Windows 10 has reached Adware status

[GeekJump]

Win 10 definitely gets annoying with the "helpful" pop ups advertising their own products. Yes Microsoft I'm well aware that one drive exists, no I don't want to install it! Same thing with Office 365. I still use 2010 because I bought the home version with the multiple uses. EVERY TIME I open a office program "you can upgrade to Office 365 right now for X% off!" LEAVE ME ONLY! HOW MUCH OF MY MONEY DO YOU WANT!

[XenosTech]

 I've never seen ads on my win10

[NumLock21]

One has to wonder, how the heck does MS inject a ad into your "My Computer", when the OS hasn't even changed. 

I mean on my netbook that i recently formatted and clean install. I used the same win10 iso that I downloaded 3-4 months ago, and i got that ad too. Hmm...

 

[mrclsu]

The best part about this is that I can see this ad even though I have an Office 365 subscription. 

[vanished]

8 hours ago, LAwLz said:

OneDrive is not optional. It is preinstalled and some people (not me) can uninstall it (it does not appear in my list of programs).

Yeah I've seen a few people say that but I can't explain it since I can uninstall it quite easily.  Furthermore, even if you can't remove it, you can always just choose to not open it.  That makes it optional.  By the logic that being irremovable makes it not optional, using Edge and defragmenting your HDDs on a schedule is mandatory (which of course is not true).

8 hours ago, LAwLz said:

It does not matter that it is free, because it comes with Windows and Windows is not free.

This is why I am making a distinction.  A "purely Windows" ad would be crossing the line imo because that is something you pay for.  OneDrive is separate, removable, optional, and free.

8 hours ago, LAwLz said:

Edge is "free" too, but you would not be pleased in Edge started injecting extra ads into websites you visited, right?

No, I wouldn't be happy about that, and so if that happened (and if I actually used Edge which I don't) I would use a different browser.

 

It's the same thing.  Don't want to use OneDrive or don't like the things it's doing?  Then close it.  Why would you run a program you don't want or like or use?

8 hours ago, LAwLz said:

It's the same deal here. Something that Windows, which you paid for, comes preinstalled and is injecting ads into other parts of Windows which has previously been ad-free. That is unacceptable.

It comes preinstalled with other stuff too, like Candy Crush, as you allude to later.  I don't want to see the ads I assume it contains and so I don't play it (I also just have no desire to play it but I digress).

8 hours ago, LAwLz said:

Or how about this, if OneDrive started injecting ads into websites and other programs such as let's say Photoshop, would you be happy about that?

That's where it's crossing a line.  That would be like spotify ads showing up in Google Play Music or any other combination of unrelated services inappropriately being affected by each other.  OneDrive integrates tightly with Explorer so I don't see it as a stretch that that's where they'd put the ads.  I would totally understand if Adobe started pushing their ads in Bridge - that is, if it was free (which it's not).

8 hours ago, LAwLz said:

Would you just be trying to brush it under the rug as "no this might not be a Windows 10 issue. It might just be OneDrive and surely this is 100% acceptable behavior since OneDrive is free and some people can uninstall it"?

In the case above, no; as I said, that wouldn't be OK, but in the actual situation we're in, you've accurately represented my opinion.

8 hours ago, LAwLz said:

Do you have any idea how many ads are in Windows 10 right now?

I actually don't but I'd guess that it's very few.

8 hours ago, LAwLz said:

Ads on the lock screen, ads in the start menu, ads in the notification center, ads in explorer, ads in the settings menu (it suggests you use Edge when you try and use something else), it comes bundled with bloatware like Candy Crush Saga.

I was aware of the Candy Crush thing but I've honestly never seen any of those other ones.

8 hours ago, LAwLz said:

Where do you draw the line for what is acceptable and not acceptable? I was against it the second I saw the first ad. It appears that you are currently being boiled without realizing it.

I've given a couple examples above but it's a case of I'll know it when I see it.  To be honest, I think it's possible that I've become so used to seeing people freak out at Microsoft for things that are nearly 100% their own fault that I've developed a sort of knee-jerk reaction to just assume that this is another case of the same, when perhaps it isn't.  [continued below]

8 hours ago, LAwLz said:

Yes you are defending them. How is telling people to not hate on them not defending them? The definition of defend is "ward of attacks" and that is exactly what you are doing.

