I am speculating that only a fraction of users explicitly shut down a program that appears beasides the clock. Is it truly worth irritating that segment of users? I am one of those who occasionally turns off OneDrive. However, the idea of starting to look for alternatives has only just struck me. I'm really tired of waves of popups everywhere.
Every 3 months MS "updates" windows by prompting me to enable edge, buy/try office, enable one drive, etc. And every button for no is in a different location.
Today I had the Bing Search bar appear on the desktop, without Edge ever having been run (new 10 pro install). Previously it always appeared after the initial Edge launch + non-consensual Edge setup ordeal.
My mother in law works for a company that allows her to work from home from a personal device running Chrome.
Several times a year I get a phone call at 6:30AM from her asking to quickly drive to her house before her shift starts at 7 to fix her computer, because "something happened" or "I was hacked". Every time, it's been an update which has reset her default apps so email opens in the newish Mail app and not Outlook or Gmail-in-Chrome, or changes the browser to Edge from Chrome. I'm not a systems administrator, so I havent a clue on what the magical incantations of registry paths and values should be which prevent this despite trying.
Obviously if this was a domain managed asset at a company, someone would know how to prevent this. As a "home device", it feels like you're automatically enrolled in the "Global Microsoft domain", and subject to the whims of a product manager making IT decisions.
Same as restarting a server. It is something that should be running all the time so turning it off points to something not working, and asking for a valid reason makes sense.
Only if you're trying to annoy your users as much as possible. Especially for something like a server, where presumably if the operator thinks Microsoft's help is required, they'll ask for it.
This line of thinking only makes sense if you actively use OneDrive. If you don’t and have no interest in using it why leave it running? It’s bad enough that they automatically bundle it into Windows, but intrusively forcing a user to explain why they are using their own hardware in a certain way is silly.
I’m going to guess that the intersection of people who actively close unneeded background programs, and the users who are willing to explore alternatives overlaps quite a bit. This seems like a really shortsighted decision on Microsoft’s part.
I’ve seen some guides in arduous ways to get around the Microsoft Account requirement, but I can’t say from experience. I abandoned Windows when the hardware requirements meant I couldn’t upgrade my personal computer to Win11.
> Is it even possible to run Windows anymore without a Microsoft account?
Sure. On Pro you choose Organization/Domain setup and create the local account. Home is harder and the process keeps shifting. There are guides.
> If you only have a local account, OneDrive has nothing to sync to, right?
Mostly correct except if you have a local account and an MS login for Store/Office/etc. It isn't syncing automatically (so far) but could be triggered accidentally.
Another first today. I saw a dot next to my username (Start->username) that was naggy notification to MS Account myself.
Either install windows without being connected to the internet or log in using username: test
pass: fuckmicrosoft
It will fail to log in and offer to create a local account.
PD: that password is optional, any password will do, but over time I noticed it is good for mental health.
This. Important distinction between "the company wants to know everything that happens to the server" and "Microsoft wants to know why you don't want their bloated adware running 24/7"
That prompt has saved me from an accidental shutdown more times than I'd care to admit. In some cases we didn't have offline management/VM console to trivially turn it back on.
I haven't even clicked the link above yet, but I just know it's a green checkmarked Accepted answer post from a v-dash MSFT contractor, asking the OP to run `sfc /scannow`, and somehow "2+ people found this post helpful", while below it is a collapsed post with "2,536+ people found this post helpful" votes criticising the state of the MS Answers community.
...right?
UPDATE: I read the thread, and was even more disappointed: none of the official responses even acknowledged the entirety of the problem and callously disregarded important points like OneDrive for Business vs. Personal, the hard evidence of corruption, and MS' twisted messaging on backups for OneDrive...
That's because these options are designed by someone in sales/marketing and not by anyone who cares about the user's experience. Including any option that implies that OneDrive is not perfect might "damage the brand".
They are just forcing you to provide reasons for you not wanting to use their software, so they can change it in a way that makes you want to use it.
If that doesn't work, maybe they will use more hostile methods of coercion. For example, they could make it a service that restarts every 5 minutes after you kill it. They could also prevent you from disabling the service.
