Microsoft is testing new ads in Windows 11

[midian182]

Facepalm: If there's one thing Windows 11 could use, it's ads appearing in the operating system—said no one other than Microsoft. The Redmond firm appears to be testing a feature in preview builds that shows ads for its services in the flyout menu, where users can sign out or lock the system.

Twitter user Albacore posted screenshots showing ads and promos for Microsoft products appearing in the flyout screen above the Change Account Settings option in the latest Windows 11 Preview Build. One of the ads prompts users to back their files up to OneDrive, while another suggests users sign up for a Microsoft Account.

Turns out OneDrive isn't the only thing that can be advertised here, prompts for creating a Microsoft Account can appear as well " pic.twitter.com/ZXjdv44Byn

— Albacore (@thebookisclosed) November 7, 2022

Windows Insider Program Team Senior Program Manager Brandon LeBlanc replied to the Tweet, emphasizing that Microsoft is only experimenting with some variations of this feature with Windows Insiders. He also noted that users had already been notified about it in a post last month.

However, that notification consists of a bullet point under the Changes and Improvements section that reads: "We are trying out a small change to the Start menu where some Insiders will see badging on their user profile notifying them that certain actions need to be taken." Even by Microsoft's standards of verbal chicanery, it's hard to imagine anyone thinking that sentence translates to the implementation of ads. The fact that the feature uses the same orange indicator as Windows system alerts is also annoying users.

In fairness to LeBlanc, he did admit that Microsoft could have communicated the change better, possibly by including a screenshot. But that's unlikely to placate people at this point, especially if this test makes its way into production builds.

Ads in Windows aren't something new, of course. Windows 10's Start Menu has them, though they can be removed, and Microsoft once ran full-size ads for Edge. You might also remember Microsoft testing ads for its services in a preview build of Windows 11 earlier this year. That caused a lot of outrage, but LeBlanc said it was an experimental banner not intended to be published externally.

Thanks, Windows Latest

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/96601-microsoft-testing-ads-services-windows-11.html

 

[NikoBB]

A special cynicism on the part of M$ is that all versions of Windows are paid ...

 

[Sathi43]

A special cynicism on the part of M$ is that all versions of Windows are paid ...

The plan probably is to make you pay a subscription to keep away ads

 

[Geralt]

There is special software to remove advertising, telemetry and other crap in Windows.

 

[Geralt]

MS = A group of bandits dressed up like execs of a corporation.

 

[Uncle Al]

Just another reason to move to Linux and I'm glad I did!

 

[randomuser99]

Just another reason to move to Linux and I'm glad I did!

In the real world people don't care about Linux, people care about MS Office, gaming etc.. There's not a single Linux distro that can be used by the average Joe without requiring some fiddling with the terminal trying to solve various issues with the soundcards, videocards etc. and while today linux is in a much better place than it was 10 years ago there still not ONE distro that you can rely on without being a tech savvy person. Not even Ubuntu. I have a feeling that not even in 10 years from now we won't have a single distro good for gaming and everything that the average Joe needs or wants.

 

[winjer]

Well F*** you too, Microsoft.

 

[Bullwinkle M]

everything that the average Joe needs or wants.

Sure, everyone wants ads that prompt users to back their files up to OneDrive, or suggests users sign up for a Microsoft Account

and we all need MS Office malware

I dont know what I would do without the Microsoft Windows 10 volume control jumping up to 100% volume when I'm not even near the computer

The neighbors absolutely love that feature

 

[fps4ever]

That is simply not true about Linux the last few of years. Even gaming is much better/easier now days. Installing and configuring is on par with Windows now.

Not saying to switch but those statements are either obtuse or just plain ignorant of todays top Linux distros. And I have to setup and de-crapify Windows for a living among other network administration.

 

[Alfonso Maruccia]

Windows 11: not even once. To me, it's the modern equivalent of Windows 8.x. I'll pass.

