Microsoft Now Uses Windows 10's Start Menu To Display Ads (betanews.com)

Mark Wilson writes: We've all become used to the idea of ads online — it's something that has become part and parcel of using the internet — but in Windows? If you've updated to build 10565 of Windows 10, you're in for something of a surprise: the Start menu is now being used to display ads. We're not talking about ads for Viagra, porn, or anything like that, but ads for apps. Of course, Microsoft is not describing them as ads; 'Suggested apps' has a much more approachable and fluffy feel to it. Maybe. This is a 'feature' that's currently only being shown to Windows Insiders, but it could spread to everyone else. Will it be well-received?

Comments

Re:If you did not pay for the product, you are one

[Grishnakh]

No, it's easier (at least on desktop PCs and laptops; phones are a different matter). Linux distros have gotten better and better: easier to use, easier to install. Just install Linux and stop using Windows and you don't have to worry about privacy on your PC.

You say you need some software that only works on Windows? Well do you need it so much that you're willing to let Microsoft run a keylogger on your PC and send all your personal data, passwords, etc. to MS's servers, for who knows what purpose?

Re:If you did not pay for the product, you are one

[FlyHelicopters]

and just how is it that you secure a product that is constantly talking to systems on the internet, and doesn't have a way to disable such communication? An early beta of Win10 did this as well, I saw it - I was just curious what Win10 looked like, so I put it on something. After seeing that, I quickly removed it and any thought I'd ever use Windows for anything ever again.

So you installed a beta version of Windows 10, one that told you it had such things in it that couldn't be disabled because it was a TEST VERSION, you didn't like it, and now you hate Windows forever?

Yea, right. You already hated Windows and were just looking for a reason. You're simply doing confirmation bias, you want your existing bias confirmed and this is how you did it.

Re:Yet

[FlyHelicopters]

The amount of telemetry/spying intrusion that Microsoft expects users to accept without question is...staggering.

And yet I don't care.

And millions and millions of people just like me don't care.

I'm a technical user, I have a dozen computers in my home, I build my own machines, I own my own technology business.

I still don't care.

----

Why? Because I see the future that is coming, and I also see the upsides to all this two way communication.

You only see the downsides, you want to keep it the way it used to be. While the horse was nice for personal transport once, the car is much better.

Windows 10 is the future of the car, it is the Model T of what will come.

You don't have to get on, you can avoid it if you want. But you'll increasingly be in the minority, and that's ok. Just don't kid yourself, the benefits and features of the future will sway the vast majority.

The problem is that there are real alternatives now for the consumer, not like back in the monopoly days.

What, Mac? That existed 20 years ago as well, nothing there has changed. Still expensive, still limited in software and hardware choices. Linux? For the desktop? Give me a break, that ship has long since sailed and isn't coming back.

Yes, I would like to see competition in the desktop OS market, OS X could be that competition, but until Apple changes how it does business, that isn't going to happen.

Re:This is it!

[smooth wombat]

My advice is to pick a commonly used distro with good documentation and more importantly a good community.

So none them.

Be polite and try not to be stupid or lazy if you can help it

Strike 1.

try to read documentation,

Strike 2. (see above)

and always do a search before you ask a question (it's faster than waiting for a forum response anyway).

Strike 3. I'm outta here.

The whole point of asking questions is because one doesn't know and/or hasn't been able to find the answer elsewhere. Sometimes you find the answer but it's so convoluted you still don't know how to do what is being said (I've seen tons of such documentation).

Considering everyone at some point in their lives has asked a stupid question, telling someone who doesn't know the answer not to ask a stupid question is essentially telling them not to bother asking in the first place.

This is one of many reasons there will never a Year of Linux on the desktop.