Worth noting that gpedit.msc isn't included in Windows Home editions (although there are unsupported ways of adding it). This is also technically asking a lot for working around issues that shouldn't exist.
Microsoft needs to intervene here, this cannot be a normal expectation for using their product.
> Microsoft needs to intervene here
Yeah, they've never pushed ads or installed software without the user's consent.
Me on Windows 7: I don't want to use Linux, you have to keep configuring every single thing so it works.
Me on Linux: I don't want to use Windows, you have to keep configuring every single thing so it doesn't show ads.
Linux usability has come a long way in recent years. I switched full time to Linux in 2006, but I can absolutely understand those who wouldn't back then.
These days? Unless there is a specific piece of software that can't run on Linux (or under Wine), and there is no suitable replacement for it? Yeah I don't know why you would voluntarily stay on Windows (note voluntarily, if IT policy says you must that doesn't count).
Accessibility.
All accessibility stacks sucks in some respect, but Linux's sucks most of all, and Wayland people in particular don't seem to be willing to compromise on security (which is required for accessibility to work).
It's a matter of investment. I do not see anything fundamental dealbreaker in Wayland's security model to support and enable accessibility. It probably just needs investment in engineering to find correct interfaces and ways to do it.
Touch goes in there as well. I don't know how they add a new touch keyboard to KDE and have no access to arrow keys. Making it impossible to go up in the terminal.
https://i.imgur.com/nOgLqHU.png
Oof, please report that as an issue (if it hasn't been done already). KDE uses https://bugs.kde.org
QEMU is also a good option for Windows software that won't run on Wine. Unless you explicitly pass through a peripheral, Windows won't see it and start downloading malware in the backgroud.
Not to mention AI assistants are really good at helping you solve problems on Linux.
Yeah, I know, it's not the same as "knowing" a system when you just copy paste terminal output, but if it solves a problem and converts 1 more person to Linux from W - that's a win.
Agents work well on Windows for sysadmin stuff - PowerShell gives them an easy way to interact with Registry, event log, WMI and other facilities in a structured way.
Can you even disable all the ads on Windows 11?
Yes, and it's still fairly easy.
Edited with another method.
That's great, thank you.
What's frustrating about that is that Microsoft has also gone out of their way to make it difficult to access the [legacy] System Properties (sysdm.cpl), while not fully reimplementing all the features into the Settings app. Including this one.
They've only been working on this 10+ years...
What's more frustrating than that is the inability to have more than one control panel open at a time. Have your post of issues software open and want to change display resolution real quick? Sorry, you've lost your place in the list. Security settings are a separate app, but it's even worse because it requires elevation _every time_ before it can reload the list of issues. You thought this executable was already bypassing whatever protection, so you elevate to open the list of exceptions...then lose your place in the log and have to elevate yet again to find out the details...and open each list item in turn because the main list doesn't provide enough details to know know which item you were looking at and there's no detailed view. But you still can't cross-reference against your list of exceptions and forgot to take a screenshot, so you have to start over.
*.cpl, *.msc, etc are Windows sysadmins' (and developers') bread and butter; Microsoft will never get rid of them. I am betting (maybe hoping...?) that Windows 12 will undo the changes in Windows 8, 10, and 11 as bad experiments and return to what Windows has done best, which is discoverable GUI configuration. Let's see.
You're much more "glass half full" than me, but one can dream.
Also found in the GUI:
The default setting has been "Yes" for a very long time but most monitors over the years have simply used the default plug-and-play Windows monitor driver instead of installing their own. Triggering no additional downloads for the life of most computers. It just so happens that monitor manufacturers better adhered to the Microsoft guidelines for hardware compatibility earlier and more adequately than most devices. This might very well have been a reliability tactic since graphics drivers were still quite a moving-target shitshow, which in some ways is still ongoing.So people have mostly never gotten accustomed to monitor drivers having any consideration at all, while drivers for graphics themselves and other new hardware has often had some associated downloads that people have become familiar dealing with.
Looks like LG finally took this long-standing opportunity to do some deeper enshittification than previously imagined. Simply taking advantage of a domino effect that has been lurking for decades.
A couple other related gpedit options if you don't even want the drivers themselves to change after you have gotten them correctly installed: