[dayglored]

You would think they've learned after all these years, but....NO.

[dayglored]

Windows 10 and Bing search... PING!

You can find all the Windows Ping list threads with FR search: just search on keyword "windowspinglist".

[AnotherUnixGeek]

It reads: "Microsoft recommends different browser settings. Want to change them?"

I've never seen this - I'm currently using the Brave browser. Maybe it only happens when using MS Edge?

[Secret Agent Man]

They did learn.

You still have Windows, dont you?

They learned you’d stick with Windows despite their crap.

[plain talk]

I have Win10 and have never gotten that message.

[bigbob]

As you know, they learned very well. To start with they made pesky users “Users” and now “Owners”. That way they can do what they wish with the copy of their software you have chosen to install on your machine, and use in accordance with their EULA.

But you’ve known this for all those years ;-)

[mountainlion]

I changed! I now use MacBook.

[KarlInOhio]

One of the best things I've done is set my connection as a metered connection (Settings/Network & Internet/[pick your network connection and click properties]/Turn on metered connection). It cuts down on the automatic downloads and upgrades.

I don't know if it stops it entirely, but I've had far fewer times opening up my laptop and it congratulating me on the most recent Windows update with everything I had running shutdown and often unsaved.

[9YearLurker]

Cutesy messages like that would get old awfully fast.

The solution is no such messages at all.

But of course Microsoft doesn’t care.

[Dalberg-Acton]

I was done with Microsoft Windows when they began to booger up Windows 7. I had new Corel products that wouldn’t start until I rolled back one of their updates that was sent out to prepare my OS for the Windows 10 update.
Then I discovered a bug in the OS related to the USB ports.

Linux Mint be’s mo’ better.

[Manic_Episode]

Anyone remember in the 90s when Bill Gates kept getting pies in the face whenever he was out in public?

Man that was some amusing justice.

We need to bring that trend back p

[wastedyears]

I’ll continue to use Win 7 until nothing uses it.

[daniel1212]

See How to Disable All Notifications.

Also, List of Tweaks available in [safe freeware] Ultimate Windows Tweaker 4 for Windows 10

System Information

1. Shows general information about the system
2. Calculate and view Windows Experience Index
3. Option to open Advanced Recovery Options
4. Run System File Checker utility and DISM system repair utility directly
5. Introduces search functionality to easily locate your desired tweak
6. Extended Info Bar to show full description of the tweak
7. View detailed information about Windows Experience Index including all scores
8. New Favorites feature lets you access many sections of UWT easily.

Customization

Taskbar:

1. Remove Taskbar
2. Remove Taskbar Buttons
3. Remove Volume Icon From Notification Area
4. Remove Network Icon From Notification Area
5. Remove Action Center Icon From Notification Area
6. Remove Clock From Notification Area
7. Remove Battery Meter From Notification Area
8. Remove Notification Area
9. Customization of Taskbar Buttons Grouping
10. Customization of Taskbar Thumbnail Size
11. Customization of Taskbar Thumbnail delay time
12. Disable Windows Ink Workspace
13. Enable “Do you want to close all the tabs?” prompt in Edge
14. Hide Windows Defender Icon From Notifications Area
15. Show Seconds In Taskbar Clock (Customization->Taskbar)
16. Disable All Live Tiles (Customization->Universal UI)

File Explorer

1. Show Windows Version On Desktop
2. Enable Auto-Colorization
3. Disable Aero Peek Feature
4. Don’t Show Low Disk Space Warnings
5. Disable Info Tips For Shortcuts
6. Make Taskbar Button Switch To Last Active Window
7. Restore Last Opened Folders At Startup
8. Delete Pagefile At Shutdown
9. Disable AeroShake Feature
10. Hide Preview Pane
11. Disable Full Row Select Items
12. Disable AeroSnap Feature
13. Show Status Bar In File Explorer
14. Launch Folders In A Separate Process
15. Enable Check Boxes To Select Items
16. Remove “-Shortcut” Suffix For New Shortcuts
17. Tweak Drive Letters
18. Remove Shortcut Arrows From Shortcut Icons
19. Enable Auto-Complete And Auto-Suggest
20. Disable Taskbar And Start Jumplists
21. Check By Default “Do this for all current items”
22. Change Default Behaviour For Drag-Drop In Explorer
23. Choose which folder opens on starting File Explorer
24. Remove Duplicate Drive Letter Entry
25. Show User Folder in Navigation Pane

Universal UI

1. Disable Lock Screen
2. Disable Login Screen Blur Effect
3. Disable Changing Lock Screen Image
4. Enable User Switching On Login Screen
5. Enable and customize Slideshow
6. Enable first sign-in Animation When New User Account Is Created
7. Turn On SmartScreen filter for Windows Store Apps
8. Disable “Look for an app in the store” When Unknown Files are opened
9. Disable “You have new apps that can open this type of file” Notification
10. Set Notifications Display Time
11. Disable Toast Notifications
12. Lock Start Screen Tiles So That They Can’t Be Rearranged
13. Disable Bing web search.

