5 ms·

Windows is mandatory at work and Edge is making life ever more annoying. It is setup as the default browser, the personalizations (don't show me your crappy ne

Windows is mandatory at work and Edge is making life ever more annoying. It is setup as the default browser, the personalizations (don't show me your crappy news, background, or helpful links...) always come back, and simple things like "set new tabs to be a blank page" aren't allowed. Not looking forward to Windows 11 when presumably everything will get ever worse. What's bizarre is that the employer is outwardly very security conscious and surfing random websites is a route to dismissal. Yet the porous and intrusive Edge is allowed to run amok. Of course, extensions to minimize the suck aren't permitted, either.

EvanAnderson 3y ago
The "set new tabs to be a blank page" option is missing from Chrome, too. I don't want a "new tab page"-- I just want a blank tab.
- djbusby 3y ago
  These days you have to make an extension to package up a single empty HTML file and set it as NTP. WTF.
- GordonS 3y ago
  I should work if you set the URL to: about:blank
  - OldGuyInTheClub 3y ago
    That's my workaround : Put about:blank on the bookmarks bar and train myself to click it instead of ctrl T for a new tab.
  - EvanAnderson 3y ago
    That works for the "home page". Not for new tabs, sadly. You're stuck making an extension.
- wincy 3y ago
  But Chrome desperately needs to tell you it’s Earth Day or Indigenous People’s Day or something equally unimportant with a breathless enthusiasm that would make a Southern Baptist Preacher on a Telethon blush. I’ve finally hit a wall with “enhancements” in chrome I can’t shut off. If I type “man” in the Omnibar I don’t want to know about Manchester United and get an icon with the team. In fact I don’t want any pictures at all in the omnibar. Apparently my Google Fu isn’t good enough or it’s just flat out impossible to change, because I still get what I feel are ads for brands in the Omnibar when I search for stuff.
  - qzx_pierri 3y ago
    Firefox is waiting. It’s great over here. We’re happy over here.
    - wincy 3y ago
      I use Firefox at home, and have been for awhile now. But Chrome is the standard at my work, so I’m stuck developing our UIs to work on Chrome.
schemescape 3y ago
Is there not a group policy for disabling all that stuff, for security reasons?
- OldGuyInTheClub 3y ago
  Quite likely but our Mordacs won't do anything about it. Many of us have pointed out that a robust .hosts file and/or ad blocking extensions would go a long way towards improving security not to mention the user experience. Might as well be Oliver Twist asking for more gruel.
layer8 3y ago
Doesn’t your employer provide Windows Enterprise? It should be possible to turn off that stuff, at least that’s my experience at work.
- OldGuyInTheClub 3y ago
  End users are locked down from changing almost anything. Many things could be done I'm sure but nothing IS done. Who knows, maybe money is changing hands to leave this crap as is.
  - layer8 3y ago
    > End users are locked down from changing almost anything. It doesn’t need to be. The domain admin can allow users to change it, or configure sane settings to begin with.
    - OldGuyInTheClub 3y ago
      Huge corporation, centralized IT, sanity doesn't enter into it. There are no admins with any clout, only some with slightly elevated privileges to execute tasks approved at a much higher level. Requests like this will filter up through the ticketing system and get autorejected as not compatible with security policies.
      - layer8 3y ago
        I can recommend working for smaller firms. :)
IG_Semmelweiss 3y ago
Get WUB (windows update blocker) It overrides backgroubd updates that Edge may try to install. This was the best thing I ever installed on my personal pc You are SOL if the updates are coming from sysadmin tho
- lxgr 3y ago
  Does that block security patches?
orev 3y ago
Microsoft is intentionally taking aim directly at IT departments by creating a situation where it’s impossible to keep up. Every monthly update adds another nag pop up, or disables, moves, or “accidentally” resets the switches to turn them off. Unless you have someone working full time to manage Edge and these nags, it’s impossible to keep up. They’re doing this on purpose. You can even see it in the error messages they show. For example, if you disable the App Store, it shows a big message to the user “This feature has been disabled by your IT department”, which drives animosity where people complain that “IT is blocking me, and if we just got rid of them (i.e. used the cloud instead), we would all be happy and run the apps we want like I can on my phone”. IT controls directly prevent users from signing up with other paid services, so their incentive is to get rid of IT.
- OldGuyInTheClub 3y ago
  Microsoft's Cloud is so grisly I don't think anyone on the technical side at my shop would want any more of it than has been shoved down our throats. Office365 takes the already bad Office "experience" to new lows. Sharepoint is the 40% solution to problems we don't actually have. The Cloud Drive is so clunktacular it is a chore to load or save anything. No way to map any of that to a shortcut so it is click, wait, click, wait, click wait. Per file. Teams does everything Skype does worse and more slowly. We actually think that our IT and Microsoft are in it together and that we, the users, are their mutual enemy.

