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Advertising Cellphones Microsoft Windows

Windows 10 Now Showing Full Screen Ads On Lock Screen (consumerist.com) 599

Striek writes: Several media outlets are reporting that Windows 10 has now started showing full screen ads on users' lock screens. They can be turned off, but how many people will actually bother with this? "Tips site How-To Geek discovered that Windows Spotlight, which normally rotates between a selection of photographs, was being used to display an ad for Square Enix's Rise of the Tomb Raider. Understandably, most people probably don't want to be hit in the face with a full-screen ad for a video game before they even unlock their computer. If you want to make sure you're not hit with these ads, follow these steps to disable Windows Spotlight: Open the Start Menu and search for "Lock Screen Settings."; Under "Background," select either Picture or Slideshow, instead of Windows Spotlight.; Scroll down to "Get fun facts, tips, tricks, and more on your lock screen" and this toggle." Apparently the "and more" is where Microsoft hid the advertisements.
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Windows 10 Now Showing Full Screen Ads On Lock Screen

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  • And so ... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by fahrbot-bot ( 874524 ) on Wednesday February 24, 2016 @07:20PM (#51578605)
    ... it begins.
    • by goombah99 ( 560566 ) on Wednesday February 24, 2016 @08:11PM (#51579013)

      Kindles have always had two prices. The lower price with ads is the advertised price. You can pay a higher price for the one without ads on the lock screen.

      • Too bad Microsoft treats all free upgrade, and paid OEM, installs of Windows 10 Home and Pro the same. You're had by default.
    • Re:And so ... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by bobjr94 ( 1120555 ) on Wednesday February 24, 2016 @09:50PM (#51579661) Homepage
      Win 10 just gets worse and worse as it matures. I'm still happily on 7 with autoupdates disabled and the win 10 upgrade notifier removed
      • I'm still happily on 7 with auto-updates disabled and the win 10 upgrade notifier removed

        Me too, though MS keeps trying to sneak it in every month. Hopefully when the free "upgrade" period is over they'll knock it off.

      • by execthis ( 537150 ) on Wednesday February 24, 2016 @11:38PM (#51580133)

        Not long ago those of us who warned against "upgrading" were being lambasted for being alarmists.

        Well. I have something I'd like to say:

        HA! HA! HA! HA!

        ROFL!

        • Well, the joke's only half funny. What are you going to do when Win7 reaches its EOL and MS didn't step back from the brink of insanity?

          • Re:And so ... (Score:5, Informative)

            by execthis ( 537150 ) on Thursday February 25, 2016 @03:03AM (#51580807)

            I totally agree.

            For now the thing is to keep writing to companies like Adobe, Steinberg, Native Instruments, MakeMusic, Canon, etc. to ask them to support Linux. In the end, if they don't, then I guess running the necessary apps under a VM with hopefully good graphics performance, under Linux.

            Linux is usable but its just a matter of how much is one willing to dispense with to use it? How much convenience, such as putting a laptop in suspend and expecting it to work? Wanting to be able to scan a document wireless from a multi-function printer?

            People are still on Windows not because of one big thing, but all the small things which collectively they don't want to deal with.

            If you ask people who switched from Linux back to Windows, they may say it was x or it was because of y, but actually its because of x, y, z, etc. Not sure if it will take some entirely different approach to ever make an Open Source OS the primary one used by people in the world, or whether some change of thinking around Linux can do it. However nothing major has happened with Linux after all these years and attempts so I really wonder.

    • Re:And so ... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by niftydude ( 1745144 ) on Wednesday February 24, 2016 @11:14PM (#51580021)
      Yep - internet streamed ads to your lock screen.

      Awesome.

      I wonder how long until someone manages to hack a keylogger in via this vector and start recording passwords?
  • by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 24, 2016 @07:21PM (#51578611)

    This is the price of "free" MS upgrades.

