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Microsoft Windows IT

Microsoft Adds Intrusive OneDrive Ad in Windows 11 (windowslatest.com) 84

Posted by msmash from the how-about-that dept.
Microsoft has intensified its push for OneDrive adoption in Windows 11, introducing a full-screen pop-up that prompts users to back up their files to the cloud service, according to a report from Windows Latest. The new promotional message, which appears after a recent Windows update, mirrors the out-of-box experience typically seen during initial system setup and highlights OneDrive's features, including file protection, collaboration capabilities, and automatic syncing.
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Microsoft Adds Intrusive OneDrive Ad in Windows 11 More

Microsoft Adds Intrusive OneDrive Ad in Windows 11

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  • Yep (Score:2, Insightful)

    by boulat ( 216724 )

    Time to switch back to Linux.

    • Did that when they came out with CoPilot recording.
      I flipped to windows back in 2012.
      I'm back on Linux now.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by cen1 ( 2915315 )
      This implies you switched from Linux to MS.. shame.

      • systemd...

        • systemd isn't a part of Linux.

          • Re: (Score:1)

            by Anonymous Coward

            systemd isn't a part of Linux.

            Correct

            systemd is a vain-glorious attempt to make Linux more like Windoze or MAC

            Yep ya gotta luv them systemd developers that close valid bugs with a simple line [WONTFIX] and that really sounds like Micro$haft doesn't it?

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by gweihir ( 88907 )

              Yep. They try the best to emulate their big idol, cappy. Fortunately, there is Devuan and other non-systemd distros. Gave me a big laugh on the last OpenSSH vulnerability caused by deranged distro "maintainers" patching systemd crap into OpenSSH.

    • Time to switch back to Linux.

      Now? Like *this* time? Is that your limit? You were willing to tolerate how many years of full screen ads after a windows update promoting a Microsoft feature? Why now? Is it OneDrive specifically or have you been keeping count? Did you enjoy the Edge as a default ads so much that it made you not want to switch to Linux?

      I'm not being funny here, I'm genuinely curious as to why this was the final straw, I mean at this point it is basically a normal expectation for Windows 11 updates to throw a full screen ad

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by boulat ( 216724 )

        I switched to Windows mostly for gaming. Although as I get older, my vision and reaction time is not the same and its not as enjoyable anymore.

        I don't really see any ads, I've disabled all the bloatware, emptied out and chattr'ed dll files that get pulled in on updates, disabled services, have adblock, etc. I don't use Edge or OneDrive or CoPilot or Chrome.

        My beef with Microsoft is twofold - its the Crowdstrike fiasco, which is not an isolated incident, and their DEI push, which I'm aware of from first-hand

        • I don't blame Microsoft for the Crowdstrike fiasco. That's mainly on Crowdstrike for not properly testing their updates before shipping it. After all, they had a similar problem with Linux earlier this year. As for Microsoft they had little choice but to let Crowdstrike and others get that kernel access thanks to the Euros.

          • Re: (Score:1)

            by boulat ( 216724 )

            Euros apply to Europe, including those stupid cookie popups. As far as I'm concerned the GDPR can suck it.

            As for Microsoft, I don't think any of their affected customers have ever heard of Crowdstrike or consented to it.

            Just because Microsoft failed to jail that capability and reduce blast radius, doesn't absolve them of liability.

            • So you're suggesting that every single driver crash should hold Microsoft accountable. Ok, let's watch Linux burn in hell when open source drivers often maintained by volunteers causes any sort of crash

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Tablizer ( 95088 )

      I hope hackers put some MS ads on Linux installs just to F with the Linux community. I have no ill will toward them, it's just a harmless prank, like Jar Jar showing up in a Trek movie: the look on fan faces is worth the price of admission alone.

  • I get similar in Windows 10 (Score:4, Informative)

    by Tablizer ( 95088 ) on Monday July 29, 2024 @11:20AM (#64664002) Journal

    ...thus, I doubt it's unique to 11. MS is always promoting their cloud thingies on 10.

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by ThumpBzztZoom ( 6976422 )

      I've never seen a single ad from Microsoft on Windows 10, other than the initial setup prompts. Not sure how you've got yours setup, but it's not happening on my Windows 10 machine.

      • Not sure how you've got yours setup, but it's not happening on my Windows 10 machine.

