Make the most of Microsoft Rewards

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ISSUE 20.32 • 2023-08-07 MICROSOFT By Mary Branscombe Microsoft will give you points for using Bing, and more! Welcome to this first of a two-part ser
[See the full post at: Make the most of Microsoft Rewards]

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WSGeo, gbowering, BillD, ibe98765, fisher75

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No, thanks

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Microfix, BobbyB, rbailin, S maltophilia, lsebcpa, NaNoNyMouse

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Mary,

Those “points” amount to a small bribe for giving them the info I don’t want them to have, tied directly to my identity.

I go to some lengths to AVOID giving personalizable data to Micro$oft and Gargle et al.: Brave or Firefox browser; DuckDuckGo or Startpage to search; adblocker; VPN server changed from time to time; browser clears cookies when I close it; as much Windows feedback as possible turned off.

As the saying goes: If you look around the poker table and don’t see the sucker, you are the sucker. I will not volunteer to be the sucker.

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Cybertooth, WSlagunacreek, Microfix, Marcus Weldby, Andy M, Steve S., BobbyB, Chris B, rbailin, schwabel_ronald, S maltophilia, teuhasn2, NaNoNyMouse, WSDKS01

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If I give you 7 million points I guess you’d be happy.  If I then told you that 7 million points was worth about 4 cents, you’d probably be less happy.  All your talk about points and not a hint as to approximately what a point is valued at is worthless!

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Andy M, lsebcpa, teuhasn2

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Art Jorgensen wrote:

If I give you 7 million points I guess you’d be happy.  If I then told you that 7 million points was worth about 4 cents, you’d probably be less happy.  All your talk about points and not a hint as to approximately what a point is valued at is worthless!

The typical point value is 5,250 Microsoft points will net you a $5.00 gift card from the likes of Amazon, Walmart, Domino’s Pizza and literally dozens of other retailers both online and off.

 

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BillD, S maltophilia, teuhasn2

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If that is the value, Microsoft Points seems to me to be a first class way of wasting time (as if I need another) for a minuscule reward, and that is before we get to Cosmo’s point.

Chris
Win 10 Pro x64 Group A

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rbailin, schwabel_ronald, Will Fastie, teuhasn2

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I’m covering how to redeem points in the second part: it’s about 5,250 points for a $5 gift card (or 15,000 for a £10 gift card in the UK), but the exact redemption cost varies: you can get vouchers for a lot of stores, Skype credit, Game Pass subscriptions, Minecraft and other digital offers.

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Once upon a time a search engine, a browser, a computer were tools. They were the means to find information and do useful things.  Remember that?

I can remember using a browser and a search engine to find out how to French Polish furniture. And how to grow flowers. Book a restaurant. Sp;ve mathematical problems. Research genealogy. And so on.

Now it seems that the purpose of a browser, a search engine and a computer is to KEEP YOU STARING AT THEM. So you don’t miss any adverts.

Or do something useful, by accident.

In a well ordered society, Microsoft Rewards, and many, many other schemes, would be regarded as a public nuisance.

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Andy M, schwabel_ronald, WSDKS01

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Really?

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lsebcpa

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How far will Microsoft go to try to get people to use their inferior features? No amount of bribery will entice me to use Bing, Edge or Defender!

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oldfry, schwabel_ronald

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[Will Fastie]

Value? My #1 redemption is Starbucks cards, which cost 5,250 points for $5, or 0.095¢ per point. An entry in the $5,000 sweeps costs 200 points, so if when I win, those points will have been worth $25 each.

Everybody think happy thoughts for me! (And don’t anyone else enter!)

I buy pounds of Starbucks Dark Espresso Roast with my points. The reward system has consistently been devalued because I used to be able to get about eight pounds per year this way. I’m down to three or four. Naturally, this is very distressing. I may need to set up a GoFundMe campaign instead.

