Microsoft pushes full-screen ads for Copilot+ PCs on Windows 10 users

Microsoft has frequently used this kind of reminder to encourage upgrades.

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[bman212121]

It has to happen someday. Only question is when.

As for this type of ad. People are very hostile to these types of notifications. They want stability, ease of access and good word of mouth when it comes to a product. Microsoft needs to deliver on that if they want to keep their desktop OS pseudomonopoly.

Going to definitely just flash all old laptops and towers lying around the house even the ones not in use to linux mint. No sense having W7 or W10 anymore after October 2025.

I have made that leap with a couple of media style PCs already. It's generally been fine and there's really only like 1 or two use cases where I don't have a direct work around for. I have a couple family member pcs that will get the same treatment because they need a web browser and the occasional spreadsheet. (Which they already have libre for anyway)

 

[Emon]

Of course Microsoft wants to sell upgrades. But is there no way that this can be seen as positive? If security updates are coming to an end, advising users to upgrade well ahead of time is a good thing. Annoying, but also good.

What do you mean, "is there no way that this can be seen as a positive?" Why should it be? Your wording suggests you think we should be forcibly viewing things positively even if they aren't positive.

What is your logic for thinking that there must, by some fundamental necessity, be a positive spin to it? Are you just trying to find a silver lining?

Do you work in PR? Man that was a WEIRD thing to say.

 

[DerpGentley]

If they really mean it about switching to Linux, why wait? I suspect they’re bluffing.

I don't know. This is something that I am certainly considering. I don't want to switch to Linux. I use it for certain functions, and it's fine. I mostly don't want to change the way I do things. I want to give Microsoft money in exchange for an OS that I don't hate, and some productivity tools (specifically Word and Excel). I don't want to pay an endlessly recurring fee to use productivity tools that work fine and are unlikely to ever get an upgrade that helps me (look, if after 20+ years Word still can't handle image placement in a doc without struggling, I've just accepted that that is the way it is). I don't want any of the features that Windows 11 brings to the table (I use it on one of my systems and hate it). Basically I just want to pay for a system once and continue to use it until something better (by my definition, not Microsoft's) comes out. I can live with paying for extended service in terms of security patching and support, because I recognize that requires time and effort on the part of some dev, but that's honestly all I want.

If Windows forces me to upgrade (and I would consider an end to security support to be them forcing me), I have to choose between Linux and Windows 11. I don't love Linux, but I like it a lot more than Windows 11, so I guess we shall see.

 

[-Locke-]

Does it crop it to that? What you linked is the front page thumbnail.

View attachment 96138

That is indeed what I get as the header image, Firefox on a Pixel 6. I've since tried on Vanadium(grapheneos's chromium and I do get the correct full image)

Edit: Tested on desktop chromium and it actually jumps back and forth between the two depending on the starting viewport,

 

[apoclypse]

It never ceases to amaze me what normies will tolerate from a computing device which they paid for and which they own.

I don't know about "normiess" but any software that you've bought within that last 30 years you haven't owned.

 

[tumblrfan69]

If Microsoft didn't break my VR headset I would have already updated. But instead they've made sure I stay on Windows 10 forever. It's a shame because there are actually some performance improvements (along with a bunch of UX regressions) making Win11 worthwhile.

 

[sigmasirrus]

As someone who just resurrected an old file server to be my testbed for full time Linux gaming rig……

…I will say it will not be an easy path if your games aren’t on Steam, especially late 90s-early 00s games. I’ve been trying to get this rig to run like my Deck does but it has been an uphill battle almost every step of the way.

Not that I don’t appreciate a challenge, but it’s been a gauntlet the entire time. If only Valve would make SteamOs public the process would be so much easier.

But it’s a battle I’m willing to take to finally get out from under the boot that is Micro$oft.

If your games are from the late 90s maybe you can run them in a windows VM?

 

[ThatEffer]

Microsoft really knows how to be obnoxious don't they. A bunch of people I know have long stated that they had no intention of upgrading to W11 and that they will be full time on Linux afterward W10 is EOL'd. I won't hold my breath on those commitments, but it does show how the way these once diehard PC gamers are no longer blind to user antagonistic behaviors from MS.

