This is Microsoft’s latest annoying addition to Windows.

      • @Smokeydope@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        My elderly parents in their 60s use linux mint daily and have never had an issue with it (admittedly I did have to set it up for them still). I just set up the desktop shortcuts for them to their websites and turn on automatic updates. The hardest part isn’t using an alternative OS like mint or pop, its getting an average person to figure out how to install it. Getting into your BIOS to boot into the installation drive, re-partitioning your harddrive to free up space for dual booting or nuking windows off all together, those are the hardest parts for any first timers IMO. After youve done it a dozen times its no problemo but the first time is nerve racking at least it was to me.

        • @HC4L@lemmy.world
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          268 months ago

          Kinda disagree here, my parents also won’t install Windows or any other OS by themselves. An average person isn’t going to switch to an alternate OS. Because they do not care.

          An average person however IS going to want that specific Windows only mail client, legacy applications that don’t run on Linux or use their bank website that isn’t supported by Linux.

          This is a one way ticket to making yourself the sole family sysadmin.

          • brothershamus
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            248 months ago

            Becoming the sole family admin is an inevitability. Unless your family are all people who read manuals, and they’re not, you are the sole family admin already and probably don’t know it.

            • @Anomalous_Llama@lemmy.world
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              88 months ago

              And as the sole sysadmin of my family I am going to prioritize keeping them in familiar environments to reduce my ticket load as I don’t have a tier 1 group to handle them.

          • @thejml@lemm.ee
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            118 months ago

            I had my Mom and Dad using Ubuntu like 12yrs ago. He was fine using it for like 6-9 months, I was impressed… Then he got a high end slide scanner that literally only worked with custom software in Windows XP. And then my Mom needed some windows only software for her hobbies and well, they both have Windows now and it’s somehow reduced my tech support and they’re happy, so whatever. I’ll stick to Linux/Mac and everyone’s happy.

            It really comes down to “use the right tool for the job”.

        • originalucifer
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          128 months ago

          there is an ‘oem setup’ you can run. so ive been taking old desktop PCs, running them through the oem setup where i can configure the drivers and everything, and then shut it down.

          Then on first boot when i hand it to a new end user, they just follow the instructions. i tell them to leave most things default and theres never really any issues… printers sometimes i spose

          • @thefartographer@lemm.ee
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            98 months ago

            I propose an “e-printer.” It’ll just be an e-reader that you can send images, documents, any non-moving media to via a “print” icon. It’ll have options on how to format the file browser, including a view called “piles” where it shows a disheveled layering of whatever files are in that directory instead of a folder icon. Previewing items in the “piles” view would let you “thumb through” the corners of the “printouts” until you find the one you suspect is the right file. The first select shows an image preview of the file, the second select fully opens the file. Extra points if we can open the file using a voice command such as “ahhhh, there it is.”

            • ares35
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              8 months ago

              so, a pdf ‘printer’ basically. anything you print gets dumped to pdf files… which can be previewed, searched, annotated, organized into directories (piles) etc. as well as sent to and shared with others, or even printed on a dead tree.

              most of my ‘printing’ is already done this way.

              • @thefartographer@lemm.ee
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                58 months ago

                Actually, yes. And make it compress and process the PDF real slow-like with a bunch of horrible noises that are frightening to pets.

                My intent though is to avoid the inclusion of dead trees in this process, but still create an analog for all the horrible inconveniences of printing on dead trees that my older tech support clients argue are features.

                • brothershamus
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                  48 months ago

                  it really should just be a print process that inevitably fails with an incomprehensible error code or a demand for money.

            • @nilloc@discuss.tchncs.de
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              28 months ago

              OSX had stacks, and has quick view that does all that piles stuff. I tried them out for about a week when they were first introduced. Grids are better for a reason.

              And the print dialogs all have save PDF instead, but automating an eReader upload is a neat idea.

              • @thefartographer@lemm.ee
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                48 months ago

                Stacks was exactly my inspiration web describing piles, and gallery is kinda my inspiration on how to “thumb through” files. Except my idea would require a lot of resources dedicated to high quality compressed previews of documents.

