9 ms·
Microsoft keeps adding stuff into Windows we don't need
- HK-NC 1y agoIts also getting harder and harder to gut those junk features if you know what you're doing, no doubt on purpose.
- exabrial 1y agoBasically GM and Ford as well.
- mastry 1y agoThey're doing the same thing with C#. The amount crap they have added to that language over the years is mind boggling - yet, we still don't have sum types which is the one thing that every C# developer I have worked with _really_ wants.
- codedokode 1y agoYou can emulate sum types with classes and inheritance (N classes inherit from an empty base class), can't you?
- bestouff 1y agoIt's very clunky
- mastry 1y agoYes, very clunky. One of the big issues with this approach is that switch expressions still require a default branch because there’s no way in C# to express a completely closed set. This makes future changes to the set (sum type) hazardous. They continue to fiddle with design approaches to solve this. See https://github.com/dotnet/csharplang/blob/main/meetings/2025/LDM-2025-07-30.md#union-proposals-overview https://github.com/dotnet/csharplang/blob/main/meetings/2025...
- tyleo 1y agoI have mixed views on this. We’ve gotten a lot of good with the bad. I think “C#, the Good Parts” would be a much thicker book than “JavaScript, the Good Parts”
- vouwfietsman 1y agoThat in itself is a critique of C#
- tialaramex 1y agoMaybe, it's not my favourite language, but it seems basically fine. A new version drops, my five, ten year old code largely still just works and maybe there are improvements I have a use for in new code. Some of the remaining warts are because it is wedded to the .NET CLR, so if the CLR says you can't do that then, too bad C# can't do that. It would not be practical to do anything about those.
- JaggerJo 1y agoI agree. Most things that got added are good. I don’t like that there are 3+ ways of checking if a value is null tho.
- vips7L 1y agoThere’s like 3+ ways to construct an object too.
- high_na_euv 1y agoHave you seen cpp?
- orthoxerox 1y agoCould you list the features you consider crap?
- Someone1234 1y agoYeah, I'd like to see this too... We're discussing Windows and all its ad-ware/invasive changes, and someone brings up C# without giving a real explanation or examples. The last few C# versions brought primary constructors, collection expressions, records(!), tons of Span<T> improvements/support, etc. I just flicked through the list, and nothing that stuck out to me as being bloated. The main bloat C# has is older stuff that you really shouldn't be using anymore (e.g. ArrayList, dynamic, Thread, delegate keyword, etc).
- mastry 1y ago> We're discussing Windows and all its ad-ware/invasive changes, and someone brings up C# I brought up C# because the article discusses a Microsoft Windows design philosophy that I feel is also reflected in their approach to C#. It’s a Microsoft thing. I agree with you that the examples you mention were great additions to the language! But I still think the C# design team has some seriously screwed up priorities. My theory is that this one year cycle they are on is hampering their ability to make changes (like sum types) that require more than a year of work.
- Someone1234 1y agoCould you give some examples of the bloat they've added to C# that represent their "seriously screwed up priorities" aside from not adding Sum?
- mastry 1y agoSee the links I listed above. None of those features solved a language problem as large as the lack of sum types. It baffles me that they even spent time on them before providing a feature that is in such high demand (and has been for more than a decade). I understand that you shouldn’t always give users what they ask for - but this is something that has picked up steam in other languages because it’s actually useful and makes code bases easier to maintain.
- shiandow 1y agoIf you're creative about it you can make an interface for what is essentially a sum type. All it takes is a method signature like: Z read<Z>(Func<A,Z> readA, Func<B,Z> readB) It's a bit of a Yoneda embedding like way of forcing it in to the language, but hey it works.
- mastry 1y agoYep, this is exactly the approach we take. It works ok-ish, but it’s far from elegant. In our case ‘read’ is ‘Switch’. I think it’s a fairly common pattern in C# these days.
- masfuerte 1y agoI think I'm missing something. Presumably, you use a function like this to represent your sum type containing the value "avalue": (readA, readB) => readA(avalue) The problem I have is that when you create this function you have to reify the return type Z. You can't use this value in arbitrary contexts where the accessors need to return different types. How do you get this to work?
- shiandow 1y agoYou want to return different types depending on the branch? I mean you could return a sum type if you really need to. Formally a sum type is just something that turns a pair of functions to Z into a single function from the sum type to Z. In fact it shouldn't do more than that.