As you acknowledged with your breath-holding comment, there is always fuss. The year of the Linux Desktop still hasn't arrived.

Source: I used to frequent Slashdot back in the day. Always with the bitching. Never with Microsoft losing notable marketshare.

 

[Zarsus]

And this is partly why I'm eyeing the new Mac Mini to replace my aging gaming PC - I play far less games than I used to and I'm tired of all these MS BS that somehow managed to make all the Apple BS far more palatable.

 

[jdale]

Could someone with any knowledge of relevant law weigh in as to how this can possibly be legal? How is Microsoft allowed to push advertising through an operating system? Why hasn't anyone challenged this utter bullshit over the years? We pay for the product so we shouldn't have to suffer with advertising.

How would it not be legal? Windows is software that Microsoft produces. There's no legal restriction on what they do with that software. You just have a license to use it. Maybe there is a limit about changes that prevent it from doing things that they advertised you could do, but their advertising for Windows doesn't say that it doesn't include advertising.

I don't mean to defend this, because all it does it reduce my already poor opinion of the company, but "I don't like it" doesn't equate to law.

 

[virtualkiwi]

Brought to you by Microsoft: Proudly trashing the planet by attempting to obsolete millions of perfectly functional PCs and force use of energy intensive AI.
We realise that work from home has severely limited many people's opportunity to trash the planet through wasteful use of resources, so want to offer an alternative means to do so.
Our AI will be happy to answer questions like "How to survive a wildfire?" or "How to survive a hurricane."
Please note that AI responses may not always be reliable.
Should your PC be destroyed by one of these or other natural disasters, Microsoft partners will be happy to sell you a new Copilot equipped PC.

 

[tjukken]

It never ceases to amaze me what normies will tolerate from a computing device which they paid for and which they own.

Well, if you own a smartphone, you have even less freedom. But you've rooted yours, right, so you can claim superiority?

 

[tangerinecheese]

Could someone with any knowledge of relevant law weigh in as to how this can possibly be legal? How is Microsoft allowed to push advertising through an operating system? Why hasn't anyone challenged this utter bullshit over the years? We pay for the product so we shouldn't have to suffer with advertising.

They could go the other route "Next year your computer will no longer receive any updates, upgrade asap or you'll probably get hacked and lose all your files and money in your bank account", scare people with the risks of running an unpatched PC on the internet, but that'd probably be more unpopular than trying to entice them the promise of a better experience. You'll note that Samsung and Apple don't run ads every year warning about how awful or risky using an old, out of date, unpatched phone is, they run ads about how much more awesome the new and improved model and software are. It's a subtle but important difference in approach.

Or they could do nothing and let people linger on with Windows 10 for the next decade while PC's fall victim to new 0-day exploits and are converted into spambots and ddos units and make everyone else's life a little worse.

And this is partly why I'm eyeing the new Mac Mini to replace my aging gaming PC - I play far less games than I used to and I'm tired of all these MS BS that somehow managed to make all the Apple BS far more palatable.

MacOS Sequoia doesn't support any hardware older than 2017 and their OS's don't get updates for more than 3 years after release, this is all around a worse policy than Microsoft's. You'll have to upgrade more often with Apple products than you would in a Windows environment.

 

[AmitY]

So, as I heard on the weekly podcast episode, time to upgrade to a Mac or install Linux.

 

[SeanArs]

As someone who just resurrected an old file server to be my testbed for full time Linux gaming rig……

…I will say it will not be an easy path if your games aren’t on Steam, especially late 90s-early 00s games. I’ve been trying to get this rig to run like my Deck does but it has been an uphill battle almost every step of the way.

Not that I don’t appreciate a challenge, but it’s been a gauntlet the entire time. If only Valve would make SteamOs public the process would be so much easier.

But it’s a battle I’m willing to take to finally get out from under the boot that is Micro$oft.

Check out BazziteOS for as close to desktop SteamOS as is currently possible.

