Forced features
In this issue Ken Rigsby simply won’t accept…
Idon’t like it when people try to ram their personal opinions down my throat, do you? I’m not about to get political but in social situations whenever, say, Brexit or Donald Trump are mentioned, I’ll generally make my excuses and leave — because I know we’re only moments away from people falling out.
The fact is that humans can be both stubborn and self-centred, and increasingly so it seems. What seems like a brilliant idea to some might to others be the worst thing imaginable. Why, then, do so many technology companies think it’s fine to practically force me to use their apps and services?
When Windows 10 came out many of us — myself included — breathed a huge sigh of relief that the Windows 8 debacle was over. The Start menu was back, and it was close enough to the original to let us overlook its few foibles – here’s looking at you, Cortana. I know some people like Microsoft’s voice assistant, but her constant ruminations slowed my laptop, which was annoying. But that was okay – I was able to turn Cortana off.
Then came last year’s Anniversary Update. Not only was Cortana back, this time it seemed there was no getting shot of her. Yes, I could hide the Cortana icon from the taskbar and, yes, there were a few other options I could tweak to lessen her impact — but there was no straightforward Off switch.
To properly banish Cortana I, along with doubtless many others, had to resort to a registry hack. Just think about that for a second: to disable an aspect of my computer that I didn’t ask for, didn’t want and wouldn’t use, I had to delve into the operating system’s engine room and dirty my hands with some virtual spanners.
Onedrive is another Windows 10 interloper whose presence I find unnecessary. While disabling Microso-microsoft’s cloud-storage service doesn’t require registry hacks, it’s virtually impossible to get rid it of without following a structured guide.
But Microsoft is hardly the only forced-features offender. In fact, compared to rival Apple its behaviour is positively saintly. Apple has for decades traded on a reputation that its products “just work”. What’s also well-known is that, compared to Windows PCS or Android phones and tablets, Apple products are heavily locked down. So, if you buy an iphone or ipad, then you must tacitly accept that for all the things that “just work”, there will always be some that won’t – and you’ll be stuck with them.
The latest iphone and ipads come with over 20 pre-installed apps. It’s almost certain that you’ll never use many of these, but can you uninstall them? No sir. The latest version of IOS (Apple’s mobile operating system) does let you hide unwanted Apple apps, but you can’t actually delete them. That means they’re taking up space on your device, and at the prices Apple charges for every megabyte of storage this equates to a small fortune. And many Android devices are the same, with a raft of pre-installed apps that can’t easily – if at all – be given the elbow.
Many years ago, Microsoft got into big trouble for ramming Internet Explorer down the throats of Windows users. In the process it gained a dominant share in the web-browser market. The company was later fined €899m (£760m – at time of writing) by the European Union for failing to comply with a ruling that it abused its market position. I’m not suggesting that any of the examples I’ve cited here are on a par with that case but I would like tech firms to remember that it’s what I want to use that’s important — not what they want to force me to use for their own benefit. Otherwise, we might fall out.
I had to resort to a registry hack to disable something I didn’t ask for, didn’t want and wouldn’t use