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Windows just changed my desktop wallpaper and re-added the search bar without my permission after an update

In my view, this is unacceptable...

They changed my background (previously there was a default blue window), placed an icon in the bottom corner of the screen that read "Learn more about this photo", and re-added the search bar that I had previously removed.

Fortunately, I don't have to deal with this on a daily basis.

slazer2au ,

Well yea, you turned off the windows search/Cortana/Bing bar, but now it's called copilot/recall bar which you haven't turned off yet.

/S

mypasswordis1234 OP ,
@mypasswordis1234@lemmy.world avatar

Soon I won't have to anymore. This is the last Windows virtual machine I have that sometimes I have to use 😀

ProfessorProteus ,
@ProfessorProteus@lemmy.world avatar

I have a virtual machine with WinXP and one with 98, for when I'm feeling nostalgic :)

Sorry to hear you have to use Windows... I'm still stuck on 10 but I've been enjoying the hell out of Mint Xfce and I'll complete the move soon enough!

BubbleMonkey ,
@BubbleMonkey@slrpnk.net avatar

How would one go about setting up a win 98 at this point? Do you need an ISO of it already, or can you find that somewhere for that specific use?

I ask because I have a game that I want to play for nostalgia reasons (it’s a kids game from waaay back, but I remember it fondly, and I bet I’d do a touch better now) but I can’t get it to play in any compatibility mode or anything. It just flat refuses to launch.

ProfessorProteus ,
@ProfessorProteus@lemmy.world avatar

You can find plenty of ISO files on archive.org. I'm not sure about the legality of it, so I'll say I don't condone doing it, etc. But some of them have been there for several years, so I think MS doesn't care.

Just be careful about clinking links in the user comments. People have been known to post shady links and moderation seems to be lacking, from what I've seen.

Good luck getting your game to run! Oh, and long live archive.org!

turbowafflz ,

For operating systems https://winworldpc.com/library is easier to find things in and has way faster download speeds

ProfessorProteus ,
@ProfessorProteus@lemmy.world avatar

This is really cool, thanks for sharing!

Tyoda ,

At some point M$ allowed the free download of something called "Windows XP Mode for Windows 7". It was some virtual machine or something. What matters is that it's possible to extract an XP ISO from this, which I have successfully used to spin up a virtual machine! It still complains about a license key, though.

The reason I mention this is that this is still available on archive.org, and it's signed by M$, so you know it's legit. I don't know if other ISOs available have such a receipt of authenticity. Probably, but I never cared enough to check, especially since I grabbed this from the official website while it was available.

possiblylinux127 ,
@possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip avatar

Have you tried React OS?

perishthethought ,

Oh, didn't you know? It's not really your PC any longer.

mypasswordis1234 OP ,
@mypasswordis1234@lemmy.world avatar

Fortunately, it's actually mine, cuz I use Fedora with Gnome, which doesn't do these magic tricks 😁

GFGJewbacca ,

I used to use Fedora on my Asus gaming laptop, and loved it. More recently I've chosen to switch over to Manjaro, because I wanted something based on Arch that was more lightweight than Garuda. Gotta love that Linux life.

Eldritch ,
@Eldritch@lemmy.world avatar

Have you tried reborn or endeavor?

GFGJewbacca ,

I tried EndeavourOS, but it didn't fully support my hardware like Manjaro does

Eldritch ,
@Eldritch@lemmy.world avatar

Interesting. I've only had one system that had hardware issue with any of them. And it was of course the finger print reader. Though I suppose it could be a WiFi issue.

GFGJewbacca ,

The issue I had with my Asus ROG laptop was that EndeavourOS didn't support the volume buttons on the keyboard, along with some other keys. It was annoying enough that I went to Manjaro.

valkyre09 ,

The PC might be yours, but that virtual machine is Microsoft’s little bitch

possiblylinux127 ,
@possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip avatar

I actually enjoy playing with Windows and Active Directory. I think it is ahead in terms of management and needing hacky workarounds

Vilian ,

there isn't active directory for linux?, actually what active directory do diferently?

possiblylinux127 ,
@possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip avatar

You absolutely can join Linux machines to AD. You just don't have the same power that group policy gives you.