- masfuerte 1y agoNo, in any particular use of the value both branches return the same type Z. But when I want to use the value in two different places I don't want Z to be the same in both places. That's where I'm stuck. When I instantiate the function that represents a value of the sum type I need to choose a return type Z, which is locked in for every use of the value. I think I understand the idea. I don't see how to make it work in C#.
- fabian2k 1y agoIt's anything but a small language, but I wouldn't consider the stuff they're adding crap. They're useful features, but yes, this does have a price and makes the language larger. There is value in a language with minimal syntax like Go, but it's not the only choice. C# is a pretty nice language overall, even with all the warts. But every language people actually use does have ugly stuff somewhere.
- gorjusborg 1y agoAnd that we do not want.
- nailer 1y agoI just wish they sold windows professional. Like an actual Windows professional that has no ads because you paid extra money. You can buy a Microsoft surface device and Windows is still filled with adware because there’s no professional version of Windows.
- dtech 1y agoThat has been a thing since at least Windows 2000 Professional... I don't know the exact crapware situation, but at least with pro you have access to group policies, and then you can usually disable the crap. (still ridiculous) but it does show how the suggestion for a more expensive version of a thing without ads is niche at best, since even the people complaining about it aren't aware when it does exist.
- tialaramex 1y agoOneDrive is so persistent that on locked down systems where the whole concept is that the machine can only take exams, there's still a problem where Microsoft are like "Oh, do you want OneDrive?". No. Fucking no. They can't have OneDrive, they aren't entitled to OneDrive, and you couldn't install OneDrive if they said "Yes". Fuck off.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- robocat 1y agoApple are similarly bad with iCloud nagging on iPhone: Microsoft and Apple want recurring monthly income and are willing to use dark patterns to obtain it, keep it, or regain it. I unfortunately signed up to iCloud while traveling because I wanted my photos backed up (I've had phones stolen and broken while traveling so I know the value of backing up). It was a nightmare to downgrade to no backup. Persistent email reminders and other nags for months. Difficult to downsize icloud storage with prompts warning of data loss. Had to delete stuff on the phone because it was simplest way to downgrade. I'm still left with a permanent red badge on the settings app to "update payment details". I changed from Android to Apple because I liked the iPhone security features. But I'm unsure the nagging is worth it. The nagging is annoying enough that there's a good chance I'll change back to Android (although I'm no fanboi of Apple or Google). Microsoft prioritises nagging about OneDrive because they want the income from signups. And nagging takes priority over other needs like lockdown (profit centers run businesses).
- graemep 1y agoA lot of this works fine on KDE, but Linux and BSDs provides multiple desktop environments and people can pick what they like. MS cannot really do this as it relies on being the standard GUI everyone knows. Even things like the taskbar being in the "wrong" place confuses a significant proportion of people. As for stuff "we" do not need, who is "we"? MS needs the stuff, which really means some decision maker within MS is persuaded it is needed, and their incentives do align all the well with those of users.
- speerer 1y agoBeyond the headline, this is an interesting article listing ideas for useful features people might want.
- the__alchemist 1y agoThis is so annoying. I just had a Windows update, and had to decline Office and backups again. The worst one I've encountered is moving your home folder items to OneDrive without consent. On the plus side of Windows added features, PowerToys has some nice tools! For the audio device switching mentioned in the article: Try downloading Soundswitch: Fixed this for me. (Note: There's a scammy-looking software that also goes by this name; be careful!)
- mrec 1y agoThe "OOBE" post-update prompt has become incredibly toxic. The last one even started blocking Alt-Tab so you couldn't get out, and demanded a Microsoft account password which I never use so don't have memorized. And of course I couldn't get to my usual reminders. If I didn't have a mobile handy as backup (which I didn't, until recently) I'd basically be looking at a bricked PC. This is about as dark-pattern-ey as it gets. Pretty sure I'm going to be making the jump to Linux for my next machine, or on this one if W10 becomes unusable after EoL.
- kayodelycaon 1y agoI had a neighbor get completely locked out of a laptop after a Windows update due to this. They didn’t have the password or phone number to the Microsoft account. Of course, you can’t send a password reset email to the account you’re locked out of. I couldn’t figure out how to reverse it converting a local account into a cloud one. There’s probably a way but I haven’t troubleshooted a Windows problem since 2008.
- UmGuys 1y agoI have a bricked gaming laptop in my attic somewhere because of this. I still purchased another after, but I'm still vulnerable to the same problem because I don't have a MS account.
