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Comment by WD-42 | Hacker News Reader

Windows set up is actually insane, I did it in a VM recently to test my app on Windows. I would say not only does it require a Microsoft account but you also have to agree to (at least) 3 EULAs about sharing/selling your data that are unskippable. Pretty sure it also makes you set your ad preferences.

Absolutely insane for an OS, I don't know how people put up with it as a daily driver.

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It absolutely sets your ad preferences. It does so by asking something along the lines of "do you agree to personalized ads, of you opt out, you won't get fewer ads they'll just be less relevant to you".

I have no idea why we accept ads in a paid product in the first place.

Luckily I use my phone for most tasks and can avoid my two remaining windows machines unless necessary.

Also I doubt it's just me but every other day when Windows forces an update "restart and update/shutdown and update", upon restarting I am again prompted by Microsofts dark patterns for all the telemetry, defaulted to ON (location, biometrics, etc).

Literally every second update windows wants to re ask me and I have to either select "skip for 3 days" (comical) or walk through each step and toggle each one off...

Unfortunately Microsoft no longer innovates and can only continue to try to data mine but they are fighting a losing battle.

At this point revenge may be best to just use a cracked windows install on a VM using a dummy email. You want telemetry, have at it ;)

Sure your phone doesn't have any google/apple accounts, right?

Apple is pretty awesome at privacy compared to everything else.

The grass isn't greener. With the amount of advertising, tracking, and upselling on iOS and Android, our smartphones are significantly worse than Windows 11.

If you're setting up Windows in a VM for test purposes, I'd recommend Windows Server. There is an eval version you can get from Microsoft that can be used for 180 days without activation.

No account needed, no extra BS installed.

This is a great tip thanks

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