this post was submitted on 17 May 2024
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Microsoft is trying to restore Bing as the default search engine on users' browsers by spinning it as a "repair" through a utility app called PC Manager.

PC Manager is designed to boost a Windows PC's performance by freeing up memory and eliminating unused apps and files. It offers "Health check" and "Repair tips" buttons, which users can click on to see the recommended actions.

However, Windows Latest noticed the app pushing a curious recommendation: Both Repair tips and Health check nudge you to restore Bing as the default search engine on the Edge browser.

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[–] [email protected] 155 points 5 months ago (4 children)

Obligatory "install Linux" post.

[–] [email protected] 57 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

Obligatory "I was a Windows user for decades until a couple months ago but Microsoft's enshittification drove me to Linux and I have no regrets" post.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Do you by chance have a link to what to install for a non tech user without linux knowledge?

[–] [email protected] 32 points 5 months ago (1 children)

https://www.linuxmint.com/ is an excellent place to start. If you have bleeding edge hardware there are better options though, as Linux Mint prioritizes stability over newer packages and drivers. Not a bad thing, just not the OS if your hardware is so new it needs a very new set of packages or kernel to work properly.

I eventually landed on https://get.opensuse.org/tumbleweed/ which has been very good to me over the last couple months.

There are instructions on the sites for how to use Linux from a USB drive, so you don't even have to install them or overwrite your current OS to give them a whirl.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Thanks! My laptop is from 2020. Decent but not top of the line by today's standard. I hope to be the newest Linux convert!

[–] [email protected] 10 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Oh you should be good then. When I fully converted, I was using an Intel Atom Acer Aspire One netbook. The thing could barely handle XP. When I switched to Linux Mint (then, eventually a now extinct lightweight distro), the system was blazingly fast by compare. I could even run my Windows-specific work tools better than in Windows.

Linux is great for old and low spec systems.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 months ago

Just know that it won't make your games all of a sudden work well, you're still working with the same, old hardware.

But yeah, it's very lightweight, and it honestly probably doesn't matter what desktop you use, they should all be fine on modern-ish hardware. My laptop is all APU from 2018-ish, and it is still very usable, and my kids still love playing Minecraft on it.

A full install is something like 10-15GB. Any desktop should use <1GB RAM (usually like 300MB or so). You just don't get the bloat from MS and Apple, things just tend to need fewer resources.

[–] [email protected] 37 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Obligatory "Way ahead of you" post.

[–] [email protected] 31 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Obligatory "I use arch btw" post

[–] [email protected] 24 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Obligatory "Real users use Hannah Montana Linux" post.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 months ago

You spelled TempleOS wrong

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Obligatory I'm an actual ape and can't Linux post

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago

Even apes can use Linux Mint.

Give it a shot sometime, it's good stuff.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 6 points 5 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago

I have that sticker on my laptop :)

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[–] [email protected] 102 points 5 months ago (1 children)

This is a product you pay for and it doesn't respect your choices....

[–] [email protected] 45 points 5 months ago

Probably closer to renting the OS lol

[–] [email protected] 100 points 5 months ago (1 children)

PC Manager sounds exactly like one of those garbageware "PC tune up" apps I used to clean off of customer computers back when I worked at a repair shop. Right down to changing your homepage/search engine. But at least the other guys would give you a snazzy coupon toolbar or three.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

Microsoft has fallen quite far from the heydays of TweakUI.

[–] [email protected] 70 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

I see that anti trust / Internet Explorer investigation had no effect at all.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Like most things, it was nearly 30 years ago. So everyone acts like they can’t remember it.

Institutional knowledge is not something corpos seem to like anymore. That hampers next quarter thinking.

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[–] [email protected] 47 points 5 months ago

They went full malware.

[–] [email protected] 41 points 5 months ago (1 children)

You know how many times I’ve had to remove a spyware/adware browser, extensions, and homepage from a family members computer? Too many.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 5 months ago (1 children)

How many times? Every single time…

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[–] [email protected] 38 points 5 months ago (1 children)

So tired of companies telling me they know what I want more than I do. It's all over the place in big ways like this and smaller annoyance ways too. My work mac just did a security update and it decided to change my desktop background

[–] [email protected] 21 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Everything that isn't Free Software will become abusive eventually. It boils down to the simple fact that you can only trust your property, that you control.

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[–] [email protected] 32 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Seems like we get new windows enshittification news every week now. They are hard at work, huh?

[–] [email protected] 12 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

My laptop just updated (windows 11) and they now put bullcrap tips, weather, and stocks cards on the lock screen if you want to use the daily landscape images.

Love the landscape images, but those cards are now not optional. Fucking moronic and I need to just get off windows entirely.

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[–] [email protected] 30 points 5 months ago (1 children)

"Freeing up memory and eliminating unused apps and files" sounds like the kind of bullshit app we have on Android already. Why bring that to PC.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 5 months ago (2 children)

We had those bullshit apps on PC before Android was a glimmer in its Mama's eye. Why is Microsoft pushing that crapware?

[–] [email protected] 11 points 5 months ago

Why is Microsoft pushing that crapware?

It's their own crapware.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 months ago

To make Bing the default search engine lol

[–] [email protected] 30 points 5 months ago (4 children)

It's weird that CCleaner is trash but it's still better than what MS suggests.

[–] [email protected] 40 points 5 months ago (4 children)

Bleachbit is the open source, non trash "replacement" for CCleaner

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 months ago

"If it's good enough for Hillary it's good enough for me! "

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

Use winapp2ool to add a comprehensive winapp2ool.ini to Bleachbit

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[–] [email protected] 22 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

Maybe this will sound unrelated but have you seen a PC infected with tons of malware?

The web browsers tend to be the most affected apps by malware and if the user doesn't want to reinstall, forcing the web browser to change the default search engine helps a lot, because it is literally impossible to do that manually when the PC is full of shit.

Other than that, yeah, Microsoft doing anti-consumer things, as always.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 5 months ago (2 children)

forcing the web browser to change the default search engine helps a lot

How does changing your browser's default search engine (from another legitimate search engine) help get rid of malware?

[–] [email protected] 9 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Been a while since I experienced malware, but they typically forcibly change your browser's default search engine to a shady one with more malware, even after you try to change it to something else. Even for somewhat tech savvy users, this can be somewhat difficult to overcome.

Sounds like Microsoft is somehow overriding this with Bing.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago

I highly doubt that personally. I'd bet money it wouldn't do this with malware just with people who have a clean system and use a different search engine.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 5 months ago

It doesn't. If a PC is so infected you can't change simple settings like search engine, it's time to reformat.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 5 months ago

I just had a big windows update and it asked part way through if I wanted to follow it's suggestions, I said no and it carried on.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I'm a little surprised they let you change it

[–] [email protected] 8 points 5 months ago

About once a month, Edge pops up a message telling me that the search engine was "accidentally" changed from Bing to whatever I chose (e.g. DuckDuckGo). It leaves me no option but to restore Bing, and then manually change it back to what I wanted. If Edge weren't preinstalled I'd get rid of it, but I don't need two Chromium browsers.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 5 months ago
[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 months ago (2 children)

I never thought I would say this but Microsoft may be doing you a favor there.

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