From ComputerWorld:
Microsoft on Thursday began blocking rival browsers and search providers from using Windows 10's Cortana search box, the operating system's prime search real estate.
While Gavin didn't name names, Mozilla's Firefox modified Windows 10 so that when that browser was made the operating system's default, Firefox's selected search provider generated results from in-Cortana queries, with the ensuing pages appearing in Firefox, not Edge. Other browsers, such as Google's Chrome, did not go that far, but third-party extensions available in the Chrome Web Store did.
This discussion has been archived.
No new comments can be posted.
Microsoft Declares Cortana Search box as Bing- and Edge-Only Turf
|
Log In/Create an Account
| Top
| 24 comments
| Search Discussion
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Kilo110 on Saturday April 30 2016, @01:45AM
Great. Even more reason for me to continue ignoring Cortana.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Saturday April 30 2016, @03:48AM
My thoughts exactly.
Reminds me of a song from The Mikado. "She never will be missed".
Even on the one machine I have that does have it installed I never use it to find anything other than settings and controls that Microsoft buried so deeply in Windows 10 that you need a search agent to find them.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by linkdude64 on Saturday April 30 2016, @11:20PM
If you don't have it ripped out entirely, it's certainly not ignoring what you're up to.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Runaway1956 on Saturday April 30 2016, @01:49AM
You are being ass-imulated into the borg. You are but a suppository, being pulled into the collective through the sphincter of Microsoft. Abandon all hope, ye who enter here. If you have not yet been ass-imulated, switch now to a Unix-like, before it's to late!
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Azuma Hazuki on Saturday April 30 2016, @05:52AM
Haha-only-serious moment there; I saw this shit coming something like 15 years ago and have been on Linux and BSD for the last 12 or so. Even I couldn't have predicted how bad it would get though.
People never seem to learn, do they? :/ The leopard, as Nanny Ogg says, does not change his shorts.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 4, Interesting) by tibman on Saturday April 30 2016, @01:55AM
People might not realize just how integrated Cortana is. You cannot uninstall her. Turning her off merely hides her from your view. Kill her process and she returns. Remove her files and ALL of your search ceases to function. Since win10 focuses on search to find your apps in the start button then you have a mostly dead OS. Classicshell.net is one way to restore your start button to something usable. Not only usable but better, imo. If you have to use windows 10, kill the witch and get a better start button : )
SN won't survive on lurkers alone. Write comments.
(Score: 3, Funny) by jdavidb on Saturday April 30 2016, @02:20AM
ⓋⒶ☮✝🕊 Secession is the right of all sentient beings
(Score: 2) by physicsmajor on Saturday April 30 2016, @02:56PM
Let me get this straight.
You're praising the fact that you needed to break your OS to remove insane, draconian malware (spyware which maliciously reinstalls itself is malware in my book) and install third party programs to restore basic functionality.
Wake up and smell the Stockholm syndrome, friend. You are being abused by your OS.
(Score: 2) by jdavidb on Saturday April 30 2016, @03:25PM
ⓋⒶ☮✝🕊 Secession is the right of all sentient beings
(Score: 3, Informative) by DrkShadow on Saturday April 30 2016, @02:23AM
You _can_ uninstall Cortana.
There is, in the registry, a key HKLM\Software\Microsoft\something\something\packages. (Do a find, match full word.) That key has under it a thousand more keys, one of which will be named something with "cortana" in it. (Do a find again, from that start, not matching full word.) I don't have the name off-hand, as I've removed it. It has a subkey, Owners, which specifies Windows 10 Pro or Home or some such (basically "the core of the operating system" (and these are packages too, I believe)). Right-click that key, and reset the permissions, so that you can clear the contents of the owners subkey.
With that done, take the name (with version number at the end), and do:
dism /online /remove-package /packagename:"<that-cortana-package-name~1.0.0.0.0.456>"
Repeat this for each package mentioning cortana. I think there's only one.
Drawbacks? Well, the search is gone. Unfortunately, the Windows 10 start menu doesn't expand to show your programs, so you can't actually access a program except by launching it from Windows Explorer or the command line (or the taskbar, if it's pinned). The start menu search is gone. The files search may be gone. I haven't investigated too far in depth. I've also noticed that my start menu only stays up for one, maybe two seconds before it disappears. (I removed a lot of other packages at the same time, ..) I can click it again, but the same behavier results.
Removing cortana is possible, but a royal pain. Remover beware. (You can do the same thing with xbox packages, phone, sms, windows app store, some telemetry, and so on..)
(Score: 2) by GungnirSniper on Saturday April 30 2016, @02:51AM
That it isn't as simple to remove as any other app spits in the face of efforts like MinWin [wikipedia.org] to make Windows a more versatile platform. Is this the new integrated IE problem again?