 

[Uncle Al]

In the real world people don't care about Linux, people care about MS Office, gaming etc.. There's not a single Linux distro that can be used by the average Joe without requiring some fiddling with the terminal trying to solve various issues with the soundcards, videocards etc. and while today linux is in a much better place than it was 10 years ago there still not ONE distro that you can rely on without being a tech savvy person. Not even Ubuntu. I have a feeling that not even in 10 years from now we won't have a single distro good for gaming and everything that the average Joe needs or wants.

I still haven't stopped laughing ..... you obvious aren't well educated in Linux or it's products! Another slave to MicroSludge is born!

 

[Bullwinkle M]

Windows 11: not even once. To me, it's the modern equivalent of Windows 8.x. I'll pass.

Windows 8.x ?

Are you referring to Microsoft prematurely cancelling support for an OS they officially still support to force users onto their newest broken spyware platforms and force hardware upgrades that would not be required if they would simply support what they claim to support?

 

[Dimitriid]

In the real world people don't care about Linux, people care about MS Office, gaming etc.. There's not a single Linux distro that can be used by the average Joe without requiring some fiddling with the terminal trying to solve various issues with the soundcards, videocards etc. and while today linux is in a much better place than it was 10 years ago there still not ONE distro that you can rely on without being a tech savvy person. Not even Ubuntu. I have a feeling that not even in 10 years from now we won't have a single distro good for gaming and everything that the average Joe needs or wants.

You're not entirely wrong in your premise: 'real world' people (Which I'd qualify as inexperienced and casual users) just cannot jump into Linux outside of very specific use cases.

But it's not for the reasons you mention at all: this is a perspective that's at least 15 years outdated if not more: ever since really early versions of Ubunutu you can just use it without using a terminal at all. Now if you need help that you can't troubleshoot then other users will suggest you use terminal but it's mostly because is much more simple to troubleshoot with "Type this comand, tell me the results, type this other command, check if the issue is fixed" vs "I am sending you an email with 50 screen shots of how to use the GUI to find the setting you need to test and the one you might need to change"

That's just not something that happens anymore. Now there are still big problems for casual users but are mostly related to hardware compatibility issues: year after year all companies release new hardware and it very often needs drivers. Drivers that most companies just flat out do not provide so people have to write them based on oscure and often incomplete information. Test them and then test a bunch of software to make sure everything works and nothing else breaks.

Other problems come from really outdated software that hasn't been updated to more modern versions like the display server (xorg vs wayland) which means a lot of things have to be rewritten, which causes a lot of things to break and unexpected things like previously working drivers to start getting issues.

This is honestly just not inherent to Linux in my opinion: do a search for this site for how often Windows update flatout break machines, it's at least massive widespread problems on every major new windows update. Issue is that well, you can write an article to criticize Microsoft, contact their support staff to demand a solution or workaround, etc. For casual users there is nobody to call if a driver conflict means your laptop just flat out won't work and it takes a long time for even massive companies like AMD to resolve pretty huge issues like Ryzen not being able to enter all power states for the CPU which means Linux laptops just burn batteries faster on Linux for no good reason but again, nobody to get mad at you just gotta wait for people to slowly (sometimes extremely, as in years long, slowly) fix things

So no it's not ready for users unless a company is willing to support their distro very heavily which right now seems to be up to Valve and mostly because they have full control of their hardware so no support is expected of them for anything beyond the steam deck hardware which really makes it at all feasible for them to sell a Linux based system.

But this concept of "Linux means you have to do everything on command line!" is just not accurate at all, problems are way different for Linux today.

