Hacker News Reader

Comment by gigel82 | Hacker News Reader

Same, I never had Windows Update change defaults. This is one of those urban legends that is only very loosely based in fact (KB3135173 back in 2016 indeed had a bug that reset defaults, afaik it never happened since) but keeps persisting.

It's the same with ads; everyone claims Window 10 shows ads but I never saw any ads and I doubt it even has the capability of downloading and displaying random ads. It does occasionally show "recommendations" for using its apps (like Edge or Teams) and I guess if you squint really hard you could call those "ads", but I never saw an actual advertisement for some 3rd party website or product or anything of the sorts.

Yes, Windows 10 is bloated and the fact MS refuses to release a SKU with fully opt-out telemetry is bad, but this kind of hyperbole rubs me the wrong way.

View on HN

Windows 10 reinstalled "Candy Crush Soda Saga" on my machine multiple times during updates, so it's absolutely not just first-party software like Edge and Teams that they've pushed.

Not doubting you but that is so weird. I deleted it (and a few other apps) once on that first install of Win 10 and it has never come back. I've never used any tool to disable or clean anything, etc... Just removed the apps through supported means.

It shouldn't happen anymore, but what kind of braindead update system didn't check for that in the first place?

> One of the ongoing feedback items we’ve heard is how the apps that come preinstalled with Windows will reinstall after each upgrade – particularly noticeable for our Insiders that receive multiple flights per month. We’ve heard your feedback, and starting with Build 14926, when your PC updates it will check for apps that have been uninstalled, and it will preserve that state once the update has completed. This means if you uninstall any of the apps included in Windows 10 such as the Mail app or Maps app, they will not get reinstalled after you update to a newer build going forward.

"Oops, we totally forgot to consider that any users would want to uninstall this bloatware, so we just included it again as part of each update. And definitely no one inside our organization had personally uninstalled Candy Crush, pointed out this problem, and had their concerns ignored because we wanted to maximize the number of installs that our partners are paying us for. User experience is our highest priority, and what're you going to do about it, switch to Linux?"

https://blogs.windows.com/windows-insider/2016/09/14/announc...

So MS turned Windows into the device OEM bloatware infested version of stock Android, combined with Google level tracking. Nice. I guess corporate customers are treated different, at least my commercial Windows liscense and my work-laptop has no bloatware worth mentioning.

Microsoft very much don't want you to use it, but there's Enterprise LTSC version without all that crap.

Whenever a FAANG company gives this excuse, it makes one wonder how these people consistently make it through their hiring gauntlet.

And it's not just candy crush - there are many bloatware that it would let you uninstall and then silently reinstall them soon after.

To me, that is a whole new level of slime. Even for Windows, that shocked me.

Urban legend? Every time Windows updates I have to go into the Sound settings to disable the low-quality bluetooth endpoint on my headphones, because it is the default option and every update clears my selection and reestablishes the default.

I agree that can be annoying; did you try submitting a bug report?

I sent one once through their "Send Feedback" thing and someone actually got back to me (several months later, but still).

FWIW, I'm using wireless headphones that have the same 2 options (for calls and for "gaming") but never had the issue you're describing (though they're not Bluetooth, they come with a custom usb dongle).

There 100% are ads for third party apps in the default start menu.

I've seen ads for Bejeweled, Farmville, and Twitter, before I disabled them all.

You'd have to stretch the definition of ads quite a lot for those to fit. At worst, they'd be bloatware (but IIRC they're not even pre-installed apps, just stubs that link to the store that you can simply remove permanently). Still in bad taste and those should not show up especially in Pro SKU.

An ad would be a banner that shows up when you open the Start menu with "meet singles near you" or "try ubereats" or "buy Chevrolet cars" or some other bullshit of that sorts.

No.

A third-party paying to have a small poster ('Tile') that shows + links to their product is the very definition of an ad.

What?

They're ads. Just like product placement in videos. When the actor is drinking Coca-Cola(tm) with the label pointed perfectly to the camera, that's an ad.

The fact that it doesn't "feel" like an ad to you, is just the industry adapting to audiences general dislike of "obvious" ads.

Every time my wife’s work computer updates, it changes the default PDF viewer from Adobe Acrobat to Microsoft Edge.

I really do wonder what causes the unevenness of this. For me, I installed Foxit reader and it's always stayed my default. I also switch .txt files to open in Notepad++ and it has always stayed the default too. I've changes a lot of file extensions over the years and they always stuck through all the Windows updates, etc... I've never used any version of Edge as my main browser nor has it ever become the default for anything automatically. I may have been prompted to try it during an upgrade welcome screen but I've always said no and it's never bothered me again.

A/B testing has been de-rigueur on the web for a very long time now. What makes you think Microsoft aren't playing the same tricks?

In my experience, this is Edge updates doing this.

> I guess if you squint really hard you could call those "ads"

I don't think those are nearly as bad as ads for third party products and services, but they're still ads.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com