* They are just forcing you to provide reasons for you not wanting to use their software, so they can change it in a way that makes you want to use it.*
The only way to make me want to use it is to change in a way that they do not force me to provide reasons for me not wanting to use their software.
The irony is that they do care about what the user prefers. All this telemetry and the surveys are to better understand user habits and preferences so they can make their software better. Unfortunately, they are so out of touch and ignorant that the methods they use are the exact bullshit users don't want.
I would expect that some people are genuinely working really hard on making the UX better. But there are equally powerful forces of people who see how they can enrich themselves by actively making the UX worse. It is difficult to underestimate the effectiveness of a sociopathic manager who sees a path to making money at everyone’s expense.
I think MS sees that Google is and has been making huge profits over the years by simply pushing advertising on us.
I assume MS is now going in that direction too. The signs are there, more and more ads in Windows.
And the ads are no longer just 'ads". They are interactive ads, which tell their provider much about people's preferences, which data can then be used, or sold.
But with google this is the price you pay to use their products. With Microsoft you pay for the product and they still collect your data and push adverts on you.
> The irony is that they do care about what the user prefers.
I doubt it. They probably care about things that are easy to measure like "engagement with the feature". Doesn't matter if the user is spitting mad the whole time.
They are going to remove Windows Calendar in 2024 and force replace it with Outlook. Out of curiosity I clicked the opt in "preview" for this change and it opens Outlook, which I have never used, and wouldn't let me do anything unless I "linked" my Gmail address. Just so I could open a calendar.
So I closed it and when I need to look at the calendar now, I use my Macbook instead.
It's so infuriating how Windows is turning into a total shitshow lately.
"Old" Outlook (including the newest versions) is pretty good (once you've accepted top-posting and HTML email as inevitable). But "new" Outlook is just Office365, which is a dramatic step down from local, native Outlook.
I'm no dogmatic, soapbox-spewin' free software acolyte, but at this point using Windows just feels somehow degrading. It's like a bad night in Vegas. Like being trapped inside the Daily Mail.
Thank God for all of you free software types, or I'd have nothing to boot instead!
I built a new computer a few months back and made the mistake of buying Windows 11. The amount of effort it took to get to work the way I want made me really feel like I could have just spent the same energy on a Linux operating system. Thank God for Valve and all of the effort they are putting into making Linux gaming viable.
No kidding. I have plenty of complaints about Mac and Linux, but JFC Microsoft! At this point I can't imagine I'll ever buy another windows machine. These days it's like Microsoft is trying as hard as they can to insult and drive away users.
Bouncing between Windows 11, Windows 10, Steamdeck, macOS, Android, it feels like Windows 11 and macOS are both in a race to the bottom in different ways. Windows can do everything I throw at it and more at the cost of knowing dark voodoo to excise it's demons and paying for "Pro". Apple seems intent on ignoring basics like regressing multi-montior support, bad screen scaling options, and horrible 3rd party peripheral support. Android only works for me because of Nova launcher. Don't mind me as I clutch my SteamOS device close, it does one thing, but does it well.
Don't be too happy as SecureBoot will not make you want too long until required to register your free software in some 3-4 letter government agency to be able to boot it. At least in Europe.
Any such system is fatally corrupted by NYMBYzm and for money.
There are literally no hope for any democratic system against corporations with billions on their accounts. Any meaningful principle cannot withstand years of erosion via libbying.
> message boxes that offer a choice between Yes and Not Now/Maybe Later
I barely have words to describe how much I hate this.
> It takes real effort to make Windows accept a No.
At work I open the task manager and just start assassinating processes left and right. I wish they'd give me administrator access so I could fix this thing permanently.
(A) what is it actually asking though. Paraphrasing doesn't help here. Is it asking about changing the default? Is it asking if you want to run it?
(B) google has a notorious history of pushing people to install chrome from their other properties, and it seems
plausible that chrome is in fact the latest iteration of user-installed malware that a reasonable number of people install without really knowing why.
Chrome doesn't, and can't, install itself as the default in one step. Setting it as the default is a separate explicit action that the user has had to agree to. But Apple insists on asking separately to "make sure".
