Named & Shamed
Keumars Afifi-Sabet puts the boot into tech villains, jargon-spouting companies and software trying to trick you
SOFTWARE WARNING!
Microsoft’s money-grabbing games subscription
I barely understand Minesweeper’s rules, yet I’ve spent hundreds of hours playing it and other classic Microsoft games like Solitaire and Mahjong. They’re still on Windows 11, but the experience is unrecognisable from my youth – and not in a good way.
In Minesweeper, it’s hard to tell whether you’re meant to dodge adverts or bombs (see screenshot 1 ). After hitting a mine on my second click, I couldn’t keep playing without watching an ad or coughing up £8.99 a year for the ‘Microsoft Casual Games Premium Edition’ 2 . It’s also overloaded with cartoonish visuals and frustrating paid-for gimmicks like unlocking features.