I solely use Windows 11 at home right now and can even take ads in Solitaire or something, but placing ads in system tools is a red line for me. I'd have to move to Linux again if this becomes true with no way of disabling it by officially supported methods, and do some of my current desktop development for Windows in a virtual machine.
I think it's the shitness of the ads in Solitaire, those very low quality "You won't believe how she looks now". Pure scraping of the barrel.
I wouldn't mind if I got punted ads for stuff like coffee or Philips LED lights. Fortunately I've been able to block Solitaire's worst offenders, the ones for those lootbox games that play at the highest volume possible. And you can't even mute them permanently because each new one that pops up somehow creates a new "Application" in the Volume Mixer.
Adding ads to Solitaire was really the start of darkness for post-Vista Microsoft.
Yes, Windows 8 had a lot of bad UX decisions, but those were well-meaning, if totally misguided. Ripping out the (excellent) Windows 10 Solitaire in exchange for the ad-filled monstrosity that was Microsoft Solitaire collection was just malicious.
I can't even internet with ads. dns blocking, ublock origin and other things. I can't understand why others even put up with all the crap. I've gotten one too many viruses from on-page advertising where I've had to wipe and reinstall.