I wish I could understand why product managers come up with these ideas and developers implement them. Every release, Microsoft improves Windows in one way (like WSL) and then adds two reasons why it should be uninstalled completely. I use OneDrive on certain computers in my business. In others, it's inappropriate. On all my business computers, Xbox, Candy Crush, MSN etc. are inappropriate. And Edge was great for a while until it became the preferred route to feed me clickbait and more annoying pop-up ads. Why chase your users away?
I get it, there's usually another metric that's at fault. Increasing Edge browser use by underhanded techniques on every install is easier than convincing users to install it. Boosting MSN hits by having a hundred million computers constantly downloading content is easier than making content people share. But the net result is going to be more of us opting out. It's a real Yahoo approach.
The sad thing is, aside from the feature bloat, Edge is actually very good in terms of performance. And it has genuinely useful features like vertical tabs, workspaces, etc.
Agree. I put up with it on Windows in spite of its flaws for that reason. It's frustrating that many of the little "features" you have to disable are not considered part of your profile so you log into a different computer and you have Bing again. At least they made the new tab settings sticky.
But this person gets to give a presentation to leadership about the reasons users disable OneDrive and propose am ambitious plan to improve it. Users filling up their OneDrive means more money while probably not only a tiny minority will move away from Windows because of stuff like this. The cost of moving to a new OS you aren't used to is huge for most users.
It's not "he ruined the product", it's "he shipped what leadership wanted". And yes, it gets rewarded all the time. Besides, 'good' is a matter of perspective... if this reduced app closes by even 1% there are lots of people who see that as successful.
As long as it is positive to the person who writes your cheques, does it matter?
Six to twelve months after you've left, that 'feature' is unceremoniously killed, like so many of these little features in Windows has over the years, such as Active Desktop -- who didn't want a <blink><marquee> webpage embedded as their desktop?
My integrity in regards to my job goes as far as not doing things that are illegal or straight up immoral, but other than that'll do pretty much whatever my boss wants me to. Something that's annoying but relatively harmless like this I wouldn't even bat an eye at. It's a pretty rough job market out there at the moment and I'm not looking to make any waves or get on anybody's radar by being difficult.
I've been trying to get rid of OneDrive for months now, but I haven't been successful. It's yet another thing that makes me really hate Microsoft products.
It's been a while since I gave up on it, so I don't remember clearly. But I think it gets reinstalled within a couple of days. It's probably because of some idiotic policy my employer implements, now that I think of it.
It's still incredibly annoying, though. It's not something that brings benefit to me, so it's not something I ever use.
I've uninstalled the xbox uwp apps and various built in apps many times and they keep coming back, it is very annoying. Especially the xbox one because one time their xbox game bar thing popped up during a meeting while I was remote desktop sharing and I never play any games on that machine but hey, it showed up randomly anyway.
Look into Windows debloating tools. I use Atlas OS which debloat Windows after a fresh install. There is also XToolBox, Chris Titus's Windows Utility, Win10ShutUp and many more, that let you pick and choose what to remove. It's great for privacy and also gets rid of Microsoft's annoying "features".
I have to use what my employer says. I don't use anything Microsoft on my personal machines at all, so it's not an issue on machines I have control over.
OneDrive has appeared in W10 under Settings > Apps & Features in the general list of installed programs for quite some time now.
For W11 the list is at Settings > Apps > Installed Apps.
Up until fairly recently in this list, OneDrive was one of the ones (like Edge) where the Uninstall button was greyed out even for administrative users.
To get rid of it required more extensive hacking than casual users would be expected to do.
In the latest Windows versions the Uninstall button for OneDrive is finally functional, but when you do uninstall it takes quite some time before there is any visible response to confirm your action. Unlike other items on the list which uninstall quite rapidly.
For W10 you click the entire banner of an App to get the Uninstall submenu, but for W11 the whole banner is no longer active and you click the 3-dot ellipsis "trail of poop" icon instead.
Regardless whether an app on the list is that directly uninstallable or not, you might still benefit from hitting the submenu on every single app to access its Advancd Options selection where you can then disable the app's ability to run in the background. Especially for apps which are absolutely no use to you at all, if you can't directly uninstall, at least inhibit the uselessness to the extent within reach.
