Windows 8.1 vs. Windows 8.1 with BING

[Gustavus]

I recently bought a Toshiba laptop which came with Windows 8.1 with BING preinstalled. I have no other Windows 8.1 machine, but four running Windows XP. CNN is my homepage on all machines. The Windows 8.1 with BING has a long bit of advertising before any page opens. Not just the home page but any page thereafter, None of the Windows XP machines do so I assume that is the result of the BING addon. Can anyone confirm this? If that is indeed the price of having Windows 8.1 with BING I am going to chance bricking my laptop and go for a fresh install of an OS

 

[inachu]

bing toolbar totally sucks! my god it slowed down my web browsing by over 20%!

 

[Dahak]

Windows 8.1 with Bing is an oem option that manufactures can use to help offset the cost of the licensing for windows. At the downside of having Bing as a lot of the defaults for search and homepage and such. Other than that, it is the same as windows 8.1

But you should be able to remove/change the defaults

 

[VirtualLarry]

Just install Waterfox / Firefox. Don't use IE, it sucks.

 

[Gustavus]

Thanks for the replies. I was aware that Windows 8.1 with Bing was Microsoft's way to get OEM's to install it for a few dollars -- I have read $40 -- off. I have also read that the BING features are so thoroughly embedded in the OS that even the OEM cannot strip them out. For example, I said my homepage was CNN, well that is not possible. It opens to MSN but I keep a tab there to go to CNN. In Windows XP you can select the homepage, so far as I can determine in Windows 8.1 with BING you cannot. Similarly with the search engine. I have been able to add Google as an alternative, but there is no way to get rid of the BING search engine. In the preinstalled programs there are a several devoted to games that can't be uninstalled. Your Uninstaller shows them, but the machine hangs if you try to have Your Uninstaller uninstall them. Thats a lot of frustration for $40. The Toshiba display is very good and the wireless interconnection to the internet is excellent -- although I have never been able to join it to an existing workgroup. That makes it worthwhile to try and get an OS that isn't a conduit to Capital One ads etc. everytime you go to a different page on net.

More than likely I will end up with an expensive brick -- but that will be nothing as compared to the frustration of trying to work with the laptop the way it is.

 

[VirtualLarry]

TBH, I think that you have gotten malware on your PC. I have a couple of N2830 Bay Trail Celeron / Atom laptops, that came with Windows 8.1 with BING, and I don't recall seeing ads when I open IE. I certainly don't, using Waterfox. I strongly suggest that you switch browsers, and run a scan with Malwarebytes.

 

[Gustavus]

Virtual Larry

Thanks for the suggestion. I will go do that right now. All my machines are protected by ESET Smart Security, but MalwareBytes anti malware is even more thorough. Will post here if it turns up anything

 

[Gustavus]

You may be right. MalwareBytes went ApeS*** over FLVM Player which was preinstalled and had a tile. Like a dozen lines of output. The other thing that rang the bell was Adobe Air that comes with Adobe Reader.

I will try to get rid of FLVM Player first, but my experience so far is that the stuff Microsoft stuffed in can't be removed from inside Windows or by Your Uninstaller.

 

[Gustavus]

Well, I have the brick sooner than I expected. I allowed Your Uninstaller to remove FLVM Player and now I have a blank screen. It's after midnight here, so tomorrow I will see if I can get into safe mode to do a restore. Your Uninstaller makes a restore point before it does anything, but with a blank screen I can't do anything. If I can get to a screen in safe mode, I can then do a restore. I have the factory settings restore on a USB flash drive so presumable can get back there. But that would be a Hell of a loss.

 

[addoraa]

For example, I said my homepage was CNN, well that is not possible. It opens to MSN but I keep a tab there to go to CNN. In Windows XP you can select the homepage, so far as I can determine in Windows 8.1 with BING you cannot. Similarly with the search engine. I have been able to add Google as an alternative, but there is no way to get rid of the BING search engine.

You may have already tried, but to set your homepage, and search settings use the Desktop IE not metro. You should also be able to get rid of the Bing search addon in the Desktop IE in the manage addon's.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I don't see any ads when I open IE. It just goes to MSN, with news, sports, celebs, etc.

So either you were seeing a Flash-based flyout animated ad, that popped up because it was on your page or you moused over it, or you are infected with malware.

(Would Toshiba bundle adware in their default OS loadout? Seems a bit far-fetched, unless they wanted a bundle of returns of their laptops.)

Edit: Were you using the search feature? This article says MS is going to monetize Bing search by placing ads.
http://techcrunch.com/2013/07/02/microsoft-brings-its-bing-ads-to-windows-8-1-smart-search/

 

[ArisVer]

CCleaner also unistalls software. Try it. Don't know if it works.

