For me the worst is Microsoft Start news. I've already turned it off multiple times and it always come back.

To add insult to injury, it always displays terrible gossip, sports or far right news.

If any developer that works in MS news service is reading this message, please know that I hate you.

ndespres 7 hours ago | parent | next [-]

It's so mind-boggling that they have control over the default browser home page and the news feed on everyone's taskbar and they choose to show gossip and one weird trick that doctors hate. Don't they feel embarrassed that they pollute their brand like this? Is the revenue from the clicks really worth it, or do they just not care?

	▲	xXSLAYERXx 7 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		While crazy to us, I bet we're in the minority. Average computer user might actually like it or at worse (to MSFT) not even notice it. Their web experience is bombarded with "1 weird trick" ads everywhere.
	▲	Vinnl 5 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		I don't think it's about revenue from clicks; they probably believe that it is what customers want, because those customers click on it. That surely means that they want it.

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garganzol 6 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

No worries, this is just how manipulative relationships work: they always aim for unidirectional communication.

You're obliged to consume the most important news from the most important entity on the planet Earth (Microsoft/Facebook/X/...), eat piles of informational crap that get dumped onto you, waste you emotional energy on processing the whole thing, participate in drama and show your admiration. Why? Because you're very convenient when in this state, you're mendable and coercible for whatever action the entity wants you to do without saying it directly.

But when it's time to listen to you and your concerns - surprise-surprise, nobody's home. It's one way only, see you next time, maybe.

P.S. Forcefully installing an attention-pollutve app like News in the Start Menu is nothing less than a way to control you. And for an insatiable ego, the sense of control is everything. This is why it keeps coming back, again and again, as if it's a lucky reoccurring coincidence. A Windows Update repairs the system? Yes, plus it repairs the system of control. Security patches are very convenient vehicle for that - once you eat it, you'll be served special dishes you never asked for.

	▲	tencentshill an hour ago \| parent [-]
		It's slop in the traditional pre-AI sense, though the term was still vaguely related to 4chan then.

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BloondAndDoom 7 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Use this https://www.oo-software.com/en/shutup10 or something similar, unfortunately without this level of tweaking it will be a shit show, not deeply modified windows feels like browsing the internet without an ad blocker.

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doomroot13 6 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I turned it off exactly once through the settings and it's never appeared again over years of updates. How did you "turn it off"?

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garganzol 6 hours ago | parent [-]

I presume that it's a difference between Windows OS editions. I turned it off too, but it wasn't as easy as one click, I had to use Group Policies to decrapify the adjacent aspects of the system. Group policies are not available in Windows Home edition, for example.

	▲	doomroot13 5 hours ago \| parent [-]
		I just went into the settings for the widgets, turned off the "Start" or "News" experience or whatever it is and it's never come back. Just using the toggle it offers in settings. While I was at it I went into the taskbar settings and just turned off the widgets altogether, never came back. I wonder if sometimes we just assume the worst and resort first to "hack" ways to disable some of these things and when a new update comes along from your company or whoever, it gets re-enabled. Instead of just using the built-in functionality for turning things off.

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jabroni_salad 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

No no you don't understand. "Here's a picture of some gross toenails" is the sincere best most valuable advertisement that the fourth most valuable company in the united states is capable of delivering. If anything better existed, they would be using it.

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htx80nerd 5 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

do you really expect us to believe ms is pushing 'far right news'?

perhaps youre just so far left that anything slightly in the center feels 'far right'?

when bing / edge recommends me stories it's never ever 'far right'. it's almost always something pro-left or that makes the (R) look negative.

	▲	onemoresoop 2 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		You really have no clue how this works. Microsoft is just the intermediary. They take money from whoever pays to shove you ads, sometimes malicious ads that could infect your machine (if you're not heavily protecting yourself from that). And it's not only Microsoft that's the culprit, they all do it. Google does it, Meta does it, Microsoft does it.