- cross-posted to:
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- cross-posted to:
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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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Could explain this to me as if I was 5. I have no idea what I am supposed to mildly infuriated about
Unsolicited advertising in a paid operating system.
Almost as infuriating as ads coming over the Life Alert system.
You know those ads with the old lady like “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up!”. Little radio thing you wear around your neck to act as emergency channel to contact someone if you’re stuck somewhere.
Well, somebody decided old people with a comm device around their neck would make a great marketing segment for targeted ads. Through the fucking safety device.
That’s despicable. :‘’'-(
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.
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
Uninstalling the 3 or so Xbox apps was the first reason for me to work with powershell.
Okay but now you yourself just posted an ad on this website. You should have atleast blurred the product If you’re gonna complain about advertising
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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.
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That’s how you get uninstalled.
Man, I sure am enjoying PopOS.
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 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.
I’ve also worked in state government. I am both surprised and not surprised to hear this.
I used to work for a state University medical system. I spent weeks slimming down an image, making sure it worked, and removed all unnecessary functions. Then some director wanted solitaire and I had to change the image to include the games package. Not just his computer. Oh no. In case his PC needed reimaged, we must change the entire image and deploy to everyone.
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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.
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.
The Google Pixel won’t let me uninstall the YouTube app and I hate it.
On my iphone I’ve got a folder called “immortals” for the apps I can’t delete.
Many preinstalled app can’t be uninstalled but can be disabled. Go to settings-apps and find the disable button for that app.
It doesn’t work, YouTube links still open in the app.
Unless you install an alternative player and set it as default. Would recommend newpipe x sponsorblock:
Thanks! I’ll give it a shot. I wish I could just have YouTube links open in the browser. I hate the app. I have to close it 3 times before the stupid video window goes away.
Try pausing the video before you close it. Then it shouldn’t persist.
You should be able to uninstall it using adb commands, if you’re willing to give it a try.
Else, Newpipe is really neat. Background playback, no ads, sponsored segments automatically skipped.
It’s basically youtube premium plus extra features.
I installed Newpipe yesterday, but I haven’t had a chance to use it yet. I hope it’s safe.
Based
Acided
Reduced
Oxidized
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what phone did you switch to if you mind me asking?
Not OP but I switched to a FairPhone 3 as soon as it came out after my Samsung experiences. Also wanted MicroSD and Dual-SIM, replacable batteries, easy to fix, longtime support.
Still loving it ❤ FairPhone️ 3.
Back then it shipped with Android 9 and recently got Android 13. That’s support.
Yeah and you can easily put custom ROMs on these, much more easily than on Samsung phones, though it is quite possible for older models of those (I am running Android 12 on my Samsung Galaxy Note II that is by now 11 years old lol)
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.
Very good statement, although I disagree with the claim that “nerds” were naive 25 years ago, as the GNU Project and the free software movement exist since the 80s already, meaning that at least some intelligent and tech literate people already realised the destructive potential of closed-source and unfree software!
True.
Well, ever since Win8 or Win10 I stopped having much sympathy with Windows users. They deserve things like that, when they still remain on that ship. Since these things are being introduced in small portions (salami tactics), the users will slowly become familiar with these things and just accept them because they can’t change anything anyway, thus slowly incorporating a defeatist’s attitude towards all the bloat, ads and spying. AKA, learned helplessness. In a couple of years, Windows will be absolutely horrible, but people will be used to it. I’ll just say this: Windows used to NOT have this kind of crap integrated.
That is a very childish thing to say. Windows has A LOT of problems. But it easy to use. Linux is still a tehnical operating system. And not everyone has the time or the know how to use it. And I use both. Plus, the majority of laptops and pcs come with windows, and installing Linux is not that simple. It will be at least 10 years before it becomes a somewhat widely used OS, with the younger generations being more used to tehnology in general.
He’s obviously forced to use it for work
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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
One can directly install ubuntu on hyper-v, without any additional 3rd party tools. They just need hyper-v enabled (it’s installed by default). It’s not user friendly, it’s the usual gui mess as one could expect from a ms product. But at least it’s preinstalled, which is convenient for a work laptop.
Whether IT security department would allow this… It’s another story
Edit. Fixed typo
What is a weather security department?
Ops… I accepted the wrong suggestion from the autocomplete
Chances are OP’s IT department wouldn’t be too keen on that.
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.
I don’t get these on my Windows PCs. But I did turn off a few settings, installed Open Shell for the Win7 style start menu, and Explorer Patcher to fix Win11’s stupid task bar changes.
I only turned off advertising ID and I never get any ads on the Pro version.
May be related to location (Europe/Germany). I haven’t gotten any ads in Microsoft beyond what I am already subscribed to (office365) anyway.