 

[dangh]

In the real world people don't care about Linux, people care about MS Office, gaming etc.. There's not a single Linux distro that can be used by the average Joe without requiring some fiddling with the terminal trying to solve various issues with the soundcards, videocards etc. and while today linux is in a much better place than it was 10 years ago there still not ONE distro that you can rely on without being a tech savvy person. Not even Ubuntu. I have a feeling that not even in 10 years from now we won't have a single distro good for gaming and everything that the average Joe needs or wants.

hmm?
just to be clear, people do not care about MS Office, people care about editing and sharing spreadsheets and presentations and documents. You can achieve that in dozens ways without touching MS Office.
People care about gaming, that's why Steam released great gaming device - Steam Deck - which runs on Linux and run nearly all the games out of the box, which are often work better than on Windows (sure, you would need mouse + keyboard for some of them so not all are marked as SD compatible).
There is no single user - oriented Linux distro which would at any stage _require_ anyone to touch a terminal. I think you seen it last time 20 years ago.
There are no issues with videocard or soundcards (you either have them in Kernel or in predefined package on selected distro), unless you are going to some very old and rare hardware (and which will have probably some similar issues on Windows 11)

Linux is a wonderful OS for any not tech savvy user - give it to any elderly, or youngsters - better protection, better focus, no bloatware -> no issues. The problem is only when a user things he is tech savvy just because he is using Windows forever, and then he expects that Linux will be a Windows copy.

 

[randomuser99]

You're not entirely wrong in your premise: 'real world' people (Which I'd qualify as inexperienced and casual users) just cannot jump into Linux outside of very specific use cases.

But it's not for the reasons you mention at all: this is a perspective that's at least 15 years outdated if not more: ever since really early versions of Ubunutu you can just use it without using a terminal at all. Now if you need help that you can't troubleshoot then other users will suggest you use terminal but it's mostly because is much more simple to troubleshoot with "Type this comand, tell me the results, type this other command, check if the issue is fixed" vs "I am sending you an email with 50 screen shots of how to use the GUI to find the setting you need to test and the one you might need to change"

That's just not something that happens anymore. Now there are still big problems for casual users but are mostly related to hardware compatibility issues: year after year all companies release new hardware and it very often needs drivers. Drivers that most companies just flat out do not provide so people have to write them based on oscure and often incomplete information. Test them and then test a bunch of software to make sure everything works and nothing else breaks.

Other problems come from really outdated software that hasn't been updated to more modern versions like the display server (xorg vs wayland) which means a lot of things have to be rewritten, which causes a lot of things to break and unexpected things like previously working drivers to start getting issues.

This is honestly just not inherent to Linux in my opinion: do a search for this site for how often Windows update flatout break machines, it's at least massive widespread problems on every major new windows update. Issue is that well, you can write an article to criticize Microsoft, contact their support staff to demand a solution or workaround, etc. For casual users there is nobody to call if a driver conflict means your laptop just flat out won't work and it takes a long time for even massive companies like AMD to resolve pretty huge issues like Ryzen not being able to enter all power states for the CPU which means Linux laptops just burn batteries faster on Linux for no good reason but again, nobody to get mad at you just gotta wait for people to slowly (sometimes extremely, as in years long, slowly) fix things

So no it's not ready for users unless a company is willing to support their distro very heavily which right now seems to be up to Valve and mostly because they have full control of their hardware so no support is expected of them for anything beyond the steam deck hardware which really makes it at all feasible for them to sell a Linux based system.

But this concept of "Linux means you have to do everything on command line!" is just not accurate at all, problems are way different for Linux today.

Appreciate you taking the time to make this post as it expresses much better what I am thinking about the current state of things.

 

[Kirby1]

Must be a sloe news day.

 

[Geralt]

I still haven't stopped laughing ..... you obvious aren't well educated in Linux or it's products! Another slave to MicroSludge is born!

Another Linux fanboy. In practice, I installed Ubuntu like a double boot, and guess what: No Adobe (really?, no Photoshop, no Dreamweaver, no Premiere, etc.), none of my Windows games are available and the interface is so ugly in comparison to Windows 11 that I had to quit. And thank God my graphics card was Radeon because when I had a Geforce in the past, the driver support sucked big time! Yes, I dislike Windows 11 too and its MS malware, but in comparison to Linux Ubuntu is much more advanced and user-friendly. For now, Linux is only for some guys not using Adobe, not gaming, with some knowledge about terminal, etc., that is 0.1% of humankind.
I am not a Linux basher, but reality is reality anno 2022.