 

[50me12]

Could someone with any knowledge of relevant law weigh in as to how this can possibly be legal? How is Microsoft allowed to push advertising through an operating system? Why hasn't anyone challenged this utter bullshit over the years? We pay for the product so we shouldn't have to suffer with advertising.

What is the basis you think it is illegal?

Some of this is even has a legitimate security purpose...

 

[50me12]

It never ceases to amaze me what normies will tolerate from a computing device which they paid for and which they own.

Most people are just trying to get a task done on a computer.

They're not getting into the weeds as far as what their given device is doing.

 

[barich]

Could someone with any knowledge of relevant law weigh in as to how this can possibly be legal? How is Microsoft allowed to push advertising through an operating system? Why hasn't anyone challenged this utter bullshit over the years? We pay for the product so we shouldn't have to suffer with advertising.

You can pay for cable TV, or streaming TV and still have advertisements. Most TVs and TV streaming devices cost money, and they still have advertisements. I have Sony's first large OLED TV, which had a retail price of around $3,000 (that is not what I paid for it) and it has advertisements.

Nobody should accept this as an okay state of affairs, but it's hardly illegal.

 

[Mental Gear Reduction]

Installing Linux is the best option to avoid Microsoft crap if you can get by without Windows. The LTSC release is the best option if you can't, but that's unfortunately not available to the general public in the US.

11 LTSC is quite good. I'm not a huge fan of the UI, but it's not really any worse than switching to Linux. Without ads, it's pretty acceptable. When I get annoyed, I remind myself that it's more Windows-like than my dual-boot Linux install is.

I like the UI a little better on Pop!_OS, but there isn't really any other pain on LTSC, where you'll often have to fiddle with most Linux variants. Most games work now on Linux, but serious apps aren't as well-supported, so that part of the transition can be moderately to severely painful.

If you're just using the Internet and gaming, it's damn near identical, but if you're using, say, Adobe stuff, you'll probably have to switch to something else. And if you run local Office, you'd probably have to switch to the online version. Subscriptions suck.

 

[LlamaDragon]

If they really mean it about switching to Linux, why wait? I suspect they’re bluffing.

Because Win10 works and is still supported for almost a full year? Because we don't really want to switch, but will when we have to? Doesn't seem terribly difficult to understand.

 

[Mental Gear Reduction]

Linux is simply not competitive on performance, unless you are comparing the play-ability of titles to something underwhelming like a console. If I'm paying for a high-end rig, then I want to actually have the performance of a high-end rig.

It's pretty common for games to run faster on Linux than on Windows.

 

[fung0]

This kind of thing always puts me in mind of the Aesop's Fable about the wind and the sun... If what are laughingly called Windows "upgrades" actually brought any real benefit to users, Microsoft's bullying tactics would be unnecessary.

Instead, Microsoft's myopic strategy is to force user migration into successive environments that are 'improved' only by needless rearrangement of the user interface, removal of options, increased spying (sorry, "telemetry"), and addition of cloud- and AI-based antifeatures.

This can't go on much longer. We're already seeing entire countries abandoning Windows. For large organizations, the benefits of a total switch to Linux are starting to far outweigh the one-time cost.

 

[ArsScene]

not schadenfreude, but from a linux user's perspective, this pretty much guarantees a steady stream of very capable hardware coming on market for at least a couple of years at very attractive prices. we all face likely price increases across the board, and this is a lousy thing to do to windows users, but it's a bit of a bright cloud in linux world.

 

[jaqrah]

As someone who just resurrected an old file server to be my testbed for full time Linux gaming rig……

…I will say it will not be an easy path if your games aren’t on Steam, especially late 90s-early 00s games. I’ve been trying to get this rig to run like my Deck does but it has been an uphill battle almost every step of the way.

Not that I don’t appreciate a challenge, but it’s been a gauntlet the entire time. If only Valve would make SteamOs public the process would be so much easier.

But it’s a battle I’m willing to take to finally get out from under the boot that is Micro$oft.