        Yeah, blame the victim - he probably dressed too provocatively or something.

      • I'm on 11 and haven't seen them either. Though one of the first things I do with most of the MS app things is just right-click, uninstall. That includes onedrive, which used to not be removable without hacks, but now it just dutifully uninstalls upon request. My guess is if you uninstall it, it won't ask you to put stuff in it.

        • My guess is if you uninstall it, it won't ask you to put stuff in it.

          Until, that is, they implement detection of uninstalls, in which case they'll put up a "You uninstalled <invasive app you don't want> - do you want to install it again? <Prompts: Yes, Not now>"

          Apple does this with its built-in iOS apps you uninstalled like Podcast and News, if you had the misfortune of clicking links that triggered them in the first place, and later click the same types of links again, after they've been uninstalled. Annoying AF.

        • My guess is if you uninstall it, it won't ask you to put stuff in it.

          Hopefully it stays uninstalled. I set up my girlfriend's new laptop this weekend, uninstalled onedrive right away and looked OK. After some rounds of updates it was back and I uninstalled it again. Hopefully it stays gone this time and that was some timing quirk with updates already queued? I did initial setup without network and removed things, then it updated when I finally let it online.

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by Calydor ( 739835 )

        Got a full screen "WTF are you still doing on 10, get 11 now even though you don't meet the minimum requirements!" ad just a couple of weeks ago. They definitely happen.

      • I've never seen a single ad from Microsoft on Windows 10, other than the initial setup prompts. Not sure how you've got yours setup, but it's not happening on my Windows 10 machine.

        They only come in after feature updates on Windows 10 - it's worth noting that there are no more feature updates for Windows 10.

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by Tablizer ( 95088 )

          > there are no more feature updates for Windows 10.

          So the cloud-spam-bots are probably already installed. I did do some feature updates to try to get Google's gaddam Webp files to display. (Still half F'd)

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Tablizer ( 95088 )

        Not sure how you've got yours setup, but it's not happening on my Windows 10

        I'm special :-)

      • I've never seen a single ad from Microsoft on Windows 10, other than the initial setup prompts. Not sure how you've got yours setup, but it's not happening on my Windows 10 machine.

        I'm not going to say you're full of crap, but you MUST have tweaked some things. I just did a fresh install of Windows 10 less than 5 days ago (needed to use Adobe InDesign) and the whole goddamn thing is full of ads. There are ads scattered around the OS in bizarre places. Mostly for other MS products.. Maybe even all of them were for MS products.. I wasn't really paying much attention to the contents of the ads beyond a "Are you fucking kidding me??".

  • Not necessarily bad (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Many, many people do not back up their files simply because they have no idea how to do it. If this makes it simple and frictionless for them to survive a hardware failure or ransomware attack and come out the other end with all their data intact, it probably is a Very Good Thing, as long as it stays opt-in and not opt-out.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by Alumoi ( 1321661 )

      Many, many people do not back up their files simply because.

      they trust Apple/Google/Microsoft to slurp everything, regardless of their preferences.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by Zarhan ( 415465 )

      Problem is that Onedrive is not a true backup.

      No versioning (ransomware crypts your drive, the crypted versions get synced to cloud). If you accidentally delete stuff, the deletions get synced as well. Etc.

      It might protect you from storage device failure, but that's a very limited failure scenario.

      And furthermore, it's not really very cost-effective (yes, you can get a pittance of space for free, but then you have to start paying). For backups, my solution is AWS S3 mounted using rclone + local encryption,

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Zarhan ( 415465 )

          Ok, didn't know they had added versioning at some point. Looks like it's been there since 2017. It's not that they have made much noise about that...

          Anyway, you still need to pay for the space to keep those versions and to my knowledge you pre-pay for the space you get (instead of dynamically expanding one). If the space is filled up, does it stop syncing or start deleting old versions?

          Anyway, any competent malware would probably just tell Onedrive delete the version history after encrypting your drive. Hen

          • That's the beauty of it to Microsoft. When the space fills up you automatically get advertisements to buy more space!

      • Technically, it has versions, but it's not per-file, and not necessarily easy to find either. But I wouldn't trust it as OneDrive is still in the experimental pre-alpha stage, with customers being the early free testers before it is stable enough to have actual paid testers touch it.

