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How to disable the built-in Windows 10 ads
- downvoteme1 6y agoThis is mostly click bait . The first 3 mentioned by the author are not ads. If you are a new windows user, those tips and tricks are somewhat useful as they tell you what’s new in Windows 10 compared to Windows 7 or an older version.
- cma 6y agoThe first (lockscreen thing) is definitely an ad. If you misclick by accident trying to type your password, you get sent to a bing site opened in edge regardless of if edge is even your default browser. It will then nag prompt to switch to edge which could bring in a good bit of money for MS. I guarantee that factored into their decision to add it far more than "this would be a fun thing to innocently engage users with."
- pcdoodle 6y agoAfter using windows since 95, I can't do it anymore. It doesn't feel like its my computer.
- yjftsjthsd-h 6y ago> Someone cleverly pointed out that Windows changed from "My Computer" to "This PC" in recent years. - arwhatever on Microsoft has removed the “use offline account” op... (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21104910 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21104910)
- mariuz 6y agoWindows 10 is practically adware https://www.gnu.org/proprietary/malware-microsoft.html https://www.gnu.org/proprietary/malware-microsoft.html
- panpanna 6y agoFirst of all, I don't understand why Microsoft is doing this. They are making more from online services than they ever made from selling windows licences so it's not like they need the few cents advertising generates. Probably the windows group trying to up their own numbers, not noting they are hurting the company as whole. With that said, I don't consider all things author disabled as "ads". Some are just annoying attempts to get people to explore w10 and the included software. What I consider ads are: 1. The stupid preinstalled games and apps that fill your start screen upon your first boot. 2. The preinstalled Microsoft games (these contain actual ads) 3. The third party app suggestions.
- Gys 6y ago> I don't understand why Microsoft is doing this Maximizing shareholder value is about pushing everything to the limits, to fully explore every opportunity for potential revenues. Not saying I like this concept and what it does to the world. But at the same time I am invested in the stockmarket, meaning that I want to profit from it. I guess I want it all...
- wegs 6y agoAnything which spies on me for Microsoft, I want disabled. I'd like my Windows to: * Occasionally grab a list of patches available, see which ones apply to my system * If I install new hardware, with my permission, find drivers. Sending random information about me to Microsoft is not okay. But no, the author doesn't disable all Microsoft ads as advertised; you also need to uninstall the massive number of paid pre-installed craplets, which as far as I know, can only be done with command line incantations. I think Microsoft is doing this since OS licensing costs will disappear at some point, with (1) actual increasingly fierce competition from places like Android (2) ease of future free OS competition as things moving online (20 years ago, no business could run Ubuntu because Word; now, Ubuntu, Chromebooks, etc. are enough to run a business on) The Microsoft tax will become increasingly unsustainable on the low-end, and that may quickly trickle up.
- dntbnmpls 6y ago> First of all, I don't understand why Microsoft is doing this. For money. All companies do things for money. > so it's not like they need the few cents advertising generates. Few cents? Advertising is behind some of the most profitable companies in the world today. > Probably the windows group trying to up their own numbers, not noting they are hurting the company as whole. When windows 10 was released, MSFT had a market cap of around $400 billion. Today it has a market cap of $1.4 trillion. If the windows group is hurting microsoft, that isn't being reflected in its market cap.
- Nextgrid 6y agoThe solution is to send a clear signal to Microsoft that their behaviour is unacceptable by switching to Mac or Linux.
- rbanffy 6y agoWindows machines are a rare sighting where I work. Sadly, so are Linux machines, since the company doesn't support them.
- darrmit 6y agoThis. And if the next version of macOS is any more of a dumpster fire than Catalina it may narrow the list down even further.
- lifthrasiir 6y agoFor me Catalina is already a dumpster. In fact, it had been so since Sierra (when, for example, the default Korean keyboard layout was silently changed to include a Won sign in place of a backquote) so that I had been very reluctant to update; I only updated to Mojave months ago.
- ken 6y agoThis doesn't work. When we have only 3 major choices, and each one is exceptionally complex, it can't work. It's literally impossible to "send a clear signal" about dozens of different issues using (slightly less than) 2 bits of information.
- Ronsenshi 6y agoIronic, given how the website itself is packed to the brim with ads.
- beefhash 6y agoEverybody hates ads until it comes to their own bottom line, I guess. Exceptions apply, of course.
