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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]

424 comments fedilink hide all child comments

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] 32 points 7 months ago (3 children)

You shouldn't. I haven't. Microsoft is a plague and a choice.

[–] [email protected] 60 points 7 months ago (1 children)

You're not wrong, but there's a larger issue here: the fact that there's an alternative does not make what Microsoft is doing okay. This shit ought to be prohibited by consumer protection law.

[–] [email protected] 34 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Yeah it’s not just Microsoft. Fucking ads in my doorbell app, Google TV, etc.

Putting ads in a product you paid for should be illegal.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

TBH I am fully expecting a world where, in the next 10-15 years, some company will make a car that plays unskippable audio ads every X number of miles/km which can be disabled for $9.99/month.

Your company can't afford the ad-free version of Zoom, so this meeting is sponsored by Papa Johns®. Try the new Cheesy Papadia virtual background.

Before you can place this emergency call, here's a word from our sponsors at Nord VPN.

[+] [email protected] -11 points 7 months ago (2 children)

I hate it as much as the next guy, but I certainly don't see why it should be illegal (and disclaimer

Debian on all my personal machines, macOS for work).

Should it be illegal for books to have a list of similar material from the author/publisher? Should food staples not be able to list recipes on the back?

I completely agree that pulling the rug out from under the customer should be illegal (i.e., effectively changing the terms of service for an already-purchased product), but having a shitty product shouldn't be illegal IMHO.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 7 months ago (1 children)

It really goes like this:

I buy product. Product has no ads, and works really well.

After updates, my device starts showing ads and works worse than it had before.

I bought the device. It is my device. I should be able to do what I want with my device, that I spent my money on, the way I like it. If that means I don't want your shitty ads, then I should be able to avoid or opt out of those by default.

From your thought:

You buy cookbook. Cookbook has what you need already, which is why you purchased it.

The one you purchased it from comes and "updates" your book by scribbling in ads for it's other recipe books, and they did it really sloppily to boot.

Now, when you are looking for a specific recipe that you knew was in the book before, instead it is an ad for their other recipe book in place of where the recipe you were looking for was.

Sure, you can still find your recipe somewhere in the book, but as you flip through the books pages you see more and more and more ads for their other recipe books, and oh, now they are also showing you ads from some of their sponsors.

You paid for the book. It is rightfully yours to do with it as you please.

The recipe book company already got your money, yet they are insistent you buy more from them, and have even gone as far as defacing your book.

You should be upset.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 7 months ago

Yeah I think we're in violent agreement to an extent

as I said in my last graf, if it's effectively changing the user agreement, absolutely not ok. But if it's a shitty product to begin with, then I'm just not going to buy it in the first place.

So yeah, Windows doing shitty things for users who have already paid for the product is definitely not cool. But for all users going forward to have a shitty experience? That's... shitty, yeah, but I personally don't think it should be illegal?

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

Hardcopy images in a book are a bit different from the typical proprietary software doing who knows what on your personal computer. Not saying ads should be illegal but I would argue for software freedom where you can remove ads from any software running on your computer - like you can rip pages out of any of your books.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago

Yeah, I guess it's a matter of what the analogy is to "page." I would say my computer is the book, and the pages are the software. If some developer wants to make a piece of shit ad ridden software, well, great

but I won't install it :)

[–] [email protected] 10 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

The choice is hard to make when Microsoft's garbage has been shoved down your throat for decades, it's the default pretty much everywhere and the only viable alternative, for 99% of the population, is Apple.

Governments have been way too lenient and passive towards Microsoft for far too long

[–] [email protected] 6 points 7 months ago (1 children)

the only viable alternative, for 99% of the population, is Apple

This is largely because Windows and MacOS come preinstalled and that's how the vast majority of people interact with operating systems. If you had to choose your OS, I'm sure there'd be more choice in the market. Not necessarily Linux, but just more choice in general.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago

That's pretty much my point, 99% of computers sold are sold with Windows on it and the leftover percent is 99% Apple and maybe 1% Linux.
And that's mostly because no one did anything when Microsoft licensed their crap to big OEM.

If any given computer sold was Linux (or any other free OS to be fair) by default and Windows as a paid option, it would change the market massively I believe. It would take time obviously but I'm convinced it would work in the long run.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 months ago (1 children)

You don't choose your childhood education. Microsoft and Apple offer schools deals to create adults dependent on it - after all they'll be using it in work too.