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If Start menu ads in Windows 11 aren't bad enough, something worse might be on the horizon
(www.xda-developers.com)
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Until it turns itself back on during an update. Or hey implement another version that has its own off switch buried somewhere, etc.
It’s bloat and hassle.
You shouldn’t have to do maintenance on a brand new Windows install. Set preferences and install apps? Sure. But expecting everyone to go through a checklist of shit to turn off? Nah. That’s user hostile and so tedious.
Checklists and debloating procedures like that can feel like something an expert would do. And can feel like what a good computer user should do, but that’s a limited mindset that is a niche among all Windows platform users.
Warning, car analogy:
Imagine if you bought a new car and had to scrape a bunch of advertisement decals off it. And you have to remove unneeded features like spoilers that are dragging you down. Oh, and randomly in the middle of the night the dealer tracks your car down and applies new decals that you will want to scrape off your windshield when you get a chance.
Other than the dealer sneaking up in the middle of the night to reapply decals, that is sadly exactly what buying a new car is like.
Or, well, at least from what I've seen and heard from others. Who has money these days for new cars?
Setting preferences is exactly what this is, though.
Having to tell your computer that “My preference is no bloat and marketing.” is a sad state of affairs though.
My whole point is these things shouldn’t need to be configured. Because the bloat and marketing shouldn’t be part of the OS like this.
I've worked with a Linux installation that had plenty of bloat and marketing by default too, I spent a fair bit of time combing through it turning off stuff I definitely didn't want. Whether it "should" or "shouldn't" doesn't change that it is.
But updates can and do reset them.
Group Policy really helps - I don't think I've had an update reset a policy... Yet.