                Also, I’m not proposing this like I think I’ve come up with an invention. I’m just hoping that my random musings would inspire someone with far more technological knowhow than myself. When I worked in mobile tech support, I quickly realized that the majority of issues that let bad-actor computer repair companies take advantage of old people revolved around printing stuff.

                Even though I no longer work in tech support, I still offer free basic tech support and computer repairs to older members of my community to try to make amends for having worked for such bloodsucking companies.

      • @TheGrandNagus@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        People say this but if you’re just using something like Linux Mint, it’s vastly simpler than Windows.

        The search works. Never will you open the start menu, search for an app, and instead get ads and bing results.

        All functions are done through graphical programs (terminal isn’t needed).

        It’s laid out in the usual Windows UX, complete with a taskbar at the bottom, start button in the bottom left that opens a familiar menu, minimise, maximise, and close buttons in the top right of a window.

        Apps are installed through an app store, rather than searching online, hoping you’ve downloaded the right installer, opening it, going through the installer, deleting the installer afterwards.

        Auto updates can easily be enabled at first time setup, in the tutorial program that runs upon first boot.

        A distro like Mint is easier than Windows or MacOS. It doesn’t need to be made any simpler, it just needs to be available out of the box on more devices, because no average user will ever change their OS, not even to an easier to use one.

        • @geophysicist@discuss.tchncs.de
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          58 months ago

          There’s a guy above that listed 11 issues that he couldn’t figure out when he swallowed from Windows to mint. I swear the Linux maximalists just repeat “Linux works perfectly” on loop hoping that’ll make it true

          • @TheGrandNagus@lemmy.world
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            8 months ago

            I never said you’ll never run into issues. Desktop OSes are intrinsically more complicated than, say, a notes app.

            But if you think people don’t run into issues on Windows all the time, or that no time was spent learning how windows works, then you’re out of your mind.

            Mint is objectively easier to use than Windows. I’m not telling you to use it. Use what you want. I’m just giving you the info.

            i sWeAr WiNdOwS mAxImaLisTs jUsT rEpEaT “wIndOWs wOrKs pErFecTlY” oN LoOp hOpiNG tHat’LL mAkE iT tRuE

            • @geophysicist@discuss.tchncs.de
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              18 months ago

              We’re not talking about complicated things that need learning. We’re talking about the fingerprint scanner not working in mint or the scrolling being a super sensitive default speed

              If you need to dive into online forums to fix your os installation, instead of just going into the settings app, then it is not “objectively easier than windows”

              • @TheGrandNagus@lemmy.world
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                08 months ago

                Which settings app? Windows has multiple, for… reasons…

                And let me get this straight, you’re saying people never search for assistance when things don’t work in Windows? Lmao

      • originalucifer
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        8 months ago

        what maintenance? most of the peeps i have using it blindly are just automatically applying recommended updates.

        • @Flaky@iusearchlinux.fyi
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          98 months ago

          Friend of mine has a System76 laptop and had to talk to their support about issues with the webcam on certain apps. It was fixed but they asked him to check lsusb. This guy only knows the basics of the terminal from me having to teach him.

          • @sanpo@sopuli.xyz
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            188 months ago

            And what would’ve Microsoft support said?

            “Reinstall drivers, reboot, and pray it starts working!”

            Troubleshooting Windows for non-tech people isn’t any easier in any way.

            • brothershamus
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              98 months ago

              The windows environment, as f*d as it is, is the ONLY mental model they are capable of. I have a short list of very needy users who cannot remember their f’ing password. Any of them, much less that there are multiple passwords.

              Every day it’s some random BS with email, or scroll bars or something that makes me think FFS why is everyone this incapable of grasping a simple web search??

              I moved some of them to Apple because I’m not touching M$ with a ten-foot pole anymore. Oh god, the anguish I heard. The screams. The scroll bars just disappear!!! AAiiiiGhhhh! They close out windows and think that’s closing the program. “But I restarted it!” No you didn’t. They have no idea what desktops are, much less multiple ones. No C drive?? No C drive? complete catatonia. It’s never-ending.

