iMarc

Andrew Cunningham at Ars Technica has written a nearly 3,000 word article explaining how to remove advertisements and other annoyances from Windows 11 and Microsoft Edge. Microsoft are not alone in degrading the quality of their software in order to sell more services, Apple has been doing this as lot recently too. With Microsoft though it feels increasingly desperate. Its Copilot feature acts like a thin wrapper around the OpenAI API, no doubt created in order so that Microsoft can be seen as fully riding the LLM bandwagon. Of course the resulting stock price bump from this perception was probably factor here as well. Its garish icon is placed on the taskbar by default, yet has no intuitive way to be removed. You’d think would be able to simply right-click and unpin it like any other icon, right? Of course not. Instead, you have to dig around in the system settings app. Either their UX designers are bad at their jobs, or more likely a manager stepped in and said “Actually, let’s enhance the friction in removing the icon; my forthcoming bonus hinges on maximising user engagements with it. (evil laugh)”

The same is true in Microsoft Edge. Any setting that Microsoft would rather you didn’t change is unbelievably difficult to find. Want to remove the side bar, or change the default search engine from Bing? One might think, perhaps naively, that altering something as basic as the default search engine shouldn’t require a degree in computer science. Yet, here I am, resorting to the wisdom of Google search to uncover the elusive setting (I did try asking Microsoft Copilot, but alas, it came back with something completely unrelated). Edge is also desperate for me to make it the default browser. Instead of cutting to the chase, it dances around like a slick sales rep, coyly offering me the choice of “Microsoft’s Recommended Settings” as if I’m choosing to enhance my computer security, when really it’s more about padding Microsoft’s bottom line.

I suppose we should be grateful for Microsoft at least offering settings for these options – there’s no reason they have to. Microsoft’s strategy seems to be a delicate balancing act between making it difficult for the masses and maintaining some appeal for the more tech-savvy who would switch to another vendor if they didn’t have these options at all.

Anyway, it’s a desperate look. Please Microsoft, show some class!