Since this thread is mostly people complaining about Windows, here are two more fun anecdotes

1. I installed a new Windows-only gaming setup. Out of the box it was able to figure out how IPv6 networking works here but didn't get IPv4. So for the 10-20 minutes it took to fix that I was able to see what's a priority for Microsoft (so it works even with just IPv6) and what's non-critical so you can demand IPv4

    Adverts everywhere: Critical, Ipv4 not needed
    Turning *off* the adverts: Non-essential, need Ipv4 or you can't change this

2. In my day job we look after the software which runs exams. For obvious reasons this software cannot do anything except present your exam and accept whatever your answers are. The University doesn't have buckets of money and almost all its machines run Windows, so exams happen on Windows. With a locked down environment you can still write the formulae you were supposed to memorize on your tits and then wear a top you can pull down to look at them "discretely" the same as in a paper exam, but you can't ask ChatGPT to write your essay about Singapore's housing policy for your politics exam or have it tell you whether the X-ray in figure 1 shows evidence for options A, B, C or D in your 3rd year medicine exam.

Despite the fact that this software is as locked down as we could possibly make it, and so the machine definitely cannot "install OneDrive" even if the student really wanted to instead of taking their exam, Windows will still sometimes interrupt their exam to ask them if they want to install OneDrive.

▲ Eridanus2 a day ago | parent | next [-]

> write the formulae you were supposed to memorize on your tits

Mnemonic devices. Oh, the privilege.

	▲	yreg a day ago \| parent [-]
		I too liked the detour about cheating.

▲ orphea a day ago | parent | prev [-]

I wish we could stay on topic. Every time a submission is about Windows, 90% of comments are either:

- "how is it surprising that Windows is bad? [unrelated story]"

- "linux linux linux switch to linux"

▲

tapoxi a day ago | parent | next [-]

To be fair there because most of the submissions about Windows are negative ones, which means the comments are either "Windows sucks" or "I'm glad I stopped using Windows"

The last time I remember hearing positive news about Windows was the Win 7 launch.

	▲	yreg a day ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Were people not happy about WSL?
	▲	mitchitized a day ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		> The last time I remember hearing positive news about Windows was the Win 7 launch. For me it was Windows 95 finally getting rid of Trumpet Winsock. Been a steady decline ever since.

▲

asimovfan a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

You'll have to admit both those comment types are at least tangentially relevant.

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fuzzfactor 20 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Don't get me started . . .

For many years there has been "Windows Spotlight" through a number of Windows versions, which is the "regular" way for desktop background "wallpaper" to be autoupdated, as well as the modern "lock screen" which appears before the desktop comes up.

Then one day "Bing Wallpaper" was added as an extra feature for those already having the Bing app, which is intended for users who want more carefully-targeted ads and search results than you get from merely using Bing as the default search engine on your browser.

And if you didn't already have the Bing app there arose a subtle barrage of encouragement to persuade as many users as possible that "everyone" already has this "essential" Microsoft feature so you better not miss out. It's free after all.

When Bing Wallpaper became a thing it seemed like some beautiful eye candy to get more people's attention to something that was kind of a dud.

Later after a certain point many users would have had to opt out of Bing Wallpaper since then.

Co-incidentally, after gaining the impression that usage goals for the Bing Wallpaper were not being met after a while, the good old built-in Windows Spotlight has become flakier than ever and completely dysfunctional lots of the time. Simultaneously most of the "usual" expert wallpaper advice no longer applies, "maybe" because changes under the hood to accommodate sharing the normal wallpaper pipeline with the Bing alternative have gummed things up like never before.

However for quite a while there you could readily choose between Windows Spotlight or Bing Wallpaper and it worked either way as expected, then it all just kind of crumbled one day.

It doesn't matter what search engine you use now, most pro remedies for users who want Windows-curated wallpaper either settle for installing Bing Wallpaper or don't work any more.

Looks like "subtle" pressure toward the tracking-and-ad-riddled "choice" for those who want their Windows desktop to appear to do the same thing it was doing beforehand.