              Long story short, the entirety of the computer revolution (that was a thing we called it once, which was the style at the time) is very much just Windows for them. That’s it. If you can make a Linux system mirror exactly Windows 10 in every respect and - AND - run all of Microsoft’s products with no incursion of *nix-ism at all then they’ll be happy. Well, not happy. Not-always-crying-in-panic. Obviously, that’s never going to happen.

              I’ve hated Microsoft for so long; I’ve long since given up on them ceasing to be a cancer on the modern world, it’s all I can do to just erase them from every corner of my computing experience where possible.

              • @Hamartiogonic@sopuli.xyz
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                28 months ago

                Oh, and then they tell me about some window with some warning text on it. My first question is: Who is asking? Is it something Windows is asking you? Is it some other app? Is it a fake ad on a website. Context matters a lot, and some people don’t seem to know that context even exists.

              • @sanpo@sopuli.xyz
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                58 months ago

                And besides, Linux usually provides useful logs, so you don’t have to fumble in the dark.

                • @TheGrandNagus@lemmy.world
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                  28 months ago

                  And when you do get an error message, it’s usually descriptive. Like a generic permission denied then a file path to the file where there was an issue or something like that.

                  You get an error message in Windows and it’s usually something along the lines of 0xc000021a. Thank you, Microsoft. Very legible!

            • @Flaky@iusearchlinux.fyi
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              28 months ago

              I’m not discounting System76’s support (hell to my friend Linux is hard, but rewarding), but I am saying that this sort of thing is still alien to the average consumer. I’ve seen university students not know what a command line is.

      • ares35
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        68 months ago

        linux is great for two types of people… those that just need a browser or libreoffice and could use even a livecd or reset-on-reboot kiosk mode type se;tup that’s been set up for them, and those that want to get their hands dirty.

        for everyone else, it can really be a pain in the ass sometimes when something goes wrong. help is fragmented in even more ways than the distros themselves, and every third response is usually something along the lines of ‘google it’ (“i did, that’s how i got here”) or ‘rtfm’ (“what fucking manual?”–documentation is lacking for soooo many things) and then silence.

        at least with windows you should already know going-in that ‘backup and reinstall’ is probably high-up at #3 on the list of things to try/do, after you search and scan a much larger pile of resources specific to windows and its (relatively few, by comparison) different versions.

        • @PainInTheAES@lemmy.world
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          This is a take I would have agreed with 10 years ago but not today.

          There’s also the SteamDeck and gaming is a very valid use case now. I do admittedly like getting my hands dirty but I use Linux as a daily driver for school and home.

          The forum culture has gotten a bit better. It used to be like that more often 10 years ago but now people seem more helpful. It also really depends on what you google. (E.g. my desktop crashed Linux help vs gnome crash error from logs) But you’re also expecting a lot of free support from the community. If you need support buy Linux from a company that offers support like System76, Steam, etc.

          Ok, and you can also just backup and reinstall Linux?? In fact some distros automatic snapshots of your system get taken and you can roll back from the terminal, GUI, or bootloader.

          The last one I just don’t get. Windows errors are cryptic hieroglyphics or UX’d to uselessness. At least I’m Linux it tells me what went wrong either on the screen or in logs. Even with visual bugs I’ve been able to find an exact bug report with the developers response and the version it will be fixed in after some Googling.

        • VindictiveJudge
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          38 months ago

          help is fragmented in even more ways than the distros themselves, and every third response is usually something along the lines of ‘google it’ (“i did, that’s how i got here”) or ‘rtfm’ (“what fucking manual?”–documentation is lacking for soooo many things) and then silence.

          This, and persistent sound driver issues, are what ultimately drove me away after using Linux as my primary for a few years. Forums were also filled with shorthand and they wouldn’t tell you what to actually type into the fucking terminal. Can’t figure out what the shorthand means? Too bad, because nobody will tell you.

        • brothershamus
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          18 months ago

          Totally agree, but with the caveat that if you have to support this user anwyay, bite the bullet and switch to Apple - at least they can still run Office and pretend it’s windows while still benefitting from simply restarting everything as a fix.

