this post was submitted on 10 Jul 2026
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That was a delightful read. I somehow forgot you had to download every program yourself and update it yourself or put up with a third party update app at all times. I've only been away from Windows for like a year but it's like "I completely forgot about that".
Tldr for you guys, tons of issues with installing and basic functionality but he did say Edge was fine and so was Outlook after paying the ~~ransom~~ subscription and neglecting privacy concerns. Ads though? Yikes. Also they finally got an emoji/character picker, which was news to me. But yeah, massive corporate dumpster fire otherwise.
to get a true 'microsoft experience' he should have use a new laptop, one with windows 11 's mode' on it and only 8gb ram--since microsoft now claims that's enough.
I had a student who had that, I think. It's like parental controls for adults. She couldn't use any of the software we recommend because it wasn't in the windows store.
Guessing it was in S mode - https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/experience/platform-variants/switching-out-of-s-mode-in-windows
I'm guessing the s stands for shit? otherwise they would say security, probably afraid of making the claim it's actually secure
it's intentionally completely vague so users don't know what they're getting when they buy it.
's mode' limits all application installs to store apps, which microsoft gets their standard fees for.. plus all the sweet user data and tracking that comes along for the ride.
turning 's mode' off (i.e. reverting to a standard install of windows) by 'normal' means requires installing a tool from the 'store' that requires a microsoft account to get, which then gets linked to your install and your pc.. so they get your info one way or the other.