- ChoGGi 1y agoIf it helps; I've never gotten an oobe from an update on win 11, though I have enabled auto login, and I had edited the install medium to add a local account.
- jasonvorhe 1y agoYou can get all that and more with any modern Linux distribution without the telemetry, surveillance and without a forced cloud-linked account trying to constantly upsell you something without having to worry about most malware. Begging Microsoft for scraps in 2025 is just weak. Enjoy the slavery.
- the__alchemist 1y agoI will get irritated with the flaws in Windows; The ones listed in the article and more. I will also get irritated with the flaws of Linux and its flavors! Some examples - The ABI diaspora - Sudo nominally being for special/power use cases, but being required for many things - Doesn't feel like it's aimed at single-user PCs, and has associated UX problems - Non-standard hardware has limited support. Summarized: I feel like Linux has some deep philosophical design differences from what I look for in a computer. I'm not trying to administer anything; I just want to write and launch software.
- megaloblasto 1y agoLinux has UX problems isn't quite a correct statement because Linux has many, fully flexible user interfaces that can be customized however you like. It's possible that you are just experiencing friction moving to Linux because you are used to MS. Easily writing and launching software is something Linux excels at.
- the__alchemist 1y agoContext: I've been using linux for 20 years, and do currently at my job. "Linux has many, fully flexible user interfaces that can be customized however you like." feels like a "you're holding it wrong", or "chose the wrong distro". I don't want to go into the details, but I regularly experience UX problems in Ubuntu. Even things like reading/writing a USB port requires sudo, or editing system config files, which is wild to me. And adding a trailing newline to the config file in question will prevent your GUI from booting. Adding an item to the PATH is a combo of unintuitive, or filled with incorrect instructions (Including Go's home page CAO yesterday...). Or, software I write can't be launched without using having the user go to the CLI, or creating a GUI-specific config file and placing it in a certain location. This leads to the line I hear regularly "You should publish your software on the distro-specific app store", or "You should only install software from the app store". Which immediately leads me to think I have a use-case mismatch.
- megaloblasto 1y agoI know this upsets some HN people (for some reason), but all these things are possible with linux. Edit: lol, I got down voted. Do you think these things are not possible on linux?
- stanac 1y agoOne annoying thing about linux are drivers. They often don't work out of the box. E.g. fingerprint reader, screen brightness, audio too low. I tried multiple distros on multiple laptops, there is almost always some fiddling needed. On the other hand corp forced me to move from pc to mac, hardware is awesome but I need to get used to software (keyboard shortcuts), it looks and feels like linux with drivers that actually work (I know it technically it's not linux, I'm just saying that it feels like it, probably due to history of unix/bsd/linux).
- bigyabai 1y agoSpeak for yourself. When I plug in an Nvidia GPU, MacOS plugs its ears and pretends that working compute drivers don't exist. On Linux it's plug-n-play. Same with a Wacom tablet, ext4-formatted drive, Xbox/Nintendo controllers, DAC software, Sony LDAC headphones... much of Linux' driver support is best-in-class. It just depends on what you own (like all OSes).
- zahlman 1y agoObservations like "I know this upsets some HN people (for some reason)" and "lol, I got down voted" are not productive meta commentary. Writing like this just annoys readers and highlights the lack of substance in the rest of the comment.
- megaloblasto 1y agoI'm pointing out that Hacker news has a lot of members that get very upset if you suggest using Linux when they complain about Windows. I think meta commentary about the platform is valid, especially since the platform is just posts and comments. That meta commentary was part of the substance of my comment. And it relates to the article. To be more specific, I feel strongly against people who defend Microsoft, and their massively immoral actions like their military ties, and invasion of privacy. I think these people defend Microsoft largely because they are used to it, therefore have a bias towards it, and because they feel attacked when linux users point out that they are supporting an evil megacorporation. It's sort of like how members of one religion often feel attacked by the mere existence of people who follow other religions, or no religion at all. I think that people with sufficient technical capability shouldn't support microsoft, and should use open source software.
- Razengan 1y agoWell, as much as I like to join in taking a dump on Microsoft, this sort of thing is inevitable, in any OS, any software, any product: The longer a product goes, the more features it gets (or loses) that some people want, some people don't. It would be nice to have an easy to modify checklist of what stuff you want to keep/remove on a default installation. I think the current state of iOS is pretty good in regards to that: You get a somewhat-sane default pack out of the box, and you can remove crap like Freeform and Journal (which should have been part of Notes to begin with) and install other Apple apps from the App Store if you need em.
