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I can’t believe a paid OS needs a tool like this. Here’s a GUI tool called OFGB (Oh Frick Go Back) to remove all the ads in Windows 11. It’s understandable if a free OS or app needs ad support, but this is just crazy github.com/xM4ddy/OFGB
[Screenshot Of a GUI Tool To Removes Ads From Various Places Around Windows 11]
Conditioning everyone to see their computers as media consumption kiosks instead of the powerful, productive machines they are. That’s where MS OSes are headed. They tried too early with Windows 8 Metro, but they haven’t lost sight of that concept.
“My TV shows ads so it’s only natural my computer does too.” - I bet a lot of people already think like this.
Pretty soon it’ll want to use your idle cpu net and disk for undisclosed purposes as part of the EULA.
The Telemetry collection service does a good job of that already, especially on laptops where it wakes them from sleep, and eats through the battery while idle in a backpack. I’ve been stung by this many times since Windows 8 - I now unplug then hibernate my last remaining Windows laptop, work-issued.
Also moved as much personal gear as possible over to various Linux distros a while ago, except my PC where some games cannot detect my sim peripherals & freetrack emulation under WINE
Ick
Pretty insightful, and quite possible as people are being trained on the “app experience” vs computing proper.
I want to make a script for Linux that adds ads everywhere. It would be tricky with Wayland but not impossible. It could start by installing browser extensions.
There is a special place in hell for you lol.
If they were fake ads like in GTA and Cyberpunk, it could be fun, provided you could turn them on and off anytime.
I’ll use the Google Ad platform
From there I’ll encrypt all your files and make you watch an ad per file to access your data
Uh sorry, this is a big file. Here’s the second, unskippable ad.
It has a 1 in 500 chance of serving you a 300 hour ad you cannot skip, and if you attempt to restart the system to get rid of it, it’ll make a note of that and restart the ad from the beginning after the next reboot.
If you try it twice, it will delete the file you were about to access.
Now I wish there was an advertising studio where, like, they specialized in shitty ads for real things. Like “I made a game on newgrounds, you WON’T LAST TEN SECONDS” but it’s just a flappy birds clone or something
Na just throw ads into system logs. Or do what Ubuntu does and throw an advert every time you run apt upgrade.
Have you tried installing any packages from NPM recently?
9474733 packages are looking for funding
And call the script “Windows”
I was thinking more along the lines of “optimizer”
Makes me wonder how long till video game load screens are sold as ad space.
Thanks for putting this idea forward to the industry.
Oh, please, do you really think they didn’t have this idea already?
EA games have done it already, since early 2000s. Practically any EA BIG game has in-game ads for real brands, all over the overworld billboards
Delete this comment
NBA 2K has had ads in it for a while, though I can’t remember if they’re specifically in the loading screen or not.
you ever play a mobile game on an android phone?
“loading” screens
Artificial delay periods that are used to show ads, yeah
Slightly better than artificial delay periods used to discourage behaviors to save costs.
Mr. Zuckerberg, if you think I’m referring to reporting spam messages on Facebook desktop, you’re correct.
Honestly, who really uses Facebook (except for boomers)?
Work :(
Damn
.
Makes me wonder how many seconds till they realise the users won’t be able to tell if the game is still loading or it’s just monetised delay. Bonus points if a user finds out, lobbies to get it banned and then they just include bullshit extra processing to justify it.
The future looks so bright.
If its a pc game people will just find a way to turn that off and tell everyone else how to do it.
You can turn off stuff that the programmers allow you to through a settings menu (that they wrote), configuration files (that they make their program to read) or fiddling 3rd party stuff that it’s using (like your driver settings, external libraries, etc.).
Similarly to how GTA V’s (could be GTA Online) extreme loading time was caused by a very inefficient way of loading data. Users couldn’t change the algorithm themselves; they could investigate what was going on, but the developers were the only ones being able to actually change it to a recommended version.
Obviously the story is a bit different with an open source code which you can compile for yourself.
they used to call this malware
“It’s okay when we do it.”
If its pre-installed, its typically called “Bloatware”.
And I remember having bloatware on my machine going back to the 90s. The first really high quality gaming computer I got was a Sony Vaio and it had tons of bullshit excess software I had to mop out of it before I was ready to really use it.
Is it actually malicious, though? Ads by themselves aren’t malicious.
Adware then, which is generally unacceptable in a large full featured paid product.
Settings ads? I had no idea it got THIS bad.
When it’s against the law to not maximize profit for shareholders we get into some really disgusting territory when you can’t innovate anymore and need to squeeze every dime out of everything.
What the hell is microsuck going to do in another 10 years? Infinite growth is more of a fantasy than working Communism yet we swear it will work somehow…
Not sure if my AdBlock is responsible for not knowing about any of these ads even existing or EU.
If only they knew how badly recived ads are inside of a free OS and how careful KDE’s devs had to be to ask for donations once a year in a permanently dismissable standard system notification.