Vilian ,

what group policy gives that unix filesystem permissions don't?, i really don't know, and i don't have a windows machine to test :b

Hexarei ,
@Hexarei@programming.dev avatar

Group policy lets you basically configure anything on any machine in the active directory domain; Installed programs, installed updates, basically any settings, schedules, services, automatically adding (and limiting by users if you want) network devices like printers and storage... It's pretty powerful, and does way more than just filesystem permissions.

denshirenji ,
@denshirenji@lemmy.world avatar

I use FreeIPA and it works just fine for everything I would need AD for. Your point still stands. I just mean there are good enough alternatives for the Linux environment.

possiblylinux127 ,
@possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip avatar

There are definitely ways of configuring Linux systems. For many organizations Ansible or Puppet works completely fine. However, they require a significant amount of knowledge and aren't completely standardized. Group policy on Windows has been around for a long time and will be much easier to deploy, at least in the short term.

ChicoSuave ,

Tricks are something Microsoft does for money.

downhomechunk ,
@downhomechunk@midwest.social avatar

Coo-coo-ka-cha!

fulcrummed ,

Owning your computer is an ILLUSION

zero_spelled_with_an_ecks ,

Or candy.

Scotty_Trees ,
@Scotty_Trees@lemmy.world avatar

I guess Lemmy is mostly tech nerds like myself, but it's still cool as hell to see another Fedora user around :)

DAMunzy ,

Oh, let me tell you why your [sic] wrong for not using Arch and Ice Weasel! /s 😉

ultratiem ,
@ultratiem@lemmy.ca avatar

Just shuddered at a possible future where someone’s PC locked up with the following notice:

“We have locked your PC because you no longer have sufficient MS funds. One of our technicians will be by shortly to retrieve it. Sit tight, we are downloading its contents. Turning off the internet during this time will lead to strict legal action against you. Thank you for using Microsoft! Be sure to check out the new Surface Ultra and sign up to receive free rewards such a Panago and Ivey Cream!”

smokebuddy ,

your PC

are they going to backronym PC now that the P can't possibly stand for PERSONAL

cosmicrookie ,
@cosmicrookie@lemmy.world avatar

Dont say it... dont say it.... dont saaaayyyy iiiiitt!!!

Have you considered Linux Mint?

Damn... sorry.. was I the first to suggest it this time?

hellfire103 ,
@hellfire103@lemmy.ca avatar

You were, but it appears OP is running Windows in a VM on Linux.

mypasswordis1234 OP ,
@mypasswordis1234@lemmy.world avatar

I already use Fedora Linux, and this Windows is in a virtual machine because sometimes my school requires me to use software that simply doesn't run on Linux

baldingpudenda ,

I bought a cheap laptop for school just to run their windows anti cheat crap. Do you have to run something similar?

mypasswordis1234 OP , (edited )
@mypasswordis1234@lemmy.world avatar

Fortunately, no. My school expects me to use XAMPP (a LAMP stack but without "L" cuz it's on Windows) and Microsoft Office applications like Word, Access, and Excel.

While in the case of LAMP, I can install the individual services (Apache, PHP, MySQL) myself from command line, Microsoft Office applications won't work like that.

baldingpudenda ,

I guess I should count myself lucky everything is expected in be turned in as a PDF and Google docs is used for everything else. The anticheat recognizes it's running on a VM and throws and error.

possiblylinux127 ,
@possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip avatar

Use Libreoffice where you can and just open it up in Word to verify

Mereo ,
@Mereo@lemmy.ca avatar

That's where Windows belongs now, in a VM.

Samsy ,

In a VM, in a box, at the bottom of the sea.

possiblylinux127 ,
@possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip avatar

*Gnome Boxes

umbrella ,
@umbrella@lemmy.ml avatar

"what is my purpose?"