- esafak 1y agoIt's not if old features get removed as others are added, or someone is there to put their foot down. I don't feel this problem in Apple products. But it is an easy trap to fall into.
- vrighter 1y agoAI in notepad is not something that should be in an OS. Any OS. The os is supposed to be there to sit between your applications and your hardware. It's supposed to offer some sort of interface for you to operate your machine. Having arbitrary features that connect to arbitrary web-services which could extremely easily be an optional application is not fine.
- kylecazar 1y agoI boot into my Windows partition for work-related activities often, and hear about the demise of Windows all the time. Am I the only one who doesn't see it? I have all of the annoying stuff disabled, and basically have installed nothing besides the standard productivity/office tools. For me it's just a clean setup that stays out of my way. I'm running an 11 EAP build, and even then it doesn't crash, the software just works, and I never tinker with configuration or anything. I trust people are in fact having issues, I just can't relate. Maybe it's how I'm using it.
- croes 1y ago> I have all of the annoying stuff disabled, and basically have installed nothing besides the standard productivity/office tools. Not everyone knows how to do that
- the__alchemist 1y agoI worry that things like ads in the start menu/search, OneDrive/Xbox/Office nags etc will morph into full enshittification, and ads you can't get rid of. It hasn't happened to an intolerable degree yet, but seems to be gradually getting worse.
- le-mark 1y agoIt’s your install. You aren’t running a consumer machine with all the garbage and bloat ware installed. My wife and I had personal laptops the same hardware level. Mine had a clean windows 10 install I paid some guy to do. Hers wasn’t. Hers became unusable after a year. My kid still uses mine several years later.
- justsomehnguy 1y ago> I paid some guy to do Go to https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows11 https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows11 Download ISO Use RuFus (if you are lazy) or manually write it a thumb drive or even just unpack it on your primary drive, launch install. Here, your fresh and clean (almost, some stuff would get in through the WU if you are running a branded machine) install. 3
- linguae 1y agoI wish Microsoft reverted to its 1990s style of making tools for power users that don’t get in the way. Windows 2000 was peak Windows to me. Security issues aside, it was a solid OS. It also had a non-flashy interface that got out of my way. No annoying notifications, no distractions: just pure Windows. Windows 2000 respected the user. Today’s versions of Windows seem less respectful of the user. Microsoft is treating Windows as a platform to advertise Microsoft’s products rather than as strictly a productivity tool. Even if a lot of users these days use computers more like entertainment and communication devices rather than productivity tools, software should still get out of the user’s way. Software should shut up and do what the user commands. Unfortunately there are other software systems that have the same philosophy. Google constantly nags me regarding logging in and switching to Chrome. Even macOS has gotten a lot more nag screens in the past decade compared to the glory years of Jobs-era Mac OS X. It’s amazing how so many organizations are dependent on Windows, macOS, and Google for their productivity, yet these platforms have become more annoying to use over the years, becoming impediments to productivity.
- sheepscreek 1y agoTL;DR American companies are legally obligated to put the interests of shareholders before customers and employees. (Off-topic) This should explain why layoffs are so acceptable, even in the face of record profits. There’s a reason why their stock price is through the roof. Companies in the US have their first and foremost duty towards Shareholders, and only shareholders. This is not an opinion, I am speaking legally.[1] And what the shareholders want is for the company to squeeze out every dollar it possibly can from its products. [1] Shareholder Primacy: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dodge_v._Ford_Motor_Co https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dodge_v._Ford_Motor_Co.
- lightedman 1y ago"This is not an opinion, I am speaking legally" Hi, as former member of a board of directors, and also as a current shareholder in a company, you are wrong. The fiduciary duties owed to the company arise from the legal relationship between the directors and the company directed and controlled by them. The fiduciary duties owed to the shareholders do not arise from that legal relationship. Try again when you actually graduate law school. Maybe then you can speak legally about something I do PROFESSIONALLY.