I have found I have been able to point a lot of games with an .exe file at Steam and Steam seems to launch it just fine. Most of my older GOG games .exes load and play without issues. I have even launched and run MusicBee (a music player) through Steam, got it to find my music library and playback songs. (Was it perfect? no. But it did work) Makes me wonder exactly what kind of application it will and won't launch.

 

[Aurich]

That is indeed what I get as the thumbnail, Firefox on a Pixel 6. I've since tried on Vanadium(grapheneos's chromium and I do get the correct full image)

Edit: Tested on desktop chromium and it actually jumps back and forth between the two depending on the starting viewport,

Weird, I can't duplicate, but I'll look into it.

Edit: looks like is a very specific bug that only occurs with certain resolutions, we'll add it to the list.

 

[LostFate]

I'm running LTSC or this would be an ad to install Arch on my desktop this weekend.

 

[RickRoyLeonPrisZhoraRacha]

Not only that, but PCs that shipped with Windows 10 and can't run Windows 11 are far more capable of meeting the average user's needs in 2025 than PCs that shipped with Windows XP were in 2014.

My Dell AIO Touchscreen, sits in our garage for me to lookup videos on repairs, websites for parts and ordering. Its long paid for, runs windows 11 with registry hack because TPM isn't 2.0 which ironically already compromised. Sure, the intel inside might be target of attack but nothing is used but Firefox. Dell update is EOL. So how can a company that makes an unreliable, insecure OS, claim that its product, which all are inferior, can't be supported when its working?

I'm not getting another computer with a touchscreen, a new OS (11 24H2), to use on weekends in a dirty, stinkbug lair, home improvement garage. Because it would be $500 for a micro-PC/ARM, and $500 for a touchscreen...

 

[SpaceHamster]

Weird my 7800X3D seems to run just fine on Win10. I don't plan to upgrade to 11 ever.

The last of my work stuff finally migrated to containers about 5 years ago, and it was virtualized for many years before that, so my host OS really doesn't matter that much. In the past I've used WSL1/2 but not in the last couple of years, just wasn't worth the effort once I got a new M1 Mac.

Unfortunately I play a couple of non-Proton compatible games, and I plan to continue to just run them on Win10 until I literally cannot, and then hopefully proton will be there for me, and if not, well I guess I dont play League anymore. I don't really care about not getting security patches, what the heck do I care if my machine is compromised in way. Oooo you've got my League credentials and want $500 in BTC to give them back? Fuck off.

 

[ERIFNOMI]

I'm glad people are able to enjoy these proprietary Linux game systems. The software needs more than just compatibility improvements to compete with Windows for gaming more generally though. Linux is simply not competitive on performance, unless you are comparing the play-ability of titles to something underwhelming like a console. If I'm paying for a high-end rig, then I want to actually have the performance of a high-end rig.

Performance of games under Linux is a non-issue. Sometimes it's better than under Windows, even when using the compatibility layers to run the Windows versions.

Or does my 5800X3D/7900XTX system not clear your bar for "high-end rig?"

 

[Golgo1]

Of course Microsoft wants to sell upgrades. But is there no way that this can be seen as positive? If security updates are coming to an end, advising users to upgrade well ahead of time is a good thing. Annoying, but also good.

I think I see what you're saying, but this makes the assumption Win11 is more secure.

There are certainly some security benefits in Win11, but it can also be argued the tracking,AI, marketing and, overall lack-of-ownership in Win11 is just a different kind of insecure.

 

[JigokuSan]

MacOS Sequoia doesn't support any hardware older than 2017 and their OS's don't get updates for more than 3 years after release, this is all around a worse policy than Microsoft's. You'll have to upgrade more often with Apple products than you would in a Windows environment.

A 2017 iMac had 7 major OS versions from Sierra to Ventura, and Ventura is still supported till mid 2025.

That said, I got a 2013 Mac Pro on my desk with Sequoia running fine using OpenCore Legacy Patcher. So they could have continued support till they ended Intel entirely.

 

[Boskone]

Welp, this would drive me to nope the fuck out of Windowsworld, if I hadn't already noped to Linuxland.

 

[tRexx]

I would probably have already moved to Windows 11 if they hadn't hardware restricted it's use. The lack of migration is on them.