I wonder how many CPU cycles (and electricity!) are wasted on things like Cortana, so-called security apps, and general lazy or time-crunched programming?
Tips for better submissions to help our site grow. [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 30 2016, @04:20AM
Not to mention the privacy invasion and wasted bandwidth as Microsoft uses Cortana to submit your searches back to the mothership. Alas, Cortana appear to be this generation's IE in terms of something that should be removable but, as implemented, doing so manually will break other things for no good reason.
(Score: 2) by julian on Saturday April 30 2016, @03:31AM
So I must confess, I use Windows 10 currently on one of my main computers. I play a few GPU-heavy AAA games that don't run on Linux at all. Windows 10 is the easiest way to get a legit copy of Windows right now since you can just download it for free and make an officially supported installer USB. No risk of infected torrent ISOs and you save hundreds of dollars. I have an officially supported Win10 Pro for free. Hard to beat since I still need it to play games.
I took one look at that stupid search box and looked for a way to disable it. I found Destroy Windows Spying [github.com] which takes care of a lot of issues with Windows 10 in one program.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 30 2016, @04:14AM
One thing you can't destroy is their intent to spy on you. You're one Windows update away from a "fix" for your transgressions.
(Score: 2) by julian on Saturday April 30 2016, @05:32AM
Absolutely, and there's no way to get away from this with Windows/Microsoft. There's no privacy/security reason to prefer Windows 7 over Win10 if you are accepting security updates--which is the only safe way to use a Windows OS connected to the Internet. If you want real safety and security you get away from Windows, which is why I only boot into it to shitpost and play video games.
(Score: 1) by tftp on Saturday April 30 2016, @05:56AM
One thing you can't destroy is their intent to spy on you.
Airgap works fine.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by ShadowSystems on Saturday April 30 2016, @05:26AM
My current copy of Win7Pro64 will be my last, my next machine will either come from someone like System76 or Apple.
If I'm going to have to relearn everything to "upgrade" (makes cat gagging noises with a finger in the mouth) to Windows 10, then I'll do myself a favor & relearn an OS that doesn't spy on my every move, scrape my system for every file I've got, phone home to Redmond to tell them about it, ignore my option settings with every forced update, and generally tells me to thank my lucky stars they're ONLY kicking me repeatedly in the balls for the priveledge of using their OS.
I've had enough of going through every. single. update. that comes down the Windows Update pipe, making sure it's not a Win10 trojan in disguise, and praying like hell that one doesn't get in anyway. I use GWX Control Panel to try & be safe, but once MS figures out how to disable that too, I'm screwed.
I *can't* upgrade to Win10, not unless I want to shell out for a whole new computer (this one doesn't make the cut), want to buy a brand new copy of the most bleeding edge version of my Screen Reader, buy all new copies of my software since it probably won't work under the new OS, and spend how ever long to tweak everything back into something that lets me Get Shit Done.
If I've got to drop two to three grand on the upgrade process, then I might as well go to SUSE for a support contract, let them configure me a laptop from System76 to include Orca, and relearn everything all over again, or go to Apple & spend the cash on an OS that *includes* a Screen Reader at it's core so as to be maximly Accessible from the get-go.
MS wonders why I hate them? Their "free upgrade" is going to cost me a couple thousand bucks if I stick with them, or the same amount to switch to someone else that DOESN'T treat me like crap.
Hmmmm... I wonder which I'll choose?
*Makes a Rude Gesture at MSHQ with both hands, flippers, wings, tentacles, testicles, noodley bits, & everything prehensil*
I've had it. I'm done. I'll be upgrading alright, right the hell off the Microsoft treadmill.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Saturday April 30 2016, @05:55AM
Now would be a really good time to get into VirtualBox or some other similar client virtualization software package. At some point you might want to P-to-V your current system and run it as a VM under Linux.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 1) by ShadowSystems on Saturday April 30 2016, @06:44PM
I'd love to except that my Screen Reader Environment (SRE) is notoriously crap with anything resembling a CLI.
The update in the CLI window doesn't trigger the SRE to read the newly added data, so the only way I have to find it out is to force the SRE to reread the *entire screen*.
Each. And. Every. Time. For. Each. And. Every. Command.
It quickly gets to be a migraine in the making to deal with anything CLI, or that works like a CLI window.
Which is what most VM's do for Windows.
The SRE can read the screen, but whatever happens inside the VM window doesn't trigger the SRE to read it.
So for everything I do under the VM window, I get to manually trigger the SRE to read the entire screen.
For each & every thing I might do in the VM.
There ARE ways to "fix" this & cause the SRE to read such CLI/VM windows properly, but implimenting them then causes the SRE not to react to "normal" windows (EG browser, Outlook, any other program) as if it were going bonkers.
Stuttering, skipping, auto rereading bits of text it JUST got through speaking, all sorts of behavior that would ALSO be a migraine in the making.