- Roark66 1y ago7 is really good. I do something similar. I'm forced to use a windows laptop supplied by a client to connect to their network (and I shouldn't connect between my home devices and it). So I'm often working on Windows. I tend to have (on two monitors): Built in monitor, any desktop- MŚ teams, Outlook and Notepad. Second (4K) monitor, Desktop 1-tmux in WSL. Desktop 2-Web browsers Desktop 3-spare Desktop 4-My Ide (10+ Windows if vscode with WSL plugin) Desktop 5-Excel,Word etc. AutoHotKey let's me change between desktops with win+X key (where X is a number) and moving an app to a specific desktop is only win+shift+X away. I've been using a similar setup on Linux for many years, except outlook/teams is replaced by my Cctv window. The only problem is on Linux if you have focus let's say in desktop 1 monitor 2 (tmux in alactity), you them do win+2 to go to screen 2 into a browser(still monitor 2), you then press win+2 hoping to go back to desktop 1 alacritty... Your focus ends up on monitor 1 in the Cctv window. This never happens on Windows. When I go back to a desktop X the focus stays with where I've left it.
- spo81rty 1y agoI love that the writer complains about things Microsoft keeps adding that we don't need, and then goes on to recommend more things we don't need, lol
- martin-t 1y agoOne colleague started installing the unofficial Tiny11 "edition" of Windows 11 on some work computers, especially VMs. I don't know how much was trimmed down but ads are gone and reportedly it has better performance.
- user3939382 1y agoIt took me hours with Windows 10 and PowerShell to scrub all the crap out of the default OS install. I don’t even want to know what that process would be with 11.
- shawnz 1y agoRegarding point 9, there is an audio device switcher in the pop-up panel you get when you click the speaker icon
- tiberriver256 1y agoMaybe this'll be the year everyone moves to Linux!
- trentnix 1y agoI'm pretty sure your comment was sarcastic, but I'll add the anecdote that this is the year I moved to Linux. I've running Linux Mint as my main driver for a few months. For decades I've used Linux on servers or on an extra laptop or as a second OS to boot into as a curiosity. I was capable enough to be professionally effective with Linux but I stayed on Windows because it was the path of least resistance. I had decades of conditioning and habits built around how Windows worked. Everything was installed and configured and setup and familiar. So I just accepted the nuisance of the injected ads and data harvesting and bloatware because it was the path of least resistance. But despite all that, I finally had enough of Microsoft's shenanigans and resolved I was done. I used ChatGPT to successfully navigate some of the more esoteric errors, installation headaches, and software setup stumbles I've encountered getting Linux set up. No Wine or VMs either, RhythmBox and LibreOffice and MakeMKV and Steam all work great on Linux. If I need Office I've got the Office web apps. PC game support has gradually improved on Linux. The availability of emulators and Emulation Station means I don't miss my extensive LaunchBox setup that sits on my Windows partition. The end result is a setup that has kept me out of my Windows partition for months at a time. I don't really care who wins, whatever that means, but Linux is polished and fantastic and performant. I wish I'd made the jump a decade ago.
- zahlman 1y ago> I've running Linux Mint as my main driver for a few months.... I used ChatGPT to successfully navigate some of the more esoteric errors, installation headaches, and software setup stumbles I've encountered getting Linux set up. Out of interest, any specific issues that stand out in your memory? Also, you're aware of https://forums.linuxmint.com/ https://forums.linuxmint.com/, yes?
- trentnix 1y agoThere were some odds and ends around partition management that made me hesitate. ChatGPT helped me distill what I wanted to do into a plan that made sense to me. In terms of issues, getting certain mounts to persist took some time. I had jump back into Windows and change some settings to get Windows to give up control. I tried to install a few packages, like Emulation Station, that presented some headaches but I worked through it. I tried installing SpaceDrive and it was a slog that eventually went nowhere. It took a lot of effort to get it compiled and running and then it didn't really work, so I gave up. It's alpha software, but given the press (and investment) it's received I expected a smoother experience. Installing MakeMKV took a small bit of gymnastics to install, but once it was installed it worked great. Setting up backups on Mint didn’t behave as I expected at first, but I figured it out. I didn’t really have any issues, per se, with Mint. It was a breeze. I’m sure the forums are great, but GPT hit enough that it wasn't too terrible when it missed. And it has a lot less latency than searching a forum or posting and waiting for responses.
- Grimeton 1y agoThere are ways to get rid of all the nonsense by uninstalling it via Powershell or by blocking it via GPO/Registry. But the main issue here is that Microsoft changes the settings every now and then and all of a sudden, something that you considered disabled is fully enabled again. Other issue is that some things just cannot be uninstalled. Because of the GDPR I've seen companies run AppLocker & Co. to block Microsoft sh*t from running that they couldn't get a hold of otherwise. I can see ReactOS getting a lot more developers and a huge budget if this goes on...
