We know that Microsoft's strategy is to adopt the software as a service model. We also know that part of that strategy is to rent out all its products instead of selling them. But what we don't know (and probably never will) is how low Redmond can go to achieve this. First there was the infamous “a click on the X confirms the update to Windows 10”, and now we get “the banner in the middle of File Explorer suggesting an Office 365 and OneDrive subscription”. There are two problems: you must disable a system function to remove the ad, and the offer itself is horrible...
The OS as a billboard
There are some things Windows 10 did wrong. Very wrong. At the top of the list is the forced update system, which has the bad habit of running at the worst moments. Microsoft tried to compensate with its 'active hours' mechanism, but apparently it wasn't enough, and the Creators Update will give us (in theory) more control over hotfix installation. Then there's the fact of turning the operating system into a newspaper's advertising section: “Do you use Google Chrome? Did you know that Microsoft Edge is faster and consumes less battery? Don't you know? Are you sure you don't know? Why don't you know? I repeated that message six times last week, you should know by now. I also see you uninstalled Candy Crush. That's a very bad idea to uninstall Candy Crush, so I'll install it again!”
A banner in File Explorer
Is there anything else Microsoft wants to throw at our faces? Guess what: In recent days, several users reported the appearance of an advertising banner in File Explorer. The ad suggests that for seven dollars a month, you can access a full terabyte on OneDrive with an Office 365 subscription. Wow! That's... completely absurd. In essence, File Explorer is sending spam. Reports indicate that the advertising is limited to versions of Windows 10 distributed through the Insider program, but others say they've seen it on stable builds. Personally, I didn't find the ad, although I must admit that my 'hosts' file is longer than the Great Wall of China.
How to disable it (and why the price is absurd)
Fortunately, there is an option to hide that thing, but Redmond made sure to name it in a way that doesn't suggest the transmission of ads at all. We must go to File Explorer options (this is faster through the classic Control Panel), click on the View tab, and uncheck the box next to the synchronized notifications checkbox (Show Sync Provider Notifications). This supposedly disables all notifications in that space, even those that could actually be useful to the user. As if that weren't enough... seven dollars a month? If we interpret the ad correctly, it gives us access to Office 365 'and' the terabyte on OneDrive, but that's 84 dollars a year when a terabyte hard drive costs less than 65 dollars, and we have access to that space immediately, with or without a connection. I hope Redmond picks up the gauntlet. We're bored.
Source: Ars Technica
