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Windows 10 Now Showing Full Screen Ads On Lock Screen (consumerist.com)

Striek writes: Several media outlets are reporting that Windows 10 has now started showing full screen ads on users' lock screens. They can be turned off, but how many people will actually bother with this? "Tips site How-To Geek discovered that Windows Spotlight, which normally rotates between a selection of photographs, was being used to display an ad for Square Enix's Rise of the Tomb Raider. Understandably, most people probably don't want to be hit in the face with a full-screen ad for a video game before they even unlock their computer. If you want to make sure you're not hit with these ads, follow these steps to disable Windows Spotlight: Open the Start Menu and search for "Lock Screen Settings."; Under "Background," select either Picture or Slideshow, instead of Windows Spotlight.; Scroll down to "Get fun facts, tips, tricks, and more on your lock screen" and this toggle." Apparently the "and more" is where Microsoft hid the advertisements.

22 of 599 comments (clear)

  1. And so ... by fahrbot-bot · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ... it begins.

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    It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
    1. Re:And so ... by bobjr94 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Win 10 just gets worse and worse as it matures. I'm still happily on 7 with autoupdates disabled and the win 10 upgrade notifier removed

    2. Re:And so ... by execthis · · Score: 5, Funny

      Not long ago those of us who warned against "upgrading" were being lambasted for being alarmists.

      Well. I have something I'd like to say:

      HA! HA! HA! HA!

      ROFL!

  2. This is the price of "free" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This is the price of "free" MS upgrades.

    1. Re:This is the price of "free" by Tablizer · · Score: 5, Informative

      It's official, CEO #3 is just as jerky as #1 and #2. The MS tradition of corporate mayhem continues.

    2. Re:This is the price of "free" by Darinbob · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Outrage is that these are OUR machines. They do not belong to Microsoft. It may be true that Microsoft can not survive financially without serving up ads, but it's not our job to provide charity to companies with bad business models.

    3. Re:This is the price of "free" by Darinbob · · Score: 5, Funny

      Personally I block the ads by using electricians tape over the screen.

    4. Re:This is the price of "free" by the_Bionic_lemming · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Yeah! It's not like they reset settings during forced updates!!!

      oh wait... Never mind, they do occasionally "fix" your setting s for you.

      --
      _ _ _ Go for the eyes Boo! GO FOR THE EYES!
    5. Re:This is the price of "free" by ShaunC · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Did you read the summary? This is not complicated. Change the settings.

      And how long before a "bug" resets your changes back to what Microsoft prefers?

      --
      Thanks to the War on Drugs, it's easier to buy meth than it is to buy cold medicine!
    6. Re:This is the price of "free" by QuietLagoon · · Score: 5, Insightful

      ... It may be true that Microsoft can not survive financially without serving up ads,...

      I'd be more than happy to pay Microsoft for an upgrade for my copies of Windows 7, providing the upgrade is really an upgrade and not just a means for Microsoft to begin data harvesting of my family..

    7. Re:This is the price of "free" by Lotana · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The outrage is not that you are somehow trapped with this ... "feature". The real fury is Microsoft's attitude towards its customers.

      Why is that now companies see pushing unwanted adds on to our hardware as perfectly acceptable? In the past this was a category of malware! Why is that I now need to know and take conscious effort to make sure I disable such settings, lest bandwidth I pay for will be wasted. When administrators will be deploying on mass scale, this will become yet another thing they need to remember to script to be disabled.

      Is it because it is a free upgrade? User paid for Windows 7/8 she upgraded from. Also what about professional version that one paid for: Is that setting off by default? Really, no one even asked for Microsoft to have their next major version to be free* in the first place!

      This is just bad faith from the creator to the consumer.

      *Free as in no money. You will pay in other ways...

    8. Re:This is the price of "free" by pjbgravely · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Outrage is that these are OUR machines. They do not belong to Microsoft. It may be true that Microsoft can not survive financially without serving up ads, but it's not our job to provide charity to companies with bad business models.

      You own the computer but Microsoft owns the software. You choose to run one of their OSs. They allow you to run the software but they own all rights to it. If you care about the ads then you should run an OS that you own, and can modify to fit your needs. I assume you choose not to, because anyone who posts on /. should be able to install and run what ever they want on their computer.

