[semperdark]

It's "annoying" when Microsoft continually cons your dementia-suffering family members into switching their browser back to Edge, which has none of their logins or bookmarks. Confusing them, worrying them, and doing real human harm.

Here's to dark patterns built into the OS! UI decisions matter.

[grandpoobah]

I've previously posted my experience with that - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25121668

[semperdark]

Computer-savvy people dismiss dark patterns like this as mostly-harmless prodding, but it really disorients the less able.

For all industry pats itself on the back for accessibility, they still have absolutely no shame about this open and obvious UX manipulativeness.

I hope your grandfather comes to understand he's not at fault for this absolute bullshit. My father is almost afraid to ask me to fix his systems because he's too proud to keep coming to me with issues - he used to be the technical one!

[bobakanoosh]

Yes because so many dementia suffering people are intentionally downloading chrome or Firefox, instead of using whatever is already given to them.

[Tajnymag]

Op didn't say anything about such people downloading the browsers. Their children or associates can do that. The point is, that an automatic unskippable system update will change the settings the child has done for their ill parent. The parent won't understand what happened or at least won't know how to change the desired setting back.

This is a bit of tangent, but hear me out, if the user was blind, for example, and was using some specific accessible tools, it would be really bad if the OS decided to change the tools by itself. The end-user would have no way to use their computer anymore. At least until a healthy person could revert the system settings back to their old state.