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Microsoft is bringing annoying Windows 11 Start menu ads to Windows 10 (www.neowin.net)

submitted 3 months ago by lemmee_in@lemm.ee to c/technology@lemmy.world

259 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Let's put it this way; when Microsoft announced its plans to start adding features to Windows 10 once again, despite the operating system's inevitable demise in October 2025, everyone expected slightly different things to see ported over from Windows 11. Sadly, the latest addition to Windows 10 is one of the most annoying changes coming from Windows 11's Start menu.

Earlier this year, Microsoft introduced a so-called "Account Manager" for Windows 11 that appears on the screen when you click your profile picture on the Start menu. Instead of just showing you buttons for logging out, locking your device or switching profiles, it displays Microsoft 365 ads. All the actually useful buttons are now hidden behind a three-dot submenu (apparently, my 43-inch display does not have enough space to accommodate them). Now, the "Account Manager" is coming to Windows 10 users.

The change was spotted in the latest Windows 10 preview builds from the Beta and Release Preview Channels. It works in the same way as Windows 11, and it is disabled by default for now because the submenu with sign-out and lock buttons does not work.

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[–] spirinolas@lemmy.world 0 points 3 months ago (12 children)

I'm in the EU and use Windows 10 LTSC so I mostly clear off of this bulshit. A few months ago I bought a cheap refurbished laptop to use occasionally and decided from day 1 it would be Linux Mint only since I only use it for the basics.

A few months later and I'm surprised how far Mint came. It's so easy to use. Customizing it was a bit harder but nothing major. And to my surprise...even games. I threw a couple of games at it and everything the computer can handle would run. I was from the time where gaming on Linux was a no-no.

When LTSC support goes, I'll most likely go full Linux. The only problem is the Adobe software but maybe I can fix that with a virtual machine.

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[–] badbytes@lemmy.world 0 points 3 months ago

As a long time Linux user, thank you M$!

[–] JIMMERZ@lemm.ee 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Windows 10 will be my last Windows operating system. It’s been fine and it works well enough. I’ve already started setting up a drive with Linux Mint 22 for use moving forward.

[–] northendtrooper@lemmy.ca 0 points 3 months ago (2 children)

In the same boat. Mint has some growing pains but for mainly web browsing I've been enjoying an OS that doesn't feel like a ad billboard or a data snitch.

[–] sysop@lemmy.world 0 points 3 months ago

Yess yesssss let the linux flow throughhhh youuuuuuu. Manjaro XFCE here. Play with the distros in Oracle Virtual Machines and find the right one for you. Linux desktop is seriously worth the effort. Check out Yakuake as a Quake style drop down terminal to get to hacky stuff. Learn everything about Linux. It's fun!

[–] gwen@lemmy.dbzer0.com 0 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

if you don't feel like setting up a vm, use distrosea :] free website that sets it up for you in-browser

[–] FlavoredButtHair@lemmy.world 0 points 3 months ago (4 children)

Everybody should learn about pihole.

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[–] gh0stcassette@lemmy.blahaj.zone 0 points 3 months ago

Didn't they already put ads in the Windows 10 start menu? Every time I see a fresh Windows 10 install, it's got candy crush and a bunch of promotional links to Microsoft apps in the windows store (office, Outlook, etc.) in the start menu.

Tbh my biggest gripe with Windows 11 isn't even the ads, you can disable them or -- like I did back when I used Win11 on a spare partition for VR gaming -- just install a start menu replacement like startallback. My biggest gripe is that they removed the fullscreen launcher and mobile/touch optimized metro app system (ik windows store apps exist, but they behave like regular windows apps, which is awkward on a tablet when you're using it without the keyboard cover). I liked that Windows 10 basically kept all the Windows 8 tablet features, but made them optional so that you can have a full desktop experience on a tablet. Now windows 11 just feels kind of poorly designed and clunky on a tablet PC.

I ended up installing ChromeOS on my tablet through Project Brunch just to get a decent, polished-feeling tablet interface (with android apps, which is a huge plus since that's already a massive library of touch-optimized software). I run NixOS on my main PC, but for the tablet it was either Linux+GNOME (GNOME is the only desktop DE with acceptable touch support imo, especially paired with the cosmic shell extension for automatic window tiling), or ChromeOS, and I tried a bunch of different distros (including open-source chromiumOS distros like FydeOS).

In the end, I liked FydeOS, but ChromeOS through Brunch Framework has extra features I'd rather not live without (like Android phone connectivity), and FydeOS has borked touch support on the OpenFyde releases, so I'd need to use the proprietary Fyde For You builds with specific drivers for the Surface Pro 4, but those cost money after 90 days, and if I'm using a proprietary OS, I might as well pick the free one. If you've never used ChromeOS, it's basically like if stock Google android had a good desktop mode and could (easily/officially) run desktop Linux apps.

[–] A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world 0 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

my laptop has windows 10, just so i can stream amazon prime since they choke it down to like 320p on linux.

