Looking Back on My Original “Slippery Slope” Article (Premium)

I’ve been pushing back against Microsoft’s escalation of advertising in Windows since the beginning. Here’s my original “Slippery Slope” article about ads in Windows 8 from late 2012, with a bit of additional commentary.

The original article---which is surprisingly short and to the point---nicely stands the test of time, in my opinion. Who knows? Maybe the brevity helps.

Being right certainly helps. And while I don’t live for this as much as some people, this is absolutely one of my finest moments as a consumer advocate. Ads do cheapen Windows. Period.

In fact, this was so obviously a win that I rewrote it for Windows 10 here on Thurrott.com as Microsoft Cheapens Windows 10 with Ads in 2016. The premise, of course, is the same. What’s interesting is that the apologists who thought I was crazy back in 2012 have quietly receded into history’s dumping grounds. Why? Because Microsoft did escalate its advertising push as I predicted, and as I wrote earlier today in There are Ads … And Then There are Ads (Premium), it keeps trying to push boundaries to see how much it can get away with.

Good times.
Microsoft Cheapens Windows 8 with Ads
November 10, 2012

When Microsoft announced that virtually every single PC user on earth would be able to upgrade to Windows 8 for just $40, I cheered the company. But this low price is partially achieved by the bizarre addition of advertising in Windows 8, a move that I think cheapens the product.
“Cheapens” is the perfect word. Over time, I’ve become more and more depressed by how not just ads, but also crapware, forced data collection, forced upgrades, and other user-hostile pushes have done nothing more than cheapen this once-proud platform.
I’ve been meaning to write about this issue for some time, and I guess I’ll just use my recent travel explosion as the excuse for the lateness on this. But this topic is easily and quickly explained: There are ads in Windows 8. Here’s an example, from the Weather app.

And another from News:

These images are interesting today for a few reasons.

First, these apps---which were called Bing and then MSN apps over time---originally offered a then-unique horizontally-scrolling user experience, which I assume was supposed to differentiate them and make them seem more “touch-first.”

Second, the ads in these apps originally only appeared at the very end of these very long horizontal UIs, so you’d have to do a lot of scrolling to even see them. It’s almost like Microsoft was embarrassed by them and knew there would be a hugely negative reaction if they were too obvious at first.
Now, apologists will explain that these ads aren’t in the OS user interface, which is true, and that you really have to hunt for them in the apps in which they do appear, which is also true. But this is a slippery slope, folks. If you accept a few banal ads in Windows 8 for $40, what would you accept in Windows 9 for $20? When does...

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