There are nearly half a billion active users of Start news feed, says Microsoft Lurking within Microsoft's Q3 2022 earnings reports last night was news that people are indeed still buying Windows PCs, and that half a billion customers are "active users" of the company's news feed, Microsoft Start. Microsoft Start is a personalized news feed "tailored to your interests," which at least some users, in our …
Or, if the figures are to be believed(*)... There are nearly a billion users who have turned it off.
"We asked the Windows-maker what "active users" meant in this context, but Microsoft has yet to respond."
Those would be the truly lazy who know how to turn it off, but just can't be arsed. Microsoft's core customer base and mine when all the crap clogs up their PC and they have to pay me to fix it.
"Start News Feed". Does anyone REALLY want Micros~1 OWNING their NEWS FEED? Maybe the same people who watch [P]MSNBC might, but it's currently one of the WORST RATED CABLE NEWS STATIONS based on viewership.
This from 2020, suggests 'Resetting' the News [CR]app so that it no longer directs its ouput to the start menu, in order to get rid of it. Not sure if that's the same in Windows II or not. My guess, NOT.
"If Microsoft think[s] the tabloid widgets from a forced live icon placed on every Windows 10 and 11 taskbar is adoption, then it's not listening to customer feedback..."
Yes, that is exactly what Microsoft thinks.
As for customer feedback -- they do listen, but the problem is that no matter what the feedback actually says, what they hear is "as a user, I would like for Microsoft to exfiltrate and mine more of my private data for advertising and tracking purposes."
Those of us who don't want this stuff disable feedback. So the only feedback MS sees are those people who don't know how to disable the crud and keep accidentally clicking on the darn news thing as the start menu used to be there...
Half a billion people swearing at clickin the wrong thing
Those of us who don't want this stuff disable feedback.
That just stops you from receiving requests for feedback. They still get a metric crap-ton of "telemetry" that you cannot disable, which is effectively passive feedback.
As long as you use* a feature and generate that sweet sweet user data, MS doesn't give a crap what you think of it.
* i.e., "you do not kill it with Powershell and fire"
Two of the most requested features in Windows 10 beta were a proper start menu and the return of Aero. Neither feature made it into Windows 10. I have concluded that Microsoft doesn't really want feedback; they want affirmation. In other words, if I told Microsoft "this weather thing by my taskbar is annoying and gets in the way, so get rid of it NOW!" gets immediately thrown in the trashbin while the employees put their hands over the ears and go "LA LA LA LA. I CAN'T HEAR YOU!" But if I sent feedback that says "I like what you are doing, just tweak this a little." then the Microsoft employees read that.
I have been complaining for years on how Windows 10 auto installs drivers without my permission. That is something that should never ever be done, no exception.
The first thing I do with Edge (okay, the second thing after downloading Firefox) is something like this:
c:
cd "%PROGRAMFILES(X86)%\Microsoft\Edge\Application\8*\Installer"
setup --uninstall --force-uninstall --verbose-logging --system-level
It would be very nice if I didn't have to, though. And the first thing I did with Windows 11 was avoided installing it in the first place.
one of the 1/2 a billion right upto the point I switched on my (note MY ) pc and got presented with 1/2 a ton of crud appearing.
Then used edge for its one intended purpose
downloading another browser before surfing a help site to help me turn off the crud (also turn off listening to the mic/watching the camera/feeding back almost everything I do to god knows where. )
ahhh much better.... oh an update.... OH FFS I GOTTA DO ALL OF THE ABOVE AGAIN !
Thank god this is just a games PC and not for real work (and thank gawd for linux mint too )
So I wonder if legislation like Computer Misuse Act(s) could be brought to bear against actions like this. If I've removed an app or permissions, reversing my decision might be considered an unauthorised modification. Guessing the challenge would be that by consenting to MS's license, users consent to letting MS override any personal choices.
But my new PC hopefully turns up next week, complete with Win11 Pro. I'm not entirely looking forward to dynorodding all the carp out of it. News will be high on the link due to the usual MS shite, ie content will be selected based on their interests, not mine.
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2024