But I'm not jumping to defend them or I'd be as bad as the people who jumped to attack them without knowing anything about what actually causes this or how often it happens.  For all we know it's literally a one time thing that shows up when you fresh install.  For all we know, it's caused by OneDrive being installed and running, indicating you might be interested in using it.  If it was just an out of the blue ad Windows was serving up with no other reason, I'd say that was crossing the line, but we just don't know yet.

 

And so to reiterate, what I'm defending is the process of thought, logic and research to actually get all the facts before flying off the handle.

8 hours ago, LAwLz said:

So, what information do you want and what exactly is your interpretation of OP's post? Because right now you sound exactly like the average Microsoft defense force member, which will then start moving the goalpost as soon as the evidence starts rolling in (as if we actually need more evidence to hate on Microsoft. The mere fact that someone at Microsoft somehow thought it was OK to show ads in Explorer, no matter what is triggering it, why or how, is not acceptable to me).

I want to know the conditions that trigger the ad to appear, and how often it shows up.

My interpretation of the OP's post is that it's just appearing out of the blue to advertise MS's other services, which would not be OK imo.  But we don't actually know that's what's happening.

7 hours ago, LAwLz said:

OneDrive is installed and runs on all Windows 10 versions by default. For a lot of users, including me, there is no way of uninstalling it either. I can conform that you can uninstall it on some computers, but I can also confirm that the option simply does not appear on some. Over the last couple of weeks I have conformed maybe 70 computers with Windows 10 at work, and one of the issues I ran into was that OneDrive could be deleted on some but not other computers. I don't know why, and when I contacted Microsoft I got the answer that "OneDrive is built into Windows 10 and can not be removed" and then I got instructions for how to disable syncing instead. This seems to line up with what Microsoft's support page says too.

That's very odd.  Regardless, removing it is just the extreme "solution".  I would certainly hope that if this ad is triggered by OneDrive that simply not having OneDrive auto-run at login would be enough to stop it.

7 hours ago, LAwLz said:

I don't know why some computers could uninstall it and some couldn't (they were all installed with a deployment tool and confirmed to be on the exact same version), but that's what happened. My guess is that Microsoft is doing A/B testing. That seems to be very common with Windows 10. By the way, this is why it is incredibly hard to test for the evidence you demand as well, because it might be A/B testing. Two people can do the exact same procedures and get different results. Me and GoodBytes had that happen when we were testing if Microsoft displayed ads on the lockscreen or not by default. I even had to record myself installing Windows 10 from scratch to convince him and he just went "well, it's disabled on my machine".

Interesting.

7 hours ago, LAwLz said:

No, I don't flip out when I see an ad in Chrome. I would however freak out if Chrome was a 100 dollar program, and it started injecting ads into other programs such as Microsoft Office, or Steam.

Woah woah woah ok hold on.  Let me reiterate I am in agreement about that ^ (what you said here), but I also do not see that as a parallel for this situation.  If this ad is caused by OneDrive, we should remember that a) OneDrive is free, not $100 and b) it's injecting into Explorer, an application that it is integrated with so much that it is essentially a part of.

7 hours ago, LAwLz said:

Imagine getting a Google Drive ad inside Steam. Would you go "no this is not a Chrome issue because it's an ad for Drive. Clearly this is acceptable"? Also, to make the analogy even more similar then the Drive application would silently install itself with Chrome, and it would not be possible to uninstall it with the regular methods. Would you not call both Chrome and Drive horrible pieces of shit if that happened? I would, and that's why I will call both OneDrive and Windows 10 horrible pieces of shit.

Even if it is found out that it is OneDrive injecting the ads, the fact that it is bundled with Windows 10 also makes Windows 10 shit. Especially since it can not be removed by all users (but even if it was removable for all it would still be horrible because it is opt-out and not opt-in).

 

 

But they are pushing ads for their services in Windows. OneDrive runs by default and it pushes ads into Windows (if it is OneDrive that does it, it might be explorer).

Not to mention that Microsoft is pushing ads for their services all through the OS. Nothing is sacred anymore.

I think this has been addressed sufficiently above already.

 

---

 

Your next two posts were very enlightening and encouraging.  I think they cleared up a potential miscommunication / misunderstanding.

 

You see, I've actually been trying to make 2 very distinct points simultaneously:

1. I feel like if this is an ad caused by using OneDrive (ie having it installed and running), then that's not unreasonable.
2. We should always question things and get all the facts before delving into a blind rage like some sort of rabid wolf pack.