"you stay in a vm until i need to update my mouse firmware"

sangriaferret ,

You're right though. I recently installed it and it is so much more user friendly and does everything I need it to.

downpunxx ,
@downpunxx@fedia.io avatar

don't look now but they've probably installed a new version to Teams along with everything else, lol

dustyData ,

I have two versions of Teams installed on my work PC. The regular old Teams that is apparently not long for this world anymore. And New Teams, which is exactly the same as old teams but on a different tech stack (?) That will replace the old one. MS has lost the plot, they have somehow a worse product management than Google.

w2tpmf ,

There's a third Teams

Teams Classic

Teams NEW

Teams Personal

itwasawednesday ,
@itwasawednesday@lemmy.world avatar

Someone else in another thread I read recently, I think they worked for Microsoft at some point, said that it's due for different departments all competing for corporate attention.
Doing the big new thing to keep their job. Rather than just fine tuning for performance or longevity.
Something like that.

BURN ,

It was for legal reasons. They split personal teams and work teams to try to dodge an antitrust iirc

possiblylinux127 ,
@possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip avatar

But the old one will still be installed so you will just repeatedly get popups to switch

chemical_cutthroat ,
@chemical_cutthroat@lemmy.world avatar

I'm not sure how you messed up, because this has never happened to me, and I stay up to date.

NaibofTabr ,

Oof, blaming the victim.

chemical_cutthroat ,
@chemical_cutthroat@lemmy.world avatar

Nah, just calling out bullshit when I see it.

natecox ,
@natecox@programming.dev avatar

I’m not sure how you messed up, because I was able to not blame the user for decisions made on their behalf without their consent, and I too saw this post.

chemical_cutthroat ,
@chemical_cutthroat@lemmy.world avatar

Yeah, well that's the difference between us. I don't believe OP, and I think this is just a troll. You can believe whatever you want, but I'm calling OP a liar liar pants on fire.

SlippiHUD ,
@SlippiHUD@lemmy.world avatar

I recently moved to Linux because windows did the first time setup pop up on me when I needed to use my 5 year old desktop in a time crunch before I was late.

When I got back, somehow despite me telling windows no to resetting my default browser to edge, my default browser was edge and windows had updated to windows 11.

Is it possible I misread the dialog because I was in a rush. Sure. It is. But also fuck microsoft.

natecox ,
@natecox@programming.dev avatar

Sure, because it logically follows that the troll here is the “I had an irritating and unexpected behavior on windows” person, not the “Linux users are troglodytes” person.

FWIW, windows also did this to me as a part of the “oh god please oh please use Bing search on Edge” campaign.

possiblylinux127 ,
@possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip avatar

Bullshit?

Nice try Microsoft

stevedidwhat_infosec ,

Probably could’ve worded this better.

Maybe a “What have you all setup to remove these features, how are you running windows, etc “

Best to lead with pure curiosity and questions than to lead with assumptions. We don’t know what we don’t know, and that also means that the depth of what we don’t know could be surprisingly deep.

Stay curious!

chemical_cutthroat ,
@chemical_cutthroat@lemmy.world avatar

[Thread, post or comment was deleted by the moderator]

    •
    Retiring ,
    @Retiring@lemmy.ml avatar

    If you use voyager you can filter keywords. I recommend filtering „elon“, „musk“, „tesla“, „spacex“… makes for a much more enjoyable experience.

    KonalaKoala ,
    @KonalaKoala@lemmy.world avatar

    And don't forget to filter „xitter“ as that is probably also recommended.

    Sanctus ,
    @Sanctus@lemmy.world avatar

    You could have blocked and moved on with your life but you chose to be a snob. Whose acting in bad faith here?

    stevedidwhat_infosec ,

    Do you have an easier time catching flies with vinegar or with honey?

    chemical_cutthroat ,
    @chemical_cutthroat@lemmy.world avatar

    I'm not trying to catch anyone. I'm just calling OP out as a liar. I don't give a shit how OP or anyone else feels on the Internet feels about me.

    mypasswordis1234 OP ,
    @mypasswordis1234@lemmy.world avatar

    In your opinion, I am a liar. That is your opinion. I will respect it

    stevedidwhat_infosec ,

    We can tell. Good luck with 0 people respecting you out there kid

    nublug ,

    bonkers this shit has 10 upvotes lmao

    Moonrise2473 ,

    maybe you need to try again.

