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Windows 11 Start menu ads are now rolling out to everyone (www.theverge.com)

submitted 7 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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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.

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’s move to enable ads in the Windows 11 Start menu follows similar promotional spots in the Windows 10 lock screen and Start menu. Microsoft also started testing ads inside the File Explorer of Windows 11 last year before disabling the experiment and saying the test was “not intended to be published externally.” Hopefully that experiment remains very much an experiment.

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

I'm just here waiting for my wife to finally snap and ask about getting Linux on her gaming PC. I've been using it for 20 years now. The complaints are becoming more and more numerous these days, it's only a matter of time.

[+] [email protected] -6 points 7 months ago (2 children)

You could also disable all this shit pretty easily too, for about the same amount of effort as getting someone acclimated to a new OS.

Every single bullshit thing these articles bring up, there's simple controls built into Windows to handle. Most easily through Group Policy with a Pro license, easily bought from an OEM license seller for $20 or just spoofed.

For this bullshit in particular: Settings > Personalization > Start and turn off the toggle for “Show recommendations for tips, app promotions, and more.”

[–] [email protected] 29 points 7 months ago

That's the thing, she's getting tired of having to do all that bullshit and then getting a lot of it reverted during an update. The annoyances are starting to outweigh the convenience. She's not dumb, she knows her way around computers and is well aware of methods to disable this crap.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

for every person that figures out how to disable this stuff, there are many thousands of others who don't, don't bother, or don't even know it might be possible to... which is why they pull this shit in the first place--and (usually) get away with it.