      • @webghost0101@sopuli.xyz
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        8 months ago

        You don’t really need commandline in linux anymore, unless your doing advanced stuff which means you should learn commandline anyway.

        As others have said. The real obstacle is getting it all installed. The only advantage to win and mac is it comes preinstalled.

        • @Sanyanov@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          Installing Linux through now-ubiquitous Calamares takes just a few minutes, it explains every step (of which only one is actually technical, which is drive partition, and the rest are like selecting time zone and admin password), and it’s extremely intuitive. It is literally easier than installing Windows.

          But yeah, most people never installed Windows either, and just get it preinstalled.

          • @webghost0101@sopuli.xyz
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            38 months ago

            Peanuts for me but i am already in. Now try explain it to your (grand) parents.

            Most people don’t know what a partition or a bios is.

            I agree its not harder then installing windows but there is a reason that people ask me to install their windows.

            • hoxbug
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              38 months ago

              Which is true, a lot of people see it as black magic. They are just used to what the product comes with, even if you could install iOS on an Android phones or the other way around, people would still buy an iphone cause it comes with it.

      • @TheGrandNagus@lemmy.world
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        28 months ago

        Which in almost all cases you never have to do, unless you go for like Arch or Gentoo or something, which nobody should do unless they know what they’re getting into.

        If you installed something like Linux Mint, there’s no reason why you’d ever need to go into the terminal. It’s just an option for if you want to use it, like the command prompt, powershell, or registry in Windows.

    • @burliman@lemm.ee
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      138 months ago

      Don’t get me wrong. I use Linux extensively, but mostly server loads and gateways. But have used Mint and Rocky as desktops. So I can’t see how someone can reasonably argue that they have the same polish as Windows (or MacOS) for the average user. Too much command line, too many disparate tools without consistency, just to name a couple.

      Linux has its place, but it is not for the average person yet. I wish it would get there, but for decades people have been saying this.

      • RandomStickman
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        138 months ago

        Just throwing more personal anecdotal story, I use Mint at home and Win10 at work. The amount of time something wonky happen at work, like Teams being Teams, or issues connecting to wifi, are much higher than at home.

        The only time I’ve touch the command panel is when there’s some obscure programs I wanna try out. I don’t even know how to delete a file using the Command Panel without looking it up first.

        Using Mint as an Internet machine, and even gaming in my case with Steam making it so much easier, I feel much less resistance with Mint compared to Win10. Win10 just hides everything away and I feel like I need to twist its arm just to maybe have it do things I want, and I just want to print something. Mint was literally just plug and print. Mint feels more like Win7 than Win10 ever did to me.

        • @Sanyanov@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          Honestly, this. It’s very ironic, but with settings hidden God-knows-where and poor support for much of the advanced software, I find Windows way less polished and comfortable than Linux, despite many claiming the opposite

          • @TheRedSpade@lemmy.world
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            88 months ago

            People who claim the opposite either haven’t tried a mainstream distro in several years or they work for Microsoft.

    • Tiger Jerusalem
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      38 months ago

      I wish but I have a Samsung notebook and the damn fingerprint reader won’t work on any Linux distribution.

      • @stealth_cookies@lemmy.ca
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        18 months ago

        I don’t think it is just your laptop. I’ve not been able to get the fingerprint reader to work properly on my Framework on Linux either. I think the support for them just sucks on Linux.

      • originalucifer
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        18 months ago

        uhg samsung. reminds me of sony… does sony still do laptops? they had the worst hardware driver support that ever existed.

    • BoofStroke
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      18 months ago

      On that note, mint does transparently allow you to use cloud resources like one drive (maybe not that specifically)

    • @init@lemmy.ml
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      558 months ago

      But are you sure you don’t want to make Edge your default browser??

      • @CrayonRosary@lemmy.world
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        338 months ago

        Why do you think you need to download Chrome? Write a 500 word essay explaining how it’s better than Edge.

        (For real, though, it’s not. Use Firefox.)

      • ditty
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        118 months ago

        So there’s also this neat feature in Microsoft Office where if you insert a hyperlink to a Google Doc/Sheets/Slides/Forms, Microsoft appends URIs to the end that prevents the link from opening in browsers other than Edge/IE. It can be corrected with a registry edit, but it’s been an issue for years and years at this point. Super annoying!

