Disabling it is tweaking. The default install of Windows 10 comes with ads and all sorts of other bullshit that doesn't benefit the user (in an operating system that you paid hundreds of dollars for, mind you). You have to go out of your way to opt out of it, and most users will not ever realize that such opting out is even possible.

Even the ads will ask you if you want to disable them.. "click here to disable future notifications" or if you open notification center you can "click here to disable future notifications".

I am slightly bemused we're making excuses for people not trying anything.. especially when computers these days are all about "Expressing yourself" and "identity"..

I shouldn't have to use gpedit to disable ads that consistently appears when using certain windows features, and which have no "Don't ask me again".

Presumably some freak compatability issue (I've noticed ads always appear when I open files using a certain program).

Google does those "Ads" when you open anything google-y without google..

if we're playing this game, we should play it fairly.

Google shouldn't do it either, but I think we're diverging into a non sequitur. Whataboutism isn't a valid defense.

its not whataboutism.. its making a fair comparison. I'm not excusing Microsoft's behavior based on others actions especially since I know this behavior is simple to disable in its latest OS release which is free to upgrade to.

Speaking of fair comparisons - which Google products, that shows these ads, did you pay hundreds dollars for?

if you want to compare, i don't see ads when i use free office online or when i use google office.

What i do see is that when i use outlook.com it doesn't pop down telling me to switch to Edge, but when i use Gmail its always telling me to switch to edge.

Have you actually used MS products in comparison to google? didn't think so..

So you were never bugged to use Edge, after you launched Chrome or Firefox? (Like this: https://superuser.com/questions/1146123/disable-microsoft-ed...). Or your preferences for the default browser were never reset to Edge after some update ("accidentally")?

Windows is the paid one here.

I am only bugged once I install what I want to use as default browser. Not everyday.

YouTube, Gmail, Google et all have a dropdown advertisement asking me to switch to chrome no matter which browser I user that isn't chrome..

Lets also not forget that MS apps show up on google store, apple store and are fully cross platform whereas google is selective in what it supports. We're at a day and age where Microsoft has Cortana, One Drive, Office, Bing, Skype, Photos and so much more on iOS, Windows, Android and people are telling me that MS is bad when google is good (and is far from as cross platform as ms is) I just say use whatever, but if people want to nit pick about "Ads" that everyone does without knowing how everyone does it, that's lame. MS has a TON of "Free stuff" that isn't always dropping toasts to switch browsers, switch to chrome so on and so forth..

If people have so much energy to hate on something, that should be directed at sloppy companies like Yahoo that actually are detrimental to security/safety..

After each login into Microsoft partner page, it welcomes me with a page telling me, that I will get the best experience with Internet Explorer. It doesn't even bother to check, whether Internet Explorer exists for the platform advertised in the User agent string.

With the Microsoft services, the crucial difference is, that "Cortana, One Drive, Bing, Skype, Photos" is stuff that Microsoft is pushing on people, not stuff that people asking for from Microsoft. It is me too solution, it is Microsoft's version of Google+, except that Microsoft didn't learn their lesson yet.

Out of this, Office is an exception. iOS and Android users would not give up their platform, but they were willing to use another lite office suite. On a platform, where there is not a such threat, such as desktop Linux, there is no Office port. Even the macOS port hasn't got feature parity with the Windows version. Google is treating Windows Phone exactly the same way Microsoft is treating other platforms with Office.

If you consider this hate, maybe you should also consider whether it is deserved. There's no reaction without action.

lol, I doubt that.. Microsoft doesn't support internet explorer anymore and would only recommend edge if you're on windows..

People are asking for these services.. just because you don't run them doesn't mean no one does. Skype is still the largest voip network, bing is slowly still growing against goole, onedrive is huge for private and corporations, Cortana ins on over 600 million devices..

As for office on OSX, it is updated all the time and feature comparable if you bother to run 2016 with updates enabled..

THe hate is far from deserved, its misguided.

Microsoft is so cross platform Visual studio for OSX is full RTM, Visual studio code runs great in Linux/windows/OSX, they're writing Linux drivers, they have the Linux subsystem for windows that runs native windows apps, they're a core supporter of the Linux foundation. .net is cross platform now too and they're starting to merge xamarin/XAML/xml forms so apps can be written once and run everywhere..

doing more for software and systems than google is but people will continue to have this misguided hate

Well, I about that message loled too ;). Later it became annoying and a nice example how Microsoft really cares.

If you claim people are asking for these services, then what about not showing them down the throats of those who didn't ask for them? Seem simple, right? If they are so popular, why piss off those who don't care about them? Why do I have look after every Cmd-O at Onedrive file chooser, when I'm never going to use it and there's no option "do not bother me with this again?". I'm sure that Cortana might be on 600M devices, but there are not 600M active users... more likely users what resigned on looking for a new ways to turn it off. See the difference?

Office for Mac 2016 is updated every month indeed, but it is still missing features. For example, everything that starts with Power (PowerQuery, PowerPivot, PowerMap), or Inquire. The Mac version of Office does work with exactly 3 ODBC drivers. It doesn't work with exactly the same ODBC drivers, that the Windows has no problem with (PostgreSQL, for example - it crashes).

