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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.

stalfoss ,

Sweet wallpaper though

wafflez ,

VirusOS

Agent641 ,

VirOS

AngryCommieKender ,

That one was programmed by Vir Cotto, and Lennier

TheEntity ,

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

01189998819991197253 ,
@01189998819991197253@infosec.pub avatar

your background? Since when is this Windows computer your computer? Microsoft has been very clear that we no longer own our computers if we choose to use Windows.

JasonDJ ,

It's Microsoft Windows' computer. Must've missed that little apostrophe.

Illuminostro ,

You never did. You LEASED it.

Illuminostro , (edited )

Silly consumer. You thought you owned your copy of Windows. You LEASED it! "

Treczoks ,

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

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

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]

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    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

    shasta ,

    They're trying to tell you to go outside

    ArcaneSlime ,

    Why do you subject yourself to this? Cast off your chains, become a free $USER.

    weststadtgesicht ,

    It's clearly a VM

    ArcaneSlime ,

    Shh you're no fun.

    PlutoniumAcid ,
    @PlutoniumAcid@lemmy.world avatar

    Because it's not our fucking choice, you imbecile. Corporate does as corporate wants. I can't install your precious penguin on my work machine, okay??!

    ArcaneSlime ,

    Skill issue, get a better job.

    IDew ,

    I wish there was an easier way to tell people about Ameliorated and give it a try. Having Windows update and edge removed has already been so much better.

    Now I do have to mention that I still run the iso they offered back on version 21H1 which I prefer because installing Windows takes roughly 2 minutes until it's ready to do whatever

    sternail ,

    Nice, looks really cool. Wanted to do a clean install anyway, will give it a try.

    fox2263 , (edited )

    I love to extol the virtues of ReviOS. You’ll never have to worry about windows doing things ever again as it rips the guts out of windows. Seriously check it out.

    It’s real easy to install.

    Also what Linux and theme are you running there?

    Highrisedrifter ,

    I think I might have to check this out.

    fox2263 ,

    I use it on my VMs, my bootcamp and my main gaming pc.

    You download the AME tool, load in the Revi playbook and press go. Just need to disable AV for it to do its magic.

    Highrisedrifter ,

    Ah nice. I sadly need to keep Windows as I have some expensive software that only runs on that os (video and music production), but Windows 11 is a massive step back for a power user. Thanks for the heads up.

    fox2263 ,

    I quite like 11 after it’s had a good going over with Revision!

    localhost443 ,

    I've steered away from these as a hangover of trust issues back from the old XP 'lite' ISO days. However since Microsoft is clearly the main source of malware on windows these days I think its time to let that go..

    fox2263 ,

    Well thankfully it’s an open source playbook now and not an ISO anymore. Plus it’s got a decent discord server to chat about it

    localhost443 ,

    Yeah I'll give it a go on my machine soon. I only run win in a VM with a gfx card passed through these days anyway just to use some software I have no option for, so didn't really give it too much thought as there is no data on that system worth stealing anyway. But good to hear its oss.

    fox2263 ,

    Here it is:

    https://github.com/meetrevision/playbook

    kandoh ,

    They've absolutely gone mad with power

    nailbar ,
    @nailbar@sopuli.xyz avatar

    Isn't this just normal Windows behaviour? I feel like I've been reading these kinds of posts forever.

    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.

    artvabas ,

    Poor you!

    JackbyDev ,

    Yeah, I don't view changing your desktop background when you were using the default as an issue lol.

    UndercoverUlrikHD ,

    The fact Microsoft keeps re-enabling features users are disabling isn't something to just ignore. Imagine if they were the silently turn on a feature like Recall.

    Appoxo ,
    @Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

    Never happened on my systems. And I oversee >200 systems.
    This screams the microsoft diashow feature for the background. Those (at times) rarely change and OP probably applied the wallpaper by right-clicking a picture instead of changing it from the settings and that's at best a bug because Windows didnt notice you set the wallpaper from a different part of the system...

    UndercoverUlrikHD ,

    I was mostly referring to the search bar and I've seen multiple people report Microsoft updates reverting settings.

    Appoxo ,
    @Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

    Microsoft reverting settings never happened to me as well.
    Might be US (or non-EU) users getting shafted as per usual.

    MonkderDritte , (edited )

    I do, it's userspace. Expectation is that they keep their paws away after user set it up.

    JackbyDev ,

    If someone didn't explicitly choose to use the default then they didn't set it up. They were just using the default.

    MonkderDritte ,

    Yeah, and that's where the OS vendor shouldn't meddle anymore.

    JackbyDev ,

    Ooooh, so meddlesome, the default desktop background changed, big corpo is coming for you. Come on, we shouldn't mix actually valid complaints with stupid stuff like this. OP specifically mentioned the search bar thing that they turned off. That's valid. Forgive me if I don't see the problem with changing the default desktop background, something that literally all OSes and Desktop Environments do fairly regularly that nobody raises a fuss about.

    flying_sheep ,
    @flying_sheep@lemmy.ml avatar

    I agree with you here. As soon as you change something, that should be respected but as long as you use the default theme/wallpaper/… that could just as well mean that you prefer tracking the default or don't care at all.

    Now bringing back the explicitly disabled search bar really is atrocious

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