Windows 10: Microsoft’s Windows 10 nag screens show no sign of slowing down

Remember the infamous blue screen pop-ups that take over your screen on Windows 10? Those nag screens are back as Microsoft has once again resorted to its aggressive tactic of promoting services like Office 365. We have noticed a surge in these unwanted promotions since installing Windows 10’s March update (KB5023696).

After installing the latest March 2023 update, we encountered prompts on multiple PCs urging us to “Finish setting up your PC” and “Get even more out of Windows” by subscribing to Microsoft 365 service. Microsoft even offered us one month’s free trial. The same prompt also appeared on devices that already use Microsoft 365 subscriptions.

The pop-up resembles Windows 10’s first boot experience, and Microsoft has been using it to highlight several services offered in the OS, such as Windows Hello, Phone Link, Microsoft 365 and OneDrive. Previously, the company also advertised Cortana, but those ads have been taken down as Microsoft has practically given up on its digital assistant.


Windows 10 ad haunts a food menu display in IMAX theatre | Image Courtesy: WindowsLatest.com

It is worth noting that these full-screen pop-ups are nothing new and have been around since 2018. This ‘feature’ was first added to Windows 10 with Microsoft’s May 2018 Update as a unique post-update setup experience. Initially, the idea was to display this screen on the first boot of a new device or after the clean installation of Windows 10.

However, those plans have now changed, and Microsoft started using these ‘notifications’ or recommendations to help users discover more of Windows 10 features. While you can skip the prompt by hitting the “Skip for now” button, it’ll reappear after a few days.


Image Courtesy: WindowsLatest.com

The best way to deal with these prompts is to review all the slides and dismiss Microsoft’s recommendation on the last page.

In some cases, you may be able to bypass it entirely by heading to Windows 10 Settings > Notifications & actions and unchecking the ‘Suggest ways I can finish setting up my device to get the most out of Windows’ option.

Several users informed us about the sudden surge in these alerts. One user described the experience as terrifying because these screens worryingly resemble the first boot experience, leading many to believe that the device has been reset.

It is worth noting that these full-screen nags are present on Windows 11, and Microsoft has also used full-screen notifications to push Windows 11 upgrades to Windows 10 users.

The post Microsoft’s Windows 10 nag screens show no sign of slowing down appeared first on Windows Latest

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Windows Spotlight - Lock Screen image will not show on Sign-In Screen

Hi Bastet and Paul Black,

Thanks for such a quick response! I had tried the steps involved in Brink's tutorial already (both manually and running the .bat file, just in case), but I've given them one more try just to see if it worked - no luck, I'm afraid! While Spotlight itself works on the Lock screen, as soon as I press a key to move to the Sign-In screen to enter my PIN, it changes back to a plain flat-colour background - and that's even with "Show lock screen background picture on the sign-in screen" enabled under Personalization.

If I set this to 'disabled', the Spotlight image shows on the Lock screen but not the Sign-In screen.
If I set it to enabled, both Lock and Sign-In show as a plain flat-colour background.


Hi Dalchina,

Thanks for this suggestion as well - I've tried this too (both enabling and disabling the registry key). It seems to get me one step closer. If I create and set 'DisableLogonBackgroundImage' to '1' under Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\System, then the outcome of "Show lock screen background picture on the sign-in screen" under Personalization seems to have a different effect. Regardless of whether "Show lock screen background picture on the sign-in screen", the Spotlight image shows on the Lock screen. However, it still doesn't show on the Sign-In page. That's still just a solid colour.

Do I want DisableLogonBackgroundImage to be 0 or 1? I guessed 1 as I figured that was a 'disable' key - kind of like a double negative

And with HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\SystemProtectedUserData\<your account's SID key>\AnyoneRead\LockScreen, there's the HideLogonBackgroundImage key - which I guess should be set to 0?

I feel like it's just got to be one darn registry key somewhere to fix this, but I've got no idea where to look!

Apologies - I know this is all very trivial but it's irritated me enough that it's getting personal now *Wink

 

Windows 10 Tweaks

As you may already know, Windows 10 (as well as Windows 8) allow you to log in with a valid Microsoft account, instead of creating a local account that only works on your machine. However, you may prefer to keep a local account for privacy reasons. If you do, though, some Windows 10 features—like Cortana—may not work. Despite the default behavior, the Windows 10 Store is not one of them. You can still log in to your Microsoft account for just the Store without switching to a full Microsoft account. The process, however, is not terribly obvious. To do so, follow these steps:

• Launch the Store from your Start menu.
• Click the user icon next to the search box.
• Click “Sign-in” from the menu that appears.
• Choose “Microsoft account” and log in like normal.
• When the “Make it yours” box appears do not enter your password. Instead, click “Sign in to just this app instead.”

from Lifehacker

 

Windows 10 update will nag you if you try to use Chrome or Firefox

I guess they pulled the article. Here another link

http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer...u-not-to-ditch-default-microsoft-edge-browser