I really, really hate the Edge news feed, which is also built into the Windows 10 "News and Interests" taskbar widget, and there's no way to disable the news feed without also getting rid of the weather. It's so distracting.<p>One day I spent hours going through and blocking each individual news provider from the feed, hoping eventually I'd reach the bottom of the pile and there would be nothing left. It's never ending though.<p>Are there good third party weather widgets that can live on the taskbar?
I've never seen the notification integration for Edge/Chrome used for anything legitimate, only ever scams. Its not unusual for me to sit down on someones computer and get bombarded with tech support/antivirus scams.<p>And Chrome and Edge makes turning it off non-trivial. Its an AWFUL feature that seems to have been destined for misuse from day one.
Of course, it's Taboola. Not shocking at all.<p>But why did Microsoft allowed Taboola in the first place despite Taboola's reputation? That's a question that I want to know the answer to.
I've been screaming about this for years. Maybe Malwarebytes will get them to listen. The fact that Microsoft delivers malware directly to people's default home screens for money is <i>insane</i>. And it's been happening since the original Edge launched.<p>And yes, in case you're curious, this is a Section 230 problem: As long as we grant platforms default immunity, there is no business risk to Microsoft to offset the profits gained. If the choice to include Taboola included the ability to be sued for damages, Microsoft would be more hesitant to do business with them.
Who needs to get work done? Just make the entire OS an advertisement platform already that fills the screen with ads.<p>Mike Judge's Idiocracy satire was ahead of the curve on this one: <a href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F44514a34-c72e-490b-b1b2-f1866c2aafa4_1920x1080.png" rel="nofollow">https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_pr...</a>
MS should at least update its documentation for admins (<a href="https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/deployedge/microsoft-edge-policies#hidefirstrunexperience" rel="nofollow">https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/deployedge/microsoft-edge-...</a>) and give a clear instruction on how to disable all the "extra features" and choose safe settings. If I use GPO to disable four first run "splash screens", Edge uses unwanted default settings. I want to disable splash screens AND configure safe defaults. Docs mention "some of these other policies", but the list seems to be incomplete.
In the windows phone 8 days News was actually a better app than the alternatives. It’s really sad to see what they’ve done to Windows the last few years
I went through and turned this stuff off, just in case it helps anyone else:<p><a href="https://www.thecodeblogs.com/@/JamesonNetworks/removing-the-clutter-from-a-new-edge-tab" rel="nofollow">https://www.thecodeblogs.com/@/JamesonNetworks/removing-the-...</a>