Technology

What does it mean, Michael?

EDIT: Settings > Personalization > Start and turn off the toggle for “Show recommendations for tips, app promotions, and more.”

Don't even have to dig into the arcane realm of the Group Policy or the Registry. It's incredibly straightforward.

Original comment: I would be surprised if this isn't easily toggleable through the Settings menu, Group Policy, or Registry keys.

Microsoft isn't going to pull this shit on their Business and Government customers without an easy way to disable it. 99% of the time those same options can be used on Pro installs through having the same Group Policy options. Maybe 80% of the time you can also just find what the Group Policy option changes in the registry and then apply it to Home installs as well, but I find that Pro license is worth the slight price difference (or slight effort to spoof your license for free).

With most of these sorts of articles, they're more interested in clicks than putting any effort into guiding people to the solution.

To be crystal clear, it is bullshit that Microsoft keeps pulling this shit. I've just also never encountered them doing anything like this without leaving a workaround or way to disable it.

The last time I paid for a Windows license was around 2012. I bought a Windows 8 Pro license for $40. I have been using the same one ever since, and it has never given me an issue. I even used it on a few friends' PCs.

My laptop is Linux, but my desktop is still Windows 10. My work laptop is Windows 11, and I even used Windows 11 on my desktop for about 6 months before I decided to wipe it and go back to 10. I have given Windows 11 a very fair chance, but when Windows 10 goes EOL, I will be migrating my desktop to Linux as well.

I just find things like modding games much easier with Windows rather than having to jump through a bunch of hoops to get them working in proton. Hopefully they can improve that in the next year before I switch.

Seriously. I paid for the computer, it should not be constantly begging and nagging to subscribe to my own hardware. Sympathies to people unable to get out, but I was done a long time ago.

I finally deleted Windows 10 on Sunday. Ubuntu too. Now Debian is my only OS. I realized that every time I log into my Windows partition, it's got a trillion updates to install because it'd been weeks since I last logged in. So why bother?

If I really need it for something again, I'll just virtualize.

It's only a matter of time before it's not an option anymore. Every shitty new behavior they put in is an easy-to-use option at first, then a registry setting or policy, then even that goes away and it gets baked in.

That's you and me, somewhat tech savvy users. Your usual user won't find that.

It's a matter of trust. This is just the latest in a long and increasing train of Microsoft abusing their market power. They have proven, time and again, that they cannot be trusted.

Anyone who tries to pull an "I have altered the deal, pray I do not alter it further" gets a lifetime boycott.

This plus the installation of bullshit games like Candy Crush (glares at Samsung)...

You are here:

So far, the toggle is built in:

Either way, these recommendations can be disabled by going into the Windows 11 Settings app, so you can avoid them. However, app recommendations are tied to other content in this section, so you'll miss out on some features by turning it off.

Not sure what else will be "missed". But, my guess is they will be "missed" in the same way that one misses a case of chlamydia.

Unless they've anticipated this and blocked it like they do with OneDrive. Which they do to frustrate you into buying more storage you don't need to fix the problems they've created intentionally..

wonder how they decide what ads to put there

Me too. I figure the answer will be incredibly invasive user behavior tracking, since lately that seems to always be what we learn has been happening, when we finally learn about it.

I still don't see a single actual advantage of W11 over 10. The OS drains more system resources so it's less performant, and every other "feature" I've seen looks like a double edged sword at best, or an anti-feature at worst.

To be fair, you can use just a couple open source tools like ExplorerPatcher and Open-Shell to vastly improve the UX.

I'd actually say it's easier to get a modern environment in Windows 11 as it natively has a tabbed file manager and terminal.

I say this as someone who has to use Windows, versus wanting to use Windows.

All of them https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/april-23-2024-kb5036980-os-builds-22621-3527-and-22631-3527-preview-5a0d6c49-e42e-4eb4-8541-33a7139281ed

For Enterprise/Education you can disable the 'recommended' section entirely via group policy. Doesn't work for Pro/Home versions though, from what I remember.