Microsoft Windows, the prying and intrusive OS

Chances are that your first encounter with a computer is with a device running Windows.

Microsoft has indeed done a great job of providing us with an excellent operating system for personal computers. And I am of the opinion that the widespread penetration of computers and computing devices today can be partly attributed to the efforts put into the Windows operating system.

The battle for data

It is an open secret that Google became what is today by harvesting users’ data. And we have many successful companies that their main selling point can be summarized as “we don’t steal your data like Google”.

Microsoft cannot help but device a means to get their own share of user data, and Windows is a perfect candidate for that.

Slowly but surely, Windows would keep adding features that improve your experience (as they claim) by needing the internet.

Adfested and a mess

A good friend of mine, Matt, recently had a short rant on Twitter about how unpleasant modern softwares have become.

I would further highlight that it has gotten so bad, a terminology was coined to describe the average experience when browsing the internet in today’s age. I would define adfested as a description of a website or software that is infected with ads.

When a website is so difficult to use and makes your computer lag due to the large number of ads it has. – Urban Dictionary

Windows has indeed become adfested. A supposedly clean installation of a recent version of Windows would await you with horrors on your first launch of the Start menu.

There is a reason people are googling “how to remove Candy Crush Saga from Windows” and many videos and articles are made about the uninstall process.

You actually pay for it

Candy Crush Saga is not the only intruder waiting for you on Windows, but that is far from being the main issue.

Most (if not all) platforms provide payment as an incentive to get out of ads. Apps on Google Play Store and Apple App Store generally allow you to pay to prevent ads.

Even the ring leader, Google, allows you to pay for Gmail and YouTube to get an ad-free experience. And Microsoft does that for Outlook, you get an ad-free experience with a Microsoft 365 subscription.

How Windows became an exception to the rule is what I struggle to understand.

And yes, you have indeed paid for Windows even if you do not purchase on Microsoft Store. Once you buy a laptop with Windows branding, the Windows installed on that laptop has been paid for.

And you even get bullied

You can no longer setup a Windows 11 device without a Microsoft account. ¹

It is your device, you own it and you paid your money for it. You even paid Microsoft.

But somehow, you cannot get the feel of it without donating your data to Microsoft. You cannot even see what the desktop looks like.

That is like buying a car and you cannot open the door to look inside, let alone start the engine.

Way forward

In the last few years, there have been amazing strides in the CPU manufacturing space. Intel, AMD and Snapdragon now have products that are comparable to Apple Silicon in power efficiency and performance.

And with many developer-friendly improvements getting added to Windows consistently, you cannot help but keep an eye on the progress.

But if Windows is going to keep wearing it’s crown as the prying and intrusive operating system, it is the last thing I would consider for a primary device.