- partomniscient 1y agoI'm also in agreement that server-side, Windows 2000 server was peak. XP/Window 7 were peak end-user OS's, once you got over the Fisher-Price look of XP. The constraints you had in terms of user-UI were a massive advantage in terms of user-understanding. Now we're in a stupid era of the browser is the UI and everything is non-conformant with everything else in terms of looks/expectation/behaviour. The version of MS-Office prior to the stupid ribbon-shit were also the peak versions. It's all been downhill since then with Windows ME and Windows 8 being exceptionally low points. I'm about to shift to FreeBSD as my main driver as the Linux distribution fragmentation and wane in reliability/dependability and repeatability has given me the shits (how many apt-get equivalents are there now...?) I used to like Debian back in the day but now it and its derivatives (e.g. Ubuntu) give me the shits and Red-Hat and Fedora likewise, and Debian itself won't even install a working desktop. Apparently raising a bug for Fedora gets put into "Closed - not a bug" because IBM don't give a shit about quality anymore - even though the install resulted in an unbootable OS and I spent hours raising a proper bug report. Pop-OS was reasonable, but scaling where some apps have both big and little font sizes intermixed still mean its a clusterfuck of a kludge. It's 2025 and apparently trying to mount network shares in fstab before the network interface is up isn't a bug. It's still not year of the desktop for Linux. FWIW, I liked Apple in the 1980's - not so much since then. I still appreciate all the contributions of those individuals out there is both GNU/Linux and the BSD'd trying to make the world a better place for themselves/others and sharing the results.
- emeril 1y agoi still miss office 2003 - esp as a power user of excel - it was so much faster/more reliably than the modern versions 65k rows was a feature, not a bug...
- partomniscient 1y agoYep. The slow-down it had in responsiveness once you got the thick green cell-highlight cursor was sooo noticeable I immediately though it was a downgrade. I remember the original dev's for the Excel application used to pride themselves on its performance. I don't know what happened, except probably upper-management overrule.
- 34679 1y agoHere's what Windows needs: When a user opens a 2nd file explorer, it should open next to the existing one, not on top of it.
- hereme888 1y agoThe other day my Windows locked behind an advertisement for Microsoft's backup services, trying to trick me into surrendering all my private data to their servers. They even added a typical dark pattern that on clicking "No" another "But... We recommend it, are you sure?" appeared. What a disgrace to push such an ad on people's computers. This abusive behavior is their company culture.
- ccppurcell 1y agoMy partner uses Windows and I occasionally provide my amateurish tech support. One thing not mentioned in this article is the right click situation. I can't really describe what's wrong because I've not used Windows regularly in ten years. All I know is it is very confusing and basic tasks are hidden behind an extra click. I'm sure this is another mcrib situation but I wanted to mention it. There's probably a way to change it. But there are so many things like this and they usually come up when I'm trying to solve some other problem and don't have time to get distracted finding the setting. Is it so hard to make basic functionality the default and let users add on some of these features if they want to.
- speeder 1y agoSo when I got forced to use Win11 I went to look for a script that disable telemetry. Then I see the script offers the feature of using old behavior for right click menu... I immediately started to think: but old behavior was so simple and obvious, what is there to change? The I right clicked to check. Immediately was hit with the wtf changes. Why? Why MS?
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- p_ing 1y agoThe purpose behind the new right-click menu is performance. The old right-click menu would load modules (typically 3rd party) that would cause significant lag on first-click [of a specific type of file].
- thesuperbigfrog 1y ago>> Microsoft keeps adding stuff into Windows we don't want Of course they are. Copilot and Recall are not what most users want, but they are what Microsoft wants: https://youtu.be/Ag1AKIl_2GM?t=57 https://youtu.be/Ag1AKIl_2GM?t=57
- ItsBob 1y agoI've said it many times in the past: the OS is a toolbox, just like a carpenters toolbox. I use it to keep my apps (tools) in. I use the apps (hammer, saw, screwdriver etc.) to get a job done, then I put them away. The job of the OS isn't to recommend that I use Hammer v2.0 or to update my toolbox to the latest version. The OS is, or should be, out of my way. I agree with others here: Windows 2000 was peak OS for me!