Disappointed it doesn't show you a photo of the Product Manager responsible for OneDrive and make you answer them personally, like Jira went through a phase of doing. A totally missed opportunity.
It should be the law that PMs have their faces on such things to promote the same trust we feel towards real estate agents. Privacy policy when signing up? The PM should be there, being responsible.
They should include a family photo and explain how the PM's kid(s) might not eat because of your selfish decisions, maybe include Sarah McLachlan doing a voiceover, too.
There is this hilarious older guy on TikTok named OldCoderGuy who has a lot of on-brand humor. One of his gags is "Power Interrupt" which is software by Microsoft that allows your manager to forcefully put you into a video meeting at any time.
My decision to just stick with Windows 10 LTS version for gaming is reinforced as a good decision on a fairly regular basis at this point.
My partner was on Windows 10 and was running into some issues with OneDrive. Apparently it just moved the entire user directory (or something like that) to OneDrive and most of his files were not local. We tried to disable OneDrive and his Desktop just disappeared.
We finally just got rid of it, but it was a pain and I don't think he ever turned it on. At least not purposefully.
Also please don't say to just use Proton and SteamOS for gaming. I have had enough issues with games not working under proton (Particularly if not from Steam) or updates breaking games on my Steam Deck that I also use Windows LTS on my Steam Deck most of the time now.
Edit: I remember what the problem was. he ran out of space. So the service that he didn't sign up for (at least purposefully) that synced his entire home directory stopped syncing because he ran out of space on it, and his files are basically being held hostage by OneDrive.
This sounds nightmarish. One of many reasons I refuse to sign into my Outlook account on Windows, I just know they'll use the excuse of "integration" to completely fuck up my computer with cloud bullshit. I want what's on my computer to stay on my computer, dammit.
I agree, actually it’s quite a turning point for me because I’ve always used Windows and have tried to persevere with Windows 11, but more often than not I’m feeling let down by it.
Yeah, Windows tries to constantly trick you into using a Microsoft account and storing your Desktop, Documents, etc in OneDrive online. The reason is simple: money. When you inevitably run out of space, you can't save anything else. And you can no longer use your linked Hotmail account. I had to explain to my Dad's 80+ year old neighbor why she couldn't email photos with her kids and then try and fix the messed up Windows settings to get her back working again. This type of behavior in software is honestly evil.
It is interesting because in many ways Apple does the same thing with Mac. They push iCloud fairly heavily.
But it feels like when you need to disable it or whatever it's not jumping through hoops. If I want to disable iCloud Drive on my Mac, as long as I wasn't working out of iCloud Drive things just keep working as expected.
It is though. Take the example of the Books app on iOS. If you enable iCloud, it uploads third-party documents and books into its cloud - so far so good. If you discontinue iCloud (or even just disable the annoying upload-and-delete-local-copy for the Books app), every one of your books disappears, being held hostage by Apple. You literally have to then copy every single book that you bought elsewhere into the Books app again.
Just as a counterpoint, the same games run better for me on the Linux/proton side of the same hardware. Haven't had any real issues with non-steam games either on my Linux desktop or my steam deck.
It's interesting to note how different the experience of different users is. Makes me curious what part of the stack is causing such massively divergent outcomes. Graphics driver? Window manager? Distro defaults?
Tough issue to debug. I hope someone over at Valve is studying it so the Linux experience can become better for more people.
So my only real experience with linux gaming is with SteamOS and Proton.
A big example of a game that I had to jump through hoops (and just gave up and switched to Windows) was Kingdom Hearts. FF14 (not through Steam) was another example of a game that I got to work fairly well, but the steps to get it working was weird and meant I lost the syncing the real launcher had.
However I do want to mention that I actually did some comparisons, and at least on my steam deck I got better battery life and performance on games running on Windows 10 LTS vs the same games running on SteamOS.
I didn't do extensive testing, but enough to make the choice fairly easy and remove any compatibility issues.
The battery life one is interesting. I haven't installed windows on my Deck, but I would certainly expect that it wouldn't be anywhere near as good at managing the battery and hardware performance. That's fascinating.
Personally I've had way more trouble on the windows side, where the NVIDIA driver regularly breaks, causes wacky performance and screen tearing issues. There have been a few games where linux performance was notably worse, but mostly EA type things that eventually got fixed.
