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Advertising Windows Microsoft

Microsoft Is Showing Windows 10 Users Full-Screen Ads For Its Edge Browser (windowslatest.com) 148

Posted by BeauHD from the upgrade-nags dept.
According to Windows Latest, "Microsoft is A/B testing a new feature that is designed to nag users with fullscreen window-less Microsoft Edge recommendations in the OOBE screen." From the report: The nag will appear when users set up their PC, sign in to their system after applying updates, or when they click on a new ad banner within the Settings. [...] Microsoft is trying to convince users of rival browsers who are visiting Windows Settings of the benefits of trying the Chromium Edge. In the Settings app, there's a new banner that appears to be rolling out to non-Insiders. As you can see in the above screenshot, the advert appears across the top of the Settings app window, just above the settings options.

The banner states that you can "get even more out of Windows" and it surprisingly launches the OOBE (out of the box experience) screen. [...] This ad appeared only when our devices were set to use Google Chrome and Firefox as the default web browser. The user can easily close the advert by clicking the second option "Don't update your browser settings." If you try to skip the setup, the pop-up will appear again in future. Unfortunately, you cannot permanently disable these recommendations in Windows 10.
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Microsoft Is Showing Windows 10 Users Full-Screen Ads For Its Edge Browser More

Microsoft Is Showing Windows 10 Users Full-Screen Ads For Its Edge Browser

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  • Removing the âoeadâ (Score:5, Insightful)

    by frdmfghtr ( 603968 ) on Monday November 16, 2020 @08:56PM (#60732522)

    âoe Unfortunately, you cannot permanently disable these recommendations in Windows 10.â

    I know how to remove them...switch to Mac or Linux.

    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      by Midnight Thunder ( 17205 )

      âoe Unfortunately, you cannot permanently disable these recommendations in Windows 10.â

      I know how to remove them...switch to Mac or Linux.

      And get a PS5 for games. If you need to be part of the "PC Master Race", then it will ads all the way down.

      • Re:Removing the âoeadâ (Score:5, Interesting)

        by rogoshen1 ( 2922505 ) on Tuesday November 17, 2020 @01:39AM (#60733188)

        I remember when windows would fuck off and leave you alone. Now they're continually going out of their way to be as annoying and intrusive as possible. And it's ratcheting up.

        >forced updates, because fuck you
        >shitty bing integration in windows search, because fuck you
        >shilling their horrible edge browser, because fuck you

        I was quite happy with 8.1 and classic shell (metro is retarded, prove me wrong), but in their endlessly abusive behavior, MS removed the drivers for their wireless xbox controllers, forcing either a hunt for old drivers of somewhat questionable vintage, or an update to 10. And for what purpose? windows 10 updates were/are free, they gain literally nothing from that move.

        I'm hoping in the extreme near future game devs make linux ports a priority; it's lightyears better than it was previously, but in my experience there's almost always some arcane config file tweak or random 'gotcha' that wrecks things.

        • Re:Removing the âoeadâ (Score:4, Interesting)

          by AmiMoJo ( 196126 ) on Tuesday November 17, 2020 @09:11AM (#60733910) Homepage Journal

          If anyone from Microsoft is listening here is how to get me to use Edge.

          1. Stop advertising it and wait until my rage at your forced full screen malware dies down. Let's say 12 months.

          2. Make an Android version. I need to sync everything between my phone and desktops.

          3. Focus on privacy and privacy enabling add-ons that improve privacy. Copy Firefox if you have to. Disable all telemetry, allow sync to my own cloud service, fully encrypted etc.

          4. No more shenanigans like stealing data from other browsers. No Microsoft Account tie-in.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by Merk42 ( 1906718 )

            2. Make an Android version. I need to sync everything between my phone and desktops.

            1 down [google.com], 3 to go?

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

              Thanks, that's very interesting! It seems to have an ad-blocker too which is a good step in the right direction, although I don't think you can install uBlock Origin or Cookie Autodelete or Privacy Badger.