 

[Geralt]

hmm?
just to be clear, people do not care about MS Office, people care about editing and sharing spreadsheets and presentations and documents. You can achieve that in dozens ways without touching MS Office.
People care about gaming, that's why Steam released great gaming device - Steam Deck - which runs on Linux and run nearly all the games out of the box, which are often work better than on Windows (sure, you would need mouse + keyboard for some of them so not all are marked as SD compatible).
There is no single user - oriented Linux distro which would at any stage _require_ anyone to touch a terminal. I think you seen it last time 20 years ago.
There are no issues with videocard or soundcards (you either have them in Kernel or in predefined package on selected distro), unless you are going to some very old and rare hardware (and which will have probably some similar issues on Windows 11)

Linux is a wonderful OS for any not tech savvy user - give it to any elderly, or youngsters - better protection, better focus, no bloatware -> no issues. The problem is only when a user things he is tech savvy just because he is using Windows forever, and then he expects that Linux will be a Windows copy.

Fantastic "theory". In practice most of your mates use MSOffice and when you try to share a document from Libre Office and such, you have a lot of problem with compatibility (it can be something horrible sometimes). That is the main problem: That most people use MSOffice.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

In the real world people don't care about Linux, people care about MS Office, gaming etc.. There's not a single Linux distro that can be used by the average Joe without requiring some fiddling with the terminal trying to solve various issues with the soundcards, videocards etc. and while today linux is in a much better place than it was 10 years ago there still not ONE distro that you can rely on without being a tech savvy person. Not even Ubuntu. I have a feeling that not even in 10 years from now we won't have a single distro good for gaming and everything that the average Joe needs or wants.

You know what? Good. Keep using WinSludge like the rest of the Joes, the last thing we need is millions of tech illiterate parasites rolling up and ruining linux like they did the gaming scene, cars, investments, and all other walks of life that have been dumbed down for a "broader demographic".

I'll take my OS that lets me have control over my OS, thanks.

Another Linux fanboy. In practice, I installed Ubuntu like a double boot, and guess what: No Adobe (really?, no Photoshop, no Dreamweaver, no Premiere, etc.), none of my Windows games are available and the interface is so ugly in comparison to Windows 11 that I had to quit. And thank God my graphics card was Radeon because when I had a Geforce in the past, the driver support sucked big time! Yes, I dislike Windows 11 too and its MS malware, but in comparison to Linux Ubuntu is much more advanced and user-friendly. For now, Linux is only for some guys not using Adobe, not gaming, with some knowledge about terminal, etc., that is 0.1% of humankind.
I am not a Linux basher, but reality is reality anno 2022.

LOL someone doesnt know how to google "turn on steam proton".

 

[umbala]

Just another reason to move to Linux and I'm glad I did!

No you didn't. Stop lying. No one uses Linux except those who want to prove how different they are than everyone else. It's like Mac users, they have to go around telling everyone how much better it is what they are using and everyone should switch. I hate MS, but Windows is here to stay. No one is moving to Linux or Mac. Period.

 

[umbala]

I love these articles. Every time there's some negative press about Windows all the Linux/Mac zealots crawl out of their caves and start harping on about how amazing their operating system is compared to Windows.

 

[psycros]

No you didn't. Stop lying. No one uses Linux except those who want to prove how different they are than everyone else. It's like Mac users, they have to go around telling everyone how much better it is what they are using and everyone should switch. I hate MS, but Windows is here to stay. No one is moving to Linux or Mac. Period.

Unless you've been stalking umbala you have no idea wtf you're talking about. Well, are you stalking him??

 

[GoldenGoat]

It seems like there should be better ways Microsoft can make money than ads in the operating system.

 

[Gars]

Horrrrayyy for the MAC OS
a lot of people will gladly move
especially those, who use 'productivity' software for living (sry, I dont see how MS office is the only option in that area)
go run any Adobe product on Linux without some Virtual box