• This reply was modified 3 months, 3 weeks ago by Will Fastie. Reason: Typo by WF

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BobbyB, ibe98765, S maltophilia

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we got our last dishwasher half price because we traded in Reward points for store vouchers covering half the price, so I can easily wash the mugs once you finish your coffee 😉

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Will Fastie

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Mugs and any internet reward schemes just don’t wash here…
I’d rather use escosia than bing and plant a tree in the process of a search.
Put something back into the borrowed garden instead and feel good about it.

Win8.1/R2 Hybrid lives on..

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WCHS

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Caffeine is an additive drug that 90% of the world depend on daily.  Coffee, tea, many sodas and energy drinks are loaded with caffeine.  Young kids are introduced to caffeine via sodas and diluted coffee.  Caffeine raises your blood pressure and has many other negative health concerns.  Failure to continue to dose with caffeine leads to withdrawal symptoms including extreme tiredness and headaches.

If you want an increase in alertness w/o the negatives of caffeine, check out TeaCrine.

Is It Time to Quit Coffee for Good?
A growing chorus of concerned former “addicts” are trying to wake people up to caffeine’s negative effects.
John McDermott
MAY 2, 2023
…
https://www.esquire.com/lifestyle/health/a43622878/caffeine-addiction/

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Donny H wrote:

No amount of bribery will entice me to use Bing, Edge or Defender!

Too late. I’ve already been absorbed.

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Ever since I opened my new Win10/Pro laptop way back in 2016, somehow or other I have accumulated some (not many) Reward Points. I have no idea how they have accumulated, but I don’t intend to use them. I am pleased to see this article, because I have always wondered how it is that I have any at all.

Recently, I received an e-mail from Microsoft Cashback that I have not used the cashback account in over 5 months and that my cash back account is inactive. It also says that there will be an account maintenance fee of $5.00 per month as a deduction to the account balance, which I see is currently $1.08.

It also says that I can transfer the current balance to PayPal before the account maintenance fee policy takes place. (However, there is no link in the email to PayPal, which could be a fake URL if there were a link there.)

The Microsoft Cashback URL (https://cashback.microsoft.com ) brings up the same page as the Reward Points URL here (https://rewards.microsoft.com ). It looks like these are two different URLs to the same destination. And the URLs seem to be legit; they both have the same pages that you describe here.

The e-mail, too, looks legit, but I smell something. I’m not interested in any transfer, but I am curious. Is this a scam of some sort? Maybe, it’s looking for PayPal account info?? I don’t see anywhere at either of the two Microsoft URLs that redemption/transfer to PayPal is possible. But as I said earlier, there is no link to PayPay in the email — so this leads me to think it IS legit).

Just trying to analyze this and figure out what’s going on — scammers are getting more and more sophisticated.

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Unbelievable!!! Now they are charging you for the money they give you.
Talk about highway robbery!!

MORE and MORE reasons to have a LOCAL account.

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Cybertooth, Andy M, BobbyB, ibe98765, LHiggins, WSDKS01, Rick Corbett, WCHS

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Cashback and Rewards are two separate programs. Microsoft Rewards gives points that can be redeemed for gift cards as rewards for searching (and, yes, doubtless giving them information). Microsoft Cashback is a rebate program for purchases that were made after searching through Bing or by activating the shopping points from one of the browser toolbars on a shopping page. Essentially they are acting as the advertiser that drew you to the page, they get credit for that, and they share some of it directly with you, which you can redeem directly to Paypal and then transfer to your bank account if you so desire. There are numerous competing services for this, such as Rakuten, MyPoints, Swagbucks, etc. (all also doubtless collecting your info and making money off of it), but it is legitimate. Your call whether you want to cash it in.  I have redeemed a few of these cashback rebates from Microsoft Cashback, as well as a steady stream of Amazon or Wal-Mart gift cards just for clicking through the news headings daily on Microsoft Rewards. (Note, the searches can be pointless and done on a browser that you don’t use otherwise, so the information they get can be pretty limited.)