      • Re:Removing the âoeadâ (Score:4, Insightful)

        by AmiMoJo ( 196126 ) on Tuesday November 17, 2020 @05:49AM (#60733610) Homepage Journal

        PS5 isn't an ad-free paradise either. On there you have even less control, they can force you to do pretty much whatever they like. At least on PC you can mod games for quality of life improvements if you have to, and have access to a vast back catalogue.

        • and have access to a vast back catalogue.

          My PS2 begs to differ.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

            PS5 has backwards compatibility with PS4 games but no further than that. They usually make older games available under emulation but you have to buy them again. The emulation is hit and miss too.

      • You can still get a windows PC dedicated to gaming (in the living room even). I don't put anything important on my HTPC or even log in to important accounts. It's basically a custom xbox that runs Steam.
      • If you haven't tried it recently, it's way, way, way, WAY better than it used to be. I haven't come across anything except World of Warships that didn't either just work or worked with a little fiddling (no worse than Windows fiddling), both disc games and from Steam.
    • Powershell instructions on how to remove the new edge browser if microsoft hasnt blocked it already. https://www.techrepublic.com/a... [techrepublic.com] Not sure if it removes the nag screens but if youre not going to use this browser you should remove it anyway to reduce the number of vectors of attack by malware. I would suggest making edge your default browser before uninstalling so that it breaks programs from auto opening a tracking page when you install and uninstall them.

    • I know how to remove them...switch to Mac or Linux.

      Except that I get nagged by MS to use its browser every time I do a Bing search, even though I'm on a Mac.

      • One more reason not to use Bing

      • Re:Removing the âoeadâ (Score:4, Funny)

        by sg_oneill ( 159032 ) on Monday November 16, 2020 @11:03PM (#60732822)

        Which is ironic, since the principle use of Bing is to search for "Install Chrome" or "Install Firefox", with a secondary use to search for "How to set Google as search engine"

      • I know how to remove them...switch to Mac or Linux.

        Except that I get nagged by MS to use its browser every time I do a Bing search, even though I'm on a Mac.

        Bing is one of the sources Duck Duck Go uses to aggregate search results. Just use that.

    • Actually you can permanently disable it.

      https://answers.microsoft.com/... [microsoft.com]

      Look at option #1 of the last post.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Duds ( 100634 )

      Interestingly, I forcibly ended its task as soon as it appeared and I've not seen it again.

      We may call that, getting the hint.

  • the Microsoft Windows treadmill.
    free free ;) and the water is just fine

  • Screw you, Microsoft (Score:3)

    by thegreatbob ( 693104 ) on Monday November 16, 2020 @08:56PM (#60732526) Journal
    My (work) computer is not your god damned billboard. Not really a "break 'em up" kind of guy, but perhaps a little congressional/judicial humbling is in order.

    • My (work) computer is not your god damned billboard.

      Yes it is. Just consult the EULA. This was agreed to by your company.

      • Very true; just doing my requisite public raging :)

    • They've inched their way along deeper and deeper into this kind of thing for years, and somewhere along the way during an upgrade or whatever you undoubtedly agreed to some clause that gave them the right to do it.

      • No, you didn't.
        And in any case, contract clauses do not override the law. And even if it's not in the laws, it doesn't have to be legal or binding. Ask a judge.

    • I think Microsoft has forgotten that they are the operating system of business.

      • No, they haven't. They just want you to move the operating system of your businesses to the cloud so that your computers have to be connected to the cloud and subject to all this other nonsense.

    • Why not a "Extract their most valuable employees/organs, one by one, by hiring them off, and then put the WeWork and TikTok CEOs in as the CEOs of MS, so MS becomes their leatherface, and have them attack Intel and its other own buddies while ruining its entire business, until it dies a sucked dry horribly pummeled bloody mess."?
      Where I got such horrible ideas from? Oh, ... just ... you know ... the Borland, SCO and Nokia incidents. ... (Yeah MS, I will never forget.)

    • You make a good point - you can bet that you'll see those ads even though you have no possible way of changing the software on your PC. Further, you're 100% tied into Windows for the same reasons. They've already got you, surely?

