5 ms·

Google got fined for just setting the default search engine on Android as Google. At least you could change it. Meanwhile, Windows 10 uses Bing in the search ba

Google got fined for just setting the default search engine on Android as Google. At least you could change it. Meanwhile, Windows 10 uses Bing in the search bar and there’s no option to change or disable it. It’s pretty irritation when I search for a specific file that I know exists on my computer, but the search bar decides to search Bing for results instead. The only way to disable it is to edit the registry (!), which I recommend doing because now results from my computer are delivered instantly instead of having to wait for Bing to load. https://www.howtogeek.com/224159/how-to-disable-bing-in-the-windows-10-start-menu/ https://www.howtogeek.com/224159/how-to-disable-bing-in-the-... People say Windows is more user friendly than Linux. I beg to differ.

sharpneli 6y ago
I’ve had to do it few times now on different machines as having this on has broken the normal search completely. If bing doesn’t respond one cannot do any local search, basically breaking it completely.
- vezycash 6y ago
  Install EVERYTHING and pin it to your taskbar. Its a windows search software.
  - marcosdumay 6y ago
    You can pin to the start menu too. Windows has basically 2 reliable ways to launch programs. You can pin them somewhere, or you can launch Windows Explorer and navigate to the executable. Some other ways will work most of the time, but not always. Now... I'd be happy if I find some KDE setting that makes search deterministic, because it's going on the same direction. Navigating the start menu still works all the time, but search is infuriatingly broken.
  - ffpip 6y ago
    You make it run on startup. Also set a global shorcut like alt+shift+E
no_wizard 6y ago
I don’t think when people say Windows is more user friendly than Linux they’re specifically thinking of bing search on Windows I think that it has to do with the ease of usage and availability of software and familiarity the average person has with it. To your point though not being able to disable or replace Bing in this capacity isn’t something I’m okay with either. I also wish you could truly turn off telemetry without registry hacks and such
moksly 6y ago
I've used Windows as my main operating system since I 3.11. Sure I dabbled with Debian and Gentoo when I first go into CS, and I've had a few runs trying to use Fedora and Ubuntu as my main systems, but when I eventually landed a job in a Microsoft rich environment and got bored with having to screw with settings I settled on windows and OS/X on my laptop. OS/X even became Windows for about a year when WSL came about and I happened to get a surface pro. But these days I really can't fathom using Windows for anything but video games, and well, work because I have to. It's such a terrible user experience for me, and I wonder where it all went wrong, because I used to genuinely like it.
- burnte 6y ago
  It depends on the user. I use a mix of Windows as my primary desktop, a MacBook Pro as my main portable so that I have a good Unix handy (as well as VMs), an iPad as my tablet, and a Google Pixel 3 (soon to be 5) as my phone. It's whatever helps the user get the job done best.
- smt88 6y ago
  This is really interesting. I've felt the opposite. I remember thinking about Windows a lot: how to get it to work better/faster, for example. I used Linux as my daily driver for 20 years. Then I just got tired of having to Google obscure Linux issues, edit config files, and reboot all the time. I wanted something that just works. I went from using three OSes (macOS, Linux, and Windows) every day to using Windows and now honestly never have to think about it. It's not a joy, it's just... nothing. Everything works flawlessly. I did get one of those telemetry killer apps, but otherwise it's all just stock Win10 Pro.
  - NewOrderNow 6y ago
    Funny, I have the complete opposite issue. I struggle to get anything to work in Windows (dev wise) without hours of tweeking. Windows also has shown me that a GUI doesn't necessarily mean efficient.
    - smt88 6y ago
nirui 6y ago
This is one thing makes me tend to distrust Microsoft regardless how many people are chanting "MiCROsoFt is ReAlLy ChAnGed FoR ThE BeTTer". No, they always tries to grab something from you, little things here, little things there. I got a Windows 10 Phone, and Edge is the only web browser that is available (Version 38.14393.2551.0 currently). According to my setting, Google should be the default search engine rather than Baidu which is an unremovable option for Chinese user. However, from time to time (randomly I'd say), when I open Edge, the Baidu homepage pops up with a mystical tail "?tn=<a number>" in it's URL (while my setting is Google remind you). Now, maybe you're thinking "Ha! this guy got a malwared Windows 10 Phone, kudos!". Well, guess what, thanks my slow Internet, I caught the redirector address hosted on go.microsoft.com right before it opens Baidu. If you curl the address, which is https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=625115 https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=625115 to be specific, you will found: $ curl -v --head https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=625115 ...... * Server certificate: * subject: C=US; ST=WA; L=Redmond; O=Microsoft Corporation; OU=Microsoft Corporation; CN=go.microsoft.com * start date: Sep 6 19:37:21 2019 GMT * expire date: Sep 6 19:37:21 2021 GMT * subjectAltName: host "go.microsoft.com" matched cert's "go.microsoft.com" * issuer: C=US; ST=Washington; L=Redmond; O=Microsoft Corporation; OU=Microsoft IT; CN=Microsoft IT TLS CA 5 * SSL certificate verify ok. > HEAD /fwlink/?LinkId=625115 HTTP/1.1 > Host: go.microsoft.com > User-Agent: curl/7.58.0 > Accept: */* > < HTTP/1.1 302 Moved Temporarily HTTP/1.1 302 Moved Temporarily < Content-Length: 0 Content-Length: 0 < Location: https://www.baidu.com/?tn=80035161_1_dg Location: https://www.baidu.com/?tn=80035161_1_dg ...... Well, to be completely fair, it's not the dirtiest little game that they've played during their entire existence. And, at the very least, they are indeed redirecting me to the HTTPS service rather than HTTP one. So I guess I should thank them for the merciful and care?
grugagag 6y ago
Windows 10 keeps on installing Edge and luring me to set it the default web browser. It even looks exactly like chrome so users like my mom unknowingly start using it. I find that very deceptive. Windows 10 is a horrible OS as far as I can tell. It tries to do things for me that I don't want to and I have to spend a few days to remove all the crap and bloat on a fresh setup then I have to figure out how to stop services that try to update and remove all my changes. I am using Windows 10 strictly for work otherwise I'd not touch it with a 10 foot pole. It's sad to see so many young people embrace Microsoft but I know their relationship won't last, I was one of them years and years ago.
- basch 6y ago
  >so users like my mom unknowingly start using it. I find that very deceptive. Which is exactly how Chrome got so popular. Two wrongs and all.
  - grugagag 6y ago
    That's not my experience. I'm no longer using Chrome as a daily driver, but when I first installed Chrome it was because IE was extremely unusable buggy and fell be hind a lot at the time and FF was great and all but a bit slow and and eating a lot of RAM. Chrome was fast and light I remember seeing memes about what Internet Explorer: Q:What is IE good for? A:To search and install Chrome.
    - basch 6y ago
      Thats anecdotal and the memes were after it got popular. Just because many of us purposely installed chrome, doesnt disprove that Google used many dark patterns to get people to click buttons or bundle it with other installs early on. Back then, Chrome used many of the same tactics as Yahoo and Ask toolbars, and even today the google.com home page warns you as if google doesnt work right in other browsers.
      - grugagag 6y ago
        You might be right but I personally installed Chrome because I wanted to. Well, first to try it then to replace IE on other computers. I'm sure they abused dark patterns as well as the whole industry almost never hesitate to do so.