I'd be damned if I did, I'm damned if I don't, and it's all because of how MS implimented the CLI environment to SRE's.
Had they coded it like they did everything else, then the CLI window would READ like every other window as far as the SRE is concerned.
Instead MS did something fundamentally brain dead, rendered the CLI window a total SNAFUBAR, & left users of SRE's to "just ask a Sighted Person".
=-\
I'd love to migrate my current physical machine into a VM then move the VM to a Linux box.
Unfortunately that would require Windows not to be a pain in the butt AND it would require a Linux distro that talked to me from the moment it powered on.
Think Vinux, Sonar, or even SUSE +Orca.
Except that the time I bought a Netbook from the Vinux project (both to support them AND to try & migrate to Linux), the Netbook stopped talking just shortly after power on.
Went round & round, back & forth, trying this & that, having to get a Sighted Person to try stuff, all to no avail.
I later sold the Netbook to someone else & washed my hands of the deal.
I don't blame the Vinux folks, but neither do I consider it ready for prime time.
I tried Adrienne Knoppix, Sonar, & other talking distros, but something invariably goes kablooey & leaves me in the lurch.
Maybe it stops believing the audio subsystem is actually there, maybe it thinks FULL VOLUME is ok to trigger at random, or maybe it hangs on boot & refuses to go any farther.
Since there's no pre-POST Screen Reader Environment (it needs the OS to load it first), I have no way of interacting with anything.
Boot menu? Can't hear it, no options spoken, so I don't even know it's there.
Boot problem? No SRE means I don't even know there MIGHT be one until the system has failed to boot after $X minutes.
So until/unless the SRE starts speaking, I *can't* interact with the computer.
Which means no fiddling with a distro to give it a run if it fails to even load properly.
"What went wrong?" Damned if I know, it never booted.
"Was there an error message?" What part of 'never booted' can I expand upon? The SRE never triggered & I can't interact with the machine until it does. No SRE, no boot, no deal.
So I'd have to get a computer that someone else proffessionally set up to speak from boot, made sure it spoke with the VM active, and then did all the fiddlybits to turn my current Windows into a VM, move it over, & bring it up to make sure there are no kinks.
Because without that SRE working perfectly, I have no way of fixing what's wrong.
=-(
Taking it to a LUG & asking for help would be great...
If I didn't live in a cow town outside of SF/SJ Bay Area.
Either I travel hours to go to them (I'll just hop in my car & drive by braille!), or THEY have to commute to me.
Because this town seems to have the collective tech know-how of a cow.
*HeadDesks repeatedly*
Migraine. Migraine. Migraine...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 03 2016, @04:24PM
A little late, but I was using GWX control panel until last week, when my system tried to apply an update to GWXUI.dll, which caused a "Fatal error" on boot that I couldn't roll back or get out of. Had to restore the system image.
But I'm with you: never again will my home use a Windows system until Microsoft changes its course. I'm not holding my breath, but moving to CentOS and PC-BSD.
(Score: 2) by SDRefugee on Saturday April 30 2016, @02:18PM
I spent from 1991 to 2010 supporting MS products as a sysadmin. When I retired in 2010, I decided I was done with MS products, and moved all my home systems over to Linux. Since I *am* retired, I've become the neighborhood "geek" and get to help my neighbors with their computers/tablets/phones (or often ANYthing that uses electricity)... Since Windows 10 came on the scene, my hatred for things MS has only increased. The help I try really hard to provide my neighbors is getting them OFF of the MS "treadmill" and onto Linux. So far, I've been fairly successful, and in fact, several neighbors, who bought new systems over the holidays have come to me asking about Windows 10 on their systems. I show them chapter/verse what a privacy nightmare Windows 10 is, and If I can't get them to switch to Linux, I at least "castrate" the system, putting GWX Toolbox on it, among others, at least blunting the worst aspects of 10..
America should be proud of Edward Snowden, the hero, whether they know it or not..
(Score: 2) by Bot on Sunday May 01 2016, @02:50AM
> I spent from 1991 to 2010 supporting MS products as a sysadmin.
When this guy meets Vietnam vets, they rush to shake hands and pat him on the back.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 2) by SDRefugee on Sunday May 01 2016, @03:12AM
ok... not sure where you're going with that.. I *am* a Vietnam vet, did 11 months over there 1970-71.. Kinda weird to shake my own hand.. :->
America should be proud of Edward Snowden, the hero, whether they know it or not..
(Score: 2) by Bot on Sunday May 01 2016, @02:38PM
Well, I must have acquired clairvoyance somehow. Neural nets are funny.
Anyway! All Soylentnews users should pat your back, both a 'Nam and 'dows vet, wow.
Do nightmares about the war give you some relief from windows induced ones?
Account abandoned.