      I wonder why then burn all the "political capital" or goodwill or whatever on this? Why does it matter so much to them that you use Edge? They already have oodles of telemetry, why does the browser matter so much to them?

      One thing is that Edge seems to be at least a decent stab at b

      • I will give Edge props where it's due - carries the main advantages of Chrome (broad support, reasonable performance), and good Windows integration. However, I can't completely shake my snarky attitude when they insist on crap like full-screen stuff on first load, or half-page nags for OneDrive/MS Account in "Settings"

  • Monopoly Abuse (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 16, 2020 @08:56PM (#60732528)

    Maybe Mozilla/Opera/Brave etc should talk to their lawyers, it seems Microsoft learnt nothing about the browser ballot, perhaps Europe should billion dollar remind them

    • Pretty sad day when Americans have to look to Europe to protect them from an American company...but yeah, I hope the EU does fine them for this. The US hasn't had the balls to mess with them.

  • Sounds Great! (Score:4, Funny)

    by youngone ( 975102 ) on Monday November 16, 2020 @08:56PM (#60732532)
    I'm really looking forward to this. Every computer users needs to be reminded about the other browsers available.
    Full screen ads are the best kind too, really grabs people's attention. Microsoft is onto a real winner!

    • Re:Sounds Great! (Score:5, Informative)

      by Darinbob ( 1142669 ) on Monday November 16, 2020 @09:03PM (#60732544)

      I had to use edge recently, as our time card software from oracle needed Java. I couldn't get it to work wtih 64-bit firefox or chrome. so headed over to the windows 10 vm and used Edge. Already it's terrible because windows in a vm is ridiculously slow with all the crap it does in the background if you haven't logged in awhile (recompiling .net apps to native code, causing you pain now so that it's imperceptibly faster in the future). But the browser itself was not very good. By default, you get a busy busy start screen, which is used for every new tab; no way to configure it to have new tabs be blank or to have a custom non-microsoft page.

      I can just see Balmer now if he was there: Marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, *throws chair*

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by larwe ( 858929 )
        You can absolutely configure new tabs to be blank. Instead of opening the "start page" open specific pages and the specific page is "about:blank". There are a couple of other ways, too, I think - this is just the one I happen to use.

      • ... to use edge recently ...

        I use MS IE sometimes. I am unable to confirm if this works for MS Edge but try it:
        - IE: Internet Options: General: Home Page: "about: blank"
        - IE: Internet Options: Tabs: [Tabs] -> Tabbed Browsing Settings: When a new tab is opened, open: [A blank page]

        : [ ] " -> are meta-characters

      • no way to configure it to have new tabs be blank or to have a custom non-microsoft page.

        Edge->settings>New Tab Page->Customize

  • Yaaay! (Score:5, Funny)

    by bmimatt ( 1021295 ) on Monday November 16, 2020 @09:05PM (#60732548)
    Great idea, Microsoft!
    Let me suggest an enhancement - a level 5, full page, Sudoku puzzle; force the user to solve it before they can close the ad. Shoot for the hardest, master-level stuff.
    That'll drive more Linux users to Windows. For sure.

  • snark, snark (Score:3)

    by Anonymouse Cowtard ( 6211666 ) on Monday November 16, 2020 @09:45PM (#60732636) Homepage
    Come on people. Canonical pulled shit like this back when they integrated Amazon results in that horrible Unity interface. It's not like this behaviour is limited to Microsoft. FWIW, I'm not a gamer so was able to make the switch to Linux nearly 20 years ago.

    • And Canonical took shit for it. I am curious to know if Canonical still does this, or if they folded to the will of their user base.

      My RedHat install (technically, Fedora) doesn't do anything like this. Does anyone know if RedHat does anything like this? I don't think they do.

      FWIW, I AM a gamer and I was able to make the switch to Linux as soon as support ended for Windows 7. Steam has a huge library of games with native Linux support, and Proton/Lutris work great to run windows games too. I have playe

    • Re:snark, snark (Score:5, Insightful)

      by BAReFO0t ( 6240524 ) on Tuesday November 17, 2020 @04:38AM (#60733488)

      And that makes this OK ... *how*?

