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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
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.
Na just throw ads into system logs. Or do what Ubuntu does and throw an advert every time you run apt upgrade.
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?
Delete this comment
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
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.
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.
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.
Most likely this IMO, with all the driver and executable signing/integrity checks nowadays I doubt they can get away with patching the system files a la Windows XP style.
At this point it would be easier to install a new user friendly linux distro...
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.
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...
I have win11 on my gaming pc and i don't see any ads. Maybe because i use local account.
Look, I agree, but let's not kid ourselves on our experience not being shitty too 🤣. We're capable of using it only because we're really good at computers, but there are literally millions of people who don't even know or care about knowing how to change desktop background
there are literally millions of people who don’t even know or care about knowing how to change desktop background
I'll cede "know", but I heavily dispute "care".
Plenty of Boomers are painfully aware of how awful the internet has become over the last decade. Hell, they got to experience it before the rest of us precisely because folks who never knew how to migrate off AOL or Yahoo got enshitified first.
My own mom hates using the computer in no small part because she takes too much of what she sees at face value and ends up with tons of spyware, bloat, and scams rampaging across her laptop. I have to clean it out for her every few months, and I'm constantly fighting with her over what's actually garbage and what she's convinced she needs.
But the end result is that she just... won't check her email because she hates it. She won't answer her phone because she's afraid of scam callers. She won't trust ANY website, so she doesn't use Amazon or Uber or Netflix.
It isn't that people like my mom don't care. They care immensely, because modern technology has become unusable for people like her.
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!
Yeah that went out the window when American corpos found out during the pandemic they can literally just keep raising prices for shittier product and Americans just… keep buying it
Welcome to the end of human society, we’re just getting started. Should have chosen a birthdate a few decades earlier, too bad!
The worst thing about the future is that everything is fucking data mining and ads. Yes, EVERYTHING, from cars to fucking refrigerators.
Lol. I was on 11, haven't seen the ads, probably due to nextdns, even ran the beta versions. But 24.04 came out and upon testing it seems my WiFi isn't crapping out like if used to so I guess I'll stay.
Man win11.. Wtf...
I mean Windows is a free OS. You can freely download and install it without paying and receive nothing but a watermark in exchange.
It's become more and more like Android over the years where "you are the product" so this is unsurprising.
I have used the Chris Titus debloat tool before and it works pretty well.
Really the fact that this is necessary at all is disgusting. Start Menu ads are straight up AIDS. Not to mention curated news feeds in Start and other places. Why not just tell me what my opinions and purchasing habits should be, and eliminate the middleman?
I feel like even novice Windows users would be better off with Pop! OS and Wine at this point.
Sure, but Microsoft has favorable ESG reporting. Your move Nix.