    Instructions:

    1. install any windows 10 version released before october 2023
    2. disable the search bar
    3. install KB5015684 (or wait 2-3 days for it install automatically)
    4. windows has added back the search bar "for your convenience"
    chemical_cutthroat ,
    @chemical_cutthroat@lemmy.world avatar

    Weird, because I surely installed windows 10 before that date, turned off the search bar, and have definitely installed that update, but the search bar never popped back up for me. Maybe I'm just lucky.

    umbrella ,
    @umbrella@lemmy.ml avatar

    i would not be surprised if they do AB testing and rollout

    BURN ,

    100% never seen this either and I’m a daily windows user who has had the search bar disabled since day 1

    BURN ,

    This definitely doesn’t happen to everyone. I’ve never once had this happen and I’ve kept my windows up to date.

    Moonrise2473 ,

    Maybe it's a regional thing. After all the function primary purpose is to serve ads (sponsored content) and drive visits to bing, so there's a chance that this malware-like behavior is enabled only in specific countries that drive more ad revenue

    TheEntity ,

    It's a nice wallpaper though for what it's worth.

    Moonrise2473 , (edited )

    no no no, it asked your permission. It's just that the "we added back the search bar, is that ok" dialog defaults to "yes" after some short time. Extremely fucking annoying change

    the dialog:

    some dark pattern from microsoft

    article: https://www.c-amie.co.uk/technical/windows-10-patch-for-october-2023-kb5015684-re-enables-the-taskbar-search-box/

    mypasswordis1234 OP ,
    @mypasswordis1234@lemmy.world avatar

    I had no dialog

    Moonrise2473 ,

    The dialog goes away after a short time defaulting to "yes I want the useless search bar"

    It happened on all my PCs, I was infuriated

    woelkchen ,
    @woelkchen@lemmy.world avatar

    According to the screenshot the question is only asked embedded in the start menu. Windows 10 does that all the time without actually asking. Win11 is better at actually keeping the configuration.

    xnx ,
    @xnx@slrpnk.net avatar

    What VM software are you using?

    mypasswordis1234 OP ,
    @mypasswordis1234@lemmy.world avatar

    "Boxes" from Gnome shipped by default with Fedora

    _sideffect ,

    OUR desktop wallpaper, comrade

    FuglyDuck ,
    @FuglyDuck@lemmy.world avatar

    They don’t do this shit in Linux.

    Come join us, Comrade.

    SpaceCadet ,
    @SpaceCadet@feddit.nl avatar

    Hmm, on one of the KDE plasma updates, my wallpaper did change to their infamous teletubby wallpaper. Mind you, I was still using the default wallpaper at that time, and this was their new default wallpaper, so that's probably why.

    BradleyUffner ,

    Tell that to Fedora that keeps resetting the Firefox homepage back to a Fedora news site.

    dual_sport_dork ,
    @dual_sport_dork@lemmy.world avatar

    All it did to you was cosmetic.

    Windows 10's "feature" updates consistently also re-enable the "fast startup" option on my machine when they install. Which, on my particular motherboard and SSD combination, causes Windows to take about 30 minutes to boot when left enabled for reasons I have never been able to comprehend. A regular cold boot only takes like 20 seconds, so... I definitely tend to notice when it does this behind my back yet again.

    azimir ,

    It also does it so that you no longer hit the bootloader. My one last dual boot machine is normally a Linux setup, but every so often I have to use the real MS Office tools (some collaborator or publisher demands it), so I boot windows. Then windows patches and stops actually hitting grub so it acts like a windows only machine until I fix whatever Microsoft fucks up yet again.

    It's time to move to a VM for this garbage. I just don't neet it more than once every other year so I never seem to get around to nuking it.

    RustyShackleford ,
    @RustyShackleford@literature.cafe avatar

    How’s gaming on Linux working out lately? I have a newer Windows 11 machine and looking to jump ship, asap.

    tgxn ,
    @tgxn@lemmy.tgxn.net avatar

    It's really good. Proton works great for everything over tried to play. It's pretty amazing actually

    NOPper ,

    I've been 100% Linux for almost 8 years now and a fairly heavy gamer. There's a handful of games with online anticheat stuff that devs refuse to make compatible, but beyond that it's almost always click install and play in Steam even for stuff that isn't "compatible".

