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Windows 10 is now serving Edge advertisements to anyone that does not have it as the default browser.
These ads appear over the Edge icon in the Windows 10 taskbar, even when Edge is not open. They do appear only when Edge is not the default system browser but that covers the majority of Windows 10 systems.
Since it advertises Microsoft Edge and Microsoft Rewards, it is possible that the campaign is reserved to the United States. The reason for this is simple: Microsoft Rewards are only available in the US right now.
This is not the only ad that promotes Microsoft Edge that users may see however. Microsoft is pushing ads in the Action Center as well stating that Chrome is draining battery fast and that switching to Edge would better the situation.
Both ads have some use for users and try to promote a feature of Microsoft Edge or Microsoft that may be beneficial to users.
One could argue that this is a good thing, and it probably would not get such a bad reception if Microsoft would provide clear and concise options to turn of[f] these after they appear once.
The main issue that many Windows 10 users may have with these ads is however that is seems impossible to get rid of those advertisements once and for all.
Microsoft really wants Windows 10 users to use Cortana and Edge.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by ShadowSystems on Saturday November 05 2016, @11:29PM
You've just hit the nail on the head.
I was in the market for a new computer & voted with my wallet.
My wallet voted to go to System76.com & buy a new desktop, 6th gen I7 4GHz, 32GiB of DDR4, 250GiB NVMe SSD, & all the ports I could ever need for less than the cost of a Windows machine.
It's currently humming away happily on the back of my desk as I type & I'm >!SO! happy to have made the switch.
Microsoft has done an excellent job of pushing me to upgrade...
They've pushed so hard I flew right out the window & upgraded to Linux.
Bravo MS, Bravo!
*Insulting mocking golf clap*
I hope it prompts others to do the same.
There may be a learning curve to get used to Linux, but it's *NOTHING* compared to the 1984 Reality Curve we'd get with Windows.
*Double handed rude gesture & maniacal laughter*
Damn I feel GOOOooooooooood today!
=-)p
(Score: 2) by SomeGuy on Sunday November 06 2016, @12:02AM
So why aren't you using a smart phone instead like everyone else? :P
The point being, that if anyone asks Microsoft why they are doing all this crazy crap, they will probably whine about how they are having such hard times because the "PC is dying" and such drivel.
But on the flip side, it is this kind of abuse that makes average people, who only need to post pictures of cats and watch clips of Family Guy, switch to a toy smart phone that isn't from Microsoft.
(Score: 2) by Pino P on Sunday November 06 2016, @03:34AM
So why aren't you using a smart phone instead like everyone else? :P
A couple guesses: Carriers charge more for service on a smartphone than on a flip phone. And programming apps aren't practical on smartphones.
(Score: 1) by ShadowSystems on Sunday November 06 2016, @04:52AM
Pretty much nailed it. When your carrier charges you by the byte (figuratively) then you're loathe to use your phone for much of anything that might even *remotely* touch your data allowance.
But the biggest reason I don't use a SmartPhone is told in one of my previous posts, to which I will refresh the memory.
1: Android fails it's own Accessibility tutorial. There is a point where it wants you to make a "swipe-up-and-right" gesture to edit text in a Text Entry Field (TEF). Except that no matter where you start the gesture the tutorial complains that you've missed the TEF & then restarts the lesson. Trigger an endless loop of frustration.
2: Unless I go to an Apple store & force one of their own employees get the Accessibility working properly, I have evidently no way in hell of getting an Apple phone to talk to me. I've been to two different locations of my carrier, had *Managers* attempting to get the phone to talk to me, & had them proven to be utterly unable to do so. If the carrier manager can't get it to work then the only other option is an actual Apple store... Of which there don't seem to BE any in my backwoods, podunk, agricultural cow town on the outskirts of Silicon Valley. If I were willing to drive ~2 hours to get to the nearest one that Apple claims to me, then I could spend the day listening to some Apple employee doing a ham fisted job of it... But since I'm blind & have to arrange rides about a week in advance to coordinate with my normal form of transportation, then bribe said transportation to make the trip, just GETTING to an Apple store is pretty much a non-starter.
Windows & Blackberry are non-starters to begin with. My carrier doesn't carry them in sufficient quantity to have any employees who can turn on their Accessibility, if they have any such functionality at all.
*Sighs*
I use a Feature flip phone because I'm pretty much forced to do so. Android has it's head up it's ass, Apple needs me to drive to Apple HQ in order to find anyone "genius" enough to get the phone to talk properly, & that pretty much cuts my options to nil.
=-\
On the bright side, grasping at the silver lining in this rain cloud, at least my Feature phone doesn't require constant updates to the software!
Until someone makes a zero day exploit for text messages on a phone that can't click links to follow them, can't run apps to get hijacked by a malformed SMS, or get online to send all my PII to some schmuck in Donkeyfuckistan, they'll just have to pass me by.
=-)p
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 06 2016, @05:05AM
So why aren't you using a smart phone instead like everyone else? :P
Name me a smartphone that isn't filled with proprietary software. Don't say phones running Android, because those include many proprietary blobs. Phones running Replicant are the closest to being free, but even they have proprietary software (just not in the OS).
I also don't like to be tracked. Cellphones (not just smartphones) are necessarily tracking devices.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 06 2016, @04:06AM
Did you get your screenreader issues sorted?
Details?
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