      --
      Star Trek, there maybe hope.
  3. Y'know... by maugle · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The annoying part isn't that Microsoft would try to advertise on your own lock screen. No, the moment we heard that Windows 10 was announced as a free upgrade, we all knew they'd eventually stoop to this level. The annoying part is how they refer to it in their settings.

    "Get fun facts, tips, tricks, and more"!? Go piss up a rope, you insincere, weasel-mouthed, marketing stooges. You've already hidden the option to turn the ads off behind a labyrinth of menus, you could at least give us the courtesy of not bullshitting us any further than that.

  4. Re:What do you say now, Microsoft shills? by Dunbal · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Best part will be when someone manages to insert malware into one of the ads and pwns every single Windows 10 box. And someone at Microsoft will say "oops, we're sorry. Well we'll refund you the price of the OS OH WAIT THAT'S RIGHT IT WAS FREE so sorry.

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    Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
  5. Re:What do you say now, Microsoft shills? by imidan · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's interesting to compare the development of Software as a Service with television programming. Most people are not outraged by commercials on television--it is understood that someone else 'owns' the show you're watching and that they have the right to put ads in it. It seems like what MS (and others) are trying to do is gradually shift to a software environment where normal people think of Windows as a thing that belongs to someone else (MS), and as a result, MS has the right to put ads in.

    Of course, we hate this idea because we grew up owning software, but if they can persist this long enough, a whole generation will grow up not owning software, but consuming it instead, and at that point, using computers could become as bad as trying to watch the evening news. You'll try to start a word processor, and as the thing 'loads', you'll be subjected to ads for household disinfectants and medications with alarming arrays of side-effects.

  6. Re:What do you say now, Microsoft shills? by youngone · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Honestly, how much more of this do you think people are going to put up with before they say 'enough is enough'?

    I think people will just assume that that's what Windows 10 is supposed to do, and not change a thing.

    Most people are not like you and me, they don't think too deeply about the laptop they've just bought. They bring it home, turn it on, accept some EULA, click a few 'next" buttons and an "OK" or two then start using it.

    I'm sure if it came with Linux Mint preinstalled an awful lot of people wouldn't even notice, because Gmail would work fine.

    I regularly need to ask people "What version of Windows does your computer run"? and about 2 in 10 know.

  7. Time to write a Linux ad by penguinoid · · Score: 5, Funny

    How much would it cost to get a Linux ad placed there?

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    Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
  8. Re:What do you say now, Microsoft shills? by tom229 · · Score: 5, Funny

    I run into the same thing, except in my case it's 1 in 5.

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    If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
  9. Re:What do you say now, Microsoft shills? by nmb3000 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Windows 10 is okay, all things told.

    No, it's not!

    Have standards sunk so low that an operating system which:

    - Has the ugliest and most backwards user interface in history.
    - Does not allow you to control the installation of updates.
    - Incorporates advertising into the shell (and now) the lock screen.
    - Steals your Internet bandwidth to help pay for the distribution costs of Windows Updates.
    - Gleefully violates your privacy by sending microphone recordings, keystrokes, email, file contents, and who knows what else to external servers without explicit consent.

    is "okay, all things told"? Even with the privacy concerns being associated with a company already found to be working with and providing data en masse to the NSA?

    Windows 10 is, at best, a complete disaster. Any systems improvements under the hood are completely overshadowed. I just can't wait to see what other fresh bullshit Microsoft pulls in a year or two when more people are on 10 and the OS is fully on the OSX model of perpetual updates. At that point there will be so little recourse, your computer may as well be owned by Microsoft and simply be leased to you (as long as you behave yourself).

    I don't know why they even call it a "personal computer" anymore.

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    "What do you despise? By this are you truly known." --Princess Irulan, Manual of Muad'Dib
    /)
  10. No it began with Amazon by goombah99 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Kindles have always had two prices. The lower price with ads is the advertised price. You can pay a higher price for the one without ads on the lock screen.

    --
    Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
  11. Microsoft can't innovate. They only copy. by ZeroZen · · Score: 5, Funny

    Ubuntu is way ahead of the curve.
    http://yro.slashdot.org/story/...

    When will Apple catch up?

  12. Re:UFIA by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Unsolicited Finger In the Anus. Popularized on the website Fark.com and is a cliche among TotalFarkers. Originated from a news story about a young man who poked his friends in the backdoor with his finger on a high school football bus trip. In the story, the judge is quoted as saying "an unsolicited finger in the anus, while crude, is not criminal".