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Here We Go Again: Microsoft's Popping Up Ads From the Windows 10 Toolbar (pcworld.com)

Posted by msmash on from the being-Microsoft dept.

Mark Hachman, reporting for PCWorld: When Microsoft's Windows 10 deadline passed, many heaved a sigh of relief, thinking that Microsoft's obnoxious popup reminders had finally been laid to rest. Surprise! Microsoft's at it again, reminding users to sign up for Bing Rewards by using Edge, Windows 10's built-in browser. My colleague Brad Chacos was hit by the ad after hours, reported it, and immediately erased Edge from his toolbar. Here's what we know: The popup doesn't seem to appear if you use Edge frequently (Brad does not). Personally, I've never experienced a similar ad, though I use Edge as well as Bing Rewards, meaning there's no need for such an ad to appear. A notification here, a suggestion there: Microsoft's gently slipped in promotions for Office as well as its third-party apps off and on since Windows 10 was launched, and then sneakily reset those options once the Anniversary Update launched last summer. But here's the problem. Brad turned off his ad settings; the Anniversary Update reinstated them. Brad says he turned off the ad settings again -- and once again, Microsoft reinstated them.

8 of 322 comments (clear)

  1. Simple by Dunbal · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Delete that fucking malware from your computer and install some other operating system.

    --
    Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
    1. Re: Simple by houstonbofh · · Score: 3, Interesting

      The biggest lock they have is inertia. The difference between Windows versions (and Office versions) is less they the difference between old Windows and Linux (LibreOffice). But now the changes are getting bigger, and uglier, and they are annoying the crap out of people! So that "cost of change" metric is starting to slant more towards Linux or Mac. Hence the rises in both of those OSs.

    2. Re: Simple by Streetlight · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Windows 7 still has majority market share my a large margin. Programs will still be working for quite a while.

      And Windows 7 new adoptions last month were 10 times the adoptions of Windows 10.

      Think of all those computers being borked or bricked with blue screens of death (or red depending on how your Win 10 was set up) when auto updates that you can't turn off update your machine.

      --
      In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act. George Orwell
  2. Screwed either way by wickerprints · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I've got money burning a hole in my pocket, but between this and the piece of shit MacBook Pro that was announced recently, I don't know what to do. Buy a Razer laptop and install Linux? The Surface Studio looked amazing but I refuse to use Windows on my personal computer.

    Like this election cycle, it seems that personal computing seems to be on the same race to the bottom, in terms of which company can screw over their most loyal users the most.

  3. Bring them down from the inside! by sgtsquid · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Here's an idea. If enough of us bought a single share of MSFT, then file a shareholder lawsuit arguing that this will kill the company long term, it would at least cause a big PR problem for them. Most people never hear the details of this stuff because it only gets covered in the tech news, but a lawsuit like this would make the mainstream news. It might even cause enough of a headache for MSFT to get them to back off on some of it.

  4. Re:So glad I don't have any computer with Windows by houstonbofh · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Been running Win 10 since summer, yet to see an ad. Seeing one would probably make me change my tune, although I do have anti-beacon installed. I've played around with Ubuntu a few times, but you know what? When I hook my Win 10 laptop up to TV with HDMI cable, it works. When I do the same with Ubuntu, no sound. That's why people don't use it.

    When I hooked a web cam up to Linux, it worked. When I did it in Windows it did not. This is why people use Linux.

    This was totally true, but it sounds silly, don't it?

  5. Windows is for playing games. by number6x · · Score: 5, Interesting

    This used to be true, but Windows 8 and 10 have changed that. The difference between Windows 7 and Windows 10 is much greater than the difference between Windows 7 and Linux Mint Cinnamon (or Mate). The move to Office 365, a subscriber service model, is also leaving many users cold. They are not moving from office 2000 or 2007 to 365. When Microsoft tries to force the choice and end support for the old versions, then Libre Office may start looking very good to many, formerly, loyal Windows fans.

    I've been using Linux as my main desktop and laptop OS since 1997. Windows does not have support for the software I use. I used to be a pretty good hack at Windows back in the 3.0/3.1 days. Windows 95 was a nice upgrade. However, the cost of compilers, powerful databases, source control tools and other programming related software had me starting to use Linux more and more. I knew a lot of people back then who used to just pirate the tools they needed on Windows, but I didn't believe in stealing what I needed to work. After using Linux for a while, I knew I was done with the Windows environment. Linux is so far superior for my needs, there really is no comparison. (YRMV)

    If you're happy with the Windows ecosystem, that's nice for you. I've gotten rid of a lot of aggravation in my work life by abandoning that platform decades ago.

  6. Antitrust by kat_skan · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Isn't this an antitrust violation? If just bundling a web browser was then surely changing the user's preferred apps to their own and opting users in to advertisements they've already opted out of in the guise of a security update ought to be.