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WCHS

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I will confess to a slight Swagbucks habit, since I just finished doing the live Daily Trivia quiz there, where the host is one of the voice actors from the Nightvale podcast (I could probably do a tips feature on Swagbucks too, if there’s any interest!)

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I will cover Cashback briefly next time: it’s a real program with retailers – if you buy something that you tracked down using a Bing search, there might be a Cashback offer. The details are in the same place as Microsoft Rewards but Cashback pays out cash via PayPal rather than points: go to https://cashback.microsoft.com/ to see how much you have and redeem.

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PKCano wrote:

MORE and MORE reasons to have a LOCAL account.

What exactly are the advantanges of an MSA rather than a local account, apart from dubious synching (and the subsequent risk of slurping) of data?

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Will Fastie

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an MSA makes it easier to get your data from one PC to another; syncing your Windows settings, putting all your screenshots into the same screenshot folder on OneDrive so it’s always easy to find the problem you took a screenshot of, syncing in apps like VS Code and Edge and (you know I’m going to say it) OneNote, signing in to personal Teams… my main disappointment is that at a certain point the OneDrive team asked the Windows and Office teams to stop using OneDrive to sync so it took about a decade to convince the Outlook team that people wanted their email signatures to sync through the cloud (MSA or org account).

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Backup of bitlocker key.

Auto syncing of browsers

Auto fill in of wifi passwords

If you have stuff in onedrive, it’s an automatic link to that onedrive.

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

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Well, let’s see.

Mary Branscombe wrote:

an MSA makes it easier to get your data from one PC to another; syncing your Windows settings, putting all your screenshots into the same screenshot folder on OneDrive so it’s always easy to find the problem you took a screenshot of, syncing in apps like VS Code and Edge and (you know I’m going to say it) OneNote, signing in to personal Teams… my main disappointment is that at a certain point the OneDrive team asked the Windows and Office teams to stop using OneDrive to sync so it took about a decade to convince the Outlook team that people wanted their email signatures to sync through the cloud (MSA or org account).

Susan Bradley wrote:

Backup of bitlocker key. Auto syncing of browsers Auto fill in of wifi passwords If you have stuff in onedrive, it’s an automatic link to that onedrive.

– My data syncs across multiple Windows and Mac computers using SugarSync.
– I use my computers for different purposes (some testing, some different uses). Why would I want to sync the OS settings (not possible across Win and Mac anyway).
– I don’t use OneDrive (according to some of the nightmares I’ve read on this site, SugarSync is a lot easier to deal with), Office, Outlook, One Note, Teams. Edge, Bing, MS Store, etc
– FireFox syncs whatever settings I choose (mostly bookmarks) across Win and Mac installations.
– I DO NOT allow passwords to be stored on my computer, not wifi, not Internet.

Believe I’ll just keep my LOCAL ID.  🙂

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Cybertooth

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Something that may have been overlooked. Similar to the apps Ibotta, Dosh, Fetch (etc.) Microsoft has the ‘Start’ app. Once installed on a smartphone, click on it, then at the top is “Deals”. In that section is ‘Scan receipt’, this allows scanning any store receipt. This works in conjunction with Microsoft Cashback for purchases using a link from their website when buying items online. All this, is great, but you’ll have to enter the credit cards you wish to get the rewards cash from. It also has a section, much like Upside for fuel, which was not mentioned either. All this for even more ways to help ‘powers that be’ track, manipulate and use individuals information more easily.

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WCHS

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Entered into sweepstakes and draws for XBoxes or cash? Not in Canada, where the regulations around lotteries and draws are controlled by each province, require licenses and pay taxes and have even more strict requirements in Quebec. Looks like MS didn’t talk to their lawyers…

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Rick Corbett wrote:

What exactly are the advantages of an MSA

I just have one little story to tell about this. I use Visual Studio Code along with about a dozen extensions. Unexpectedly, I learned that I could sync my entire VSC environment to other PCs, so I tried it. It was perfect, and saved me a lot of time. Maybe I’m wrong, but I don’t think this would have been possible without a Microsoft account.

