
Microsoft now puts ads in Windows 10 File Explorer - callumlocke
https://www.extremetech.com/computing/245553-microsoft-now-puts-ads-windows-file-explorer
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jimrandomh
I think Microsoft may be wildly underestimating the amount of goodwill this
sort of thing costs them. Windows has been steadily losing ground to OS X,
Linux, iOS and Android, and a big part of that is its reputation for being the
platform stuffed with ads in places they don't belong. (Because of malware and
OEM crapware, mostly). What happens if you're an OS X user considering
switching back, and you look over someone's shoulder and see these ads? You
conclude that Windows hasn't escaped its terrible past.

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johnsmith21006
You forgot ChromeOS taking from MS. Grew over 35% last year while Windows and
OS X bith declined.

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coldtea
It's easy to grow 35% when it just means selling a few more units...

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vetinari
While that's true, Chromebooks are indeed outselling Macs...

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coldtea
Why wouldn't they? They go for as low as $199 or lower.

It's not really the part of the PC market Apple was interested in ever.

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smacktoward
The thing that amazes me about decisions like this is how, well, _chintzy_
they are. It's brand sabotage on a really deeply profound level.

I mean, on one hand you have Microsoft pushing really, really hard to be taken
seriously as a vendor of premium, Apple-level products. Their Surface machines
are slick and innovative. Windows 10 is more attractive to developers than any
Windows in maybe 20 years. Azure has gone from a punchline to a solid, well-
regarded competitor to AWS.

And then they sabotage all that with cheap, cheap, _cheap_ decisions like
forcing ads into the file browser. _Ads!_ Right in the middle of a product
they've been strenuously trying to position as high-end and premium and
luxurious, they slap something straight out of the playbook of NetZero, the
1990s free ISP that was pitched at people too broke to afford AOL.

There was nothing _premium_ about the NetZero experience, nothing _high-end_.
It felt cheap because it _was_ cheap. It was cheap crap aimed at people who
couldn't afford anything better. And that's fine! But it's a long way from
what Microsoft desperately wants people to think Windows 10 is. They're
willing to pull the rug out from under all those years of engineering effort
and marketing wizardry, just to squeeze a few more pennies into another
product's quarterly revenue numbers. Talk about penny wise and pound foolish.

I guess there's still some truth in Steve Jobs' famous 1995 statement that
"the only problem with Microsoft is they just have no taste."
([https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJWWtV1w5fw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJWWtV1w5fw))

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dugmartin
I saw this exact ad for the first time this morning. I'm not one to be
offended by ads but this one did irk me a little - I'm running 10 Pro which I
paid $100 for, I shouldn't see ads in a paid product.

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geoffmcc
Just wondering. Did you buy windows 10 pro disk and install from that, or did
you upgrade from Windows store from a free upgrade of 10?

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vetinari
Just because it was free upgrade, it does not mean, that it was OS for free.

You needed a licensed Windows 7 or 8 in order to upgrade; that one costs money
too. You weren't able to get entirely free upgrade. It was more of exchange.

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geoffmcc
not justifying it. Just was wondering if it was an upgrade to pro.

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Sir_Substance
>It’s odd that Microsoft has suddenly become so enamored with ads in Windows
10.

I told a colleague 18 months ago that I didn't want to move to Windows 10
because I didn't want advertising in my operating system. He insisted
Microsoft would never do that, and I snorted at him.

Microsoft has been very clear and transparent about their goals with windows
10. It exists to push their other products. The app store is one of them, but
of course onedrive and office365 are others. This isn't microsoft being
suddenly enamored with ads, it's them closing the jaws of the trap.

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tdb7893
Yeah, I wish there was another operating system. Mac is tied to expensive
hardware and I just can't get myself to like the overall UX of Linux

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Sir_Substance
>I just can't get myself to like the overall UX of Linux

There's at least four mainstream UX's to choose from and a few dozen small
ones if you feel adventuresome. What desktops have you tried?

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tdb7893
It's not as much the look of the desktop as it is a bunch of little things
about the OS. The command line stuff is nice but not useful unless I'm
programming, I've found lots of stuff concerning configuration to be a little
obtuse (knowing what's what in a configuration file takes some time), worrying
about drivers isn't fun, and many common programs aren't on Linux and if they
have an alternative it often isn't as good. Those are just a few reasons off
the top of my head so don't take them as exhaustive or as authoritative but
just a random opinion. I use Linux for programming and it's nice but for day
to day use it suffers some problems for me (largely because of low adoption of
the general desktop market I think).

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type0
> many common programs aren't on Linux and if they have an alternative it
> often isn't as good.

What programs is that? In my experience, unless you are using a bunch of
specialized proprietary apps on Windows almost everything open source is on
Linux and is better implemented.

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oridecon
This is not new, search /r/windows10 for "ads".

[https://imgur.com/a/gNiqC](https://imgur.com/a/gNiqC)

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Crosseye_Jack
I wonder if the person writing the article is using the Fast Insider Build of
10.

I've have cases where due to a bug a setting that showed "tips" I disabled was
accidentally ignored (it was fixed in the next build) and had the tooltip "why
not try Edge?" pop after a year or so of using 10. I first I was raging with
people in discord about Microsoft and Ads. But after a coffee I clamed down
and I checked on line to see which option might of got flipped, found the flag
and remembered I had set it long ago (and that's why I had never seen that
tooltip before), checked the feedback tool and saw reports from others that
the flag was being ignored for some reason and MS promptly fixed it.

Personally I enabled Fast Builds when Bash/WSL went live but I disabled them
when an update conflicted with Overwatch so I'm no longer getting the Fast
build. Just wondering if this person is having something similar where they
disabled all the "suggestions" only to have one creep back in due to a bug?

Edit: Reading the comments seems like the person writing the article was the
person who got the notice.

It's not a get out for MS. All these suggestions make it hard to suggest W10
to people as I have to give it with the caveat "as along as you turn off all
the bullshit". It's a shame because with a little fine tuning W10 is a decent
OS.

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AstralStorm
Great. So now to join the Diagnostic Service in waste of precious battery life
and memory, as well as polluting the view.

For crying out loud, make an ad-free, spy-free expensive edition if you're
that strapped for money! Just do not make it $1000 Enterprise version.

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flukus
Apparently these ads appear in the enterprise edition as well.

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moogly
Even more reason to use an Explorer replacement like Directory Opus. I stopped
using Explorer when they ruined it beyond all hope in Windows Vista.

Not affiliated with GPSoftware at all, just a happy long-time user.

The irony of me advertising it isn't lost on me, however.

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flukus
Even more justification for my recent switch to linux. My only regret is using
Windows for the last ~5 years.

