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.

  • ItsComplicated@sh.itjust.works
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    3 months ago

    Microsoft believes if they worsen the enshitification of Windows 10, more people will just upgrade to 11 quicker.

    I decided to move to Linux and my other family went with Macbooks.

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      Sadly, I’m at a Microsoft office and do not have this option for my work machine.

      It does look like I’ll be forced into Linux on my personal machine before too long, though.

      • ItsComplicated@sh.itjust.works
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        3 months ago

        Not much to be done with a work machine, but for personal use, I believe the more people moving away from Windows the better.

        • curbstickle@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          3 months ago

          Similarly, I use my windows work laptop for accessing remote (usually Linux) systems, and a few specific apps that are windows only.

          My desktops are Linux (and of course my servers here as well), and I have a windows VM for those tools that are windows only that I need. Which I’ve modified that VM heavily to not have the normal junk from windows.

          A recent decision for “security” will require using AAD joined machines only to access email/teams/etc. I was going to make an exception for my machines, then decided against it. My laptop now just sits off to the side, with only teams and outlook running, and its basically all I’ll use it for.

          • pearsaltchocolatebar@discuss.online
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            3 months ago

            Well, I actually use Linux to remote into my work computer, to remote into Linux. I hate using a laptop at my desk, so I just stuck it on the shelf near the router.

    • watson387@sopuli.xyz
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      3 months ago

      This. I mainly keep Windows around on my old laptop for Office development and I don’t need another subscription so won’t pay for 360. I’ll most likely just stop messing with Office and give Windows the boot altogether. Some of my computers already run Linux (mainly Debian). Office and SubtitleEdit have kept my laptop on Windows 10, but fuck getting ads from the OS.

  • circuitfarmer@lemmy.sdf.org
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    3 months ago

    Buy an expensive license

    Install the software on hardware you own

    Company puts ads on it that weren’t there when you bought the license

    2024 is wild. Run Linux.

    • Uriel238 [all pronouns]@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      3 months ago

      It’s kinda like AAA game companies waiting for a couple of weeks after a title’s release (and all the reviews are done) before rolling out the micro-transaction market (and the corresponding game-balance adjustments).

      Funny how when Windows XP had dial-in activation we warned that this would drift over to games if we tolerated it, and then it did.

      • circuitfarmer@lemmy.sdf.org
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        3 months ago

        100%. Every time consumers tolerate something, it will get worse. On the other hand, it seems so simple to tell people “just don’t buy a product that does X”, but in practice, it’s almost impossible to get people to stop giving these companies money.

        • grue@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          but in practice, it’s almost impossible to get people to stop giving these companies money.

          This is why consumer-protection regulations are necessary.

        • A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          People will yell, gnash their teeth, and greivously complain about terrible things and issues.

          but they, for the overwhelming majority of them, will refuse to ever give up their precious shiny and make a change, and will eagerly throw out money at every opportunity for it. If not directly at buying them, then at buying secondary related items, or by watching ads.

    • Scratch@sh.itjust.works
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      3 months ago

      I jumped ship to PopOS a few months back.

      There are some issues, like Bluetooth not starting without some terminal commands, I think I have to wipe or otherwise mess around with my 1TB NTFS storage drive to mount it and stuff like that.

      But all the games I’ve tried to play work fine.

      CPU: 3700x GPU: 4090

      • circuitfarmer@lemmy.sdf.org
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        3 months ago

        PopOS is pretty great. There is a polish to it that I haven’t seen in some other distros. Which is why it remains on my main gaming rig even though I have considered distro hopping for a while now.

    • octopus_ink@lemmy.ml
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      3 months ago

      Seriously, I’m just munching popcorn with all these MS headlines lately, contentedly using my machine that does everything I want and 0 things more, all without actually having to fight with it for that outcome.

  • madcaesar@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    IS THE ENTIRE FUCKING ECONOMY BASED ON ADS??? WHO THE FUCK IS PAYING FOR ALL THESE SHITTY ADS??? WHO EVER YOU ARE, GET FUCKED WITH YOUR PRODUCT!

    • douglasg14b@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      Yes, literally anyone that wants to sell a product or provide a service relies, to a large degree, on advertising.

      It’s been this way for over a century.

    • OutlierBlue@lemmy.ca
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      3 months ago

      ShutUp10 is the equivalent of being in an abusive relationship and telling yourself “it’ll be okay if I just don’t upset them and stay out of their way”. You know it’ll happen again. You’re just in denial and kicking the ball down the road a bit until they do it again. Use it to buy yourself time to make a plan to get out of the relationship. The sooner you leave, the better off you’ll be.

  • Swordgeek@lemmy.ca
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    3 months ago

    Yeah yeah, Linux is our saviour.

    I call bullshit. Charge Microsoft criminally. Sue them into the ground! We will never get enough people to truly harm them just by leaving, so we need to FUCKING DESTROY ANY COMPANY THAT PULLS THIS BULLSHIT!

  • heavy@sh.itjust.works
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    3 months ago

    The fact that people pay hundreds of dollars for this OS to get advertised to is insulting. Same energy as these smart TVs that feel like they have the right to show you ads.

    If I’m dictator, I’m making this shit illegal, full stop.

  • accideath@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    If they can’t bring the people to Win 11, they bring Win 11 to the people instead?

    Just install Linux, it’s not that hard. Or at least get a Mac or a Chromebook…

    • doingthestuff@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      I have been installing Linux on a number of my work PCs that I manage. Most of them are pretty straightforward, office products, printing, web, basic video player. But my personal PCs have so many different programs installed for different niche uses that it’s been a massive roadblock to me switching over. I know it’s coming because I’m not moving to Windows 11 even though my PC is compatible in theory. But man is it going to take me a lot of time to figure out all of the different screen capture, video editing, audio extraction and editing, disc imaging, photo editing etc. I know I can figure it out, but it’s about the time. I have a huge steam library too,but most of that should work.