        • @Natanael@slrpnk.net
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          8 months ago

          Or another fun thing I recently saw at work, Microsoft changing Office programs to always open links in Edge by default so you have to edit a setting to make it open the default browser again - which caused a significant productivity loss when people suddenly had various intranet pages opened in a browser they were not logged into, and they all had to contact support to get the original sane behavior back.

          Microsoft is being run by marketing teams with hubris these days, there’s absolutely no way they’re testing these things with real humans before release.

      • @DudeDudenson@lemmings.world
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        88 months ago

        Oh you want to change the default app for a file extension? Here change it for all the extensions one by one by hand!

        What do you mean you didn’t have to do this before? There’s no before!

    • ΛdΛm_𝒷
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      148 months ago

      Thanks to FOSS Devs, it’s possible to remove a lot of shit Microsoft throws at their users, Sophia Script, Optimizer, PrivateZilla, PrivacySexy… To name a few…

      However, removing Microsoft Edge is still difficult, if not impossible, I used pirated iso’s ( for testing purposes ) that removes MS Edge, but once you update the system, everything crashes, AME is a good example, in order to keep the system stable, they disabled all updates for you…

      I also noticed that the privacy invasive features I turn off, get turned on, on the next update, MS Edge does this with each update, so it leaves you with no choice but to just … Ignore its there, and not use it…

      So my conclusion is, you can’t disbale anything unless Microsoft allows you to, yes you can have a less annoying experience with one of the tools I mentioned above, but the OS remains hostile against user choice.

      • @cholesterol@lemmy.world
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        178 months ago

        but the OS remains hostile against user choice.

        That’s just it. Most of us probably work on our computers – imagine if you were a carpenter and your tools actively fought you. It’s about literal quality of life for me at this point.

        • @dual_sport_dork@lemmy.world
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          68 months ago

          The worst part is that if Raymond Chen is to be believed (author of The Old New Thing, work(ed) for Microsoft) this is the complete antithesis of what their philosophy was supposed to be in the Windows 96/98 era, which was “let the user have full control over how they want to use their computer.”

          That shit went right out the window, didn’t it?

      • El Barto
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        8 months ago

        Why use Windows at that point?

        My machine still has Windows 10, and ir can’t upgrade to Windows 11. The day they stop supporting Windows 10 is the day I’ll stop using Windows for good.

        Kinda sad. I used to like to hate Windows, but I always knew that I could personally use it if needed. But ads? Telemetry? Non-uninstallable software again? They crossed a line.

      • NekuSoul
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        98 months ago

        Personally I hate these tools with a passion as every single one I’ve seen goes overboard and disables potentially wanted features or straight up breaks stuff in its default configuration. It’s always fun to figure out what’s wrong with a machine only to eventually figure out that the owner used one of those tools a few months ago.

        IMO people should either do these changes themselves or use another OS, though ultimately there needs to be legislation against this to help the non-technical people.

        • ΛdΛm_𝒷
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          28 months ago

          You can’t do 70℅ of what these tools can do for you since these features are hidden by Microsoft, and the only way to disable or enable them is via Powershell

          Also, you have to be lazy and reckless to run them as they are, since almost all of them have checkboxes and explainers to what they’re going to do.

          From a person who troubleshoots computers perspective, yes, fixing a computer for someone who tinkers but doesn’t understand what they’re doing ( in some cases they might not know what they’re trying to achieve ) can be a headache, and I can’t help but give them this look 😒

        • ΛdΛm_𝒷
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          28 months ago

          lol… easier said than done…

          Linux either doesn’t have the professional software I use, or it does but i have to relearn it if I wanna use Linux

      • @random65837@lemmy.world
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        -18 months ago

        So my conclusion is, you can’t disbale anything unless Microsoft allows you to, yes you can have a less annoying experience with one of the tools I mentioned above, but the OS remains hostile against user choice.

