Comment by raccoona_nongrata@beehaw.org on Microsoft stole my Chrome tabs, and it wants yours, too

Last week, I turned on my PC, installed a Windows update, and rebooted to find Microsoft Edge automatically open with the Chrome tabs I was working on before the update. I don’t use Microsoft Edge regularly, and I have Google Chrome set as my default browser. Bleary-eyed at 9AM, it took me a moment to realize that Microsoft Edge had simply taken over where I’d left off in Chrome. I couldn’t believe my eyes.

And then uninstall Chrome and use FF instead.

Based.

And do this every time the system gets a major update because it puts all the crapware right back 🫣

Alternatively, buy or 🏴‍☠️KMSpico🏴‍☠️ yourself a pro license, and use group policy so it’s one and done. Microsoft has built in tools for almost all of this that don’t get rolled over by updates.

Getting tired of people claiming that it’s impossible to decrap Windows.

Obtuse? Sure! Features that shouldn’t be hidden behind an upgraded license? Hell fucking yes!

Impossible? Fuck no, hell no.

Learning basic Windows admin stuff, especially just the debloating/configuration things, is comparable in difficulty to switching to Linux.

Don’t get me wrong, I love Linux and less reliance on Microsoft is awesome, but 90% of complaints about Windows come from people who don’t know how to configure it, how to use the tools Microsoft offers to decrap it, and how to make it work for them. They’ll hit similar problems with most Linux distros as soon as you go deeper than basic “office suite and web browser” usage.

you should use MAS instead of Pico
https://massgrave.dev
also, gpos are just templates for the registry, you can just look them up and apply manually (ehich is actually faster than finding anything in the official gpo editor), unless you’re a sysadmin and managing a whole fleet of machines (this is what gpo editor was actually made for) there’s no real need for it.

Most GPOs just set registry settings. So theoretically you don’t even need pro, just to set the right registry values and write-protect them

Well yes but GPOs overrule registry settings (if a user or the OS flips a registry setting, the GPO will switch it back on the next reboot).

you don’t need to write protect them, except options related to ms defender. (which can be removed as “malware” by the defender)
they won’t get reset.

I dunno hey, for some reason an update caused edge to re-enable it’s BS homescreen spam content

No need for KMS Pico anymore. There are better tools out there.

I’d prefer to stick with windows for gaming capabilities. Thanks though.

fuck gentoo, spending an entire week compiling shit is not something i want to do
I’d rather stick with arch or fedora

MAS Activation Script - HWID Activation

if its comparable in difficulty, why not just switch to a system that does what you want on the first place?

If you’ve got a few windows machines on your network and some sysadmin skills, you can run a Zentyal server to set up the GPOs. Syncs across your machines, and you can add a new one at any time that will also get de-shittified instantly.

I think, my reason for switching stemmed from me getting bored if decrapifying windows and wanting to hsebsomething awesome to begin with

I’m not saying it’s impossible. I’m just saying I shouldn’t have to decrap a piece of software I actually paid for. Over and over. Also, whenever they introduce some new crap it usually comes with new GPOs that also have to be enabled to remove it again. It’s like whack-a-mole.

Obtuse? Sure! Features that shouldn’t be hidden behind an upgraded license? Hell fucking yes!

This is what I was saying really. This crap should never have been there in the first place as it’s consumer-hostile.

Impossible? Fuck no, hell no.

I never said this :) I said it was annoying having to do it every time. Yeah I have pro. And I know what GPOs are. But really, you can’t expect an average consumer to do this. Also, it’s less work to just change things back manually every time than to figure all the GPOs needed. It’s really just super annoying that it happens in the first place. I expect software I buy to be made to help me, not work against me.

And I never mentioned Linux in my post even though I use it myself. I know this is not a suitable alternative for the majority.

I’ve been a lifelong windows user (well and DOS and whatever cartridge I used with the C64/C128) but I think it’s just time to uninstall the OS instead.

I would love to ditch windows but Linux desktop just isn’t ready

I have tried to switch my daily driver to linux for more than 15 years now, Linux desktop just isn’t ready.