- b0ner_t0ner 1y agoThey really lost the plot with Copilot, stuffing it into every Microsoft app possible.
- ItsBob 1y agoOk, total shower thought but what if the likes of Dell, HP, Lenovo, Samsung, Acer, Asus etc. got together and said "Guys, let's form a consortium to create a new OS (based on Linux, of course) to break the Microsoft hold". Would it work? Would there be demand? Hell, I'll run it for them: I just want Windows 2000 with some security fixes :-) Just a crazy thought but hey, you never know ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
- stargrazer 1y agoProbably not, based upon the extent to which enterprises have been integrated with Windows. Enterprises use a lot of functionality which is not really visible to the casual user. All that functionality would need to be retrofitted into Linux and we get right back into the whole bloat cycle again.
- Alifatisk 1y agoI have actively been trying to move out from Windows but I can't find a good replacement. MacOS has honestly been the only best alternative so far but I can't play games there. Please, just point to a good Windows alternative and I'll leave, Microsoft can play these stupid games because they know their marketshare. We are stuck with them.
- dfex 1y agoThe whole UI feels like it was thrown together by 15 different organisations. I work in the networking space, and regularly tweak the IP settings to do my job. Over the last 25 years, I have been utterly confounded as the number of clicks it takes to get from the Desktop to changing an IP address or DNS setting seemed to jump from 2 or 3 to something like 5 or 6 with all these intermediate settings pages that don't appear to serve any real purpose. Just show me my damn adapters and let me configure them! Win 11 seems to be moving back in the right direction, but I switched my daily driver long ago and won't be coming back.
- mococa 1y agoI had been using Windows only for gaming in recent years, but it’s not even good for that anymore. If you run any bloat-removal tool, a bunch of things stop working — even internet connectivity. So I went through a period of distro hopping and ended up choosing the distro I used to make the most memes about: Arch. Very solid, always on the latest drivers and kernel, everything works out of the box, and I can play pretty much any game without issues. I’d recommend it 10/10. To be fair, I did run into one problem: in the Red Dead Redemption remake, the game would freeze on the initial screen, but that got resolved.
- fallinditch 1y agoHere's a great Debloat script for installing a clean and privacy-preserving win 11 https://github.com/Raphire/Win11Debloat https://github.com/Raphire/Win11Debloat With all the crap taken out Windows 11 is a pleasant os experience for me.
- buyucu 1y agoStop complaining and just use Linux.
- ratmeadow 1y agoMy very cynical hypothesis: the time for mainstream or mainstream-adjacent tech doing anything actually useful for us is ending or over (if such a time ever existed). It's mostly rent seeking garbage now as tech matures and companies get greedy. Too much software is utter trash and is shoved in our face to display ads, collect data, or sell something. Hardware is increasingly locked down into crap-ridden environments. I mean you can barely even buy a device and boot the OS without some corporation like Microsoft trying to shoehorn you into 20 useless features to suck the joy from your life while their wallet gets fat. Features for the sake of features, churn the sake of churn - it's an increasingly sickening rot all the way down. Just give us a simple computer that does what we need. Not everything needs to be an infinite revenue source.
- cherrycherry98 1y agoI recently built a new PC and faced the dilemma of paying Microsoft for their experience or rolling the dice with Linux (nothing to lose). I've been running Kubuntu and while not perfect it certainly works well enough. The sad part is that I'd gladly pay Microsoft double what they currently charge for something that basically works like Windows 7 did. It's like a theme park where I pay admission for the privilege to be upsold various add-ons. So now I just don't pay them anything.
- caztanj 1y agoThe title is misleading. It should be "Microsoft keeps adding crap into Windows that no one would ever want." If Microsoft wanted to fix Windows it would be an easy task. Step 1: Delete everything added since Windows 7. Step 2: Delete all dotnet crap. Step 3: Make the APIs good by deleting almost everything and making new plain C89 APIs. Step 4: Realize we need a new operating system and delete all of Windows and start over.
- mafuy 1y agoLeave dotnet alone, it has nothing to do with this. And you can't complain about the API. It's so good and established that games can now just use the Windows API to run on Linux. This destructive attitude will just turn people off your cause.
- deafpolygon 1y agoWhat we need is to remove Windows.