        Whats funny there, is people that are forced (I assume that’s the only reason you’d run it) to run Windows hate that shit, while at the same time the Apple cult embraces have zero control of their devices. They know best after all…

  • @cybersandwich@lemmy.world
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    938 months ago

    I only use Windows at work (because I have to). The thing that drives me fucking nuts, as an advanced computer user in general, is how God damned unintuitive the Office,OneDrive, and File explorer integration is.

    I have no idea where I am saving stuff half the time(or more accurately have to change it each time because the defaults are dumb). I don’t want it in my OneDrive downloads folder or OneDrive documents folder. I want it in my fucking laptop download folder or local documents folder.

    Then Teams is saving stuff in SharePoint in the background, permissions are annoying AF. At least they’ll flag that a recipient of an email attachment or imbedded url doesn’t have access. So that’s nice I guess.

    Oh, then sometimes I’m prompted to save a copy of a shared document, but that’s different from “download a copy”. If you save a copy it just makes a new shared copy for everyone in the SharePoint site.

    I feel like a boomer when I work with MS now. Maybe it’s all enterprise settings for where I work and maybe it’s not MS’s fault but hot damn I am so much less productive than if I just used Gsuite, only office, on Mac or .

    Maybe I just need to spend a week taking training classes on these products. But who tf has time for that when you have your actual job to do. So I guess that really sums up Microsoft for me: it’s in the way and slowing me down.

    • @RunawayFixer@lemmy.world
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      308 months ago

      It is not the settings of your enterprise, the file savings mess is 100% on Microsoft. Imo learning to work with it is pointless, since it will be entirely changed sometime in the future again when Microsoft again tries to trick more people into using these programs in order to boost their quarterly statistics.

    • @Serinus@lemmy.world
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      168 months ago

      saving stuff in SharePoint in the background, permissions are annoying AF

      The nice thing about this is that it told me when bosses were snooping around files that I’d never shared with them. I got an automated email from Sharepoint asking to give them permissions.

    • @ebits21@lemmy.ca
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      98 months ago

      Same. I was so annoyed with windows slow, useless search at work (I search for pdfs all day) I just wrote a Python program that does that job much, much better.

    • rhythmisaprancer
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      8 months ago

      What you are saying heavily echoes my challenge as a govt employee who uses Linux at home. Like why, when I select a folder to save something in, does it revert right back to the nebulous default one minute later? Unacceptable.

    • @Hamartiogonic@sopuli.xyz
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      68 months ago

      When saving a file in Word, Excel or whatever, the process looks some thing like this.

      ctrl+s

      “Save this file” dialogue appears, and it expects I want to dump everything into the root of OneDrive. Well, I don’t.

      “Choose location” has some folders, none of which are what I want, because I tend to save my files pretty deep in the tree. Everything has a logical place, you know. I’m not one of those people who have a thousand files and 500 GB on the desktop. I like it neat and tidy.

      Click “more options”. Now I can finally navigate to the specific folder I want. If you realize you actually need to create a new folder, this dialogue box isn’t for you. In order to do that, you need to go to “browse” where you’ll get the normal file dialogue box.

      Can’t I just jump straight to the browse menu when I press ctrl+s? You know, like the way normal applications do it. Just try to save a file with Inkscape to see what I mean.

  • @CeeBee@lemmy.world
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    608 months ago

    This exact same thing happens when trying to cancel a subscription. Magellan TV wouldn’t let me continue to cancel my subscription until I selected a reason for the cancellation.

    So I exited the process and contacted support with the message “your website will not let me cancel without providing a reason”.

    They replied with “you can just select a reason and then it will allow you to continue”

    To which I said “and where’s the option to cancel without you holding my account hostage until I do what you demand of me?”

    They replied with confirmation that they’ve cancelled my subscription for me.

    It seems petty, but no company should be allowed to forcibly extract additional info out of you when you want to cancel. They can ask all they like, but never force.

    • @dafo@lemmy.world
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      178 months ago

      Here in Sweden you can cancel a subscription however you wish (as long as it’s within reason). You can send a company snail mail, email, go by their office, phone, text, whatever reasonably reaches them. They’re not allowed to pull the “Oh, buy you have to call [number which leads to an antichurn department]” or “please tell us why” (but of course they’re gonna try anyway. If it’s an online form you usually have a “I don’t want to disclose why”-reason).