      You think we would not react like this to Canonical doing that? Because we did, and you know it.

      Actually, maybe we would not react completely the same. Because Canonical is not (yet?) known for literally having been a convicted criminal for several decades now. (I remember a *ton* of large court cases that MS lost. And businesses they "murdered" in cruel ways, if you use that silly "corporations are people" analogy. Hell, remember SCO? Or Nokia. If corporations really were literal people, Leatherface would tell MS to turn it down a notch! ;) And yes, people have been saying MS changed for decades now too.)

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • am I missing something? (Score:3)

    by bloodhawk ( 813939 ) on Monday November 16, 2020 @09:55PM (#60732666)
    trying to work out what I am supposed to be outraged here on. what am I missing here, neither of those screenshots were ads, one was selecting your default settings for the built in browser after a fresh build and the other is a link is a recommended settings for your machine from control panel?

    • Re:am I missing something? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Gription ( 1006467 ) on Tuesday November 17, 2020 @12:42AM (#60733094)
      When you have another browser as default and Edge is disabled, receiving a forced update to an unwanted program Is intrusive. And then having it pin itself to the taskbar, pin itself to the start menu, and then add an icon on the desktop is intrusive. Following all that by forced running the unwanted browser after reboot is more than just intrusive.

      • Following all that by forced running the unwanted browser after reboot is more than just intrusive

        For all the effort Edge has done to install itself and pin itself on the task bar I've thus far not seen *Chromium* Edge set itself as a default. I've seen it ask / suggest, but never actually do it. The last time I had Edge take over as the default browser was in the "Creators Update" in 2017.

      • Which isn't what they're talking about, so why the noise?

        Besides, was that the first time you've ever had an OS update and put icons on your desktop? That's something that really falls under the category of, "perfectly normal and commonplace behavior", rather than "world-ending shock". Seems like a pretty trivial complaint, not sure why you'd take to the internet to announce you're going to make mountains out of molehills.

  • I can't believe people put up with this, but I guess a lot of people don't know about the alternatives.

    If I hadn't already switched to linux, this would have pushed me over the edge.

    • Laziness is a powerful mistress.

      It's like that frog in the pot of water meme. Except it's actually true to an extent.
      You don't turn people into pushovers in one go. You do it step by step. In German we call that "Salamitaktik" (salami tactic), because you go "I'll try only one slice" at a time, "Barely anything will be gone"... until the salami's gone.

  • Funnily, setting Firefox as the default browser in win10 has become a very complicated process.
    Also funny is how the elevated privileges pop-up remains in the background when installing FF.

  • FUCK (Score:2)

    by XB-70 ( 812342 )
    OFF Microsoft. We just don't need this when we're trying to work - not any less that Google trying to push Chrome every time we Google something.

  • They're going to drive me to the Mac with this behavior.

    • That is like those Americans who say they will move to Germany because America has become too liberal. ;)

      Or is is because MS is so half-assed in their condescending nanny behavior, and you want all of nothing?
      (Yeah, there were some nights, drunk, at 3AM, where I got that fetish. ;)

  • with the old technique of installing MS's own browser automatically, then resetting your home page to MSN or Bing. That was somehow nicer and probably more effective at getting people to switch.

    Playing these games is probably an anti-competitive violation in some jurisdiction. Coupling the OS with advertisement space that nobody else can buy is easily blocking competitors, then to do it with a browser that is bundled with your OS? Why doesn't Chrome or Firefox get full screen ads sent to every Windows user

  • "...fullscreen window-less..."

    WTF does the writer think that means? "Oxymoron" doesn't even cover that.

    • Fullscreen can have a window border too. Usually what you get when you "maximize".
      Actually, there are borderless non-fullscreen windows too. It even is the X default. (A window with a border is actually a window inside another window, to X.)
      It's definitely a word mess, I agree there.

