7 ms·
I recently installed windows 11 and explorerpatcher on a desktop and it doesn't feel like adware at all. Aside from yet another revamp of the settings menus it
by LegitShady 3y ago
I recently installed windows 11 and explorerpatcher on a desktop and it doesn't feel like adware at all.
Aside from yet another revamp of the settings menus it feels more or less like windows. The gripes about the start bar and start menu are valid but fixable.
Only thing is closing down some widgits the first time that I never saw again and uninstalling a few applications.
- falcolas 3y agoCounter data point: I maintain a windows 11 PC for gaming, and there are ads everywhere. Most of the ads point back to Microsoft products, but not all. Launcher ads. Live desktop ads. News ads. Weather ads. Settings page ads. Game bar ads. Lock screen ads. I turn them off as I run across them, but I can never seem to catch them all.
- orangepurple 3y agoRemove 11 and install Windows 10 LTSC IOT edition until the equivalent for 11 drops. Make Windows shut up for good with Tinywall (https://tinywall.pados.hu/ https://tinywall.pados.hu/) and whitelist applications as needed.
- maxbaines 3y agoSame for me.
- LegitShady 3y agoI don't see any of that, on a plain old windows 11 home license. Not sure why the experience is so different. If you have the ability to install explorerpatcher I'd recommend it.
- mostlysimilar 3y agoPerhaps you're in an A/B test. Hardly surprising the experience isn't consistent from person to person.
- LegitShady 3y agomine is also a retail license rather than an oem included license, but I don't know if that matters.
- andyjohnson0 3y agoIs this Windows 11 Home? I have a Windows 11 Pro machine and the only intrusive thing I've ever seen was the small weather box on the taskbar, which I immediately turned off. I've never seen any of the others you mention. If its relevant I use Firedox and Kagi rather than Edge and Bing/Google.
- wombat-man 3y agoWindows being adware is such a meme now. Meanwhile macos and iOS push tv+, music and icloud storage all the time.
- maleldil 3y ago> Meanwhile macos and iOS push tv+, music and icloud storage all the time I've never seen an ad for tv+, music or icloud on macOS.
- wombat-man 3y agoIt's not that heavy handed but if I hit the play button on my headphones/keyboard there's a pretty good chance it opens up the apple music app instead of just playing the open spotify app. Since I'm not a music member, front and center it wants me to sign up. I definitely remember seeing a tv+ signup with I first got my M2. After setting up the device. If you're not signed into icloud, well you still have all the apps that want you to sign in. Same goes with the tv app. I use the music app on iOS with mp3s and 3 of the 4 main app tabs are screens trying to sign me up for apple music.
- HeckFeck 3y agoUnlike the start menu, I've yet to see advertising when I open the Launchpad or Spotlight. Also, I can complete setup on my Mac without having to create an Apple ID, and if I opt out the system respects that and is quite usable. Finally, I can easily put the dock (which W11 imitates, badly) on the left hand side of my screen if I wish. But I suppose Macs are less customisable?
- wombat-man 3y agoYeah that's true. I get nagged to backup stuff to iCloud or to sign up for apple music but windows has more stuff. I do see the windows stuff as more upselling to other microsoft apps like onedrive which to me doesn't seem so different form the icloud integration. I use both an haven't noticed much in win11 though.
- 3y ago
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- Wojtkie 3y agoThe fact you have to install a separate patcher from a third party company to fix all the glaring issues with windows is telling. Don't have to do that with a Mac. I use both at work and Mac is less cumbersome and easier to work with than Windows, hands down. Windows is a fractured user experience; they're trying too hard to shove the whole "tiles" thing from W8 into everything else and having ads baked into the OS is appalling. Mac doesn't do that out of the box and I don't need to install anything to make it an enjoyable user experience.
- LegitShady 3y agoI installed the patcher to restore the windows 10 style start menu and start bar. Microsoft's decisions on the "new" UI for 11 were super dumb. But after a month of running windows 11 with explorerpatcher for gaming, hobby programming, and music production (daw, vsts etc) everything is pretty flawless.
- revscat 3y agoMost people will not install explorerpatcher. If it's installation is necessary to have a good experience with Win11, then most people will not have a good experience.
- LegitShady 3y agoIt’s not necessary to have a good experience - its purpose to restore the windows 10 style start bar.
- kemayo 3y ago"Windows doesn't feel like adware if you run fairly-scary third-party tools on it first" probably isn't the best sell to non-techy people. (Which I figure is who we have to be talking about, since we're responding to a market-trends article.)
- LegitShady 3y agoThe third party tool is just to restore a windows 10 style start bar and start menu, not anything else.
- kemayo 3y agoAh, I assumed it must be related to adware, since it seemed strange to call it out in your description otherwise.
- kspyy 3y agoI think the average user doesn't know or want to go out of their way for third party software to make the operating system actually usable
- pxc 3y agoIf you feel the need to 'debloat' your OS or 'patch' it to remove ad-ridden UI components like live tiles or whatever, it's probably adware.
- LegitShady 3y agoThe patching is just to restore the windows 10 style start menu/bar at the bottom. Not debloating.