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Chris B wrote:

first class way of wasting time

It’s mostly passive. I just do my thing and the points accumulate. Then I get coffee.

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BillD, Chris B

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Definitely in the minority here. I have been taking advantage of Microsoft Reward for years. For me, the quizzes are fun and relaxing way to end an evening and I have not had any problems. Thanks for the article Mary. Certainly has triggered a lot of feedback. I have not used and am not interested in Microsoft Cashback, which is a different product. I did try a Bing feature to locate best prices. I don’t think this feature is still available. My first and only purchase did save money on the items, but unfortunately the vendor was not reputable and I had to fight to get a partial refund.

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BillD, Mary Branscombe

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the Shopping tab in Bing searches still has some price info and the Microsoft Shopping browser extension is worth a look but most of the best price functionality is now integrated in the Edge browser; if you look at a product on Amazon, for example, it will often tell you that you can get it cheaper in the Amazon Warehouse section, or that you’re looking at on a clothing site is also on eBay – I found my shower screen for about half the price I would have paid on the first site I looked at because of that Edge feature, although sometimes it suggests something that only looks like what you’re shopping for. As always, any site where you don’t block cookies and trackers gets information about you: occasionally, you may be able to get something useful out of that.

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Regarding your article on the Microsoft Rewards program for using Edge and doing Bing searches, among other activities:

What about if you CAN’T use Edge, or do Bing searches via Edge, because they won’t launch? Since the day that I ‘upgraded’ my Dell PC to Windows 11, Edge has refused to launch. I was a late convert from Windows 10 to Windows 11, so I’m not dealing with some early wonky version of Windows 11.

I’ve reinstalled Edge from the Microsoft Store with no success. Other than that, I’m not going to spend any more time on Edge. If I dug into the forums, I’m sure I could find a solution to my Edge never launching, but I have too many other projects to want to spend the time doing so.

I started using Chrome back when Internet Explorer was at it’s worst, and I’m satisfied with Chrome. However, I’m entirely open to trying and using Edge, especially with it’s AI enhancements. It’s ironic, because I probably have the exact consumer profile that Microsoft is trying to entice with it’s Rewards programs. But it will be pretty hard for Microsoft to convert me to their new products if I can’t even try them!

I’m curious whether mine is a unique, isolated case, or whether there are others “with a failure to launch?”

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I did try to use bing for searches when it first came out, but I found that most of the results were trying to sell me something, even though I was just looking for information.  Even when I was able to find some apparently useful responses from bing, if I tried the same search on google, there were always more useful responses there.  I have written bing off as a lost cause.  When the rewards program came along, I took it as a reinforcement of my opinion that bing was still an inferior search engine since they were not trying to bribe people to use it.

Microsoft edge started out as a total disaster.  When they did a reset and based it on the Chromium project there was a time when it had gotten through most of the initial problems and it looked like the new edge might be a reasonable browser.  However, now edge is getting even more bloated with barely useful features than IE ever was.  There was a small period of time where edge might have been better than chrome, but that is now long past.  I’ll stick to chrome for the foreseeable future, even if it also tries to bribe me with insignificant rewards.

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BTW, if you REALLY dislike the idea of Microsoft Rewards, here’s a link to the opt out page 🙂

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/how-to-opt-out-of-microsoft-rewards-ff4eb882-ad54-aa47-1f84-dc9c45a0bd20

alternatively, pick your favourite charity/non-profit and have Microsoft donate to them, using your points!

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The lead article. Really. What a waste of space.

