Microsoft’s Windows 10 policies are once again angering customers. This time, the company’s decision to advertise on the platform has led to complaints. Microsoft is using Windows 10 to actively promote several subscriptions for its services, including Office 365 and OneDrive. Users have taken to social media and revealed disgust at the action.
It seems the ad notifications are set to default in Windows 10 builds. Microsoft is promoting a new Office 365 and OneDrive bundle. I don’t particularly want to repeat the offer here, because then Microsoft is getting even more (free) advertising.
[...]
Needless to say, Microsoft is getting some heat for this decision. Redditors have been calling the company out on this tactic and pointing out that even those with existing Office 365 subs are seeing the advertisement.Or this, from betanews:
Oh joy -- playable ads arrive in Windows 10
Playable ads -- that is ads that mimic an app and let you interact with it -- aren’t new. I see them from time to time on my iPhone, and never interact with any of them. Because, why would you? However, Microsoft says that playable ads are not only better than regular ads, they are more profitable.
And now they are arriving on Windows 10. The Playable Ads preview goes live in the Windows Dev Center today, allowing developers to offer their own interactive adverts.And then remember that Windows 10 is losing market share right now, and ask yourself if you're surprised?
I own an Android phone, and my phone will occasionally let me know if there's an update available for the OS itself, but it doesn't spam me with advertising for any other apps, whether Google's own or otherwise. Google is an advertising company, who make all of their money by selling advertising, but even their Android OS isn't pushing adverts in your face all the fucking time, by the OS itself or otherwise, and seriously I doubt that iOS works any differently.
So, why does Microsoft think that baking advertising and push media "features" into Windows 10 is a good idea?
If someone opens up the Windows 10 Store, then by all means, you can push "recommended" apps to the top of their front page, and charge developers an advertising fee for the higher-profile product placement. That's fair game -- it is, after all, a store, that they're taking time out to visit. But when someone's just working in the OS itself? No, you don't get to push playable fucking ads in front of them as they're working, or add extra tiles to their desktops for your other software that they haven't installed and aren't interested in. Or, worse yet, already fucking own.
Seriously, can't Microsoft even make this "feature" smart enough to detect when someone already owns a piece of software, and not serve them additional ads for it? And should we be attributing that to malice, or to incompetence, or both? Are they really this desperate? Or do they really not care?
Just this week, Microsoft were scoring PR points by announcing that Windows 10's Updates would be slightly less shitty to experience, but this advertising bullshit takes another major pain point of the OS and makes it even more painful. What a great way to send more customers fleeing back to Windows 7... which doesn't have any of this built-in advertising bullshit. GG, Microsoft. Well played.
The one piece of good news? Apparently, sufficiently technically-savvy users can turn some of this down, or off.
From Thurrott:
I’ve led the charge against Microsoft’s advertising efforts in Windows, noting back in 2012 that the software giant cheapened Windows 8 with ads. Despite my warnings about a slippery slope—Microsoft would only escalate its in-box advertising down the road, I cautioned—Windows 10, sadly, was even worse.
And now the Creators Update is coming, bringing with it yet another escalation of in-product advertising. Most notably, and most disturbingly, in File Explorer.
(Ad-like notifications for OneDrive do appear in File Explorer in the Anniversary Update, but people running the Creators Update are now seeing actual advertising.)
To be clear, File Explorer is the Windows 10 shell, a core part of the operating system. So like the mobile apps that first bore advertising back in Windows 8, yes, it is very much a “part of” Windows, or “in” Windows. It is Windows.
This is a sad state of affairs. Fortunately, you can turn off this terrible intrusion. Here’s how...(Click through to Thurrott.com for the detailed step-by-step.)
#fuckyoumicrosoft