    • @Gsus4@mander.xyz
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      8 months ago

      You could tell them that your dog made you do it because there aren’t enough shows about bitches, then the ball is on their court to act crazy :D

  • @cybersandwich@lemmy.world
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    548 months ago

    Just always click other and give them no info. Other is the worst field for analysts who are trying to deal with survey results.

    • Ann Archy
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      8 months ago

      No no no no nooo. That is like answering your phone and telling your stalker that you will not talk to them. It only encourages them.

    • @Aceticon@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      If you want to screw their analytics, choose Other and write something random in it.

      All other fields go straight into meaningful numbers and it’s easy to automatically detect an empty Other and assign it to a generic category, but random text in Other has to be read and understood by a human to categorise (because you can’t yet automate the detection of randomness or meaningless, whilst you can easilly enough automate things like detection of swear words to classify it into “pissed off user”).

      On the other hand an empty Other is the simplest fastest way to just go over an unecessary barrier like that if you just want to get done with it and aren’t trying to make a point.

  • @realitista@lemm.ee
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    478 months ago

    I’m okay with this as long as one of the options is

    “Because fuck you, that’s why.”

  • @nucleative@lemmy.world
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    468 months ago

    Hey, Lemmy user in this thread: you’re likely in the top 0.1% expertise of all computer users worldwide.

    This prompt is aimed at my boomer dad, who wouldn’t know what that funny icon is but read somewhere to close his apps for better speed. If his OneDrive docs disappear, I’ll get a call about it. At the same time, Microsoft probably can’t sell anything to my dad ever again, except his Office 365 subscription, so that makes him the product.

    Microsoft is usually pretty good at letting tech users disable this kind of stuff with powershell commands or registry keys, which you already know how to do. And of course businesses join windows PCs to domains and disable this stuff centrally too.

    • TWeaK
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      158 months ago

      Your stuff wouldn’t disappear if Microsoft didn’t keep stealing it and storing it on their servers, insteads of leaving it on your PC where it belongs.

      This isn’t for your boomer dad, this is for Microsoft. You pay them for software, they steal your data. They’re literally worse than Facebook and Google now.

    • @Smokeydope@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      My parents are 60 years old and use mint daily. When my mom needs onedrive she just uses the web app through the internet browser. At this point its better for your boomer parents to move them to a OS where they aren’t a product and the corporate overlords won’t be able to fuck with their local files. the 99% of normal users only use their computers to boot into the internet browser, and every piece of software they use from banking to documents has a web-based front end, a FOSS alternative, or can be emulated with wine.

    • Hello Hotel
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      8 months ago

      When you do what microsoft wants, they dont punish you. Microsoft have found a way to treat users like employees. Every company knows to punch an employee above the belt (by nesesity of a cruel world or optionally pretend its true), apologise, give them cake and pray they develop a relationship.

      For those that whisper “union” to coworker, punch below the belt, look tough and walk away.

      this is how Microsoft hates your non cooperation

      They wont mess with buisnesses because they have too much power to abandon their product in mass and are generally aligned with Microsoft’s productification practices. However, users “dont have any power”.

      Microsoft doesnt want users to turn these settings off, devorcing your computer as much as they will allow makes a “your device is not set up” screen to appear at login. Its a lie (or gross redefinition of “set up”). I would argue that it is designed to trick users into turning those fetures back on.

      If you run a program or follow a guide to turn off settings in the registry, they have in the past, changed them back. users often dont check every setting to make sure they havent changed in the night.

      Microsoft actively disrespected (and mabe still does) the “open urls/links in this app” menu, they give you their sales pitch on edge when switching the prefrence, they overrode the setting to always be edge or they did the above settings tampering

  • Steve
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    458 months ago

    First with Chrome, now with OneDrive. What exactly are they trying to do with these “explanations” aside from annoying their user base?

    • @AdmiralShat@programming.dev
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      308 months ago

      I suppose they think they can gather more information on user habits and user interaction with onedrive to determine how to reduce user loss.

