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Microsoft is not done yet: more ads spotted in latest Windows 11 build - gHacks Tech News

When is an ad an advertisement and not a recommendation? Microsoft clearly likes to use the term recommendation for what others may see as an advertisement.

There are recommendations in the Start menu, Settings app, Lock screen, File Explorer, Get Help app, and other areas of the operating system already. These are often not that useful. App recommendations in the Start menu are limited to Microsoft Store apps.

Now, Microsoft is testing recommendations in the Microsoft Store app. If you never use the app, you won’t be exposed to these. If you do, you may notice recommendations popping up when you try to use the built-in search.

First spotted by phantomofearth on X, two or three recommendations are shown whenever search is activated in the official Microsoft Store app.

werefreeatlast ,

So anyway, welcome to computing 101, first you’re going to create a new folder for your stuff. So let’s do this, grab the mouse, and;

Right click->watch ad->New Folder

Mr Bob! The mouse bit me and now I can’t stop the commercials!

ichbinjasokreativ ,

Windows really is the worst OS. You pay 150$ for the license when you buy a laptop with it pre-installed and then on top of that, they spy on you and also show you ads.

Linux is free, does not spy on you and does not show any ads.

thirstyhyena ,

I’m surprised they didn’t put ads in the blank area of the taskbar.

Plopp ,

Or on the entire desktop. Ad wallpapers when?

viking ,
@viking@infosec.pub avatar

Any recommendation I didn’t ask for is an ad, and that’s a hill I’m willing to die on.

Plopp ,

I recommend you to try turning it off and on again.

CrowAirbrush ,

I’m so done with companies claiming my house for their ads.

It’s my house i decide what makes it in as i pay the rent and i bought these devices, so fuck off.

flop_leash_973 ,

This is not gonna stop until the consumer puts their money where there mouths are and stops using Windows until Microsoft back peddles. Money is all a company understands so that is where you need to hit them if you want them to listen. But as a group the consumer has a very weak constitution when it comes to having to do something that is good for them in the long term but causes them short term inconvenience. A lot of parallels to the modern corporate world in that.

lustyargonian ,

Could it be that consumers are putting money where there mouths are and this is just Microsoft desperately trying to increase their margins since their business isn’t growing anymore?

I mean the more people move away, the more likely it is Microsoft would milk the ones who can’t.

dodos ,

Especially considering the news on poor adoption rates for windows 11, I wouldn’t be surprised if this is the case. It could also be an explanation as to why we are only seeing these ads added to w11 right now.

Lost_My_Mind ,

Isn’t something like half of Windows purchases from businesses though?

And I feel like the younger crowd isn’t even buying PCs. Just tablets and phones.

So, nothing will change, because businesses don’t care if Jerry from accounting has to look at a bud light advertisement as a recovering alcoholic.

And PCs might fade away like typewritters did.

But don’t worry. Printers will still exist wirelessly. They’ll still have a finicky driver that breaks if you even look at the printer, and it’ll still use ink that costs as much as a mortgage on a subscription model.

Because fuck trees!

iAmTheTot ,

I have used Windows 10 for years and recently switched to Windows 11 and I don’t think I’ve ever seen an ad in my day to day OS use. I don’t do the registry edits or turn off the telemetry stuff, either. I don’t know what I’m doing differently but I’m not seeing these ads that apparently infected Windows.

folekaule ,

Most of these reports are about preview builds of Windows.

That said, surely you have seen recommendations from Microsoft to try their Office package and such oil up. It’s like that, but more intrusive.

I can’t believe Microsoft is making me switch from Windows to Mac and Linux, but here we are.

iAmTheTot ,

Actually, no I’ve never seen an ad for office but that might be because I’m already a customer.

andyburke ,
@andyburke@fedia.io avatar

Are you running Home or a Pro-like version?

iAmTheTot ,

puu.sh/KaKuI/9bef788dd5.png

Codename_goose ,
@Codename_goose@sh.itjust.works avatar

The home edition of windows has these ads baked in, but the pro/enterprise editions seem to be able to avoid this for now.

iAmTheTot ,

I have home.