I see this as "if the situation is A, it's ok, but if it's B, it's not, and we don't have enough information to know yet".

 

So when I saw you disagree with what I was saying, and get 11+ "agrees" no less, I was understandably very concerned.  The implication was that people actually disagreed with point number 2 in some way, which was shocking and disturbing.  I now see (at least, assuming I'm interpreting things correctly) that wasn't the case.

 

8 hours ago, LAwLz said:

I really don't see how anyone could "incorrectly" hate on them for this.

Do ads from Microsoft appear in explorer? Then they should be hated. It's as simple as that. There is no need to try and find excuses for why that should be acceptable because there are no valid excuses. It just should not happen, period.

 

8 hours ago, LAwLz said:

By the way, it does not matter if this doesn't happen to most people either. The very fact that Microsoft has built in this functionality is worth hating on. At the very least that means they are planning on using it.

 

These posts explained your view very concisely.    You see this as "clearly the situation is C, and that's not OK".  Because of your opinion of the ad, you don't need more information; the fact that it happens is bad enough, and so you've seen enough to make your judgement.  i.e., you and the people who liked your post just disagree with my point 1 (again, if I'm reading this correctly, and again, I dearly hope I am).

 

Which, fair enough.  I feel like if this is an ad caused by using OneDrive (ie having it installed and running), then that's not unreasonable.  But would I like getting it?  No.  Would I be happy if other similar services like Google Drive or Dropbox (if installed locally) started doing this?  No.  But, to be honest, I think they're within their rights to do it.  Obviously where they start crossing the line (imo) is if they ran ads from a paid program, or injected into an unrelated program, or if Microsoft was using Windows to serve up ads without the user showing any indication they were interested and without actually engaging in the use of a free product.

[vanished]

1 hour ago, Marsu5 said:

The best part about this is that I can see this ad even though I have an Office 365 subscription. 

Now that's very interesting.  If that's true, either a) their system for delivering the ad is broken, or b) they really are just dumping this out to everyone through Windows without checking for anything.  Either of those would be very sad indeed.

[DildorTheDecent]

>didn't buy Windows

>didn't get ads

 

Get rekt children. 

[mrclsu]

1 hour ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

Now that's very interesting.  If that's true, either a) their system for delivering the ad is broken, or b) they really are just dumping this out to everyone through Windows without checking for anything.  Either of those would be very sad indeed.

Sadly it is true. 

[vanished]

43 minutes ago, Marsu5 said:

Sadly it is true. 

 

 

Wow, so they really are just dumping this ad blindly on everyone.  I mean, this isn't quite how I expected to see the "worst case" present itself - I was expecting the ad to show up to people not running OneDrive, but I suppose showing up to people that actually already pay for what they're advertising is just as bad.

 

Well, ok I guess the outcry was justified.  But I still stand by everything I said.  We owe it to the company and ourselves to make sure we have all the facts before we start crying foul.  After all, just because it's possible to make up a random theory and be right some of the time doesn't mean scientific experiments that verify it are unnecessary.

[mrclsu]

40 minutes ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

Wow, so they really are just dumping this ad blindly on everyone.  I mean, this isn't quite how I expected to see the "worst case" present itself - I was expecting the ad to show up to people not running OneDrive, but I suppose showing up to people that actually already pay for what they're advertising is just as bad.

 

Well, ok I guess the outcry was justified.  But I still stand by everything I said.  We owe it to the company and ourselves to make sure we have all the facts before we start crying foul.  After all, just because it's possible to make up a random theory and be right some of the time doesn't mean scientific experiments that verify it are unnecessary.

I agree. Also it is possible that they advertising system is buggy as it has only showed up on one of my computers. 

[JoeCoke]

Oh Windows 10... Yet another reason to keep me on Windows 7. The shit Micro$oft keeps doing just keeps piling up, at this point I'm not even surprised anymore. I'm sticking with 7 till it gets too old, then I'm switch to Linux with Windows as a secondary gaming only OS.

[RagnarokDel]

On 04/03/2017 at 2:41 PM, patrick3027 said:

Seems like some people are now getting OneDrive ads in the file explorer. It is unclear from the current reports online if this is limited to preview builds or not, or if only certain regions are getting the ads. My only source for this news is two reddit screenshots and a thread on 4chan.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Windows10/comments/5xec80/is_nothing_sacred_advertisement_for_onedrive_in/

http://boards.4chan.org/g/thread/59233293

 

 

 

The ads can be disabled by going into File Explorer Options > View > Uncheck "Show sync provider notifications".

