OneDrive

Dark patterns and Windows 11 (and Samsung and OneDrive)

This is a story that is:

  • A breathtaking example of dark patterns and how not asking for consent from a user can lead to a tech-related catastrophe filled with bogus warnings and alerts.
  • A neat tale of dogged perseverance beyond what most people would do, with connecting-the-dots and searching saving the day.
  • A sad testament to what a big ol’ pile of poop Windows has become in its latest incarnation. For every good feature, it feels like there are two user-hostile ones added.

My own experience with Windows 11 has increasingly soured since its debut, which is a neat trick, considering an OS normally starts out kind of janky and unstable when it launches and smooths out over time. Instead, Windows 11 has become both increasingly fragile and obnoxious, with ads, dark patterns and AI shoved into every corner of it, even basic apps like Paint and Notepad.

Anyway, here’s the story of how OneDrive going rogue almost nuked someone’s Windows 11 installation. Enjoy!

The Culling: OneDrive

A dramatic photo of clouds I shot over the Fraser River.

I have not just turned off OneDrive on my Windows 11 PC, I have uninstalled it! All of my files, photos and electronic doodads are now stored locally and/or on my NAS, until such time that I choose to store some of them “in the cloud” again. And if I do, that big fluffy cloud will not be floating over the hellscape that forms the current political realm known as the United States.

I ponder, but for now, I’m all local, baby. And you know what? It actually feels kind of good. Not even retro (though it definitely has a retro vibe, as well), just…nice. I never really needed cloud storage before, it was just a perk. And now that it’s gone, I’m perfectly fine with that.

The Culling: Microsoft 365

Screenshot:

No fooling, it’s done on April 1st.

When I first clicked the Cancel subscription button, it took me here:

From there, I had to keep scrolling to get to judgy I don’t want my subscription button, which lets you actually cancel:

I don’t blame Microsoft for making a pitch to keep me, and this is way easier than cancelling Amazon Prime, as it’s just a bit of scrolling on a single page.

Anyway, in less than a month, I am off the cloud and, uh, on the ground, or some other metaphor I haven’t quite worked out yet. I had used this sub mainly for the OneDrive storage, but Microsoft is a company I’m trying to minimize all contact with (see previous post) and this is one of the biggest steps I can take.