KH is annoying, what's REALLY annoying is its not the GAME that doesn't work well with proton. It's the DRM and the launchers. You can get the Epic store versions to work but it is a bit fiddly. For KH 1.5+ 2.5 you have bypass the launcher and go to the eye directly.
Additionally, LTSC is a lifeline that was designed to eventually run-out. The individuals that rely on it are in for a rude awakening when the LTS period expires. Microsoft has no interest in catering to you; they want enterprise users on metered B2B solutions, and individuals on their ad-ridden "Home" OS. If you feel insulted, the best they'll offer you is the option to buy a "Pro" license and feel even worse about yourself.
If it works, it works. But LTSC users are like that meme of the smug guy on a plank, aiming at the dude who's keeping them from falling off a cliff.
I don't understand why you are making such a critical reply. LTS versions of operating systems have been a standard thing for years. Even some Linux distros do it (did? do they still).
Given how Windows 10 LSTC differed strongly from all of the crap they added to normal 10, right now I am leaning towards that Windows 11 will likely follow a similar cut down version of Windows without all of the crap.
LTSC isn't going away, at least not right now. When it does then we can talk about Linux again but right now there is a perfectly valid option without any compatibility issues.
The only reason I haven't switched to Linux as a daily driver yet is HDR. Once Linux gets HDR support I'm out. Don't care what garbage I have to deal with in the OS. Windows is freaking awful.
> Apparently it just moved the entire user directory (or something like that) to OneDrive and most of his files were not local
Something similar happened to my father-in-law. He called one day saying that every time he saved a file in Word, he couldn’t find it again later. It ended up being that either all his files were saving into OneDrive but the “Documents” shortcut in Explorer was the local directory, or vice versa. That was also my first experience with the god awful Save dialog in recent versions of Office.
You can’t just upend where something as critical as where someone’s files end up, especially not for non-technical users. It’s absurdly bad.
I have to admit, I run windows on one machine for a bunch of non wine friendly apps. I al considering a linux phone too at some point. At least i installed windows offline, but my god is that os a fractal of stupidity. It’s like each time i turn it on there’s something dumb it tries doing. Last time 20gb of disk space just vanished, and i did nothing. Transferring data, pc to pc, over a 2.5gb/s network and 10gb/s cable runs at a whopping 80 megs. I disabled windows firewall because it’s a home network anyway and i dont care - i get a popup that i cant disable to turn it back on. Then there’s a bloody edge process running in the background though i am not using edge for anything! I cant alt tab without using the mouse…their window snapping feature is cool but if i try to snap a second window it “forgets” the proportions i used before. I cant find pcs on my own network all of a sudden! I have two partitions and i cant resize the first only the second. Not to mention I cant move program files to another partition. Oh and the installer wont even support my touchpad and wireless - which are of course natively supported by Linux.
The list goes on and on and on. I cant blame their devs, i can see product management written all over these “features”.
I switched fully to Mint almost a year ago, and I second this.
Using Linux nowadays is nothing like trying to use Linux 2 decades ago. Many common distros are easy to use and have intuitive, familiar interfaces. I haven't missed Windows a single time since making the switch.
I've managed to avoid the Windows 11 "upgrade" so far by disabling my motherboard's TPM in its BIOS menu. Not sure what I'll do in 2025 when Windows 10 hits EOL.
"pirated" yes but you can often source the install images direct from Microsoft and then use open source tools to crack the activation systems. Microsoft has kind of stopped policing piracy at the individual user level, you can even download Windows cracking tools off GitHub, a platform that Microsoft owns. As long as you're using their software it makes them happy. And LTSC is worth it to have a barebones no-bullshit Windows installation.
Didn't know you could get the base images directly from Microsoft, safe third party tools to validate the installation would still concern me, unfortunately.
I'm not all that concerned with the legality of it and more about the chain of trust, if there is need to download images/tools from shady websites for the thing just to work.
I was able to get Windows 11 to a decent state by using 3rd party programs, so there is that option. Not holding much hope that the next version of Windows will permit users to even have that option.
Don't forget the big flashing "Backup" button that shows on Windows 11 23H2 prompting you to upload your files to OneDrive. I ditched OneDrive due to all of these annoyances.