      • @Isycius@lemmy.ca
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        108 months ago

        If so, they should pay for Q/A and/or focus testing themselves. Not freeload off from forcing users.

        I can already see that this won’t gather them any data that is actually useful for analysis.

    • @knotthatone@lemmy.one
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      138 months ago

      Pushing subscriptions and vendor lock-in. They harass you to use OneDrive so they can later harass you to pony up for a 365 subscription.

        • @knotthatone@lemmy.one
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          18 months ago

          That’s fine if you actually want it. I usually get the Costco deal for the family plan because we need the official MS Office apps and the terabyte storage per account is useful for us.

          But Microsoft has gotten really obnoxious lately about upselling in the OS.

  • ares35
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    408 months ago

    if there’s a ‘fill in the blank’ after choosing ‘other’… their ‘ai’ is going to melt from the responses.

  • @MystikIncarnate@lemmy.ca
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    348 months ago

    This is the software giant equivalent of the Simpsons out of touch meme.

    They’re frantically looking for why nobody likes them while they’re aggressively doing the thing that nobody likes them because of.

    IMO, this is a bit like having a fellow student in your same grade in highschool who asked you out on the first day of class despite not really even knowing your name and when you declined, they asked you why every day for the entire year, and no matter what you said, they would still ask again tomorrow, because your answer never satisfied them.

    Listen to me Microsoft, you have a few winners, like Windows, maybe office/365 for the business folks (though, formerly, it was exchange), and a few other gems. Don’t ruin the reputation you still have for making half decent operating systems by turning them into an ex that just won’t stop calling… IMO, this whole thing started when you axed MSN Messenger, and forcibly merged it into Skype, rather than bringing clever upgrades from the Skype codebase over to messenger. Everything went downhill from there. Even teams is still tainted by the Skype for business shenanigans that happened. You messed up. Stop irritating the clientele that you still have and give it a rest. Just make a good operating system, and focus on innovation. I haven’t seen any of that from you folks since the release of the NT kernel; it’s all been predictable iterative changes.

    Back the hell off.

    • Koordinator O
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      28 months ago

      That comparison is missing a bit. That fellow student is not just asking you. He asks everyone and sure enough there are some willing to say yes. That is the problem. There are still enough such people so its worth for them. They don’t care about the no sayers. Who cares if you are anoyed if the next five people say yes? So no. They will never back off. Only when the numbers turn red. And then they probably will find an even worse system instead of improving.

      • @MystikIncarnate@lemmy.ca
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        38 months ago

        They don’t care about the no sayers.

        OP’s article would imply that they do. There’s literally no other reason to do what they’ve done with OneDrive. They’ve given a list of reasons that they find to be “the only possible reasons why you would reject such an amazing program”, and given you no other options. Historically, yeah, that’s been the case, you don’t want it, fine… and they go and sell it to someone who does; but this isn’t that. This is pestering you as to why you don’t like them and no answer YOU provide is good enough; only if you fit into their little boxes, is your answer “good enough”… for now.

  • @Saki@monero.town
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    8 months ago

    The same URL now: Microsoft gives in and lets you close OneDrive on Windows without explaining yourself

    Update November 10th, 4:45AM ET: Microsoft has removed the dialog forcing users to fill out a survey when quitting OneDrive, and reverted to the original prompt. In a statement sent to The Verge, Microsoft says:

    Between Nov. 1 and 8, a small subset of consumer OneDrive users were presented with a dialog box when closing the OneDrive sync client, asking for feedback on the reason they chose to close the application. This type of user feedback helps inform our ongoing efforts to enhance the quality of our products.

    The story below is unchanged.

    • @Smokeydope@lemmy.world
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      58 months ago

      Yeah okay microsoft whatever you say. The only thing you’ve ever been interested in ‘enhancing the quality of’ is how tight the leash around your users necks is. At this point I would respect you more if you were just honest about your corporate assholery.

      “We don’t give a fuck about you as a user and want to test how far we can screw with you just for fun, enjoy your 15.99$/month subscription based service to reduce the new 15 second advertisements that show up whenever you launch a program on windows 12, to one per hour. Slop it up, you retarded cattle.”