Full disclosure: I am an IT admin with near 3 decades of experience, including administrating linux servers, so this isn’t a skill gap.

Weird, I switched my daily driver in December 2022 over to Mint (likewise I’ve been using Linux for various things since '08, so not a noob) and it’s been pretty damn solid since then, including upgrades from Mint 20 to 21 and all of the Mint 21 point releases.

I have tried to switch my daily driver to linux for more than 15 years now, Linux desktop just isn’t ready.

Something isn’t adding up here. I switched to mostly Linux around 2003. By 2005 it was all Linux unless I got paid for it. My wife has been only Linux since then and she doesn’t really know how to use a computer and doesn’t want to. Linux just works for her.

I do all my work from a Linux desktop and two Linux laptops. Well and a Steamdeck I use as a desktop when traveling. I remote into windows machines when I am using windows for jobs. Sometimes desktops, sometimes Azure virtual desktops, but my local client is always Linux.

I have an MSDN, I admin Azure instances, SQL servers, Windows Servers, and work on Windows desktops. Over the last two to three years it has been the windows machines that are the most annoying and troublesome. Linux is just easy and just works.

The Linux desktop is ready. Has been ready. Something is going on with your situation. Could be breaking old habits, could be hardware. I don’t know. But saying Linux is to blame here is ridiculous.

That’s hilarious. I was a full time IT admin earlier in my career and still have run Linux full time for well over a decade now. For anything proprietary, i have a qemu image.

Of course, now I’m a DevOps admin so I get play with linux all day, for $$$! Hundreds of servers of all distros! Ubuntu, Cent, RHEL, Alpine containers… My big task this year is to get off Docker/Mesos and into OCI/Kubernettes. It’s going to be an incredible project.

The amount of issues I had last time I tried says otherwise

Depends on your needs. For a lot of users, I think the current Linux desktop experience is sufficient. If you have more specific needs, I can see why you’d stick with Windows.

It looks ready to me. Just need to figure out equivalents in software, many which I’m sure are similar or better.

It’s not just that, I had unending problems when I tried last and most of the help I received online was incredibly combative (“you shouldn’t want to do that”) or just asking me to switch distro and start again, of course the distro recommended was different each time

Which distro did you try last time? Just for future reference.

I’ve installed Linux mint for a family member on a netbook back in 2008, and it worked splendid ootb. At least for surfing the web, watching streams and movies and playing Solitaire or something. But can’t expect too much from a netbook.

I think gnome at least is there now

Not much you can’t do from a gui, it works pretty reliably

Most people myself included use commandline package managers though, so I’m not sure what state graphical interfaces on them are in right now

I’ve started using Ansible to apply windows settings and manage packages because of this. It’s a bit of work to setup the playbooks but I just run it occasionally on my windows hosts to keep Microsoft from reverting defaults.

this is borked in win11, and got borked in win10 a month ago.
my secondary win10 machine that had been edge-free for at least 4 years, just got edge back and since it was also disabled by policy, throws an error on every boot, since apparently that piece of crap tries to autostart for whatever reason (even if autostart option is disabled, it just starts in background, does something and closes a few minutes later)

Just want to mention Floorp, based on FF but with loads of additional options & appearance settings, also lightning-fast.

it’s nice to see more gecko/firefox-based browsers

Partially because we need stable forks for if/when Mozilla bites the dirt.

There’s a ton of them.

LibreWolf
Mullvad
Tor
Floorp
Fennec
Mull

These are all great. I use Librewolf and Mull on the regular. That said, I doubt any of these would be able to take up the mantle that Mozilla holds. The amount of resources and manpower needed to maintain and produce a modern browser that isn’t a fork is immense.

Not to knock the devs who maintain these forks, but my guess is the majority of the work comes down to the devs at Mozilla. And if they fall, it’s likely these forks will as well, or at least will become an out of date mess.

Just want to mention Librewolf which is also FF based and has no telemetry out of the box, as well or ublock origin installed by default.

Librewolf is also a great choice, it was my go-to before Floorp.

No. Install Linux and be done with the Microsoft bullshit forever

Doesnt seem to work for me this doesnt so anything on my pc

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