Windows 10

1. Customize Power Options:

• Show/Hide Lock
• Show/Hide Sleep
• Show/Hide Hibernate
• Show/Hide Sign Out
• Show/Hide All Options

2. Disable/Enable Start Animations
3. Replace CMD with Windows Powershell On The WinX Menu
4. Enable Access To Camera On Lock Screen
5. Apps Use Light/Dark Theme
6. System Uses Light/Dark Theme
7. Show/ Hide “Frequent Folders” In Quick Access
8. Show/Hide “Recent files” In Quick Access
9. Enable/Disable New /Old Elements of Windows including battery fly out, date & time pane and Volume Control
10. Enable Share settings page in Settings.

This PC

Add/remove useful utilities like Power Options, Recycle Bin, Programs and Features, User Accounts etc. in “This PC”.

User Accounts

1. Display Last Logon Information On Logon Screen
2. Make User Enter Username While Logging On
3. Remove Shutdown Tasks From Logon Screen
4. Disable Updating Group Policy On Startup
5. Disable Switching To Secure Desktop While Elevating
6. Enable Virtualize File And Registry Write Failures To Per-User Locations
7. Enable Admin Approval Mode For Built-In Administrator Account
8. Enable Detections Of Application Installation And Prompt For Elevation
9. Enable Verbose Logon Messages
10. Require Users To Press CTRL+ALT+DEL To Logon
11. Change UAC Settings
12. Customization Of Logon Message
13. Customization Of What Should Be Done On System Failure
14. Enable/Disable Built-in Administrator AccountRremove Remove 3D Objects folder from This PC.

Performance

1. Waiting time to kill applications timeout during shutdown
2. Waiting time to end services at shutdown
3. Waiting time to kill non-responding applications
4. Auto-End Non Responsive Programs
5. Restart Shell Automatically After Some Error
6. Always Unload DLLs To Free Up Memory
7. Disable Automatic Folder View Discovery
8. Turn Off Search Indexer
9. Increase Priority Of IRQ8
10. Disable Smooth Scrolling
11. Disable Windows Time Service
12. Disable Tablet Input Service
13. Disable Windows Security Center Service
14. Disable Prefetch Service
15. Disable Superfetch Service
16. Disable Printer Spooling Service
17. Disable Edge/Tab Preloading.

Security & Privacy

Security

1. Disable Registry Editor
2. Disable Control Panel
3. Disable Task Manager
4. Disable WinKey Shortcuts
5. Disable CMD
6. Disable Color And Appearance Settings
7. Disable The Auto Logon Shift Override Feature
8. Disable Administrative Shares (e.g. ADMIN$)
9. Disable UAC
10. Disable The Ability To Shutdown
11. Disable The Ability To Log Off
12. Disable Internet Communication
13. Disable System Restore Configuration
14. Disable MMC Snap-ins
15. Disable Folder Options Menu
16. Disable Encrypting File System
17. Disable Explorer’s Context Menu
18. Disable Access To Taskbar Context Menu
19. Restrict Access To Taskbar And Start Menu Properties
20. Disable Changing Wallpaper
21. Turn Off User Tracking
22. Disable Display Personalization
23. Disable Windows Media Center
24. Disable Windows Update Service
25. Disable Windows Mobility Center
26. Disable Windows Store
27. Disable Windows Defender
28. Disable OneDrive

Privacy

1. Disable Telemetry
2. Disable Application Telemetry
3. Disable and Reset Advertising ID
4. Disable Cortana
5. Disable Taskbar Web Search
6. Disable Handwriting Data Sharing
7. Disable Windows Update Sharing
8. Disable Windows Feedback Requests
9. Disable Password Reveal Button
10. Disable Steps Recorder
11. Disable Inventory Collector
12. Disable Biometrics
13. Disable Wi-Fi Sense
14. Disable synchronization of settings.

Browsers section

Internet Explorer tab

1. Enable Menu Bar
2. Enable Suggested Sites
3. Enable Caret Browsing
4. Use ClearType Font
5. Disable Compatibility List
6. Customizing Homepage
7. Show Tabs Below Address Bar
8. Notify When Download Completes
9. Autohide the Tab Bar When In Fullscreen Mode
10. Always Load IE In FullScreen Mode
11. Check Executable’s Signature On Download
12. Allow Running Executable With Invalid Signature
13. Clear Cache On Every Exit
14. Warn On Closing Multiple Tabs
15. Allow Allocating Additional Bandwidth
16. Enable Do Not Track
17. Enable Auto Image Resizing
18. Enable Smooth Scrolling
19. Disable Active Scripting for Internet Zone
20. Disable Scripting of Java Applets for Internet Zone
21. Use Software Rendering Instead Of GPU Rendering
22. Enable Third-Party Browser Extensions
23. Show HTTPS Errors
24. Disable Script Debugging
25. Enable DOM Storage
26. Enable SmartScreen Filter

Microsoft Edge tab

1. Change Microsoft Edge default download location
2. Adjust Tab Preview Show Delay
3. Adjust Tab Preview Hide Delay
4. Disable Edge Tab Preview
5. Enable Do you want to close all the tabs prompt.