      Any of you playing Fallout London on Linux?

      • grue@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        screen capture

        OBS (same as is popular on Windows).

        video editing, audio extraction and editing

        I basically never do that sort of thing, but if I needed to I’d start out with Kdenlive and Audacity, respectively.

        See also:

        https://itsfoss.com/best-video-editing-software-linux/

        https://itsfoss.com/best-audio-editors-linux/

        disc imaging

        For a task that basic, most of the time I just use dd.

        photo editing

        GIMP and/or Krita.

      • Valmond@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        Was in the same place, got FOSS soft for almost everything so now I run Mint on my main PC and on my laptop too, with a little 100€ used think centre running photoshop (I’m starting to figure out krita/gimp but pixel editing is a bummer there IMO) and 3dsmax for when I need them.

        Edit: no internet connection for that box ofc.

    • net00@lemm.ee
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      2 months ago

      Just install Linux, it’s not that hard.

      This is just but the small first step. I was basically checking what it will take to daily drive linux on my desktop, and there’s many little roadblocks that I’m just instead considering getting a Win 11 pro license next year and just turning off all the shit in gpedit.

      • No RGB software for my gigabyte mobo (openrgb doesn’t have it).
      • No AMD adrenalin unless I go with Ubuntu, which is just on the same path of enshittification as windows
      • No steelseries engine
      • No Sapphire trixx
      • No microsoft office desktop/onedrive (means I gotta find an office replacement that also works on my apple devices and syncs)

      Linux has come a long way, and it’s probably enough for some but it would be a massive headache for me still…

      • accideath@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        Yea, it’s definitely not for everyone yet. But the average user (who needs a browser, a file manager and maybe an office suite) has no reason to stay on windows besides the convenience of being installed already.

      • acid_falcon@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        You know that you dont have to pay for a Windows license right? You can permanently activate it (and any version of office) with a script. I found some article a while ago talking about it, some official Microsoft tech support used it because they were frustrated with Windows, so it’s legit

        https://massgrave.dev/

        I do computer repair/tech support for just a small business. I haven’t used Windows on a a personal machine in a looong time, but that script helps me when I get stuck at work

      • IAmNotACat@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        You can mount and sync your OneDrive files with rclone, which I think is much nicer than OneDrive, but maybe not easy to set up if you’re not comfortable with command line interfaces.

  • JIMMERZ@lemm.ee
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    2 months ago

    Windows 10 will be my last Windows operating system. It’s been fine and it works well enough. I’ve already started setting up a drive with Linux Mint 22 for use moving forward.

    • northendtrooper@lemmy.ca
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      2 months ago

      In the same boat. Mint has some growing pains but for mainly web browsing I’ve been enjoying an OS that doesn’t feel like a ad billboard or a data snitch.

      • mrinfinity@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        Yess yesssss let the linux flow throughhhh youuuuuuu. Manjaro XFCE here. Play with the distros in Oracle Virtual Machines and find the right one for you. Linux desktop is seriously worth the effort. Check out Yakuake as a Quake style drop down terminal to get to hacky stuff. Learn everything about Linux. It’s fun!

      • gwen@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        2 months ago

        if you don’t feel like setting up a vm, use distrosea :] free website that sets it up for you in-browser

  • ohellidk@sh.itjust.works
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    3 months ago

    I just recently installed the windows 11 LTSC IOT enterprise edition, it contains no ads and is meant for corporate use. I got it off of the massgravel Dev site. The only thing pre-installed is the edge browser. Boots way faster and my games are right there. I have it dual-boot alongside Ubuntu. I recommend it if you have to use windows for some programs.

    • atrielienz@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      This is what I’m planning to go to once my IT department figures out how to implement windows 11 across our systems. We tried a controlled roll. Out and has to roll back to windows 10 because some of the software we use (mandatory) doesn’t work quite right on 11 (menu problems and weird crashes from what I saw -but it’s legacy software from the windows XP times so that’s to be expected, even in compatibility mode). They’re still going to try because the alternative is to pay for the extended support and the company doesn’t want to. I guess we’ll see what happens.

  • doggle@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    2 months ago

    Well, I was gonna run win10 until its service life ends next year. I guess MS want to speed up the timeline a little.

    Arch here I come.

  • sunglocto@lemmy.zip
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    2 months ago

    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.

    How the fuck are people OK with this?!

      • curry@programming.dev
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        2 months ago

        Followed by smug mentions of cheap OEM keys and massgrave repo. Yeah, that ain’t gonna fly for work laptops, guys.

        Obligatory PS mentioning that I do use linux everyday on my personal machine

    • tb_@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      How to avoid: right click the start icon (or press win + x) and go to “Shut down or sign out” that way.

      I try not using the Windows start menu anymore because I hate seeing the little “notification” bubble on my profile, when dismissing it it returns within a few days!
      Yes Microsoft, I am aware I cancelled 365. Thanks for reminding me why I did so.

    • Tattorack@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      I shit you not, whenever the issues of Microsoft are brought up in my friend group, there is one guy who pops up and defends Microsoft with “Well it’s not a problem for me. I do t see the big deal at all! It’s only a few ads.”

      • Mio@feddit.nu
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        2 months ago

        You DO get a choice. You can shift to any other operating system in the world. I did go to Fedora with KDE.

  • Uriel238 [all pronouns]@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    3 months ago

    Funny. Not long after all the spyware was inserted into Win 10, they imported it into Win 7, and we got a general notice to not install those updates (or uninstall them).

    Yeah, Microsoft was always a shit.