 

This is completely unacceptable IMO, Windows 10 isn't free anymore and the current amount of ads in paid software is simply appaling.

 

EDIT : Apparently this isn't new, there are reports of ads showing up in the file Explorer since mid January. 

https://community.spiceworks.com/topic/1956146-onedrive-ad-in-explorer

https://www.tenforums.com/general-support/78621-how-disable-onedrive-advertisement-explorer.html

I dont have any ads whatsoever. The only thing that ever gave me a pop-up ad was an app I installed voluntary and the ad was about it's own product...

 

I dont even have that option to uncheck when looking at it.

[vanished]

4 minutes ago, RagnarokDel said:

I dont have any ads whatsoever. The only thing that ever gave me a pop-up ad was an app I installed voluntary and the ad was about it's own product...

 

I dont even have that option to uncheck when looking at it.

Many people have reported not getting the ad yet, in many different circumstances.  It's also been reported that Microsoft often rolls out updates like this in stages, so it's likely not everyone will get it all at once.

[RagnarokDel]

2 minutes ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

Many people have reported not getting the ad yet, in many different circumstances.  It's also been reported that Microsoft often rolls out updates like this in stages, so it's likely not everyone will get it all at once.

I'm on windows 10 pro, maybe that's why? I'm as up to date as I can be, but like you said it might not have rolled out to me.

[vanished]

Just now, RagnarokDel said:

I'm on windows 10 pro, maybe that's why? I'm as up to date as I can be, but like you said it might not have rolled out to me.

I'm also on 10 Pro, fully up to date and have not seen this yet.  To be honest, I think it probably hasn't hit many people yet or there would be more news about it.  Microsoft shenanigans tend to go extremely viral.

[NumLock21]

Been running the VM almost the whole day. Still don't see it.

[Ithanul]

Have not seen the ad myself, but then again, I run a locked down W10 Edu on the lappy.

[CoolMarquis97]

I really don't get it. They are just digging themselves further and further down a hole.

[Guest]

Yeah I got it today on a few client machines - PITA given that we sell our own private cloud storage. 

[KuJoe]

On 3/4/2017 at 3:21 PM, Ryan_Vickers said:

Looks pretty easy to remove to me.  I would assume anyone not interested in it would have done so already.

Having uninstalled OneDrive multiple times already I think I finally found a permanent solution tonight, unfortunately it requires editing Group Policies.

 

Once I made those changes I uninstalled OneDrive again so hopefully it's gone for good. That being said, I wouldn't say Microsoft crossed any lines here, Google pushes their Google Drive like crazy lately as does Amazon and their Amazon Drive. To be honest, Microsoft isn't being obnoxious about it and the "ads" are tastefully put in logical places where you would expect to utilize OneDrive and the benefits of a cloud drive in 2017 are quite noticeable so it only makes sense that Microsoft would push their cloud drive over their competitors. This is one of those instances where people need something to be upset about and Microsoft was the unlucky flavor of the week. And the only reason I've disabled OneDrive on my PCs is because I already pay for Google Drive and Amazon Drive.

[gamerking]

on my win 10 machines that i disabled update reboot i dont have the onedrive popup on my other pc that has the auto reboots enabled it has the popup . so they are doing some sneaky stuff . back to blocking all Microsoft inbound packets

[HelplmChoking]

I certainly don't have it, nor have I ever had any Windows 10 ad like pop up in the past nearly two years of usage.

[You_are_a_cunt]

Meanwhile I still haven't seen all these ads people are complaining about   which means there should be a way to have them not pop up (most I've ever gotten was the Get Office 365 one which was strange since I already have an Office 365 subscription and it was already installed >_>)

[Mr.Humble]

On 4. 3. 2017 at 8:48 PM, AUniqueName said:

2TB 'weeb drive' anyone?

Whatever. WHO THE F/%K still has a DVD drive?!

[LAwLz]

53 minutes ago, vojta.pokorny said:

Whatever. WHO THE F/%K still has a DVD drive?!

That's not a DVD drive.

He was pointing out that the person who took the photo and uploaded it to Reddit has a 2TB HDD called "weeb drive".