Context Menu

In Universal Apps tab, pin over 15 Modern apps to Desktop Context Menu including Microsoft Edge, OneNote, Store, Music, Mail, etc. Plus, customize desktop icons size.

In Desktop Context Menu tab, pin over 20 important Windows utilities to Desktop Context Menu including System Restore, Task Manager, Magnifier, etc.

In Desktop Context Menu 2 tab, pin Windows Defender > Open, Quick Scan, Full Scan, Settings, Update and various other tweaks. Pin drives to Desktop Context Menu. Also, Pin your favorite Settings sections to desktop context menu. You can also add these context menu items – Add Take ownership, Add Copy To, Add Move to Add Open with.

Apart from new Desktop Context Menu Tweaks -> Character Map, Control Panel and Windows Update, the following have been added in UWT 4.3:

1. Remove 3D Print With 3D Builder
2. Remove Scan With Windows Defender
3. Remove Edit With Paint 3D
4. Remove Cast To Device.

In v4.4:

• Include In Library, Restore Previous Versions Context Menu items added
• Give Access To, Share Context Menu items added
• Add Phone, Gaming Settings to the context menu

Additional

1. Use Autoplay For All Media And Devices
2. Use Small Taskbar Icons
3. Hide Inactive Icons From Notification Area
4. Turn Off Automatic Applications Termination
5. Customizing Blinking Cursor Width
6. Customizing Cursor Blinking Time
7. Customizing Scroll Bar Width
8. Enable the Network Adapter Onboard Processor
9. Restrict Access Over Anonymous Connections
10. Disable Recent Shares In Network Places
11. Disable Default Admin And Disk Drive Share Server
12. Hide Entire Network From Network Neighborhood
13. Prevent Network Auto-Discovery
14. Hide Computer From The Browser List
15. Enable NTLM 2 Support
16. Set Global Network/Internet Offline
17. Option To Add UWT 4 To Startup
18. Option To Integrate UWT 4 With Desktop Context Menu
19. Edit OEM Information
20. Enable Windows Photo Viewer
21. Export and import your Tweaks.

New tweaks in UWT 4.2 and 4.3 to support Windows 10 v1607 and v 1703:

• Use Increased Taskbar Transparency
• Change Inactive Title Bar Color
• Disable Quick Action Buttons In Action Center
• Change Microsoft Edge Download Location
• Disable Edge Tab Preview
• Adjust Edge Tab Preview Show/Hide Delay Time
• Disable App Access To Location
• Disable App Access To Calendar
• Disable App Access To Messages
• Disable App Access To Microphone
• Disable App Access To Camera
• Disable App Access To User Account Info

New tweaks in UWT 4.6

• Disable Login Screen Blur Effect. Navigate to Customization -> Universal UI
• Improvements in disabling Windows Updates in newer versions of Windows 10
• Disable Edge Preloading in the Performance section
• Disable Edge Tab Preloading in the Performance section
• Option to pin Cortana, Search and Apps in Settings. Navigate to Context Menu -> Desktop Context Menu 2
• Customize “New Menu” in Context Menu -> Other Context Menus
• Now change Registered Owner and Organization information in Additional -> Edit OEM Information
• Pin “Screen Snip” to Desktop Context Menu
• Reset Live Tile Cache in Customization -> Universal UI
• Waiting time to kill applications/services/non-responding applications needs to be a minimum of 1 second in the Performance section
• Tweak description line now doesn’t cut off the UI when the description is long.  When the description is long, use the Extended Info Bar to read it.

In the About tab, you will see links to Submit Bugs, Check for Updates, visit the home page and seek Support at our TWC Forums.

[Buttons12]

I mostly use a Mac now, but with the Windows 10 I’ve never opened Edge. Don’t care much for any Windows offering.

[Bikkuri]

"The latest episode of Microsoft Is Poking Me Through The Windows involves a pop-up message that appears in Windows 10's purpose-built notification center."

Is English his second language, or am I reading this wrong?

[OrangeHoof]

Since I still have Windows 7 and turned off automatic updates, I’m perfectly happy not getting these sort of messages.

[alexander_busek]

It reads: "Microsoft recommends different browser settings. Want to change them?"

When someone initiates a conversation with me in that way - i.e., with a question about a matter whose consequences I don't fully understand (because I lack, e.g., the specialized technical competence necessary to fully appreciate them), I will usually respond with, "Depends. Please explain in detail the advantages and drawbacks of doing so. Will this take 15 seconds? Or 15 minutes? Will I be able to reverse the changes if I don't like them?"

But, for some reason, Microsoft's little pop-ups never answer my questions!

Regards,

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Get a Mac.

[Red Badger]

And here we thought Clippy was DEAD...................

[bert]

The integration of various Microsoft functions onto the collective and co operative cloud is a very good happening

You can dis Microsoft all you want but they are the best at what they do and there is no one even close to matching their capabilities