    • by Tablizer ( 95088 ) on Wednesday February 24, 2016 @07:28PM (#51578651) Journal

      It's official, CEO #3 is just as jerky as #1 and #2. The MS tradition of corporate mayhem continues.

    • by AbRASiON ( 589899 ) * on Wednesday February 24, 2016 @07:29PM (#51578663) Journal

      I imagine people who actually paid for a legitimate full copy are getting the ads as well. I don't know for certain but do they even distinguish the 2 (once initial activation is complete?)

      I continue to be satisfied with Windows 7, until they try to damage it somehow.

    • by Mitreya ( 579078 )

      This is the price of "free" MS upgrades.

      MS Win10 upgrade has outgrown the "free upgrade" category a while ago.
      It is now firmly in "shoved down your throat when you are not looking" category

      I have warned all of my immediate non-tech family to ignore "free upgrade" offer, but what if (when!) MS sneaks it in anyway?

      Also, it is getting harder to buy a new desktop/laptop without Windows 10 (yes, yes, I know, year of the Linux is upon us, blah blah).

    • by Austerity Empowers ( 669817 ) on Wednesday February 24, 2016 @07:57PM (#51578895)

      This is the price of "free" MS upgrades.

      I actually had to pay full price for this.

  • by kheldan ( 1460303 ) on Wednesday February 24, 2016 @07:21PM (#51578613) Journal
    Are you still being paid enough to shill for Windows 10, even in the face of something like this? Honestly, how much more of this do you think people are going to put up with before they say 'enough is enough'? Doesn't matter if you can turn them off or not -- they shouldn't be there in the first place! There's no excuse for this, none whatsoever.
    • by tnk1 ( 899206 ) on Wednesday February 24, 2016 @07:27PM (#51578645)

      Windows 10 is okay, all things told. The problem is when they sneak this shit in, but people who know what they are doing will consult the appropriate guide to turn it all off. Just like we did with all the other junk Windows tried to get in under the radar.

      However, while I have to admit that it is a pretty ballsy move to have your OS serve you ads, it's not like no one saw this one coming. I was wondering when I'd have Windows 10, "sponsored by Square Enix and Coca-Cola". It seems that it has now arrived. Welcome to the future.

      • However, while I have to admit that it is a pretty ballsy move to have your OS serve you ads, it's not like no one saw this one coming. I was wondering when I'd have Windows 10, "sponsored by Square Enix and Coca-Cola". It seems that it has now arrived. Welcome to the future.

        Welcome to the past. They tried this shit with Active Desktop "channels" in a Windows 95 add-on and part of the core install of Windows 98

        • by roc97007 ( 608802 ) on Wednesday February 24, 2016 @08:47PM (#51579259) Journal

          However, while I have to admit that it is a pretty ballsy move to have your OS serve you ads, it's not like no one saw this one coming. I was wondering when I'd have Windows 10, "sponsored by Square Enix and Coca-Cola". It seems that it has now arrived. Welcome to the future.

          Welcome to the past. They tried this shit with Active Desktop "channels" in a Windows 95 add-on and part of the core install of Windows 98

          Wow, Active Desktop. Enabled by default in ...windows 98? 98SE? And the most common error in the OS, even more common than... well, all the other errors, was a long pause where the system wouldn't respond, followed by the Active Desktop Recovery screen. The first thing I did when working on any PC was turn that crap off. (The second was to disable browse master. Or maybe that was Win95...)

          That takes me back. Or is it forward?

          • by gstoddart ( 321705 ) on Wednesday February 24, 2016 @10:15PM (#51579775) Homepage

            And, as I recall ... it was a gaping security hole they deprecated.

            Then they did the same thing in Vista with gadgets. Also, a gaping security hole they deprecated.

            And, I seem to remember they had them in Windows 7. And, again, it was a gaping security hole they deprecated.

            Trusting Microsoft hasn't fucked this up again is idiotic.

            But, more importantly, putting fucking ads on people's computers pretty much means Microsoft have gone full asshole on this one, and have really decided to fuck over their user base.