  • Remember kids, it is not a bug; it is a feature to have more ads.*
    *For low values of "features."

  • I don't use Windows 11, but I wouldn't mind this so much if OneDrive weren't so awful.

  • 1) Send them a strongly worded letter listing all your Windows 11 installs
    2) In that same letter revoke their authorization to install software and note that displaying any advertisements will cost $10,000 per system per second
    3) wait for the inevitable
    4) Since the cost of an ad is over $5,000 they have violated the CFAA

    • 1) Send them a strongly worded letter listing all your Windows 11 installs 2) In that same letter revoke their authorization to install software and note that displaying any advertisements will cost $10,000 per system per second 3) wait for the inevitable 4) Since the cost of an ad is over $5,000 they have violated the CFAA

      The best way to accomplish this is for a bunch of us IT loons to get together with the Lawyer Hit Squad and develop a form document that's completely legally binding. Granted, I'm not sure you'd ever get a lawyer to try this stunt on Microsoft, who is well known for having several layers of lawyer available for suing the shit out of anyone, anywhere, for any reason, but at least the concept is fun enough to imagine.

  • This Thinkpad X1 came with Win 11 and I made it a dual boot.
    About once per month I boot into Windows for the updates but otherwise it works to my full satisfaction on Kubuntu.
    The company uses Outlook and Teams and I use them in the Chromium browser, Outlook even offers to save files to Office 365, something I decline and save locally.
    The problem with CrowdStrike of last week is another reason to avoid Windows, when an OS depends on a 3rd party to be safe there is a serious problem.

  • Naturally (Score:3)

    by RUs1729 ( 10049396 ) on Monday July 29, 2024 @11:42AM (#64664074)
    Remember: you do not own Windows - Microsoft just lets you use it and retains full control over whatever you do with it.

    • That's kind of how a copyright works. But MS also hijacks your computer, which you really do have full ownership of. It is theft since I never agreed to it. I closed my eyes during the click through agreements

  • Windows 3.x didn't have any ads, and it make Microsoft millions and marked their epic rise in the industry.
    Why can't we go back to the good old days when we made product and sold them to customers? Why does everything have to be a marketing platform for a captive audience now?

    • But MS only made billions in profit last. Won't anyone think of the shareholders?!

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by ebunga ( 95613 )

        As a shareholder I'm concerned that Microsoft is opening itself to trillions in liability through forced installs of unwanted software, intrusive advertisements, and privacy-violating stalker tech.

    • Why can't we go back to the good old days when we made product and sold them to customers?

      For two reasons. One is that the software industry still operates on a model of shipping what passes existing tests, not a model involving a formal proof of correctness. This increases the likelihood of software defects reaching users. The other is that customers' devices have a persistent connection to an untrusted worldwide computer network nowadays. Before Windows 95, the TCP/IP stack was sold separately (as Trumpet Winsock), and Windows before roughly Windows XP was more often used behind a dial-up conn

    • Windows 3.x had AARD code to troll DR-DOS. Windows 3.x was no less evil than any other Windows.

      • I think anti-competitive (and illegal) practices are a separate issue. Specifically the level of sabotage that MS would routinely engage in against their competition.

        Microsoft's use of their platform for advertising is anti-competitive in my opinion, I don't think courts agree with me. (except eventually the EU might come around to my way of thinking). But let's assume it is legal to blast every user of a device, service, or product with ads? It still fucking sucks to be on the receiving end.

  • it couldn't get MORE intrusive

    Jesus, you've already commandeered my user folder, even after I uninstalled you. What more could you possible want, OneDrive?

    I'm not giving you the nudie shots of my ex-girlfriends to train your shitty AI with, even if you take over my entire HD. So either kill me or stop it

    • "So either kill me or stop it" - your ex-gfs may beat MS to the punch.

      • It was consensual!
        (well, the taking of them was. And I'm sure I clicked an 'agree' button making it--if not consensual--then legal for microsoft to train their shitty AI with them, somewhere along the line)

  • Some dictator is using his computer and out comes the ad for onedrive or some such... over and over... If I were that dictator I'd press the nuke button over this, only to be confronted with "Hey! It appears you're trying to start nuclear war! Are you sure?" Only to have him hunt for the "ok" button somewhere in a corner of the screen.