- psychoslave 6y agoSomething you hate, is something you would like to track and destroy. But it's all the opposite: that's ads which want to track you. Now please consider getting a copy of my last new world exclusive publication "The book I will never write" for free¹. ¹ First 42 microseconds are free of charge, after what you tacitly renew your subscription into a premium plan, including a varying minute fee whose amount will be changed at our will, and you concede the total complete worldwide eternal exclusive rights on your soul. Download of this page is considered an explicit consent. Any form of pleasure, displeasure, or any other form of emotion risen during the reading of this text might be charged with extra fee.
- namdnay 6y agoThe difference being that you don't pay for the website
- abacadaba 6y agoI'm opening you're site, I'm peering into your home, if you're adding things to my desktop, you're invading mine.
- dmortin 6y agoI use Windows (not 10), I like the convenience of it that most things, drivers work out of the box. But given the direction Microsoft is going it's likely my next machine will run Linux. All the software I use is available for Linux too, so I guess the main unconvenience will be that I'll have to pay attention when buying hardware to make sure there are proper Linux drivers for them. I guess there are plenty of people using Windows for convenience, but if the longer trend is that it will have ads, I'll need a Microsoft account to run it, etc. then many of those people who know their way around computer OSs may switch to Linux instead.
- unnouinceput 6y agoIn regards to his tip "Disable advertisements from File Explorer". Also after clicking "Apply" do chose the upper button on same window that says "Apply to folders" - it will make the settings done there to be applied to folders of same "style". One only need to apply this to local drives, documents, pictures, videos and a few other "styles" to have an unified view of all folders when using Windows File Explorer. But I recommend using Total Commander instead (personal favorite).
- christophilus 6y agoStep 1: Format Step 2: Install Linux
- theredbox 6y agoIf only Linux had as nice and frictionless experience as Windows or Mac. Linux on desktop is somewhat bearable with the right distro but on a laptop it's a big no no (terrible battery life etc).
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- kilroy_jones 6y agoI've never had a battery life problem with Arch or Mint.
- jraph 6y agoIt has. Since it does not boot most of the time, you are going to shut down your computer and do other, meaningful things instead, like reading, writing, painting, hiking or hanging out. Install Linux and wasting time on HN and Facebook is a problem of the past. (I'm joking, I have been an happy user of the Linux desktop on laptops for many years)
- cosmojg 6y agoHuh? I get a full work day and then some (~10 hours) out of my Dell XPS 13 running Linux. Quit spreading bullshit. Linux has come a long way, to the point where I and many of my colleagues genuinely prefer the experience over that of Windows or macOS. Maybe you should give it another try yourself. I recommend Manjaro over Ubuntu for newcomers nowadays.
- theredbox 6y agoQuit acting like a religious fundamentalist. Goodbye.
- lucb1e 6y ago
- shp0ngle 6y agoI follow those 3 steps: 1. Buy LTSC license from sketchy resellers on eBay (I found out it's usually the same Vietnamese guy with 100 of different usernames) 2. Install Windows LTSC 3. Enable Windows Store in LTSC by this repo - https://github.com/11lein/LTSC-Add-MicrosoftStore https://github.com/11lein/LTSC-Add-MicrosoftStore (it's a fork of some other repo that doesn't work for me that much) LTSC is available to buy legally too, but it costs around 300$... all the "bulk resellers" are kind of sketchy. But hey it usually works.
- NullPrefix 6y agoWith commits named "nothing"[0] the repo is surely trustworthy 0: https://github.com/11lein/LTSC-Add-MicrosoftStore/commit/b5b2fc94504a1eeb0f87aafc620ca40a389d8dca https://github.com/11lein/LTSC-Add-MicrosoftStore/commit/b5b...
- gruez 6y agoIn this case it's probably fine because you can manually verify the .cmd file and all of the .appx files are digitally signed by Microsoft
- Wowfunhappy 6y agoYou can also just skip that step if you don't use the Microsoft Store. It's what I do.
- shp0ngle 6y agoThere are sometimes utilites only available on Store nowadays. If there is an edition that has Store, but doesn’t have ads, and doesn’t cost 300 usd, I would prefer to use that...
- type0 6y agoWindows S stands for Store (I think) and you can't install anything on it otherwise. Had an impression that it was ad free but I'm not completely sure.
- modzu 6y agowait, windows has ads? what is happening isnt it $$$ enterprise software? allow me to introduce you to linux! she will always be faithful
- AegirLeet 6y agoThe fact that this is necessary at all is completely ridiculous. Thanks, but I'll just stick with Windows 7 for my Windows machine. That works and doesn't have any of 10's bullshit.
- Havoc 6y agoMaybe I've just become blind to them but I don't recall seeing any?
