Who Controls Your Computer?

From Girish Modi, Decatur, GA

Everybody nowadays uses computers for sending e-mails, shopping, news, and entertainment. If they don’t use computers, then they use their cellphones. We are all stuck with Windows because very few nerds used an alternative system called Linux.

I have been using Windows for the last 40 years. I liked old Windows 95 and then Windows 7. They were simple, less cluttered, and efficient. However, Microsoft discontinued these systems. If you still use these, then Microsoft and Google will nag you to update to Windows 10 and now Windows 11 an extension of Windows 10 with few more features but more control by Microsoft. You must subscribe to Microsoft Office instead of paying one time and installing it on your computer. They also want you to use their cloud storage with monthly fees instead of storing it on computer’s hard drive.

If you believe you are in control of your computer, you are not very smart. Microsoft controls your computer two ways: (1) Its Defender software deletes suspicious software and illegally installed software (2) It installs tracking in the name of critical updates even when you are not on computer. I have edited registry and disabled updates, still Windows reinstates the updates without my knowledge.

Microsoft’s Edge and Google’s Chrome are notorious for tracking all your browsing such as shopping and news by installing cookies. Their web pages are full of ads hidden as news. They also bombard you with advertisements in your e-mails and web pages. If you use a cellphone, they install annoying apps for which they charge monthly fees. I don’t use my cellphone for these reasons but have installed adblocker software on my computer to block these ads.

It is no longer fun to browse the internet for pleasure or for research because you will be bombarded with thousands of sponsored ads. TV programs are getting worse. They run edited old sitcoms over and over with 1/3 of the time filled with boring and annoying ads. Even the three major networks have 1/3 of the time allotted to advertisements. Try to read any magazine and you will find that 50% of the pages are full of advertisements. I wish we could go back to old time when there were few channels, no cable and lots of good programs.

(This submission is not edited.)