            Shit like this needs to stop. We don't have our computers to provide Microsoft with fucking ad revenue, we have them to do work and manage our stuff.

            I'm really beginning to think I'd be better off running my Windows 8.1 behind my own firewall with all updates turned off -- Windows 10 sounds like a bigger pile of shit every week.

      • by nmb3000 ( 741169 ) on Wednesday February 24, 2016 @07:59PM (#51578905) Journal

        Windows 10 is okay, all things told.

        No, it's not!

        Have standards sunk so low that an operating system which:

        - Has the ugliest and most backwards user interface in history.
        - Does not allow you to control the installation of updates.
        - Incorporates advertising into the shell (and now) the lock screen.
        - Steals your Internet bandwidth to help pay for the distribution costs of Windows Updates.
        - Gleefully violates your privacy by sending microphone recordings, keystrokes, email, file contents, and who knows what else to external servers without explicit consent.

        is "okay, all things told"? Even with the privacy concerns being associated with a company already found to be working with and providing data en masse to the NSA?

        Windows 10 is, at best, a complete disaster. Any systems improvements under the hood are completely overshadowed. I just can't wait to see what other fresh bullshit Microsoft pulls in a year or two when more people are on 10 and the OS is fully on the OSX model of perpetual updates. At that point there will be so little recourse, your computer may as well be owned by Microsoft and simply be leased to you (as long as you behave yourself).

        I don't know why they even call it a "personal computer" anymore.

        • It's called a personal computer because it keeps trying to be intimate with you.

      • At best, it's tacky as fuck. Just when you start to think MSFT is getting their shit together, they go and do something absolutely absurd like this.

    • by Dunbal ( 464142 ) * on Wednesday February 24, 2016 @07:30PM (#51578671)
      Best part will be when someone manages to insert malware into one of the ads and pwns every single Windows 10 box. And someone at Microsoft will say "oops, we're sorry. Well we'll refund you the price of the OS OH WAIT THAT'S RIGHT IT WAS FREE so sorry.
    • by imidan ( 559239 ) on Wednesday February 24, 2016 @07:32PM (#51578687)

      It's interesting to compare the development of Software as a Service with television programming. Most people are not outraged by commercials on television--it is understood that someone else 'owns' the show you're watching and that they have the right to put ads in it. It seems like what MS (and others) are trying to do is gradually shift to a software environment where normal people think of Windows as a thing that belongs to someone else (MS), and as a result, MS has the right to put ads in.

      Of course, we hate this idea because we grew up owning software, but if they can persist this long enough, a whole generation will grow up not owning software, but consuming it instead, and at that point, using computers could become as bad as trying to watch the evening news. You'll try to start a word processor, and as the thing 'loads', you'll be subjected to ads for household disinfectants and medications with alarming arrays of side-effects.

      • by Anonymous Coward

        > we grew up owning software,

        No, you never did, unless you wrote it yourself.

        > a whole generation will grow up not owning software, but consuming it

        Several generations already have, including you. You have just been deluded about what you 'bought' for years.

      • Television is showing us content for free, so we put up with some unobstrusive ads that don't transmit diseases. Windows 10 is not free, we paid for it or for the OS that we upgraded from, and yet we still get the ads and a vector for malware. At the very least Microsoft could act like web sites and whine at us to please turn off adblock or else they'll go out of business.

    • by youngone ( 975102 ) on Wednesday February 24, 2016 @07:33PM (#51578695)

      Honestly, how much more of this do you think people are going to put up with before they say 'enough is enough'?

      I think people will just assume that that's what Windows 10 is supposed to do, and not change a thing.

      Most people are not like you and me, they don't think too deeply about the laptop they've just bought. They bring it home, turn it on, accept some EULA, click a few 'next" buttons and an "OK" or two then start using it.

      I'm sure if it came with Linux Mint preinstalled an awful lot of people wouldn't even notice, because Gmail would work fine.

      I regularly need to ask people "What version of Windows does your computer run"? and about 2 in 10 know.