- gruez 6y ago* some only show up on consumer editions (eg. home or pro) * some don't show up on LTSC/LTSB * your admin might have disabled it for you via group policy
- zokier 6y agoI think it is fascinating that there seems to be huge differences between the amount of ads seen. Not being signed in to Microsoft account probably is the single biggest factor, followed by having Pro edition and being located in EU instead of US. And of course not having an OEM edition. Obviously I opt-outed everything during installation, but I don't remember going through any special hoops in at any stage. While I can't say that I haven't seen any ads, they have been singular events (I think at least one for O365, OneDrive, and Edge, maybe something else too) instead of any sort of constant stream. Of course it is valid to argue that any ads, however few, are too many, and I don't disagree. But I definitely do not remember seeing any third-party ads in my Windows 10 and I think that is pretty important distinction. But as someone who has become extremely wary of installing any mobile apps due the infestation of ads there, I feel my desktop to still be pretty decent oasis against ads.
- Havoc 6y agoAll plausible Signed in, pro but off an enterprise sub, not EU but probably counted as EU for this. Actual I do recall seeing an add for office a couple years back
- towndrunk 6y agoI highly recommend using this to configure Windows: https://github.com/Disassembler0/Win10-Initial-Setup-Script https://github.com/Disassembler0/Win10-Initial-Setup-Script
- balaam 6y agoFor me, Windows 10 is where I felt like I was no longer in control of my own computer. Microsoft doesn't do discrete OS updates anymore but I definitely feel like it might time to give Linux another go next time I upgrade my hardware. There's less and less software the holds me to MS. This is due to so many programs going to the web - Google Docs suite, dictionaries etc and partially due to better Linux support for software I use such as Unity or games via Wine. What's held me back until now has been poor graphics driver support.
- shm33 6y agoThey are trying to kill the idea of local apps and exe's, aka they can finally turn "files" into property by using active directory and NTFS for the entire internet. You all seem clueless as to the last 20 years of software theft in the game industry. Everyone 20 year ago on slashdot was worried about software and hardware drm, windows 10 is the first version of windows where they are trying to turn the PC into a mobile locked down platform because of the success of walled gardens like steam, world of warcraft, and the appstores like apple/google play. The level of stupid on hacker news is disturbing, we used to get complete PC games in the 90's and early 2000's before the public fell for mmo scam of the late 90's which put PC gaming on the path of massive game theft. Valve is basically a criminal game stealing empire by infecting games with client-server code. The whole industry wants to take us to mainframe dumb client computing. https://tifca.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/ClienttoCloud_Vision_V2.pdf https://tifca.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/ClienttoCloud_V...
- bufordtwain 6y agoDoes anyone know how to disable the "Like what you see" text that is shown over the lock screen images (also known as spotlight images)? If you click on that text Bing comes up in a browser after you login. I've followed some online guides but so far no luck getting rid of it.
- detritus 6y agoIt drives me nuts how complicated it is to simply have ALL of those 'spotlight' images at login nixed. I don't want any stock photography of landscapes or whatever, thanks - I just want a plain black background. Unless something's changed in the year or so since I last tried it, it's basically not possible (there was some hacky solution, but it dismayed me, so I never bothered).
- shawnz 6y agoJust go to Settings > Personalize > Lock Screen and disable Windows Spotlight. Unfortunately there's no way to get the pictures without the text overlays. EDIT: In fact it's the first suggestion in the article.
- detritus 6y agoHmph, are you on Pro? I've only got the consumer version of Win10, and I can't see that option... .
- s9w 6y agoFor me the routine is always the same: Install Open Shell to make it look reasonable and then ShutUp10 for things under the hood. While that may seem too much work, it has honestly always been like that. I remember tweaking Win98 and the massive tweaking community around win XP. https://github.com/Open-Shell/Open-Shell-Menu https://github.com/Open-Shell/Open-Shell-Menu https://www.oo-software.com/en/shutup10 https://www.oo-software.com/en/shutup10
- superasn 6y agoWindows 10 was the final push for me to switch to Linux once and for all. And so far I'm super happy with it. I'm using Linux mint and I must recommended it highly for any long time windows user as they've hugely reduced the learning curve. The only thing I miss is Photoshop. I've tried so many alternatives like gimp, etc but I find graphics editing a big struggle, for example I can't even do simple things like adding a red arrow to a screenshot till date without googling for it first. Also wine it didn't work for me for some reason. But thankfully my graphics requirements are pretty less so I boot up windows for that, other than that I don't miss Windows at all now. Rather it would be very hard to go back now.
- thepete2 6y agoMaybe try Inkscape for some of your graphics needs. Adding arrows etc. is very easy.