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lsebcpa, LH

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Hmm.. Bottom line: all of this orbits around advertising/consumerism/consumption/tracking/databrokering – like too much of the internet is these days. Not a good tradeoff for me. Not my cup of tea even if I could get that tea at a discount! 😄

Win10 Pro x64 22H2, Win10 Home 22H2, Linux Mint + a cat with 'tortitude'.

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bbearren, NaNoNyMouse, Andy M

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I don’t use Bing, I don’t use Edge (and have it completely uninstalled from my PC and NAS), I don’t use Google.  My Search engine is DuckDuckGo (yes, I know it uses Bing, but it anonymizes me), my browser is Firefox.  I do use Microsoft Defender.  There is no Microsoft account on any of my Windows installations—all accounts are local only.

I don’t use the Microsoft Store.  I’ve perused it, but found nothing of interest.  The vast majority of my online purchases are through Amazon, using the Visa card from my credit union, which features 2% cashback on every purchase, any purchase, anywhere.  That 2% is automatically transferred to my savings account every month after the closing date for my Visa card for that month.  Needless to say, I use my Visa card everywhere, pay it in full monthly, and I’ve never paid any interest on it.

I also have an Amazon-Chase Visa card which provides interest-free monthly payments; 6 months for purchases under $500, and 12 months for purchases over $500.  I use that one judiciously.  I bought two sets of tires this month (car and truck) and have 12 interest-free payments for those.

I have a Microsoft 365 account and OneDrive, but my OneDrive account uses an online sign in with my Microsoft online account.  When I opened my Office 365 account I moved the OneDrive folder on my PC to a separate partition on a separate drive from my OS drive/partition.  I have yet to experience an issue with my OneDrive account.  I can access it from my daily driver, my NAS, and from my Android phone, no syncing between devices involved.

Susan Bradley wrote:

Backup of bitlocker key.

I don’t use Bitlocker and have the service disabled.  I consider it an unwanted/unneeded complexity.

Susan Bradley wrote:

Auto syncing of browsers

I use Firefox, and it auto syncs across my Windows installations and my Android phone.

Susan Bradley wrote:

Auto fill in of wifi passwords

I only need this on my Android phone, and it’s already taken care of.

Susan Bradley wrote:

If you have stuff in onedrive, it’s an automatic link to that onedrive.

OneDrive launches with Windows and signs in online, no need for a Microsoft account on my Windows installations.  I also have a OneDrive icon on my Android phone.  It’s all slick as a whistle.

In my experience, a Microsoft account for my Windows installations is useless, and Microsoft Rewards are a non-issue.

Mary Branscombe wrote:

BTW, if you REALLY dislike the idea of Microsoft Rewards, here’s a link to the opt out page

Not at all necessary—I never opted in.

Always create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates; you may need to start over!

We were all once "Average Users". We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do with our systems, we don't need anyone's approval, and we don't all have to do the same things.

Computer Specs

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I don’t use Bing, I don’t use Edge

I have two Microsoft Accounts.  One is a “burner” account for testing.  Using a different computer with the second account and an obfuscated VPN I like to see how Edge and Bing changing.  It’s entertaining.  Edge seems like a one-stop heaven for non-techies.  Everything is made so easy.  The Bing/Edge shopping tool is good example, but there are many.  That said, the few peeps with the computers I maintain all use the Chrome browser and search engine.

Custom desktop Asus TUF X299 Mark 1 16GB RAM i7-7820X
4 27" 1080p screens 2 over 2.
Laptop Clevo/Sager i7-9750H - 17.3" Full HD 1080p 144Hz, 16GB RAM Win 10 Pro 22H2 all

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Bbearren

How did you completely uninstall Microsoft Edge?

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Kathy Stevens wrote:

How did you completely uninstall Microsoft Edge?

After the Windows update when Microsoft made the change to Chrome-based Edge, it showed up in Revo Uninstaller, and I uninstalled it there, including registry traces.  Of course, its tentacles run deeper, so I had to use a couple more tools to root it out.