      • by tom229 ( 1640685 ) on Wednesday February 24, 2016 @07:48PM (#51578807)
        I run into the same thing, except in my case it's 1 in 5.
        • I run into the same thing, except in my case it's 1 in 5.

          Similar situation for me, except it was 1.5 out of 7.5.

          In related news, I could use some money for bail.

    • ad for Square Enix's Rise of the Tomb Raider.

      What do you say now, Microsoft shills?

      Microsoft is not going to go tits up from displaying boobs by default.

    • Considering it can be easily turned off (for now) I don't really see a problem here. I checked my Windows 10 settings and it was already turned off. *shrug*

    • by Waccoon ( 1186667 ) on Wednesday February 24, 2016 @10:17PM (#51579783)

      The sad thing is that people don't need to be paid to shill.

      When I discuss what Win10 is doing with ordinary non-geeks, the reactions usually vary from, "It's not a big deal", to "Oh, I doubt they're doing that". Almost everybody agrees that the control panel options to disable the spyware actually do work, so there's no reason to worry. There doesn't really need to be an excuse for what MS is doing, because even when people are informed about what's happening, they still don't see why there's anything wrong and see us nerdy weirdos as paranoid. Interestingly enough, every day I keep finding more and more people that support Windows10 and actually like it. Hey, it's free, so why not?

      I don't like Linux and have always had trouble when experimenting with various distros over the last 12-or-so years. Nonetheless, I am very thankful that it exists and will be switching my workstation to it shortly. My game machine runs Win 7, though, and I honestly have no idea what to do when that OS no longer runs the newest games.

  • Y'know... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by maugle ( 1369813 ) on Wednesday February 24, 2016 @07:28PM (#51578653)
    The annoying part isn't that Microsoft would try to advertise on your own lock screen. No, the moment we heard that Windows 10 was announced as a free upgrade, we all knew they'd eventually stoop to this level. The annoying part is how they refer to it in their settings.

    "Get fun facts, tips, tricks, and more"!? Go piss up a rope, you insincere, weasel-mouthed, marketing stooges. You've already hidden the option to turn the ads off behind a labyrinth of menus, you could at least give us the courtesy of not bullshitting us any further than that.
    • by Kjella ( 173770 )

      The annoying part isn't that Microsoft would try to advertise on your own lock screen. No, the moment we heard that Windows 10 was announced as a free upgrade, we all knew they'd eventually stoop to this level. The annoying part is how they refer to it in their settings.

      Actually I expected them to pull the old bait and switch by coming out with something quite reasonable and innocent then boil the frog slowly. But I guess they figured they got the lid on the situation....

    • " ...You hadn't exactly gone out of your way to call attention to them had you? I mean like actually telling anyone or anything.' But the plans were on display...' o n display? I eventually had to go down to the cellar to find them.' `That's the display department.' `With a torch.' `Ah, well the lights had probably gone.' `So had the stairs.' `But look you found the notice didn't you?' `Yes,' said Arthur, `yes I did. It was on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with

  • Hee, advertisement companies. Still wondering why people hate advertisements so much? Because these days it's really being overdone!! Flashy, beeping and screaming shit at places where you don't want them. Advertisements in the lockscreen of my own fucking PC is not only crossing the line, it's first spitting and taking a big dump on it before crossing it. It might even be going back, jumping on your own shit to make it extra messy and crossing it again!
  • by penguinoid ( 724646 ) on Wednesday February 24, 2016 @07:37PM (#51578723) Homepage Journal

    How much would it cost to get a Linux ad placed there?

    • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward

      You're thinking too small. How about a BSOD ad. How many people will curse MS and restart their computer losing some work they didn't need to lose? Or a phishing ad: "Virus detected, visit virus.com". Imagine the helicopter parents' lawsuits when some kid hacks in a pornographic ad for his school system (these ads are stored locally right?).

