Microsoft's Hidden Windows 8 Feature: Ads

MojoKid writes "Despite the fact that I've been using Windows 8 for the past three weeks, I somehow managed to overlook a rather stark feature in the OS: ads. No, we're not talking about ads cluttering up the desktop or login screen (thankfully), but rather ads that can be found inside of some Modern UI apps that Windows ships with. That includes Finance, Weather, Travel, News and so forth. On previous mobile platforms, such as iOS and Android, seeing ads inside of free apps hasn't been uncommon. It's a way for the developer to get paid while allowing the user to have the app for free. However, while people can expect ads in a free app, no one expects ads in a piece of software that they just paid good money for."

Kind of sleezy

[CastrTroy]

This kind of caught me off guard too. The music App started showing me ads, and not just little images off to the side, but full screen videos asking me to sign up for a subscription. I thought that the :"Music" app was what I was supposed to use to listen to the music I already owned. Not some nagware that tried to convince me to buy more music off the MS specific store. I promptly removed the music from my desktop after that and just went to download Winamp, since WMP and the new music app were completely unable to play FLAC files anyway. I can't see how MS isn't going to get in trouble for this one. If they got in trouble for doing it with browsers, which were mostly free anyway, even before they started including them, just think of how Apple is going to react to MS embedding a music store in the OS, or Steam is going to react to adding a games store in the OS.

No one expects ads in paid software

[Andy Prough]

What - Like Angry Birds on the iPad?? http://www.iosnoops.com/2011/03/17/angry-birds-hd-advertising-screw-up-why-ads-in-paid-apps-are-a-big-no-no/ [iosnoops.com]

Corporate IT is going to hate this

[davidwr]

One more reason to exercise "down"grade rights.

10 LET M$ = "Microsoft"

[tepples]

No, "(GBP)inux" and "Appl(EUR)" aren't quite the same as "M$". Microsoft started out as a publisher of interpreters of the line-numbered BASIC programming language. Names of string variables in early BASIC always ended in $, making LET M$ = "Microsoft" valid code. What language are you talking about that uses the symbol for GBP or EUR?

What ads?

[ilsaloving]

I haven't noticed any ads, myself.

Of course, the first thing I did after I installed Windows 8 was install classic shell and disable metro entirely, so maybe that's why. ^_^.

Eh, I noticed the ads too... yawn.

[Gordo_1]

I paid $15 for the OS upgrade (before they fixed the loophole in their upgrade promo site), just to see what all the commotion was about. Upgrade went fairly smooth considering I did the unthinkable and actually tried to upgrade a Microsoft OS without starting from scratch (I imaged my boot drive ahead of time just in case).

I played around with the Modern UI apps for the first day or so, smirked at the not-so-subtly placed ads, installed Classic Shell and haven't bothered to go back to the Modern UI since. The Modern UI truly has no place on a desktop computer... or anything without a touchscreen for that matter. It's a consumption-oriented tablet UI that probably excels at keeping you occupied during an extended shit session. I'll stick to the desktop and benefit from Win8's tighter security and streamlined bootup/shutdown. With a couple tweaks, it's like a really well made service pack for Win7.

Re:Whyput 8 on a desktop or laptop?

[MightyYar]

I installed it on an old XP machine. Why? It was suffering from Windows rot and so I needed to re-install Windows. Installing XP seemed silly, so I went looking for a downloadable copy of 7. I found Microsofts seemingly "too good to be true" offer of $40 for 8, so I downloaded and installed it.

Yikes, what a mess. The "guts" are fine - it seems exactly like Windows 7. But the interface is going to go down as a "teachable moment" at colleges, I think. It is quite literally two completely separate GUIs crudely duct-taped together. It's a lot like running a virtualized instance of another OS on a separate screen. The one side is mostly unaware of what the other side is doing. They even have two totally separate "control panels" now.

In XP I used to run a utility that let me hit a button and start typing the name of the application I wanted to run, and then enter. Vista and 7 had this built-in when you hit the Windows key. Now, the Windows key brings up the Start Screen, and while you can still start typing, the results come up in a separate area and you need to click on them. So now I'm back to a utility that lets me quick-start applications! Full circle.

Oh, and file transfers are now counted in "files per second" rather than "megabytes per second". I certainly hope some MS engineers resigned in disgust over that little change.

So to answer your question... no, there is no reason to put Windows 8 on a desktop or laptop. And it looks to me like even a Surface would be a pain in the ass. There's no file browser on the full-screen side, so you still have to poke around in Windows Explorer with your finger. Control Panel is still necessary, since not all settings are available in the full-screen side - so you have to poke around with your finger there as well. I know that Windows has had tablet versions almost forever, but they all really needed a stylus.