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Comment by aikah | Hacker News Reader

> All I want is to be able to give companies my money in exchange for not being spied on, manipulated, or locked into some walled garden. I can't for my OS - I have to use free gnu/Linux because everyone else treats me like crap.

AFAIK a license is paid with every new computer coming WITH Windows, so it isn't like people get Windows for free. I'm not sure it is even possible to transfer Windows's license from computer to computer anymore, so why is Microsoft doing this? just because they can. Imagine tomorrow some f\*cking ads pop up each time you open the start menu, or on the background of the desktop, or on the login screen, or in Visual Studio Code because why not? Absolutely outrageous. "Pay for the product and you're no longer the product they say". and while we are at it, why not display ads on websites hosted on Azure even when you paid for hosting?

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What do you mean tomorrow? When I open my start menu today I see ads for a bunch of games and apps that I don't have installed. When I see my lock screen I see a pretty nature photo with a couple of clickbait phrases on it like "If you think that this place is peacefull, then..."

That lock screen really chaps my jimmies. Either tell me what you want to tell me or shove off.

What bugs me to no end is that I really like the photos, and the text ads in it ruin it !

Bing Desktop is still around -- you can get daily pretty nature pics, without the overlaid ads. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=358...

Suggested apps can be turned off from the right-click context menu on one of the items: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/faq/id-3250630/turn-suggested-...

While what you say is true, the gp's point is that Windows is already pre-installing crapware. The Start Menu icons were still pre-installed, even if you can remove/uninstall them and even if the apps they represent weren't pre-installed.

I agree; my comment was not intended as a dismissal to the underlying issue.

The first time I opend the start menu on Windows 10 after mostly using linux, it included news about Kim Kardashian. Since then, my thoughts have been sealed about Windows.

Same thing! After using Linux abroad I started a new job using a Windowns 10 workstation and it showed me a picture of the President of the United States. It took a while to get the menu cleaned up too.

I just paid $5 for Start10. No more default Win10 Start menu, ever. Best $5 I ever spent. There are free options too, like Classic Shell.

I used to work for Microsoft on Edge Browser. Our tests ran on a clean version of Windows. Seeing the ads pop up in start menu, MSN homepage on Edge, little squares ads on bing page made me a bit miserable, day by day.

The default experience was garbage thrown in your face.

The leadership had to drive revenue growth and msn/ads were a money maker. That’s how they get promoted and we had to play their game.

Seeing that ladder chasing culture made me quit.

Very few companies actually legit give a shit about their users and the user experience. It’s so easy to blindly do things that annoy users but make a quick buck.

OOBE on Windows 10 has gone to the dogs. Live Tiles on the default Windows 10 Start Menu — especially if you buy an OEM laptop — look gaudy and distract you from the task at hand. I just wish Microsoft realised that this is making Apple’s systems more attractive.

I am sure this is going to happen.

For anyone curious about vscode, there is a fork called "VSCodium" which is vscode without any telemetry shit in it.

https://github.com/VSCodium/vscodium

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