Bad taste is irreparably laced through Microsoft's culture. It's why I've stopped using their products.
When I worked there the job of PMs, and many managers, seemed to be to figure out how to appear polite while attempting to distort common sense to get their metrics pumped up.
Microsoft has been a known quantity for a long time. At this point, anyone willingly subjecting themselves to their bullshit (as opposed to having it forced on them by work) has only themselves to blame.
> At this point, anyone willingly subjecting themselves to their bullcrap (as opposed to having it forced on them by work) has only themselves to blame.
Yeah. That and their employers, customer base, relatives, biz associates....
So is there a regedit you can do to disable OneDrive completely or does Microsoft worm their way around that as well.
Honestly the only thing keeping me from updating from Windows 10 to Windows 11 is that the ads and forced behaviors are an order of magnitude greater in their shittiness.
The buzzword bingo management "Deliver on a integrated streamlined customer experience with inline analytics to deliver sharedholder value" culture strikes again.
The sad thing is that Windows can be lovely in the Enterprise, at least where I work it's virtually friction-free as everything is preconfigured and no annoying popus. For home use: different story.
It feels like part of the whole trend of constant polling and setting tips at 18-30%.
Time to regulate OS releases. Prove your new version is actually an upgrade, and increase user productivity first - not just forcing them into your regulatory captured product suite.
276 comments
[ 2.8 ms ] story [ 335 ms ] threadSeveral times a year I get a phone call at 6:30AM from her asking to quickly drive to her house before her shift starts at 7 to fix her computer, because "something happened" or "I was hacked". Every time, it's been an update which has reset her default apps so email opens in the newish Mail app and not Outlook or Gmail-in-Chrome, or changes the browser to Edge from Chrome. I'm not a systems administrator, so I havent a clue on what the magical incantations of registry paths and values should be which prevent this despite trying.
Obviously if this was a domain managed asset at a company, someone would know how to prevent this. As a "home device", it feels like you're automatically enrolled in the "Global Microsoft domain", and subject to the whims of a product manager making IT decisions.
Only if you're trying to annoy your users as much as possible. Especially for something like a server, where presumably if the operator thinks Microsoft's help is required, they'll ask for it.
I’m going to guess that the intersection of people who actively close unneeded background programs, and the users who are willing to explore alternatives overlaps quite a bit. This seems like a really shortsighted decision on Microsoft’s part.
If you only have a local account, OneDrive has nothing to sync to, right?
Sure. On Pro you choose Organization/Domain setup and create the local account. Home is harder and the process keeps shifting. There are guides.
> If you only have a local account, OneDrive has nothing to sync to, right?
Mostly correct except if you have a local account and an MS login for Store/Office/etc. It isn't syncing automatically (so far) but could be triggered accidentally.
Another first today. I saw a dot next to my username (Start->username) that was naggy notification to MS Account myself.
Besides, they're the only people making an OS that regularly needs to be restarted anyway.
Clearly they've never used Windows Server.
[1] https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msoffice/forum/all/onedr...
...right?
UPDATE: I read the thread, and was even more disappointed: none of the official responses even acknowledged the entirety of the problem and callously disregarded important points like OneDrive for Business vs. Personal, the hard evidence of corruption, and MS' twisted messaging on backups for OneDrive...
This is emblematic in the message boxes that offer a choice between Yes and Not Now/Maybe Later. It takes real effort to make Windows accept a No.
“yes but those updates contain security patches!”
If three letter agencies or foreign state sponsored hackers want my Baldur’s Gate 3 save files that bad, they can have them.
Otherwise I’m not installing Linkin_Park_Numb.mp3.exe or raw dogging Russian URLs in my spam folder so it’s tough to care.
Bitdefender tells me when something tries to send a packet or if a exe changes.
> Otherwise I’m not installing Linkin_Park_Numb.mp3.exe or raw dogging Russian URLs in my spam folder so it’s tough to care.
I doubt you are, but you may be unaware how many online games have vulnerabilities. There are many avenues to malware.
No junkware pre-installed, consistent settings interfaces (not three ways to configure a setting), and no telemetry or dark patterns.