  • How can any sensible person believe a product is worth using when the manufacturer feels they have to ram ads about how great it is down your throat ?

    • Fun fact: This is true for most "popular" products our there.
      They are not chosen because they are good. But because they are marketed so much.

      Hey, look at the lastest presidential election! Would you call either of those two anywhere even close to "good"? (I mean amazing wise leader that everyone looks up to "good". Not "Doesn't grab women by the pussy 'good'.". :)

      Or most cars, for a classic car analogy.

      Hell, look at Twitter! Let's make a blog site... But limit things to SMS characters. ... Because that can

      • Somehow the link didn't work. HTML must have been wrong. Here's the plain URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]

      • Interesting perspective. I'd point out, though, that a lot of the marketing we're subjected to includes more of an element of choice about your degree of exposure, and it isn't made a compulsory element of something you've already bought.

        I'm not disagreeing with you (ESPECIALLY about the Trump/Biden choice), but I think there's a difference between being subjected to ads in something free and in something you've already, supposedly, bought outright...like ads popping up on your car's GPS.

  • 1. Switch to Linux. 2. Switch to MacOS. 3. Run a version of Windows 10 with the crap stripped out (such as Windows 10 Ameliorated). 4. Run Windows 7 after Tronscript has been executed to remove telemetry. 5. Move to an Amish county in Ohio. Choose from the options presented.

  • not that microsoft is doing this ...

    no ...

    The saddest part is that despite all the abuses by government and companies - people do not change.

    • Change in people is a function of intensity times number times relevance of experiences. Because that is how neurons and hence people and hence organizations work.

      Say if their entire upper staff would go to prison for a nice 5 years, you *would* see a change. (Reference: Businesses in Germany, at the end of WWII.)
      But like this... yeah... usually takes a century, if not more. (References: Parties and businesses in Germany, that didn't have the above happen to them, since WWII.)

  • Taken from last post of this thread: https://answers.microsoft.com/... [microsoft.com]

    Note that before doing this you will want another browser loaded and you may need to set it as default.

    Disable Edge Using File Rename:
    1. Press Windows + I to launch the file explorer. Click on “This PC” present in the left navigation pane and navigate to the following file path: C:\Windows\SystemApps
    2. Once in the directory, look for the following folder “Microsoft.MicrosoftEdge_8wekyb3d8bbwe”.
    3. Right-cl

  • Short term solution: I found it was easer to install Edge, make sure it does not boot up on start-up, and then ignore it (as much as possible.)
    Bit of a pain, but, no nags.

    I suspect at some time they may start monitoring usage, but, until then I'm good.

    • And that is *precisely* how they get you.

      One spineless step at a time.
      "Just the tip, tif! And only for a minute!"

      Next up: "Oh come on, let me in your throat!"

  • Same behavior as always.

    A culture doesn't change that quickly. In a 100 years, ... maybe..

    So this will serve as a reply to all those inexperienced kids who always seem to come out of their holes, stating how MS is not evil anymore. At least for a couple of years, until they can argue MS has changed since now. Just like the last 20 years I've done this.

  • Microsoft bit themselves. (Score:3)

    by glowworm ( 880177 ) on Tuesday November 17, 2020 @07:43AM (#60733744) Journal
    Mostly I run Linux, but a do play a few games that can't be put under Wine. When I got this nag a few days ago and finally worked out how to escape it (that's what annoyed me most, now there was no skip/ignore), I then spent time looking for the instructions on how to remove Edge completely. A few powershell commands and my gaming install is now Edge free.
  • So, Microsoft is testing a slightly annoying banner that encourages people to use their browser, to which you can say no. What's the problem with that? It's not even a production feature, it's something they just threw against a wall to see if it sticks.

    If you have a bug up your ass about Windows and are desperately looking to inflict your feelings on the internet, I guess this presents an opportunity for you. Otherwise, this barely rates as a curiosity.

  • I mean, is MS that keen to be hated and despised?
  • Stop trying to make Edge happen. It's not going to happen.
  • Why do people even run this crap when these things happen?

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