Windows 11 Start Menu Ads Are Coming

Windows 11 Start menu ads are now rolling out to everyone

looorg writes:

W11 rolling out ads (or "recommendations") in the start-menu. I guess this explains blocking alternative start menus. Security and Performance reasons standing in the way of the "recommendation-dollars".

https://www.theverge.com/2024/4/24/24138949/microsoft-windows-11-start-menu-ads-recommendations-setting-disable

Microsoft is starting to enable ads inside the Start menu on Windows 11 for all users. After testing these briefly with Windows Insiders earlier this month, Microsoft has started to distribute update KB5036980 to Windows 11 users this week, which includes "recommendations" for apps from the Microsoft Store in the Start menu.

"The Recommended section of the Start menu will show some Microsoft Store apps," says Microsoft in the update notes of its latest public Windows 11 release. "These apps come from a small set of curated developers." The ads are designed to help Windows 11 users discover more apps, but will largely benefit the developers that Microsoft is trying to tempt into building more Windows apps.

[...] Luckily you can disable these ads, or "recommendations" as Microsoft calls them. If you've installed the latest KB5036980 update then head into Settings > Personalization > Start and turn off the toggle for "Show recommendations for tips, app promotions, and more." While KB5036980 is optional right now, Microsoft will push this to all Windows 11 machines in the coming weeks.

Microsoft is Annoying Users Again. Here's What It Could Do Instead

upstart writes:

The temptation to coldly stuff ads into every service is just too much for some people. There must be a better way - and Microsoft knows it:

It's tempting to believe that brute force always works.

After all, wasn't much of the modern tech industry built upon the notion of moving fast and breaking things?

When it comes to Microsoft and some of its ingrained customer-facing habits, the idea that you can simply force things on your users rarely dies.

Yet the company's latest attempts seem, as often happens, to have annoyed the very people Microsoft shouldn't.

First, Microsoft decided this was the right time to mess with the Windows 11 Start menu. By inserting ads for "recommended apps."

I know this annoyed people because my colleague Lance Whitney began his description of this maneuver with delicious words: "Microsoft is testing a way to further mismanage the Windows 11 Start menu: displaying icons for recommended apps."

I sense he may even have been very annoyed by this maneuver -- even though it's only a test -- because he added: "As a Windows Insider, I have some feedback, none of which is printable. Despite being a $3 trillion company with $227 billion in revenue in 2023, Microsoft apparently feels the need to eke out more money from Windows users by annoying them with ads."

[...] In this case, the ads were for Copilot, Microsoft's new AI companion. The promise is for "Copilot with more efficient settings." These include managing your passwords and bookmarking tabs.

[...] There is another way, Microsoft. Truly there is.

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