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
That's because your IT department hasn't turned all that crap off with group policy.
Tthe problem is now if you have the store disabled basic shit, like the ability to open .heic files is broken or use stuff people want like sticky notes is broken.
We turn off most of what we can’t but having the store enabled causes all sorts of stuff.
Also windows 11 has ads baked in even with the store disabled. Plug in a Logitech mouse, get a pop up for their software. Open the picture viewer and get an ad to install some video editor that isn’t clear whether it’s a Ms product or not.
No to mention basic things like copy paste and edit are now weird icons because I guess they think most users are illiterate.
Most of the 11 UI changes are not for the better. Having to beta test it for work is frustrating and I run an IT shop.
Omg I loathe those icons. They are so much harder to use than words, cuz I still have to hover over them to make sure it’s the right thing.
Windows 11, in general, feels so shit after being on Ubuntu.
But I see Linux has decent touchscreen support now so as soon as I’m done at this job, that sucker is getting formatted 😈
MS goes out of their way to make shit harder than it needs to be.
For example. The store, they have a store for business where you can simply whitelist known apps buts it’s a PITA to setup AND they have been threatening to decom it for ages
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-store/microsoft-store-for-business-overview
Want to add safety/security features like secuirty keys. Well if you do it on a non domain joined machine you can just sign into a m365 account to enable a passkey or yuibijey as a second factor.
Want to do that in a business environment. Congrats now you have to deploy a windows CA and issue user certificates to tie to this. Even if you are signing the machine into m365 with ADAL.
They go out of their way to add complexity and failure points.
They go out of their way to add complexity and failure points.
I read a thing just the other day about essentially that. Not that specific issue, but the way their timekeeping works (by default) and is a disaster (literally) when it fails.
To that I would argue why should IT need to waist their time turning that crap off. IT should be off by default.
It shouldn't even be part of an OS at all. I haven't purchased Windows in probably about twenty years but if I did I would expect that if I pay for software, it's not going to come and try to keep selling me more crap. This is just one of the reasons I use Linux.
You're not wrong, but there's a million little things you only have to do once, and this is one more.
My point isn't how simple it is to turn off, my point is why is that turn on by default in the first place? Last I checked to join a Window's domain you need a Professional/Enterprise version of Windows. This is software intended for a business environment not only that, it also costs much more as well. Yet here we are by default my Profession Windows install comes with Candy Crush and Game Pass ads. Great job Microsoft you have done it again.
The fact that you need a group policy to turn this kind of garbage off is ridiculous.
Yea, I work in a windows shop. All this shit is turned off for any device in our domain. No BYOD either.
Only OS that costs money. Truly a Premium experience.
Microsoft is like the daddy most users need I guess.
I guess MacOS costs money too since you have to buy Apple hardware to use it. It's an indirect price.
Wife started getting these ads as well. Each time she complains I try to hand her my Linux USB drive.
"use my power I beg you!"
Keep trying! My teen recently bought his first PC. It came with Win11 and I offered to put Linux on it for him. He replied, "Nah, it's OK, I'm not a programmer". I was like... wait, huh? I don't even know where he would get that idea from since the only programming I've ever done was websites and haven't done that in years. Hubby doesn't do much programming any more either. We game on our PCs.... Email. Browse the interwebs. Watch videos. Discord... blah blah. Literally all the same shit our teen does and yet Linux.
Anyways, I waited until he was trapped in the car with me on a longer drive and told him all the wonderful things about Linux and sold it to him on the idea that I'll set it up as dual boot. Give Linux a couple of weeks and if you don't like it, you can always switch to Windows. It's been about a month now and Windows still isn't even installed 😂
Everytime you see an ad for a game, you should ask yourself: "does this run on Linux?" Majority of the time and the answer is yes. Just saying!
Fully committed, this year had been a massive improvement and I'd love to say I'm linux baby!
Why not posting this on a windows community? Or is OP expecting those sweet linux circlejerky replies?
I only see this community when I'm browsing all and it feels like a good chunk of these posts aren't actually about Linux - they're about how Windows is bad
Go to Manage Notifications, and turn Suggestions off. Suggestions is what Microsoft calls ads.
Winprivacy.de get it, run it, disable ads and trackers.
Surprised I've not seen anyone mention shutup10. Been using it on all new installs for me and family since migrating from 7 to 10 Turn off anything you want, including all that bullshit and the data mining etc. https://www.oo-software.com/en/shutup10
No one has mentioned it because they're dealing with a laptop from work they have no say over
But yes, for everyone on personal devices, it seems to be pretty nice. I've been using privacy.sexy for a while, but it can't seem to do much without breaking things.
You can turn the entire notification system off. The fucking thing is pointless anyway.
On a personal rig? Heck yes.
On a work laptop? Uhhh not too sure about that... sinkholing Teams, Outlook and Devops notifications sounds like a quick way to lose track of visibility
Microsoft know exactly what they're doing with their spyware and adware walled garden 😔
I’m this close to swapping my gaming rig to Linux for similar reasons.
Do it! My ryzen/nvidia 2060 rig is running Mint and everything works great through steam or lutris (a runner/installer)
Nobara
I use windows 11 pro, and I don't see any of these ads anywhere ever. Is that something the home versions only do? Did I turn off some setting proactively at setup that prevents the ads?
So is that a personal laptop your using for work or a work laptop? Because if it's the latter, they're doing a terrible job setting policies and turning crap off with either GPO or some DSC system.
There are ads in Windows?
Yes they are going to fill windows with ads as far as I've understood correctly
M$: "Windows is the best OS for gaming!!!"
Ok, fine. From now on ONLY my gaming PC will run windows, and my gaming PC is GeForce Now.
M$: "No! Not like that!"
One of the reasons you shouldn't be using Ubuntu. Not one of the reasons you shouldn't be using Linux.
Use debian for your linux servers then
What else did you expect from Microsoft Linux? They've been taking notes from the best for some time now.
That’s the problem with corporate Linux.
Is this an American thing? Save for the awful downgraded solitaire with micro transactions I’ve never had any ads on Windows.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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