There was a lot written about Visual Studio for Mac and it being a rebranded Xamarin. See past discussions here, at HN.

And let's go back to the Office for Linux, shall we? That's the Microsoft prime lock-in device for many. Drivers for Hyper-V or Linux subsystem for Windows help Microsoft, not Linux.

Also, shortcomings in the mac version of office may be shortcomings in the Mac OSX platform.

VIsual studio for mac is a re-write of xamarin, that doesn't change anything - xamaerin/visual studio/c# are all converging to offer a unified platform.

And i'm so glad you seem to know everything about everyone. THe same "billion google now" users probably only 1% USE it day in/day out.. but we're just going to be blindly bashing windows..

please, do us a favor and get over yourself. We get it, you don't run/don't like windows... so just stop wasting energy hating something you really don't have any clue about or care about.

same could be said of google/apple.. i'm just throwing these out as comparisons..

BTW, i never see any ads/popups other than after a fresh install when the guided tour is starting up so i have no clue what people are flipping out about.

I don't pay money for software to have to remove ads. When I write that check, the software should work for me, not advertisers.

This is an assumption based on ignorance.

The "ads" are recommended software. It is annoying that you get a toast notification asking if you want to use office online just as its annoying every few weeks my iPhone asks if I want to buy more icloud.

But what is really happening is that anything with an app store is tracking you to build a marketing engine that recommends other apps to you. The fallacy is that Microsoft is the only one doing this, the truth is that everyone is doing this.

There are ways around this in OSX and Windows.. you don't have to use the store, you can still download stuff and install away and you can still enable developer mode and side-load anything you custom write if you want to use the new API features.

I don't like it when I choose to use edge and every time I go to gmail it asks me to swtich to chrome.

I don't like it on my iPhone that every time I use gmail it asks me to switch to chrome even though I selected the checkbox to use safari.

I'm tired of this conversation being so one sided and biased as it is doing the world a huge disservice.

If you try to say what MSFT is doing is the same as Apple and Google then you are being hugely disengenous.

Ads for apps are ads, no matter how you spin it. People don't pay for android, they pay for windows. A pay OS/platform shouldn't force you to disable ads. Gmsil/Chrome are free apps.

Apple doesn't track you. On installs it asks if it can collect usage info, but you have to agree, and it's one time. They don't show you ads in either OS. They don't track your personal info. They don't give government agencies backdoors like MSFT got caught doing. They go to court to fight illegal searches of your devices.

You obviously aren't paying any attention to Microsoft lately and it shows. I'm not going to change that so the least you can do is show a little empathy for those who do.

Its painfully apparent you really hate Microsoft for your own deply personal reasons. I'm not changing that. But I will stand up and say that what you have said is not true and not the case of Microsoft today.

I'm not saying you have to change but we must be clear that you are speaking from perceived history rather than current day times.

Google android is "Free" as Windows 10 is free.. you paid for it with hardware... now if you could build your own handset you could install android but it would NOT be the official "google" android because reality is - hardware companies still have to license it in such a way to get the official apps. But again, we're not going to talk about this in apples and apples, you're only framing it in your obsession of fear/doubt/hate against Microsoft. And again, that's ok, I really don't give a hoot.

Apple does track you. The Apple Privacy statement is almost exactly the same as GOogle and Microsofts. https://www.apple.com/privacy/manage-your-privacy/ - they all enable services and warn you about services that provide value add in some cases but can seem in violation in others.

Its up to YOU to understand what you want to share, enable/disable what you want to share and understand how changing that changes the system you're running in.

But its up to you to use what YOU want to use and respect others for what they want to use.

Spending so much energy spreading FUD does nothing.

Chromebooks aren't free, phones aren't free, tablets aren't free, Apple/Google/Microsoft all provide app metrics to all their respective app stores and all go above and beyond to try and make them secure (google actually having to struggle with this compared to the other giants)

> Google android is "Free" as Windows 10 is free.. you paid for it with hardware...

This isn't true. I had to explicitly go out of my way to pay hundreds of dollars for a Windows license for my computer, which I assembled from components. It's not possible to pay money to anyone for Android; it's gratis. Google makes money on ads, not on selling Android.

Google has confidential "Mobile Application Distribution agreements" that guarantees google services and functionality and stipulates requirements.. Luckily court cases have revealed the stipulations that show Android is anything but "Free" to handset makers.. http://www.benedelman.org/docs/htc-mada.pdf

unfortunately i can't find any cases that show how much of the estimated ~60 dollars per handset is licensing costs for the google apps (as some have been licensed to mfrs) or patent / indemnification agreements needed that google doesn't offer but still are a cost to selling android handsets.

I know google makes a LOT more money on ads.. but lets be real, while android was open source its current incarnation is nowhere to be found and his hidden behind represive agrements, advertising, and marketing and android phones in the end are no cheaper than any other phone price wise..

When i buy a surface/tablet/oem pc it just comes with windows.. When i build a PC i buy an OEM license for 30 bucks.. if you know the platform you're running you can know how to save cash and make the best of it.

> Its up to YOU to understand what you want to share, enable/disable what you want to share and understand how changing that changes the system you're running in.

So you're suggesting I avoid Microsoft then? Because that's the only way I can control it, otherwise I'm only an OS update away from MS re-enabling features I explicitly disable.