There have been multiple accounts created with the sole purpose of posting advertisement posts or replies containing unsolicited advertising.

Accounts which solely post advertisements, or persistently post them may be terminated.

Microsoft Edge nags users with a 3D banner to change Windows 11's default browser

Would you use Edge as your default browser on Windows 11 if Microsoft nags you with a 3D banner? Microsoft thinks you would. In a new experiment, which appears to be rolling out to Edge stable on Windows 11, Microsoft has turned on a banner that uses 3D graphics to promote the browser.

First spotted by Windows Latest, Microsoft has been testing the new 3D banner for a while now, but it’s now rolling out to more people. If Edge is not your default browser and you open it directly or through files like PDFs, a new banner will remind you to change your default browser settings.

The banner explains that using Edge as your default browser can help protect you from phishing and malware attacks. It asks you to confirm this change by clicking “Set default,” and then you need to confirm again in the Windows settings app.

The pop-up screen will appear after you install the new Windows updates. If you skip the banner, you’ll get another reminder to use Edge when you open the browser.

xep ,

What is 3D about the banner? The mouse cursor graphic?

deegeese ,

When did desktop operating systems become a place for live A/B tests of ads?

This is something I expect from a malicious website like Facebook, not the fucking operating system.

AnomalousBit ,

We got click-baited into reading about Microsoft doing shady shit with their browser default settings (again, no less!), but that part wasn’t even mentioned in the article.

Brkdncr ,

It’s probably the browser, not the OS, that’s doing this. The teams are separate although someone in upper management oversees them both.

sunzu ,

As somebody recently reminded me... Think googled android but with more legs!

psivchaz ,

I don’t think I’ve ever gotten an ad from the OS on Android. I know some manufacturers, Samsung in particular, include ads but that’s not “Android” so much as “Samsung’s shitty skin of Android.”

The closest I’ve gotten to an ad on Pixel is a thing to review new features after updates.

sunzu ,

I think you are missing the point here and how ad tracking works tbh.

Googled android is deff sucking u try on data and them using that data to shows ads where they see you serfing.

barsquid ,

Capitalism be like.

narc0tic_bird ,

Is there any OS besides Windows doing this?

SuperSpruce ,

Most Android skins. Even stock Android can get naggy at times.

And don’t even get me started on iOS if you haven’t done what Apple wants you to do. It’ll give you a pop-up at least once every day.

Oh, and Smart TVs? Don’t even think about having any control; you are a slave to the OS.

narc0tic_bird ,

I may have done everything Apple wants me to do then. I remember getting a single Apple Music popup in the Music app years ago, but nowadays I’m subscribed to their music service anyway. Do they nag (more than once) nowadays when you’re not subscribed? That’d suck hard.

Should I ever get nagged again and again by my iPhone, I’ll switch phones. This constant nagging and not respecting my settings is the #1 reason I switched from Windows to Linux.

AlotOfReading ,

Other than Apple music and iCloud, they’re generally less intrusive about popups than Microsoft. Their tactic is to completely prevent competitors from integrating with the system at all rather than nag you to use a setting. For example, there’s no way to use Google maps or Spotify in all the same ways you can use Apple music or Maps.

SuperSpruce ,

If you aren’t signed into an Apple ID it’ll give you nag pop-ups.

If you don’t accept the iCloud T&C, even if you never use it, it’ll give you nag pop-ups.

If you haven’t set up Apple pay, it’ll give you nag pop-ups.

It’ll also give you a double nag pop-up for every new minor iOS version until you update it.

I’m sure I’m missing a bunch here.

rob200 ,

Since you asked, and I commented on Lemmy about this before.

Back in the Windows XP and even Windows 7 days Microsoft was trying to sell computers to people. It had to convince people why computers are worth their time.

Fast forward to Windows 10 and now it’s, “ok we now got an audience that’s addicted to our operating system, lets see what we can get away with. We might lose like 1% to Linux and like 5% to mac doing some of these while most of everyone won’t switch at all. and we increase our profits.”

helenslunch ,
@helenslunch@feddit.nl avatar

And MS wonders why more users are moving to W10…

dan , (edited )
@dan@upvote.au avatar

I moved from Windows 10 to Fedora/Debian recently. Dual-booting them until I figure out which one I want to use. I’ve used Debian on servers for 20+ years, but Fedora seems like a great distro too. I switched to Fedora at work too, and I’m enjoying it. At work, I can choose between a MacBook with MacOS, or a Lenovo ThinkStation or X1 Carbon / P1 with Windows or Fedora.

The only Windows-specific app I really cared about was Visual Studio, but Jetbrains Rider is looking like a good replacement. I don’t really do any PC gaming any more.

barsquid ,

Both Fedora and Debian are excellent choices.

I keep feeling compelled to suggest people try the atomic versions of Fedora. They do upgrades in a way that cannot get stuck halfway, and if the upgrade breaks something you can roll back. I think it’s neat.

dan , (edited )
@dan@upvote.au avatar

For desktop PC use, I think I’m liking Fedora more than Debian. The newer packages have been useful - Wayland seems less buggy for instance (thankfully I’ve got an AMD laptop, but unfortunately my desktop has an Nvidia GPU)

I’ve thought about the Atomic version, but don’t really have much time to learn a lot of new stuff at the moment. How different is the workflow with the atomic versions vs the regular Fedora?

amanda ,
@amanda@aggregatet.org avatar

It depends. For development work it’s literally the same since you usually set up a container for each project that runs regular fedora. Otherwise you usually install software from flatpak.

Installing system wide packages is possible but kind of annoying since they don’t activate until you reboot.

barsquid ,

It’s not wildly different IMO, but yeah it is different enough that you might not be interested.

Installing system packages means layering a commit on top of your base distro, so they urge most CLI stuff to be done in containers. GUI apps tend to be installed as Flatpaks, that part might be familiar.

If you’re mostly working with Rider and can easily set it up to work with dev containers, the learning curve might not be too steep.

Swarfega ,

They pushed me to Linux (Arch btw).

They aren’t targeting people like me though. They are targeting people like my wife that doesn’t read what she clicks and just accepts it.

Microsoft are being really very pushy to get people to use Edge.

TheFeatureCreature ,
@TheFeatureCreature@lemmy.world avatar

Time for another anti-trust lawsuit.

brbposting ,

This FTC has the balls for it, too.

Amazon. Apple. Who’s next?

mjhelto ,

Google is next!

  • All
  • Subscribed
  • Moderated
  • Favorites
  • •
  • [email protected]
  • random
  • lifeLocal
  • goranko
  • All magazines
    •