sharpneli 6y ago

I’ve had to do it few times now on different machines as having this on has broken the normal search completely. If bing doesn’t respond one cannot do any local search, basically breaking it completely.

vezycash 6y ago
Install EVERYTHING and pin it to your taskbar. Its a windows search software.
- marcosdumay 6y ago
  You can pin to the start menu too. Windows has basically 2 reliable ways to launch programs. You can pin them somewhere, or you can launch Windows Explorer and navigate to the executable. Some other ways will work most of the time, but not always. Now... I'd be happy if I find some KDE setting that makes search deterministic, because it's going on the same direction. Navigating the start menu still works all the time, but search is infuriatingly broken.
- ffpip 6y ago
  You make it run on startup. Also set a global shorcut like alt+shift+E

no_wizard 6y ago

I don’t think when people say Windows is more user friendly than Linux they’re specifically thinking of bing search on Windows I think that it has to do with the ease of usage and availability of software and familiarity the average person has with it. To your point though not being able to disable or replace Bing in this capacity isn’t something I’m okay with either. I also wish you could truly turn off telemetry without registry hacks and such

moksly 6y ago

I've used Windows as my main operating system since I 3.11. Sure I dabbled with Debian and Gentoo when I first go into CS, and I've had a few runs trying to use Fedora and Ubuntu as my main systems, but when I eventually landed a job in a Microsoft rich environment and got bored with having to screw with settings I settled on windows and OS/X on my laptop. OS/X even became Windows for about a year when WSL came about and I happened to get a surface pro. But these days I really can't fathom using Windows for anything but video games, and well, work because I have to. It's such a terrible user experience for me, and I wonder where it all went wrong, because I used to genuinely like it.