Codename_goose ,
@Codename_goose@sh.itjust.works avatar

If you also live in Europe or set up your computer in the US with European English then you can also skirt some of the ads as well

iAmTheTot ,

Nope and nope.

dinckelman ,

How many more of these will it take, until people start looking for alternatives

lustyargonian ,

I think it is already happening gradually. SteamDeck has single handedly opened the eyes of so many already. M1 Macs did that for macOS as well.

cakeistheanswer ,
@cakeistheanswer@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

I think it’s grossly undersold personally. What valve has managed is getting the single target platform open source could never agree on.

It’s a small miracle, and it bleeds over into stuff like device driver support in a way I don’t think most people who didn’t deal with Linux in the 2.x era immediately appreciate.

If Linux on the desktop has a surge, they did a lot of the legwork.

QuarterSwede ,
@QuarterSwede@lemmy.world avatar

Until it affects businesses it won’t change. Once they start to add them to Office, it’s all over.

vikingtons ,
@vikingtons@lemmy.world avatar

I’d be curious at the percentage of windows users actually using the store app.

As for the context of these ads, the store would kind of make more sense than within your settings landing page, start menu, search dialog, browser nagware, solitaire app etc.

RmDebArc_5 ,
@RmDebArc_5@sh.itjust.works avatar

If I remember correctly some (mainly Microsoft made apps) are store only and some system apps are updated through it so probably a large part of users use it

vikingtons ,
@vikingtons@lemmy.world avatar

This is a fair point, an I had considered this to be a case but the store is capable of automatically updating apps in the background. I believe this is the default behaviour but I could be mistaken.

There is also a chance a user may be directed to the store if they’re required to buy the HEVC or install the AV1 system plugins.

shalafi ,

Anecdotally, I don’t know anyone that uses it. In the years working IT since the Store came out, not a single coworker has asked me about it.

Logging into my customer’s computers and I don’t see any evidence that they use it either.

conciselyverbose ,

The more relevant question IMO is what proportion of software (or by revenue) is installed through the Windows store.

Because compared to android (even counting Amazon fire and whatever other third party devices), I’m guessing that’s pretty low.

PythagreousTitties ,

It’s a PC. Why would anyone use “the store” to install anything?

SomeGuy69 ,
@SomeGuy69@lemmy.world avatar

Recommendations is just an euphemism marketing joke. Every serious journalist would call them what they are, ads.

Bluefruit ,

As soon as they announced ads were gonna be in the start menu, i noped out of windows. I only use it for work which doesn’t bother me because im not doing anything private on my work pc.

I switched to Fedora 40 with KDE and never looked back. My only real gripe is with making music. Getting the VSTs to work and setting up yabridge is kind of a headache that i still need to do 😮‍💨 aside from that, Linux has been my daily driver for quite a while now and im happy i switched even though im still learning.

sturmblast ,

I’m so happy that I will never have to deal with this on my home computers. At work we can at least disable it all via policies. But my god has Microsoft lost its way. What happened to making professional business products?

Ioughttamow ,

I’m just riding win10 until I finally nab a new gpu and 5700x3d. Htpc and media server are running mint, I think I’ll change the server distro next time I upgrade the hardware though

andyburke ,
@andyburke@fedia.io avatar

Install any popular Linux distro. They are all so much better than any proprietary OS. And if you are running relatively common hardware, everything will just work.

Virkkunen ,
@Virkkunen@fedia.io avatar

When is ad an advertisement and not a recommendation?

Always? That's why it's called ad instead of recommendation

SkaveRat ,

Then the question is: “When is a recommendation an ad?”

For which I’d say: When the person recommending it is gaining something from it

ricdeh ,
@ricdeh@lemmy.world avatar

Or at least when they recommend it with the intent of gaining something from it

bolexforsoup ,

That’s not really a good description either. Advertisements are pretty clear: the deliberate promotion of a product or service to an audience. Saying “I like this app” in natural conversation doesn’t mean I don’t stand to benefit.

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