This is not just gonna make me put linux on my laptop, but make me cancel streaming subscriptions too. congrats microsoft. You're fucking everyone.

[–] doodledup@lemmy.world 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Surely you will

[–] A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world 0 points 3 months ago

Well, I may be a random idiot, but I'm not stupid enough to keep paying for something that doesnt work on not-windows.

So you keep feeling weirdly haughty about it, i guess, you clearly need it for some reason.

[–] Bosht@lemmy.world 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Learning Linux gets more tempting every day. Either that or government needs to pass laws against shit like this but I doubt that will ever happen.

[–] SynopsisTantilize@lemm.ee 0 points 3 months ago (3 children)

Let me give you a tip. Theres nothing to "learn" it's just a different way of clicking on some things. If all your gonna do is use steam and Internet browser just do it. There is nothing magical. Just use popOS or Ubuntu. They're made for ease of use.

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[–] Teknikal@eviltoast.org 0 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Queue everyone downgrading to Windows 8 in 3, 2, 1.

[–] sysop@lemmy.world 0 points 3 months ago (2 children)

No no no, you want Linux desktop. Install Oracle VirtualBox and play with the different linux desktop distros and find the right one that's best for you. It's fun. It's not filled with spyware and adware and isn't bloated with Microsoft's crazy antics. And, it's free. Once it's installed check out this: https://github.com/tycrek/degoogle to de-herpes your internet experience and 👍

[–] derverdood@lemmy.blahaj.zone 0 points 3 months ago

linux ftw

[–] debil@lemmy.world 0 points 3 months ago (3 children)

Or just use Hyper-V since it's natively available and one should refrain from touching Oracle with a ten-foot pole. I know it's just a means to an end but better to avoid bad vendors if at all possible.

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[–] derverdood@lemmy.blahaj.zone 0 points 3 months ago

inb4 all windows versions get ads

[–] NaoPb@eviltoast.org 0 points 3 months ago

I was on 8.1 when 10 was released. They never brought the good features to 8.1 back then, so I never expected them to do it now.

[–] InternetUser2012@lemmy.today 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Every time I see crap like this makes me even happier I ditched it a year and a half ago. If you switch to Linux and started with mint but don't like it, give PopOs a test drive. It's been flawless for me.

[–] Bosht@lemmy.world 0 points 3 months ago (10 children)

My main issue is my home computer is for gaming. Have you gamed on Linux? If so, are most games compatible?

[–] monotremata@lemmy.ca 0 points 3 months ago

I don't think it's most yet, but it's improving fast thanks to the Valve Steam Deck. Bazzite is probably the distro to look at for a machine that's primarily for gaming; it's based on the Steam Deck OS, but works on more machines. There are some high-profile games like Fortnite that won't run on it, but a lot of stuff will, especially if it doesn't rely on any fancy anti-cheat stuff.

[–] stock@lemmy.world 0 points 3 months ago

Since Valve released the Steam Deck, which runs on Linux, there is an increasing number of games that are compatible. In some cases you can also emulate windows, or just keep it on your computer and use a dual boot system (even tho Microsoft messed up big time with this kind of installation recently)

[–] RealM__@lemmy.world 0 points 3 months ago

It's a complex issue and kind of depends on your games and your hardware and your software. In general, you can definitely count out major competitive multiplayer titles that rely on aggressive kernel-level anti-cheat software, since that is essentially spyware and it's incompatible with Linux. Furthermore, very new titles often pose problems, as the primary target audience is always Windows. Linux compatibility is seldom considered by big publishers, and as such the FOSS community has to pick up the slack. With the release of the Steam Deck, Valve released a custom version of Wine called Proton, which acts as a compatibility layer between Windows and Linux specifically for Steam Games, but even that kind of is hit and miss. There's a website called protondb that is trying to categorize game compatibility but even good rankings (gold / diamond) usually require some small amount of fiddling with settings.

Overall, if you want to have a single-click to launch games experience, you're sadly still bound to Windows most of the time. But if you have the patience to experiment and learn new things, there's way more tools and possibilities than ever before. Just be prepared to troubleshoot some things.

[–] InternetUser2012@lemmy.today 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

All I do is watch some vids and game. I have only come across one game I can't get to play and it's flight simulator x. If steam says it'll play on steam deck, you're 100% golden. If it says unsupported, do a quick web search for protondb and search the game there. I've played a few that steam said wouldn't work and they do. As far as how well they play, it's been awesome, no complaints. I'm a linux newbie and don't know shit and it's been painless. I did try mint and nobara, and had issues trying to get mint to play games, and nobara worked good but after a week I lost my sound and I liked the way the workspaces works much better with popOs

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[–] doggle@lemmy.dbzer0.com 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Well, I was gonna run win10 until its service life ends next year. I guess MS want to speed up the timeline a little.

Arch here I come.

[–] DragonOracleIX@lemmy.ml 0 points 3 months ago

Join the free side. We have penguins.

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