Genuinely where is the line for people still putting up with this stuff?
I think that it’s one of the benefits of monopoly. People don’t think “I wonder if I should start checking out alternatives?” but instead “Damn, that’s annoying. I wonder if there’s a way to fix this?” Alternatives never even enter their head. See, there’s already a tool for the problem in the post!
I have win11 on my gaming pc and i don’t see any ads. Maybe because i use local account.
the more you use the native implementations of stuff, the more you see it. if you for example, dont use edge, dont use the native task bar/start bar, dont use the microsoft store, dont use any of the built in AI tools, then AD visibily would be minimal.
A good chuck of the Ad problems is usually fixed by using 3rd party software, be it completely switching OS, or using non native software.
its like trying to use old internet explorer and complaining about ads, when 3rd party alternatives exist, and of the subset who complains, a chunk refuse to get off IE, and look for ways to mod IE instead of just going 3rd party from the get go.
I mean not using the native taskbar is a bit further than fixing stuff by using third party software. The taskbar is an integral part of the OS. If you’re switching it out then you’re making significant, deep rooted changes to the OS.
its less rewriting the entire task bar, but overriding the functionalities of the start button (in which most of the Ads are displayed in)
It’s kind of embarrassing to see so many linux nerds talk about ads in Windows 11, like navigating the settings menu is difficult.
I use linux and Windows. I haven’t seen an ad in windows since i installed and disabled them.
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1: you shouldn’t have to
2: you have to go to like 6 different places to get most of them and there are still ads for microsoft products baked into the settings menu
It isn’t hard but it is tedious because each of the ad settings is in a different location. Like taskbar has its settings which aren’t configured in the Settings app where you can turn off the ads. Settings has places in search and another in privacy. Look at the OP image. It’s 9 different settings that need to be found and turned off.
9 settings all easily accessible via the search bar in settings.
Idk im not seeing the absolutely gigantic issue that anti-windows people make it out to be - at worst, it’s a minor nuisance.
The issue is ads are for supporting free software. Windows is not free therefore should not be showing ads.
At this point it would be easier to install a new user friendly linux distro…
It boggles my mind how many Windows users refuse to switch to something else and insist on patching together Microsoft’s intentionally broken excuse of an operating system…
Sometimes you don’t know how bad your ex really is until you’re in a new relationship
The usual, I would but games (and proprietary software for work)
I run a Linux machine literally next to my Windows desktop and yeah it’s 98% for my daily usually but that’s still a week worth of “Not working” for my year.
Fallout 3 was hard enough to get working on Windows many moons ago but even with all the “Use Lutris” or “Use Heroic” cries, it’d be easier to run a whole Windows VM than to get it running natively and in the forty minutes of time I have to game, I’d rather just play the game sometimes.
So, if I have to play in their Sandbox, I’m gonna shit in it first so they don’t try to come play too.
Plus, VR and all that.
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Lol right I saw a post about tiny11 iso I was like wtf thats way harder then just installing linux. Microsoft got people brainwashed
I love Linux as much as the next guy, but installing a new OS is not easier than downloading a single program and clicking check boxes. No need to be hyperbolic, Windows is bad enough as it is.
Yeah it is easier dude. with windows you have to install the new OS and then open edge and download Firefox then go download the program and check the boxes. With linux mint you install the OS. Idk sounds easier to me
Well, that’s fair. I thought you meant easier to install Linux over an existing Windows 11 install.
Maybe, but Windows has the advantage of being preinstalled on the hardware most people are buying (meaning they get to skip the install the OS step for Windows).
I wouldn’t call forced adoption an advantage. if anything they are taking away your freedom of choice by making it harder for you to switch, Because you have to remove the windows OS to switch. Why dont you get the option for linux at the store they are open source licensed so there is no issue distributing for free and giving people the option.
How the heck did those tools developers figure out how to remove those various ads in windows? Did they do it the hard way, fired up a debugger to reverse engineer how those ads were displayed? That takes some dedication. We in the Linux land have it easy because the source code is available to mess with.
It’s not difficult. Corporations won’t put up with this shit and MS knows it, so there are (almost) always documented registry entries or GPO policies you can set to disable this crap.
But you shouldn’t fucking have to. Which is why I’m now on Tumbleweed instead of Windows for my daily driver.
Does anyone happen to know what Mastodon client this is? I’m assuming this is on iOS
TIL you can view and reply to lemmy posts from mastodon
That’s the point of the fediverse and activitypub - posts from one platform are federated to other compatible platforms. I know this also includes kbin, but there’s probably other platforms.
I have never seen an ad. I’ve not put any effort into debloat. It’s this all just bs?
Edit: Plenty of down votes for asking a question. Great community guys.
If you absolutely MUST use Windows, use it with AtlasOS.
Otherwise, Debian w/ KDE Plasma is your panacea.
It disables security features!
That was what I read.
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How dare people post about Linux in /c/linuxmemes
