[baranul]

It's amazing that Microsoft even needs to stoop to that level against their own paying customers. People either like Edge and Bing, or they don't. Often, people are forced to use Windows, relative to office, jobs, or school. There is already a "captive" audience, so the need to push malware and spyware acting code is ridiculous.

Installing all of this unwanted code behind their users backs is not making a strong case to continue to use Microsoft. Instead, people will jump to alternatives as soon as its more viable.

Increasingly easy jump, that various people can make, is to the Android OS. There are increasingly, customized open-source "distros" that can be installed. Prime OS, Bliss OS, Phoenix OS... Particularly for laptops, as many already are using it on their smartphones, so will be quite familiar and comfortable with it.

Then there are the Linux distros aimed at Windows OS users, like PoP! OS, Linux Mint, etc... Microsoft is likely to find itself with increasingly diminished market share, with such unnecessary antics and continual privacy issues.

[woleium]

not sure if they care much about the OS any more, its all about O365 (with teams team lock in) and Azure. Note that office now saves to one drive online by default, and the remote desktop app is now called windows… pretty sure locally installed windows is going away soonish