- gcanyon 1y agoMicrosoft adds stuff "we" don't need to everything. Think about the ribbons of tools available in Office -- Excel and Word in particular have features for pretty much anything you can think of. I'm not arguing it's not a valid choice -- I'm sure someone needs all those features. But for me, personally, I prefer products that do a smaller set of things simply and perfectly, as opposed to products that do All The Things somewhat well. Even if it does everything very well, having all those extra features in the way makes it harder to get the few things I want to do harder.
- mafuy 1y agoWell, that's what Ribbons are for. I don't get the hate on them - they are rather cool.
- gcanyon 1y agoAs I said before, I'm just expressing my personal preference for deep simplicity rather than (again, in my view) a flawed implementation of a pokemon-esque "gotta implement them all" (the features) approach.
- adithyassekhar 1y agoThere is a post on reddit explaining this in detail, try googling it or I'll link it if I can find it. Basically set you region to Ireland while installing the OS and edge can be removed, start menu bing search can be removed, ai crap and all ads can be removed.
- smetannik 1y agoWindows 7 was last descent Windows version
- smetannik 1y agoWindows 7 was last descent Windows version.
- 1vuio0pswjnm7 1y ago"The operating system's corporate parent isn't a good listener either, festooning the OS with useless features no one asked for." Well, someone inside the company definitely asked for them. Their Microsoft lackeys then delivered the "new features", as they always do. "In recent years, we've seen Redmond push for useless local AI features, in a bid to sell everyone Copilot+ PCs that they don't need." Microsoft has been selling computer users on "features" they don't need since at least the 1990s. "The house Bill Gates built has turned Windows into a piece of spyware, insisting that you sign in with a Microsoft account so it can gather more data about you, and cajoling you to run Recall, which takes snapshots of your sensitive personal information." Wager: Thus author is not switching away from Windows. Ever. He will jump through any hoop. What choice does he have. None. He may even be paid to keep using it Microsoft collects vast amounts of data both from and about computer users, including computer user behaviour, and yet the author claims Microsoft "isn't a good listener". I beg to differ. With all the data it collects why would Microsoft ever need to "listen" to tech journalists' opinions, including ones who purport to speak for other computer users. The company has ample data about what computer users are willing to endure. It is most certainly "listening", i.e., monitoring. It began acquiring companies just to get more data. It's collecting vast amounts of data _from a variety of sources_ about computer users every second. Over thirty years of complaining about Microsoft Windows, and to what end. Windows users generally cannot and do not switch to another OS. Truthfully, very few complain or request features. Those who do are a "vocal minority". There used to be entire websites such as annoyances.org devoted to complaints about Windows. Not anymore. Perhaps the true goal of "articles" such as this is not to obtain changes to Windows (probability: almost zero) but to garner an audience of frustrated Windows users and boost online ads revenue. With onlilne ads as the driving incentive, the author and Redmond are part of the same problem. "If you were to go back in time to the DOS era and tell people staring at their blue WordPerfect 5.1 screens that they could move text, images, videos, or even files between applications with a couple of keystrokes, they'd be blown away." For me, the solution to clipboards in VGA textmode (not "terminal") was and still is tmux buffers Combined with UNIX pipes this is more powerful and flexible than anything possible using Windows "2. Two or three clocks in the Taskbar 3. Add a fourth modifier key 4. Allow remapping of all keyboard shortcuts 5. Bring back the movable, resizable taskbar 6. Firewall for audio 7. Pin apps to specific screens 8. Program groups launch multiple, related apps at once 9. Make audio device switching easy 10. Cut the Microsoft-induced distractions" I have none of these problems using a UNIX-like OS but let's assume that's irrelevant The relevant difference is that if there is something I do not like in the UNIX-like OS, I can edit the source and recompile Not possible with Windows; the author is stuck with whatever Microsoft decides to do next Futile appeals to Redmond may continue for another three decades
- mvdtnz 1y agoI agree with this article except for this request, > Make audio device switching easy > One of the biggest unresolved hassles in Windows 11 is how difficult it is to switch audio output and input devices at the OS level. It seems like almost every day I have a problem where I want to listen to audio on my desktop speaker, but instead the sound starts coming out of my USB headset. A good chunk of the time, my computer also wants to send audio out of my monitors, which have 3.5mm audio jacks, but nothing is connected to them. They (finally!) added this in Windows 11, and it's one of my favourite quality of life improvements. Ctrl + Win + V.
- insane_dreamer 1y agoTheir cloud sign in processes just to use the f*ing OS make me want to tear my hair out.