EvanAnderson 3y ago

The "set new tabs to be a blank page" option is missing from Chrome, too. I don't want a "new tab page"-- I just want a blank tab.

djbusby 3y ago
These days you have to make an extension to package up a single empty HTML file and set it as NTP. WTF.
GordonS 3y ago
I should work if you set the URL to: about:blank
- OldGuyInTheClub 3y ago
  That's my workaround : Put about:blank on the bookmarks bar and train myself to click it instead of ctrl T for a new tab.
- EvanAnderson 3y ago
  That works for the "home page". Not for new tabs, sadly. You're stuck making an extension.
wincy 3y ago
But Chrome desperately needs to tell you it’s Earth Day or Indigenous People’s Day or something equally unimportant with a breathless enthusiasm that would make a Southern Baptist Preacher on a Telethon blush. I’ve finally hit a wall with “enhancements” in chrome I can’t shut off. If I type “man” in the Omnibar I don’t want to know about Manchester United and get an icon with the team. In fact I don’t want any pictures at all in the omnibar. Apparently my Google Fu isn’t good enough or it’s just flat out impossible to change, because I still get what I feel are ads for brands in the Omnibar when I search for stuff.
- qzx_pierri 3y ago
  Firefox is waiting. It’s great over here. We’re happy over here.
  - wincy 3y ago
    I use Firefox at home, and have been for awhile now. But Chrome is the standard at my work, so I’m stuck developing our UIs to work on Chrome.

schemescape 3y ago

Is there not a group policy for disabling all that stuff, for security reasons?

OldGuyInTheClub 3y ago
Quite likely but our Mordacs won't do anything about it. Many of us have pointed out that a robust .hosts file and/or ad blocking extensions would go a long way towards improving security not to mention the user experience. Might as well be Oliver Twist asking for more gruel.

layer8 3y ago

Doesn’t your employer provide Windows Enterprise? It should be possible to turn off that stuff, at least that’s my experience at work.

OldGuyInTheClub 3y ago
End users are locked down from changing almost anything. Many things could be done I'm sure but nothing IS done. Who knows, maybe money is changing hands to leave this crap as is.
- layer8 3y ago
  > End users are locked down from changing almost anything. It doesn’t need to be. The domain admin can allow users to change it, or configure sane settings to begin with.
  - OldGuyInTheClub 3y ago
    Huge corporation, centralized IT, sanity doesn't enter into it. There are no admins with any clout, only some with slightly elevated privileges to execute tasks approved at a much higher level. Requests like this will filter up through the ticketing system and get autorejected as not compatible with security policies.
    - layer8 3y ago
      I can recommend working for smaller firms. :)

IG_Semmelweiss 3y ago

Get WUB (windows update blocker) It overrides backgroubd updates that Edge may try to install. This was the best thing I ever installed on my personal pc You are SOL if the updates are coming from sysadmin tho

lxgr 3y ago
Does that block security patches?

orev 3y ago

Microsoft is intentionally taking aim directly at IT departments by creating a situation where it’s impossible to keep up. Every monthly update adds another nag pop up, or disables, moves, or “accidentally” resets the switches to turn them off. Unless you have someone working full time to manage Edge and these nags, it’s impossible to keep up. They’re doing this on purpose. You can even see it in the error messages they show. For example, if you disable the App Store, it shows a big message to the user “This feature has been disabled by your IT department”, which drives animosity where people complain that “IT is blocking me, and if we just got rid of them (i.e. used the cloud instead), we would all be happy and run the apps we want like I can on my phone”. IT controls directly prevent users from signing up with other paid services, so their incentive is to get rid of IT.

OldGuyInTheClub 3y ago
Microsoft's Cloud is so grisly I don't think anyone on the technical side at my shop would want any more of it than has been shoved down our throats. Office365 takes the already bad Office "experience" to new lows. Sharepoint is the 40% solution to problems we don't actually have. The Cloud Drive is so clunktacular it is a chore to load or save anything. No way to map any of that to a shortcut so it is click, wait, click, wait, click wait. Per file. Teams does everything Skype does worse and more slowly. We actually think that our IT and Microsoft are in it together and that we, the users, are their mutual enemy.