    Omega_Jimes ,

    Ive been 100% linux since 2016, and while there are some pain points, the games that work, work amazingly well.

    I have epic games, gog, steam games all working through launchers that work pretty perfectly. The biggest pain points are developers with intrusive anticheats.

    Check the games you/your friends play against protondb.com or areweanticheatyet.com before committing yourself.

    BURN ,

    Still no good if you play about 70% of games with an anticheat. Outside of that it’s fine if you’re willing to put up with general Linux issues

    xavier666 ,
    @xavier666@lemm.ee avatar

    Rule of thumb:
    If your game has kernel-level anticheat, it probably won't work. If your game doesn't have any anticheats, there's a 95% chance it will work on Linux.

    azimir ,

    I haven't had time to seriously game in a decade now (single dad killed my free time), so I'm by no means well versed beyond a few things. My kids do game a lot and most of them are on Linux machines. They use a combination of Steam and standalone installs to get things working.

    I don't run into a lot of complaints. They're well aware that not all games run on their Linux setups, so they pick and choose games a bit more. I'm fortunate that they're not always jonesing for the latest AAA games, but they're also getting new ones with some regularity.

    nexussapphire ,

    My favorite part is how it broke the Intel wifi card during my Linux install until I booted back into windows just to turn fast boot off. Maybe some hackery to skip initializing wifi hardware or something?

    Kuma ,
    @Kuma@lemmy.world avatar

    Dude, you enlighten me, that happened to me too but it was during the time I jumped between win and Linux and one day did the wifi card just stop working and I couldn't figure out why, I tried many things without luck but some days it magicaly worked again and I haven't been in windows since and have never had that problem again. I don't know if I turned off fast boot (but I have done that many times so it is likely), so it could have been an update that turned it on. I will remember this if it happens to someone or myself again. Thank you!

    nexussapphire ,

    Just passing the tourch I guess. A random post on the archlinux forum saved me and I'm glad sharing my experience helps someone else.

    Muscar ,

    Hey, got a link to the wallpaper for your main OS? Not the windows one, the red and black one we see part of in the image. Thanks!

    DarkThoughts ,

    The colors make me think it's one of the Ubuntu default wallpapers.

    cholesterol ,

    It's one of the Gnome default wallpapers

    https://zebreus.github.io/all-gnome-backgrounds/

    possiblylinux127 ,
    @possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip avatar

    Time to switch to Windows 11 as Microsoft is going to make your experience as bad as possible

    If you need Windows I would create Samba AD DC and then join the machine to the domain. From there you can configure it with group policy

    bc93 ,

    [Thread, post or comment was deleted by the author]

    •
    possiblylinux127 ,
    @possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip avatar

    True but the AD can be useful for other things and is separate from the install

    bc93 ,

    [Thread, post or comment was deleted by the author]

    •
    possiblylinux127 ,
    @possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip avatar

    I like to split the roles into separate VMs. I have a few VMs joined to the domain and I can house all the configs and user profiles on the DC. If I need to blow away a machine for whatever reason I do not need to recreate work. I just create a new VM and then join the domain. All the group policy tweaks apply and I don't need to manually change settings.

    MacedWindow ,
    @MacedWindow@lemmy.world avatar

    I hate that goddamn searchbar

    Cornpop ,

    Tell me about it. Useless. The whole start menu is fucked honestly. Can’t ever find anything you’re looking for. WHY THE FUCK WOULD I WANT BING WEB SEARCH RESULTS HERE!?!?

    towerful ,

    Just booted? Better wait 45 seconds and many failed searches, because DNS isn't resolving.
    Doesn't matter that you are trying to launch a local program, it absolutely must delay the user experience until it can successfully resolve a DNS query.
    Disgusting

    turbowafflz ,

    My windows vm runs Cairo shell as the desktop and I've replaced the file manager with Dolphin and the command prompt with Konsole and notepad with Kate and it almost feels like a usable operating system

    kopasz7 ,

    Kindows

    Treczoks ,

    Get used to it. It is not your machine, its Microsofts.

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