- lucb1e 6y agoI find Dia easier to use than Inkscape and both do vector graphics, but Inkscape might be better to learn how to use in the long run because it can do more things.
- arminiusreturns 6y agoYou probably have already, but have you tried Krita? After usuing it I much prefer it over gimp. Inkscape for vector.
- thekyle 6y agoI also recommend Krita. I started using it when I tried KDE and never went back to GIMP. It's even available in the Microsoft Store for Windows users.
- _trampeltier 6y agoFor me the same. Since the mid 90s I had Windows and Linux installed at home. But Windows 10 was a no go. I mean I even have the Pro Licence. But serious, Candy Crash and XBox all over the place. After one week trying to delete all that things, I had to accept, thats not what I want and deleted it. So I'm also a Linux only now.
- spookybones 6y agoThe Surface Pro briefly pulled me out of the Mac ecosystem. And I spun on my heel and went right back at the sight of baked-in ads.
- thrwyoilarticle 6y agoMy experience with troubleshooting on Windows has led to a lot of websites like this - no-name businesses, a wall of ads, and SEO-optimised content derived from performing the same web search I'm doing. Unless I add 'Ubuntu' to the search term, troubleshooting on Linux OSes tends to take me to primary sources e.g. internet-hosted manpages and docs. It's probably just an inevitability of success but it does make the ecosystem more frustrating to use.
- lucb1e 6y ago> It's probably just an inevitability of success but it does make the ecosystem more frustrating to use. For searching online, probably yes. If Linux were used by all the people currently using Windows, there would surely be just as much crap. But for the OS itself, if the current (open) development models of most distributions would remain open and not become like Canonical's Ubuntu, I don't see that such an OS would ever get ads or become frustrating to use as a law of nature. Volunteers don't do work they don't believe in, few people would work on a change or feature they don't think will be an improvement.
- ydb 6y agoIt may go against the grain here, but I think advertisements in Windows 10 is crucial. It's strange, because you would expect the HN audience to be in favor of getting products in front of eyeballs. Operating systems in 2020 have evolved into thought systems that enable our lives in the emergent digital economy. Think of it like real-estate in the "real" world. People hate billboards because they're gaudy, yet they relish Times Square. Operating Systems are like the Times Square of the computing world, allowing us to navigate and consume and vote with our dollars. It makes total sense for them to contain advertisements. In fact, I encourage it.
- amiga_500 6y agoI want no billboards and no digital billboards. If I buy the software, the screen "real estate" is mine.
- detaro 6y agoAre you in favor of your landlord or the HOA replacing your wallpaper with advertisement too? My desktop environment's role in my life is much more like that than Time Square's.
- jmuguy 6y agoTourists visit Times Square and then go home. Similarly I might tour some virtual hell hole covered in ads for Candy Crush but then I’m going home to an ad free existence because I’m not a crazy person.
- catblast 6y agoLol what is this? Who made this and what is its purpose?
- frank2 6y agoSpotted the adman.
- type0 6y agoYou don't own Times Sqr, maybe you don't own your computer either and just rent it from MS (good for you), but most people actually buy their PCs.
- xmichael99 6y agoIs there no magic script or program out there that will just do this for my lazy ass? (:
- esotericn 6y agoPersonally I'd rather just hold my knife by the handle end rather than trying to sand down the serrated bits!
- fuzzy2 6y agoYou can keep Spotlight on the lock screen. You have to turn on the "Require Ctrl-Alt-Del" option though.
- teddyc 6y agoWould love to see the PowerShell equivalent for these steps so it can be automated / repeated.
- majkinetor 6y agohttps://github.com/W4RH4WK/Debloat-Windows-10 https://github.com/W4RH4WK/Debloat-Windows-10
- garraeth 6y agoI'm surprised no one has mentioned O&O ShutUp10 (https://www.oo-software.com/en/shutup10 https://www.oo-software.com/en/shutup10). I've used it on my Windows computers for years and never see ads.
- Causality1 6y agoI still remember the feeling of dread in my stomach the first time I used Windows 10 and realized Microsoft had added a lock screen I had to click past to get to the login screen. On a desktop OS. Just because smartphone sales were booming and that's what smartphones do.
- takeda 6y agoFrankly, what keeps me on Windows are just games, if I would be able to play all the AAA titles on Linux, it would be my desktop. I can't think of any other thing that keeps me on Windows.
- rhexs 6y agoI've been using O&O's shutup10 (https://www.oo-software.com/en/shutup10 https://www.oo-software.com/en/shutup10) as the first step after a fresh install for years. Anything better, or is this still a good solution?