For some time, Microsoft has been toying with the idea of integrating advertisements into Windows 11, despite the paid license for using the operating system. Start menu ads – recommendations, as Microsoft calls them – first appeared in a preview build of Windows 11 two weeks ago, and Microsoft has now rolled out the feature to all users of its operating system with version KB5036980.
Start menu ads will now appear in the Recommended section at the bottom of your Start menu, alongside all the apps and files you use frequently. Start Menu recommendations can be turned off in Settings, under Personalization, but chances are a lot of users will never bother digging into Settings to turn them off.
Since the release of Windows 10 there has been a marked change in the way Microsoft approaches the desktop operating system. Instead of relying on users to purchase licenses for Windows, Microsoft offered Windows 10 for free, and Windows 11 was also a free upgrade from Windows 10. This change was also accompanied by a push towards a always-online operating system that required a Microsoft account to sign in and configure Windows 11 – as Tesla CEO Elon Musk recently lamented, https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1762173998056804747.
Also found on some subreddits https://www.reddit.com/r/IndiaTech/comments/1cawr19/just_what_windows_11_needed_popup_ads_have_you/ are reports of pop-up ads in Windows that trick users into using Bing Chat on their Windows PCs, although It’s unclear whether this is that widespread, and Microsoft hasn’t mentioned anything like this in its patch notes.
Microsoft’s recent behavior regarding ads in Windows 11 appears to be having a somewhat detrimental effect on its popularity, especially now that there are so many
Linux distributions that offer a legitimate alternative to Windows, even for gaming applications.
The reaction from the online Windows community has been about what you’d expect when a paid operating system starts including ads as one of its main features. People are not happy. On r/Windows on Reddit, several comments point out that adding ads will encourage them to switch to Linux. Others have complained about game compatibility that makes Microsoft the de facto platform for PC gaming.
It remains to be seen whether those who say they will abandon Windows for greener, Linux-based pastures will have any effect on Linux’s overall market share. It’s also worth noting that Linux’s market share has never been higher: crossing the 4% mark of the global desktop operating system market earlier this month.
