4 ms·

Meanwhile, today Microsoft gifted us a brand new "News & interests" area in the taskbar lobbying for our focus and attention. Successfully... I even had to goog

by rho4 5y ago

Meanwhile, today Microsoft gifted us a brand new "News & interests" area in the taskbar lobbying for our focus and attention. Successfully... I even had to google how to turn it off, and write this comment.

iansinnott 5y ago
Also had to do the same. The method of disabling it, while not immediately obvious, didn't seem intentionally user-hostile. However, the idea of modifying any part of a user's desktop without their explicit input is troubling to say the least.
- design-material 5y ago
  Microsoft's recent history with 'forced UI additions' of this sort would imply it is indeed intentionally user-hostile.
  - bogwog 5y ago
    Exactly why more people should switch to Linux on their desktops/laptops. > but Linux sucks, it's ugly, it's broken, it doesn't work, blah blah blah! The amount of time people spend complaining about the evil shit their monopolist is doing to them would be better spent learning how to use Linux. It's not that hard. A farmer isn't going to make changes to their business model because the cattle is complaining. Microsoft is going to keep doing what they're doing until the government steps in (which is unlikely to happen any time soon). Same goes for Apple, Amazon, Google, and all these companies that are immune to competitive forces.
- bitcharmer 5y ago
  Google started doing this on mobile with their chrome for android. Some time ago they introduced an alternative method of presenting open tabs in a grid instead of a list. They of course made the new setting the default and you have to do a Web search to find out how to revert it to the previous setting. They also disregard your choice upon every update and switch you back to grid view. Google has become the epitome of bad ux and user-hostile design.
cyberjunkie 5y ago
Yes, I like that I've paid for an operating system that tells me all the affairs someone is having right in my system tray.
- Cthulhu_ 5y ago
  You paid once, yes, but what about recurring payments? Tongue-in-cheek LotR reference, but, it was pretty clear that Microsoft changed tactics after releasing Windows 10, turning it into an auto-updating evergreen OS without paid updates. They're earning money elsewhere now - Office365 and Azure are their big cash cows, I believe. But other departments are pressured to make money too.
cpeterso 5y ago
"News & interests" is another avenue for Microsoft to promote Edge. If you click an article in the "News & interests", it opens in Edge, even if your default browser is set to something else.
LdSGSgvupDV 5y ago
Unexpected surprise is the reason I still stuck to Win10 1803 lol.
mackrevinack 5y ago
my dad was asking me how to get rid of that yesterday because it was annoying him. i noticed that he also had the cortana search box on the left of the taskbar and asked if he ever used it and he said no. all these years it's just been there taking up valuable space and then 'new & interests' appears out nowhere last week and starts talking up even more valuable space. my poor dad had about 8 programs open but there were all squashed into the middle of the taskbar. makes me wonder about how many other people are living in these awful conditions
- mensetmanusman 5y ago
  When you have hundreds of teams of people whose promotions are driven by what gets deployed and seen by the user, it is almost inevitable that we reach this situation.
welfvh 5y ago
horrible. Same as the news infinite scroll in the Google iOS app

by rho4 5y ago

iansinnott 5y ago

Also had to do the same. The method of disabling it, while not immediately obvious, didn't seem intentionally user-hostile. However, the idea of modifying any part of a user's desktop without their explicit input is troubling to say the least.

design-material 5y ago
Microsoft's recent history with 'forced UI additions' of this sort would imply it is indeed intentionally user-hostile.
- bogwog 5y ago
  Exactly why more people should switch to Linux on their desktops/laptops. > but Linux sucks, it's ugly, it's broken, it doesn't work, blah blah blah! The amount of time people spend complaining about the evil shit their monopolist is doing to them would be better spent learning how to use Linux. It's not that hard. A farmer isn't going to make changes to their business model because the cattle is complaining. Microsoft is going to keep doing what they're doing until the government steps in (which is unlikely to happen any time soon). Same goes for Apple, Amazon, Google, and all these companies that are immune to competitive forces.
bitcharmer 5y ago
Google started doing this on mobile with their chrome for android. Some time ago they introduced an alternative method of presenting open tabs in a grid instead of a list. They of course made the new setting the default and you have to do a Web search to find out how to revert it to the previous setting. They also disregard your choice upon every update and switch you back to grid view. Google has become the epitome of bad ux and user-hostile design.

cyberjunkie 5y ago

Yes, I like that I've paid for an operating system that tells me all the affairs someone is having right in my system tray.

Cthulhu_ 5y ago
You paid once, yes, but what about recurring payments? Tongue-in-cheek LotR reference, but, it was pretty clear that Microsoft changed tactics after releasing Windows 10, turning it into an auto-updating evergreen OS without paid updates. They're earning money elsewhere now - Office365 and Azure are their big cash cows, I believe. But other departments are pressured to make money too.

cpeterso 5y ago

"News & interests" is another avenue for Microsoft to promote Edge. If you click an article in the "News & interests", it opens in Edge, even if your default browser is set to something else.

LdSGSgvupDV 5y ago

Unexpected surprise is the reason I still stuck to Win10 1803 lol.

mackrevinack 5y ago

my dad was asking me how to get rid of that yesterday because it was annoying him. i noticed that he also had the cortana search box on the left of the taskbar and asked if he ever used it and he said no. all these years it's just been there taking up valuable space and then 'new & interests' appears out nowhere last week and starts talking up even more valuable space. my poor dad had about 8 programs open but there were all squashed into the middle of the taskbar. makes me wonder about how many other people are living in these awful conditions

mensetmanusman 5y ago
When you have hundreds of teams of people whose promotions are driven by what gets deployed and seen by the user, it is almost inevitable that we reach this situation.

welfvh 5y ago

horrible. Same as the news infinite scroll in the Google iOS app