Wrong. Look in Scheduled Tasks.
Windows 10: From my Cold, Dead Hands.
If that doesn't work, maybe they will use more hostile methods of coercion. For example, they could make it a service that restarts every 5 minutes after you kill it. They could also prevent you from disabling the service.
The only way to make me want to use it is to change in a way that they do not force me to provide reasons for me not wanting to use their software.
I assume MS is now going in that direction too. The signs are there, more and more ads in Windows.
And the ads are no longer just 'ads". They are interactive ads, which tell their provider much about people's preferences, which data can then be used, or sold.
I guess you haven't used Microsoft products for long enough. They don't give a s** for what the user prefers. Their GUI is antiuser.
I doubt it. They probably care about things that are easy to measure like "engagement with the feature". Doesn't matter if the user is spitting mad the whole time.
So I closed it and when I need to look at the calendar now, I use my Macbook instead.
It's so infuriating how Windows is turning into a total shitshow lately.
I'm glad someone likes it! Outlook has been one of my most hated programs for years now.
Thank God for all of you free software types, or I'd have nothing to boot instead!
Don't be too happy as SecureBoot will not make you want too long until required to register your free software in some 3-4 letter government agency to be able to boot it. At least in Europe.
Switzerland has strong privacy laws because it’s a country ruled by its people, not by political bureaucrats.
It is not inevitable that we will lose our rights. Don’t give up, don’t spread a defeatist attitude. Work towards improving the democratic system.
There are literally no hope for any democratic system against corporations with billions on their accounts. Any meaningful principle cannot withstand years of erosion via libbying.
I suggest you fly to Zürich. It's like stepping into a bright future.
I barely have words to describe how much I hate this.
> It takes real effort to make Windows accept a No.
At work I open the task manager and just start assassinating processes left and right. I wish they'd give me administrator access so I could fix this thing permanently.
Apple still irks me, though. Boot Safari, go and download Chrome. Install it. Which isn't silent, and requires multiple manual steps. Boot Chrome.
"Do you really want to use Chrome? (paraphrasing) Keep using Safari (the default option) or Switch to Chrome"
You know the user didn't accidentally download and install and start Chrome. Don't fucking ask.
(A) what is it actually asking though. Paraphrasing doesn't help here. Is it asking about changing the default? Is it asking if you want to run it?
(B) google has a notorious history of pushing people to install chrome from their other properties, and it seems plausible that chrome is in fact the latest iteration of user-installed malware that a reasonable number of people install without really knowing why.
These are showing up more and more in macOS and iOS as well. Absolutely infuriating. UX designed by marketers.
Not just windows. People, especially in business, are not ready to deal with reality. See the whole "No means no" Debacle
To become Senior Product Managers. You can't advance your career without putting your mark on the product.
"Yeah, he ruined the product, let's promote him to Senior Product Manager" is not a thing that people say very often.
As long as it is positive to the person who writes your cheques, does it matter?
Six to twelve months after you've left, that 'feature' is unceremoniously killed, like so many of these little features in Windows has over the years, such as Active Desktop -- who didn't want a <blink><marquee> webpage embedded as their desktop?
I guess that depends on whether or not you value taking pride in your work.
I've uninstalled OD on 100+ systems. It's always followed the pattern of other crapware; it goes away until the next major update.
It's still incredibly annoying, though. It's not something that brings benefit to me, so it's not something I ever use.
For W11 the list is at Settings > Apps > Installed Apps.
Up until fairly recently in this list, OneDrive was one of the ones (like Edge) where the Uninstall button was greyed out even for administrative users.
To get rid of it required more extensive hacking than casual users would be expected to do.
In the latest Windows versions the Uninstall button for OneDrive is finally functional, but when you do uninstall it takes quite some time before there is any visible response to confirm your action. Unlike other items on the list which uninstall quite rapidly.
For W10 you click the entire banner of an App to get the Uninstall submenu, but for W11 the whole banner is no longer active and you click the 3-dot ellipsis "trail of poop" icon instead.
Regardless whether an app on the list is that directly uninstallable or not, you might still benefit from hitting the submenu on every single app to access its Advancd Options selection where you can then disable the app's ability to run in the background. Especially for apps which are absolutely no use to you at all, if you can't directly uninstall, at least inhibit the uselessness to the extent within reach.
