a console
Incidentally this makes me want to put the following plot into a sitcom:
- Company lacks a computer and assigns an employee an xbox instead
- They’re expected to use browser versions of slack, outlook, etc on the built-in edge browser
- Their request for a keyboard is denied
- This plot line goes background, but still appears in this form: any time that character’s input is considered in email or slack or whatever it’s ultra-short and contains tons of xbox-like abbreviations like “gg”
- It ends up turning this character’s whole style into “man of few words”. Even in person they turn to him and his response after a really long wait is “We do Anne’s idea. Meeting over”
- He flies up the corporate ladder as a result
- Occasional shots inside his office as a high-level exec include a big TV and an xbox. The fact this is his work station is not overtly mentioned. You never see a laptop.
There is a far greener country where such things are unheard of.
Minty green?
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This is how I remember windows yes. Pop-ups, disruptions, annoyances, and ads.
People think it’s normal until they try Pop OS.
literally only when you install it. i haven’t had any of this stuff in over 3 years
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Another infuriating ad came from clipchamp
We are in 2023 and everyone has a powerful enough CPU/GPU, why would I need to upload all my videos in the cloud to edit 720p video…
You weren’t the only one. Fuck off MicroShit
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Break the
Beautiful words. I shed a tear.
The writers strike is working!
If you can Install Ubuntu and use Windows on a VirtualBox as a guest.
Non-techy colleagues cannot tell whether it’s a virtualized OS or not.
Microsoft as a company profit over its users obsessively
Chances are OP’s IT department wouldn’t be too keen on that.
Poor tech plebs that have to put up with this absolute shite.
Ikr?! Shame that “Linux is to hard and can’t play games”. It’s not like installing any distro of Linux is super hard. Or Proton is built into Steam and sometimes Runs Windows games better than Windows does or anything… Or that the vast majority of applications people use are web browsers anyway
I think more people would try Linux if it wasn’t for the superiority complexes of people that type comments like this in every. fuckin. thread…
No no, gotta flex on the “plebs”, what a useful contribution to society…
I spent years in the trenches fixing windows machines, I am making a damn good living now and it isn’t from fixing windows bullshit.
I definitely do have a superiority complex after spending years fixing printer drivers on windows for absolute Luddites.