burnte 6y ago
It depends on the user. I use a mix of Windows as my primary desktop, a MacBook Pro as my main portable so that I have a good Unix handy (as well as VMs), an iPad as my tablet, and a Google Pixel 3 (soon to be 5) as my phone. It's whatever helps the user get the job done best.
smt88 6y ago
This is really interesting. I've felt the opposite. I remember thinking about Windows a lot: how to get it to work better/faster, for example. I used Linux as my daily driver for 20 years. Then I just got tired of having to Google obscure Linux issues, edit config files, and reboot all the time. I wanted something that just works. I went from using three OSes (macOS, Linux, and Windows) every day to using Windows and now honestly never have to think about it. It's not a joy, it's just... nothing. Everything works flawlessly. I did get one of those telemetry killer apps, but otherwise it's all just stock Win10 Pro.
- NewOrderNow 6y ago
  Funny, I have the complete opposite issue. I struggle to get anything to work in Windows (dev wise) without hours of tweeking. Windows also has shown me that a GUI doesn't necessarily mean efficient.
  - smt88 6y ago

nirui 6y ago

This is one thing makes me tend to distrust Microsoft regardless how many people are chanting "MiCROsoFt is ReAlLy ChAnGed FoR ThE BeTTer". No, they always tries to grab something from you, little things here, little things there. I got a Windows 10 Phone, and Edge is the only web browser that is available (Version 38.14393.2551.0 currently). According to my setting, Google should be the default search engine rather than Baidu which is an unremovable option for Chinese user. However, from time to time (randomly I'd say), when I open Edge, the Baidu homepage pops up with a mystical tail "?tn=<a number>" in it's URL (while my setting is Google remind you). Now, maybe you're thinking "Ha! this guy got a malwared Windows 10 Phone, kudos!". Well, guess what, thanks my slow Internet, I caught the redirector address hosted on go.microsoft.com right before it opens Baidu. If you curl the address, which is https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=625115 https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=625115 to be specific, you will found: $ curl -v --head https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=625115 ...... * Server certificate: * subject: C=US; ST=WA; L=Redmond; O=Microsoft Corporation; OU=Microsoft Corporation; CN=go.microsoft.com * start date: Sep 6 19:37:21 2019 GMT * expire date: Sep 6 19:37:21 2021 GMT * subjectAltName: host "go.microsoft.com" matched cert's "go.microsoft.com" * issuer: C=US; ST=Washington; L=Redmond; O=Microsoft Corporation; OU=Microsoft IT; CN=Microsoft IT TLS CA 5 * SSL certificate verify ok. > HEAD /fwlink/?LinkId=625115 HTTP/1.1 > Host: go.microsoft.com > User-Agent: curl/7.58.0 > Accept: */* > < HTTP/1.1 302 Moved Temporarily HTTP/1.1 302 Moved Temporarily < Content-Length: 0 Content-Length: 0 < Location: https://www.baidu.com/?tn=80035161_1_dg Location: https://www.baidu.com/?tn=80035161_1_dg ...... Well, to be completely fair, it's not the dirtiest little game that they've played during their entire existence. And, at the very least, they are indeed redirecting me to the HTTPS service rather than HTTP one. So I guess I should thank them for the merciful and care?

grugagag 6y ago

Windows 10 keeps on installing Edge and luring me to set it the default web browser. It even looks exactly like chrome so users like my mom unknowingly start using it. I find that very deceptive. Windows 10 is a horrible OS as far as I can tell. It tries to do things for me that I don't want to and I have to spend a few days to remove all the crap and bloat on a fresh setup then I have to figure out how to stop services that try to update and remove all my changes. I am using Windows 10 strictly for work otherwise I'd not touch it with a 10 foot pole. It's sad to see so many young people embrace Microsoft but I know their relationship won't last, I was one of them years and years ago.

basch 6y ago
>so users like my mom unknowingly start using it. I find that very deceptive. Which is exactly how Chrome got so popular. Two wrongs and all.
- grugagag 6y ago
  That's not my experience. I'm no longer using Chrome as a daily driver, but when I first installed Chrome it was because IE was extremely unusable buggy and fell be hind a lot at the time and FF was great and all but a bit slow and and eating a lot of RAM. Chrome was fast and light I remember seeing memes about what Internet Explorer: Q:What is IE good for? A:To search and install Chrome.
  - basch 6y ago
    Thats anecdotal and the memes were after it got popular. Just because many of us purposely installed chrome, doesnt disprove that Google used many dark patterns to get people to click buttons or bundle it with other installs early on. Back then, Chrome used many of the same tactics as Yahoo and Ask toolbars, and even today the google.com home page warns you as if google doesnt work right in other browsers.
    - grugagag 6y ago
      You might be right but I personally installed Chrome because I wanted to. Well, first to try it then to replace IE on other computers. I'm sure they abused dark patterns as well as the whole industry almost never hesitate to do so.