I used Process Hacker with the “Run as trusted installer” plugin to open an elevated-to-trusted installer Command Prompt to go to C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\” where the Edge folders are located (three or four, I don’t remember). Then I used the command rd <Edge Folder> /s /q on each folder, one at a time.

After that, a restart and Edge was gone and has not returned.

Always create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates; you may need to start over!

We were all once "Average Users". We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do with our systems, we don't need anyone's approval, and we don't all have to do the same things.

Computer Specs

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Kathy Stevens

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Bbearren

Thanks for getting back.

I tried removing Edge using the Revo Uninstaller in both the uninstaller and Windows modes.  But Edge did not show up.

Then tried the Target mode, found Edge, and removed it.

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I can think of many ways to save money, but Bing is not one of them. Nothing against points for stuff. But Bing is not offering up any great reward points for the time spent racking up those rewards.

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Rewards means they get something, and that is you.

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Cybertooth

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It’s better than wasting time on Wordle and other frippery, IMHO. A few minutes a day having a coffee or commuting adds up to some useful vouchers (Amazon for me). The News and Search points have – occasionally – led me to discover stuff I never knew and some useful tips. Although, a lot of the results are junk – but I spot that straight away and move on, getting a few points. Better than other surfing/searching and getting the same nonsense but nothing for it! 🙂

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I’ve been doing the “Bing searches” for a while now and have scored plenty of Amazon gift cards, but lately I got error messages when I tried to redeem. The first message said I had to share my location (that is new) and after that, I got a message suggesting that I wasn’t searching in “good faith” and my account was “temporarily restricted.”
After a week or so, I tried again and was unable to cash in points for AMAZON, but when I tried the TARGET gift card,  it worked!
I wonder if it has something to do with the NEW TERMS that came out. Maybe they’re cracking down on people who search quickly like I did. I don’t use bots or anything of the sort, but I can’t say that I use BING for serious searching. It’s all about the POINTS and I try to get it done quickly.

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MS even with their size, name and semi-forced App use can’t compete, so they’ve stooped to offering pieces of candy to those who are willing to take them. It’s just another case of if it’s free and especially if there are rewards, you are the product. So, because you are the product with other browsers, why not take advantage of that fact with MS? Yeah thanks, but no thanks!

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When the Rewards program started, there was hardly a day when I didn’t hit the 300-point maximum. Despite searching with Bing all day every day, in recent years I accumulated paltry sums. (That’s what I meant in an earlier post when I mentioned devaluation.)

So I took some of Mary’s tips and applied them. After a few weeks, my points balance is rising much faster than it was before. This is a welcome change that costs me about a minute a day but will increase the number of pounds of Starbucks Espresso Roast I can buy each year.

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Caffeine is a legal simulant drug that 90% of the world is hooked on and can’t easily do without.  Kids are introduced to caffeine via soda and then make the transition to coffee as young as 10-12 years old.  Caffeine increase your heart rate and blood pressure among numerous other negatives.

I can’t consume caffeine due to an allergy that gives me shortness of breath.  So I was always at a disadvantage at work where over-caffeinated co-workers were buzzing around the office at 3:30pm when I was feeling like taking a nap.

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Thanks, Mary, for the detailed report on this time-suck in which I’ve chosen to participate. In some good company, I see.

My main complaint with the Rewards is that it so often doesn’t work right. They have answers that are blatantly wrong, and when I complain about it, they dutifully add my lousy 10 points. No doubt laughing at their nitpicking pathetic victim. More often, completing a daily task doesn’t register, so I’ve gone back and done it four or five times. Im addicted to that green check mark. I can’t know how many streaks I’ve broken becuase my answers didn’t register properly. There’s more, but I will say it’s gotten better of late.

For sure, I’m late to reading this, but I appreciate the coverage.

 

 

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OMG TLDR

🍻

Just because you don't know where you are going doesn't mean any road will get you there.

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