      • Right there on the BSOD the ad would say "Tired of this crap? While we're spooling to disk consider these alternatives to Windows..."

    • Or show Apple's 1984 commercial.
  • by AHuxley ( 892839 ) on Wednesday February 24, 2016 @07:37PM (#51578729) Journal
    Enjoy your advanced gpu and play some computer games.
    After that turn Microsoft off and return to any other real OS. No need to go deep into settings on a real OS to get basic users rights back.
    Its always your computer :)
    • by tom229 ( 1640685 ) on Wednesday February 24, 2016 @07:56PM (#51578879)
      There's nothing that makes Windows run more games other than the fact that Windows runs more games. If you want to have a real impact, only buy multiplatform games. Demand is the only thing that will change the industry. It will be complete waste of your time no doubt. The instant gratification generation never gets behind an issue or boycott that actually matters or requires critical thought.
  • by Rinikusu ( 28164 ) on Wednesday February 24, 2016 @07:41PM (#51578753)

    to get into the MS ad network and display gape porn on their network...

  • 3 BSODs within 2 days of taking it out of the box. Tablet mode is unusable, They sell it on the strength of using existing Windows apps, like firefox but clicking on the text boxes inside firefox (or older windows apps that don't use the stock windows edit boxes) don't bring up the on-screen keyboard. Power saving modes like you find on android or iOS devices are an after thought. Microsoft still treats this thing as a PC so coming out of sleep mode is not fast.

    Basically it's an overpriced but nice ultra

    • by Jahoda ( 2715225 )
      Microsoft receives no love from me for the privacy invasion that is windows 10. But are you seriously nitpicking your surface because you wanted a pizza application from the app store and there wasn't one? I guarantee you that it took you more time to search the appstore than to simply open papajohns.com and log in with your account from any of the multiple browsers that work on the device?

      Oh, and multiple blue screens in two days? Let me go ahead and call Bull. Shit. Either you have bad hardw
  • Be direct (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Tablizer ( 95088 ) on Wednesday February 24, 2016 @07:47PM (#51578797) Journal

    Why doesn't MS offer a "normal" edition and a "spam and snoop" edition ("Windows 10 SSE" *). The normal version would cost more. At least you'd know what you are getting and can avoid junk by paying more.

    * Or Godwin it: "SS"

    • Why doesn't MS offer a "normal" edition and a "spam and snoop" edition ("Windows 10 SSE" *). The normal version would cost more. At least you'd know what you are getting and can avoid junk by paying more.

      * Or Godwin it: "SS"

      They do, but not for consumers. The enterprise version does not have this, even with Windows Spotlight - there is no link for fun tips etc.

  • by bug_hunter ( 32923 ) on Wednesday February 24, 2016 @07:54PM (#51578863)
    Up to this point I wasn't really put off by Microsoft's spying - and I know I was very much in the minority there (but I'm not a Windows user so I guess that was purely a hypothetical opinion anyway).

    I was under the assumption it was there for usage statistics to make a better product. I've work on a paid iPhone app where we recorded anonymous usage statistics so we can see how people are interacting with the product and it was super useful for making a better product - note that users were informed of this tracking and had to opt in.

    With advertising, Microsoft poison that argument, now they spy on you for the same reason as every other company.
  • by steveha ( 103154 ) on Wednesday February 24, 2016 @07:57PM (#51578889) Homepage

    About half of my family is running Linux instead of Windows. We're geekier than the average, but I can tell you that non-geeks in my family have no problem at all running a Linux desktop. (And I've installed Windows and Linux, and overall it's easier to do a Linux install.)

    It has never been easier to junk Windows and switch to Linux. Many people just use email, a web browser, and Facebook; those all Just Work on Linux. Video, sound, it's all fine.

    And desktop is getting less important all the time; people are using mobile devices more and more. And Microsoft missed the boat on mobile.