This trend is just tacky.
If yes:
If no:Do your job and shut up; you’re a program.
website: This page is better in app!
user: and who's fault is that?
It should be the law that PMs have their faces on such things to promote the same trust we feel towards real estate agents. Privacy policy when signing up? The PM should be there, being responsible.
edit: sarcasm. Remind me not to use dark humor here.
Your joke just reminded me of that.
My partner was on Windows 10 and was running into some issues with OneDrive. Apparently it just moved the entire user directory (or something like that) to OneDrive and most of his files were not local. We tried to disable OneDrive and his Desktop just disappeared.
We finally just got rid of it, but it was a pain and I don't think he ever turned it on. At least not purposefully.
Also please don't say to just use Proton and SteamOS for gaming. I have had enough issues with games not working under proton (Particularly if not from Steam) or updates breaking games on my Steam Deck that I also use Windows LTS on my Steam Deck most of the time now.
Edit: I remember what the problem was. he ran out of space. So the service that he didn't sign up for (at least purposefully) that synced his entire home directory stopped syncing because he ran out of space on it, and his files are basically being held hostage by OneDrive.
But if I remember correctly I found a script to remove OneDrive that would first download all of the files locally.
But it feels like when you need to disable it or whatever it's not jumping through hoops. If I want to disable iCloud Drive on my Mac, as long as I wasn't working out of iCloud Drive things just keep working as expected.
It's interesting to note how different the experience of different users is. Makes me curious what part of the stack is causing such massively divergent outcomes. Graphics driver? Window manager? Distro defaults?
Tough issue to debug. I hope someone over at Valve is studying it so the Linux experience can become better for more people.
A big example of a game that I had to jump through hoops (and just gave up and switched to Windows) was Kingdom Hearts. FF14 (not through Steam) was another example of a game that I got to work fairly well, but the steps to get it working was weird and meant I lost the syncing the real launcher had.
However I do want to mention that I actually did some comparisons, and at least on my steam deck I got better battery life and performance on games running on Windows 10 LTS vs the same games running on SteamOS.
I didn't do extensive testing, but enough to make the choice fairly easy and remove any compatibility issues.
Personally I've had way more trouble on the windows side, where the NVIDIA driver regularly breaks, causes wacky performance and screen tearing issues. There have been a few games where linux performance was notably worse, but mostly EA type things that eventually got fixed.
If it works, it works. But LTSC users are like that meme of the smug guy on a plank, aiming at the dude who's keeping them from falling off a cliff.
Also a simple google search would have shown otherwise. https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/windows-it-pro-blog/w... Windows 11 LTSC was announced for next year.
Given how Windows 10 LSTC differed strongly from all of the crap they added to normal 10, right now I am leaning towards that Windows 11 will likely follow a similar cut down version of Windows without all of the crap.
LTSC isn't going away, at least not right now. When it does then we can talk about Linux again but right now there is a perfectly valid option without any compatibility issues.
Something similar happened to my father-in-law. He called one day saying that every time he saved a file in Word, he couldn’t find it again later. It ended up being that either all his files were saving into OneDrive but the “Documents” shortcut in Explorer was the local directory, or vice versa. That was also my first experience with the god awful Save dialog in recent versions of Office.
You can’t just upend where something as critical as where someone’s files end up, especially not for non-technical users. It’s absurdly bad.
The list goes on and on and on. I cant blame their devs, i can see product management written all over these “features”.
Using Linux nowadays is nothing like trying to use Linux 2 decades ago. Many common distros are easy to use and have intuitive, familiar interfaces. I haven't missed Windows a single time since making the switch.
When I worked there the job of PMs, and many managers, seemed to be to figure out how to appear polite while attempting to distort common sense to get their metrics pumped up.
Yeah. That and their employers, customer base, relatives, biz associates....
You found a wealth of ways to repeat the word "work."
Honestly the only thing keeping me from updating from Windows 10 to Windows 11 is that the ads and forced behaviors are an order of magnitude greater in their shittiness.
It feels like part of the whole trend of constant polling and setting tips at 18-30%.