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Microsoft is bringing annoying Windows 11 Start menu ads to Windows 10 (www.neowin.net)

submitted 10 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Let's put it this way; when Microsoft announced its plans to start adding features to Windows 10 once again, despite the operating system's inevitable demise in October 2025, everyone expected slightly different things to see ported over from Windows 11. Sadly, the latest addition to Windows 10 is one of the most annoying changes coming from Windows 11's Start menu.

Earlier this year, Microsoft introduced a so-called "Account Manager" for Windows 11 that appears on the screen when you click your profile picture on the Start menu. Instead of just showing you buttons for logging out, locking your device or switching profiles, it displays Microsoft 365 ads. All the actually useful buttons are now hidden behind a three-dot submenu (apparently, my 43-inch display does not have enough space to accommodate them). Now, the "Account Manager" is coming to Windows 10 users.

The change was spotted in the latest Windows 10 preview builds from the Beta and Release Preview Channels. It works in the same way as Windows 11, and it is disabled by default for now because the submenu with sign-out and lock buttons does not work.

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[-] [email protected] 15 points 10 months ago

Finally they are actually using there brains. They need to make Windows 10 as bad as possible to get people to switch.

[-] [email protected] 15 points 10 months ago

🐧

[-] [email protected] 12 points 10 months ago

🐃+🐧 🤓

[-] [email protected] 9 points 10 months ago

uses busybox so I can um actually your um actually

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[-] [email protected] 14 points 10 months ago

On machines where I have to use windows I run start10 to replace the start menu with something a little more bearable. I imagine there's a FOSS equivalent but I bought a license years and years ago so I've never bothered to search.

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[-] [email protected] 14 points 10 months ago

Every time I see crap like this makes me even happier I ditched it a year and a half ago. If you switch to Linux and started with mint but don't like it, give PopOs a test drive. It's been flawless for me.

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[-] [email protected] 14 points 10 months ago

Everybody should learn about pihole.

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[-] [email protected] 11 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Anybody remember Litestep (http://litestep.net/)? It was an open source shell alternative to the default Windows shell.

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[-] [email protected] 11 points 10 months ago

If you're a person who prefers to type commands than click through menus then you should try the "run" program in the "powertoys" suite from Microsoft.

It a launcher program that's superior to Start in every way. You can type in plain English system commands like "shutdown"; a search that actually works; you can pass queries into your browser's search engine; and of course launch programs by typing in their names. You can even enter entire registry addresses to open regedit at the desired location.

This is a complete replacement for the Start Menu.

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[-] [email protected] 11 points 10 months ago

These ads are what finally got me to pull the trigger and move to Linux. Arch is great, zero issues to report.

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[-] [email protected] 10 points 10 months ago

If you MUST use windows for work or something, at least install OpenShell. Otherwise, use Linux. It's so easy to switch for most use cases. Even gaming on Linux has come a very long way.

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[-] [email protected] 9 points 10 months ago

Queue everyone downgrading to Windows 8 in 3, 2, 1.

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[-] [email protected] 9 points 10 months ago

I can't believe they'll put this on windows 10 pro.

[-] [email protected] 14 points 10 months ago

that's what's kicking me,why would a professional license used primarily for business need ANY kind of advertisement/popup/nag from their OS? fuck off Microsoft

[-] [email protected] 11 points 10 months ago

Microsoft don't hold back from the ads and crapware in the Pro versions of Windows. The Enterprise versions tend to be where you get some control over it.

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[-] [email protected] 9 points 10 months ago

Hold on let me check my start menu.

Oh this is gnome lolololol.

[-] [email protected] 8 points 10 months ago

"lol" -- classic shell

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[-] [email protected] 8 points 10 months ago

Is there a way to pre-emptively block this? Something in hosts.txt? Registry?

The very first day I see those ads in my Win10 will be the day I uninstall Win and go Linux.

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this post was submitted on 24 Aug 2024

955 points (98.0% liked)

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