  • The good part about this notification is it will get people like my mother backing up their files. That's the only good thing about this kind of notification, is that trade off worth the borderline abusive nature of it? The reality is, no professional is going to use Windows, and Microsoft knows that. Since it's an OS built for the social media scroller / Google Docs tinkerer, why not turn it into a billboard?

    • OneDrive isn't a backup. A backup service runs unobtrusively in the background. OneDrive agressively locks any new files placed in a folder, making it impossible for you to do anything with them until it has finished copying the files to the cloud.

      • Okay, sure, I used "back up" too liberally, but in a real sense it protects people like my mother, and take a load off my plate.

        • Now Time Machine on MacOS was a real backup, and easier to use than OneDrive. Does your mother need every filed backed up two seconds after she fixes a typo? Why not only once an hour, or once a day. Does your mother really need all her files to only be in the cloud, so that when she double clicks the document she needs to wait until it's downloaded first, because that's the default setting? Are you prepared for your mother to call you asking you to fix her computer because her files seem to be missing?

          • I think you're taking it literally, it's a protection measure against general incompetence. She already calls me when MSN disappeared, and by that she meant her homepage changed, but she didn't know that possible. She didn't know you could type in the address bar, she honestly thinks you're meant to Google everything to access it. My point is this take a some of the headache away.
  • Definitely looks more like "normal" OOBE prompts, but be on the lookout for "Reusable UX Interaction Manager", and learn how to neuter that garbage (i usually just nuke NTFS permissions on its folder in Program Files). Just aggressively fullscreen nags for Windows EOL so far.
  • I'll push as many one drive uninstalls as I have to.

  • "Features also include: scanning for AI training"

  • Formely known as an OS (Score:3)

    by jenningsthecat ( 1525947 ) on Monday July 29, 2024 @12:37PM (#64664278)

    For a long time now I've said that Windows is a collection of Adware, Spyware, and Rentware masquerading as an Operating System. So here we have a non-optional Ad, pushing people to use the OneDrive service which will facilitate Spying, and which will cost you Rent if you exceed their paltry 5GB 'free' limit.

    Have I missed anything? To any of you three or four remaining Windows / Microsoft defenders out there - please feel free to correct me and/or educate me in the error of my ways.

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • Nadella: All your data are belong to Microsoft.

    Enduser: Someone set us up the Onedrive!

    Every day, lately, I'm so glad I stopped using Windows at home, 6 years ago now. For great justice.

  • The Operating system is no place for adverts. They should just be banned, other than featured items in an App Store maybe.

  • Seriously are we going to run a Slashdot story every windows update? When has Microsoft not done some fullscreen advert deepthroating for a product post windows update.

    Or is the news here that this time it's not about Edge?

  • Complaining again. Another ripe story without Funny comments.

  • “highlights OneDrive's features, including file protection, collaboration capabilities, and automatic syncing” and allowing the spooks full access to your files without a warrent.

  • The code that pops up the ad doesn't understand onedrive config
    I use a custom onedrive configuration for backup, but the stupid code keeps bugging me to use onedrive

  • Without a doubt, the US Federal Trade Commission should have addressed Microsoft, years ago, no, decades ago.

  • "Ohne Drive" (German for "without a drive") is perhaps the most odious piece-of-crap Microsoft has ever created. Unreliable, opaque, slow and they probably scan all your data.

  • I refuse to use OneDrive on my work Mac because it gets stuck on incompatible file names. The simple fact is that OneDrive is for Windows only.

  • Even though i think the article is over dramatizing a lot (it's a single time splash scren from the same company for a cloud that is very well integrated with the os, may be even useful to some, jesus), after i got my new laptop a month ago i have switched to manjaro instead of upgrading to win 11. The privacy issues and copilot history were the last drop for me in an ever growing pile of annoyances with windows. I still dual boot for some games and software i haven't found replacement for but it's in rare

  • ... OneDrive adoption ...

    This is the 'installing Chrome' bitch-fest all-over again. Let's say what Microsoft is really doing: Bullying customers who use a competing product (or no product). A year ago, they officially stopped being a vendor and started being the owner of your data. Yes, EULAs have declared "all your data are belong to us" for 20 years but MS is actively interfering with use of their product because a customer hasn't 'donated' their data to Microsoft's AI training and privacy-reselling.

    Imagine, if activating c

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