New Windows Bugs and/or Windows Features
Annoying or
Experience Enriching Eye Candy and How To Turn It On or Off
Much has been written lately about all the exciting new features or annoying marketing ploys Microsoft is offering or inflicting on its users. On April 4, 2023, partly in response in some especially egregious misreporting about Windows 11 Search Highlights, I posted how to take control of your Windows 11 Search Box, if you so choose. It is now possible that Microsoft might push its own advertising about other MS goods or services you may or may not want through the Search Box. If that seems more like an annoying bug than a worthwhile new feature, then you may wish to revisit that earlier posting.
The Gnomes of Redmond are not done, however, with their benevolence or
malevolence. If not by now, but certainly very soon, you
will have
installed the latest Windows 11 Preview Update. The first clue
that the Preview Update has been installed is when you are greeted by
this monstrosity at startup. Fortunately, you can simply Click the
Skip button and make it go away. On the way out, you will be
reminded or threatened that this will reappear in three days.
In the early days of my consulting, <Y2K, as I was attempting to teach a client how to disable the tracking technology of the day, the client blurted out, "But I am a capitalist. I want people to find me." So if you are so inclined, simply check the boxes here that represent what kind of advertising you would like Microsoft to push to you. If that's your thing.
If, however, like me and the vast majority of Windows users that I have worked with over the decades, you prefer to not have any more advertising pushed at you by anyone, then read on.
After you get this eyesore off your screen and you are happily back at the Desktop, you are ready to take back your startup.
1. Click Start.
2. Click the Settings Gear Icon.
3. Click
System
4. Click Notifications
Notifications are those annoying popups that present themselves in the
lower right of your screen near the clock. Here is where we begin
our quest for Peace and Tranquility while using the Windows 11 Operating
system.
For
the greatest serenity possible, turn Notifications off.
1. Turn Notifications to Off by moving the slider to the left.
2. Turn Do not disturb to On by moving the slider to
the right.
Remember the annoying screen I opened this post with? Well, to
terminate that dreck, scroll all the way down the Notifications
menu until you see a double gear icon and Additional
Settings. Click the caret to open the menu. From here you
can turn off the annoying Windows Experience screen by unchecking the
boxes. But please be forewarned. This may need to
be revisited if and when a major Windows Update
may
once
again turn it back on.
Our last Settings screen to visit is Personalization.
Here we will customize the behavior of the Taskbar and its various
functions. Chief among these annoyances is Widgets. And it
is the widgets that MS supposedly really goosed up with this most recent
update.
Click Settings → Personalization →Taskbar.
If you wish to keep your Windows Experience as uncluttered as possible,
then turn off these annoyances by moving the slider to the left and OFF.
To see this as a capitalism versus whatever? seems romantic given what we now know about the many insidious ways that the mavens of Internet marketing do their malicious work.
I am grateful to be able to turn this junk off. And if you want to
turn this junk off, too, I hope this posting helps you accomplish this
worthy goal.