 

[Gustavus]

Morning report

I have a working -- strange -- laptop again. The ads I was complaining about were video clips, not popup boxes. I got to where I have a screen display again and can browse the net with out the video clips popping up. The screen is now set to all black. I didn't set it, that is what it reverted to. Not sure what else may be different but it appears the infuriating video ads are gone. Can't spend more time on it now -- but appreciate your help and advice.

 

[Gustavus]

Virtual Larry

I go immediately to desktop since it is familiar to me. On the toolbar I have the usual icon to go to the internet, which opens in MSN (forced) but has three bars at the top of the page:MSN which is where it opened, CNN since I added that in an attempt to have it be the home page and Toshiba Start. I then click on the CNN bar and CNN World, my setting, opens. Before a video advertising clip ran first. That is gone now. The video ad clips were there when FLVN Player was installed and are not now that it has been removed so logic says it was the culprit. FLVN Player was preinstalled and as I recall had a tile on the Metro page.

If I go to the Metro page and click on the down arrow to show all programs there are a lot of entries like Good Game Empire, Farmville 2, Edgeworld, Dark Orbit etc. that can't be removed. I assume they were part of the temptation stuff -- like the Norton Security and Windows Office trials -- that Microsoft stuffed into Windows 8.1 with BING. That's annoying, but not being able to get rid of them is really aggravating. Clicking properties on the harddisk shows that 1.3 GB is used, and I have only installed five programs.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Virtual Larry

If I go to the Metro page and click on the down arrow to show all programs there are a lot of entries like Good Game Empire, Farmville 2, Edgeworld, Dark Orbit etc. that can't be removed. I assume they were part of the temptation stuff -- like the Norton Security and Windows Office trials -- that Microsoft stuffed into Windows 8.1 with BING. That's annoying, but not being able to get rid of them is really aggravating. Clicking properties on the harddisk shows that 1.3 GB is used, and I have only installed five programs.

Your anger towards Microsoft is misplaced. Those games were placed there by Toshiba, in the OEM image. MS doesn't bundle 3rd-party games (AFAIK) with Windows 8.1 w/BING.
Nor does MS bundle that video player you were talking about.

 

[Gustavus]

Virtual Larry

Never occurred to me that the culprit could be Toshiba. Thanks for redirecting my annoyance. The sad thing is -- as I have said before -- the hardware appears to be very good. At some point, I will probably risk doing a fresh install of an OS.

Thanks for the replies.

 

[BadThad]

I would remove ALL Toshiba apps - one of the first things I do on any OEM computer. It's a bunch of bloatware, layers of junk on top of Windows....pure "value added" garbage.

To get around stuff that "won't uninstall" there are a couple of approaches:

1) Delete the program folders and run a registry cleaner like ccleaner to remove entries. This is more of an expert thing because there might be a few more things to clean-up...but it works when all else fails.

2) Try the Microsoft tool....it has worked well for me in the past with stubborn programs:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/2008.08.utilityspotlight.aspx

 

[Gustavus]

BadThad
Thanks. Using your suggestion I was able to get rid of a bunch of unwanted stuff -- game related. There is one remaining that so far I can't touch. On the program listing from the link on the Metro page is a category Games, under which are eight tabs

All casual games
All enthusiast games
All family games
All kids games
All MMO games
Dark Orbit
Mahjongg Dark Dimensions
World of Warcraft

If I click on any of these and try to uninstall the page changes to the Windows Add/Remove programs and none of them show there.

I don't play games and have no use for these entries. I have no idea of what they represent in installed stuff, but would like to get rid of the Games category and all sub entries in it. Any idea of how to proceed.

 

[boomerang]

Gus, those games are not actually installed on your computer. What you are seeing there are links for downloading and installing those games.

Navigate to C:/Program Files (x86)/WildTangentGames and you will see them listed there as Web Links. They are just shortcuts.

 

[Ketchup]

Gus, those games are not actually installed on your computer. What you are seeing there are links for downloading and installing those games.

Navigate to C:/Program Files (x86)/WildTangentGames and you will see them listed there as Web Links. They are just shortcuts.

That is a throwback to XP for me. Can't believe Toshiba is still throwing game teasers from Wild Tangent on there (and that the company is still around).

 

[Gustavus]

boomerang and ketchup79

Thanks for the explanation. I will just leave the laptop as it is then. It will be better than using the hotel lobby computer for checking e-mails and reading news or searching for information on net when I travel. Only the larger screen makes it better for me than some of the mobile devices. After over a month I am barely able to use it. For example when you say go to:

C:/Program Files (x86)/WildTangentGames

I have never been able to do that. On my XP machines I click on My Computer which shows the drives and click on C (main) which opens a view of the folders on C -- including Program Files.

I have tried with Search etc. but have never found a way to do what was so simple in Windows XP. Windows 8.1 remains almost unusable to me, and since that is the OS on the laptop -- so does the laptop.

Again thanks to all who have responded. AnandTech is a great place.