A while back, I was actually okay with MS being semi forcible about Windows Update.
Most people overestimate their antivirus, and don’t realize that frequent updates are generally the most important way of keeping their system safe. And, to avoid turning computers into zombies for botnets, to keep the whole internet safe. Windows is the world’s most popular OS - it’s good for the world to keep systems secure.
And then MS had the gall to betray that responsibility of only shipping critical security patches by forceful methods. They started forcing people to Windows 11, pushing Edge back in as their browser, pushing popups and Start menu changes, and so on. For a thousand reasons, Windows Update has more notoriety in common with malware than the malware it’s meant to protect you from.
I googled a definition of a word today. it took me two minutes to get chrome to not use the “AI mode” search when searching via the address bar
tomorrow I’m switching to Firefox at work. after I spend an hour trying to figure out how to remove the copilot overlay from Excel, anyways
When it comes to disabling AI in Google searches, you have two choices:
- Lawful Option: Add
-aito the end of your search, ie, “define asinine -ai” - Chaotic Option Add profanity to your search, ie, “what the fuck does asinine mean”
this wasn’t the AI preview/response thing at the top of a regular Google search result. they brought me into a new “AI mode” chatbot window completely separate from google search
I’m still not sure how I got it to fuck off. it kept doing it for simple searches, but would do a regular search if the search keys had enough words
- Lawful Option: Add
OperaGX has been nice to me so far
opera is not nice to you, its an awful company and does not respect your privacy or data at all.
look at a firefox fork like waterfox if you want a browser that will be nice to you
Uninstall and use another browser. Easy peasy.
Your first mistake was voluntarily using any Google software, especially chrome.
But what if it was open source???
Chromium is. Chrome is not
Software updates have gotten so fucked up in general these days.
It’s so rare that changelogs are published to actually educate the end user about what an update will do. Most of the time it’s just “Bug fixes and feature updates” with no further detail. What bugs? What features? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Then you update (or, more likely, you left auto-update on) because they guilt you into thinking that you’ll immediately fall victim to a zero-day vulnerability if you don’t. And suddenly everything just gets slightly worse and worse.
It should be more accepted to follow the mentality of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” with software, precluding the need to install new updates unless something stops working or there is a vulnerability to patch. On my phone at least, I have auto updates turned off and will generally let audience consensus determine if it’s something I want. But it’s still a coin toss if I decide to take an update, because no one bothers to tell you what they really do anymore.
Fun fact: when releasing apps on Google Play, you are basically forced to give a proper summary about what the update contains and Google threatens your developer account if you fail to do so. If you want some sour chuckles, check the “what’s new” of YouTube or Google Play itself.
It’s so rare that changelogs are published to actually educate the end user about what an update will do.
This reminds me - One of the games I play did an update called “Nothing update” and it just simply said “Nothing was updated, no need to investigate”.
That update sounds very sus…
Sounds a lot like “Herobrine removed”
Come to the world of open source.
Where changelogs are detailed and informative, and software updates actually make the software better.
And if changelogs aren’t detailes enough, you read the commits
Well your first mistake was using Chrome in 2026
Second Mistake was using Windows in 2026
id say this is the first mistake really
I hate that I still have to use Chrome because it can do some streaming stuff better than Firefox (and even Chromium for some reason). I only use it to connect to one KVM.
Do the streaming issues resolve themselves ✨magically✨ when faking the user agent to be Chrome for those streaming sites, e.g. using Firefox and a user agent add-on?
My issues were with h265/HEVC support, proprietary stuff like media codecs can sometimes be a pain. I no longer have that need so I’m a happy fox.
Pretty sure Firefox added support for HEVC a while back, but it relies on the system to provide the decoder (Which you’ll usually have to pay extra for)
Firefox also supports MKV files now, which is nice.
Many do, yes. Any time I get an error message like “You’re not using a supported browser” that message vanishes after adjusting the user agent.
Not in this case. It’s an open source project. They usually don’t do this shit.
Tell them to get their shit together and support open-source browsers, or more accurately just browser standards in general.
Try Brave for this use-case. I find that it works well for all kinds of streaming.
And while it’s no Firefox or Librewolf, it’s still a lot better than Chrome.
The problem with brave is that the CEO is a very bad person, the company also give me sketchy vibes with the crypto stuff they push
Well, sure.
But even then still better than Chrome.
For when I need Chrome, is use Vivaldi. Its probably over bloated for what I need, but it works.
I also use Vivaldi, and I don’t care about the bloat.
I bought the entire computer, I’m going to use the entire computer.
Leopards ate my face moment. Stop using that trash.
Leopards are those entities that openly boast about eating your face. It’s not the case with Google. Your average non-IT-savy person knows almost nothing about their shenanigans
This is not a “leopards ate my face” situation.
“I never thought AI would eat my face”
-Person who installed the browser from the AI Face Eater company
Seriously. Chrome is the single worst mainstream browser on the market today, bar none.
Absolutely any choice would be better than Google Chrome.
Edge… Opera… Internet explorer…
Everyone who still uses chrome after this insane breach of trust (if there was any before) should seriously think about why he enjoys corporate boot on his neck that much.
Most people don’t know, aren’t paying attention, and don’t understand. It’s our thankless task to try to educate and convince our less savvy friends.
I keep thinking back to to the tweens when crypto miners would infect computers. IMO same strategy. Why buy the compute (Data Centers) when you can crowdsource it?
Stop using Chrome
Without asking
When has Google ever asked anybody before updating Chrome?
or notifying*.
*Except for the
-
Announcement video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56b9uHAcHYc
-
Blog post: https://blog.google/products-and-platforms/products/search/ai-mode-chrome/
-
Developer documentation: https://developer.chrome.com/docs/ai/built-in
-
And product page: https://gemini.google/overview/gemini-in-chrome/
-
Just stop updates.
But danger
For real
Just stop using corpo software.