    So even as the "network" that makes Windows important is crumbling ("network" as in "network effect"), even as Microsoft's actual power to push people is waning, they keep finding new ways to punish people who stick with them. Hey, nobody will mind if we monitor them a bunch, right? Make it almost impossible to figure out whether it's enabled or not. (If it's even possible to disable it... maybe it isn't [arstechnica.com]!) And start pushing ads, because nobody hates having full-screen ads in their faces.

    Is Microsoft actually trying to achieve Windows 8 levels of hatred for Windows 10? Does Linus Torvalds have sleeper agents inside Microsoft trying to make Windows crumble from inside?

    Keep this up, MIcrosoft, and we may yet see the Year of Linux on the Desktop.

    P.S. I haven't bothered to keep up with all the settings one must change to disable all the bad behaviors in Windows 10. I just checked to see if there's a tool for it... there's a bunch and it's not obvious which one(s) to use. Is there a clear favorite tool to fix the Windows 10 settings?

    http://www.ghacks.net/2015/08/14/comparison-of-windows-10-privacy-tools/ [ghacks.net]

    Hmm... maybe this one: Spybot Anti-Beacon [zdnet.com]

  • by Yaztromo ( 655250 ) on Wednesday February 24, 2016 @08:02PM (#51578937) Homepage Journal

    If you want to make sure you're not hit with these ads, follow these steps to disable Windows Spotlight: buy a Mac (or install Linux!)

    FTFY.

    Yaz

  • Windows is the only consumer operating system which is not free as in beer. Upgrades to OSX, iOS and Android are always available for free. Android is also free to OEMs. This disadvantage can not be competitive long term. Since Microsoft doesn't sell much hardware, they have to make money on advertisement, cloud services or Windows store commissions.

  • by ZeroZen ( 136166 ) on Wednesday February 24, 2016 @08:14PM (#51579047)

    Ubuntu is way ahead of the curve.
    http://yro.slashdot.org/story/... [slashdot.org]

    When will Apple catch up?

  • by grilled-cheese ( 889107 ) on Wednesday February 24, 2016 @08:24PM (#51579115)
    Now we just sit back and wait for infected ad servers to deliver 0-day malware....
  • How soon... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by mhkohne ( 3854 ) on Wednesday February 24, 2016 @08:32PM (#51579181) Homepage

    Till the first bit of malvertising that uses this as it's infection vector? Is someone taking bets?

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward

      How soon until Comcast et. al. MITM this and start pushing their own ads?

  • by MrKaos ( 858439 ) on Wednesday February 24, 2016 @09:22PM (#51579509) Journal

    This is one of the really great things about Windows, how it introduces features to people that they really want and need. Having Windows constantly context aware insert product placements directly into peoples lives will really help them be aware of the things they need to spend money on.

    Ads are great and anyone who doesn't like this won't know what they are missing. I want to thank Microsoft for introducing this feature to computers. Anyone who doesn't like these features in windows is probably just really stupid.

  • customer-focused (Score:5, Insightful)

    by supernova87a ( 532540 ) <kepler1@@@hotmail...com> on Wednesday February 24, 2016 @09:43PM (#51579621)
    When you see something like this, you know that the Product development group has taken a back seat to the commercial / sales groups at a company.

    No self-respecting product designer / owner at a company would allow such a fundamental, first impression of the product to be tainted by advertising as they designed the thing. What product manager would say, during the design process, "wouldn't it be great if we could show ads all over the home screen of people's phones!"

    No. Only after the filter had been applied by the marketing / sales department and commercial officers to say, "well, we need to raise more revenue to make our shitty product line seem good" would the product team reluctantly agree to allow ads to make their way into this.

    All respect lost.
  • by david_thornley ( 598059 ) on Thursday February 25, 2016 @12:55PM (#51584343)

    Several years ago, I wrote a haiku:

    Thunderstorms outside
    Microsoft software inside
    It's safer out there

    Now that I've started using Windows 10, please substitute "Hurricane" for "Thunderstorms".

If you teach your children to like computers and to know how to gamble then they'll always be interested in something and won't come to no real harm.

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