this post was submitted on 24 Apr 2024
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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] 10 points 6 months ago

Lol. Another reason to be glad I don’t use Windows as my main OS.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 6 months ago (25 children)

Me, on my Ubuntu machine: 🧐🤔😂😂😂😂😂😂

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 6 months ago (2 children)

Is there a way to GPO this 'feature' off? Worried about some of our users getting confused.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 6 months ago

Microsoft only started testing these ads two weeks ago, so it’s surprising to see this “feature” progress from the Beta Channel to release in such a short period of time.

Is it surprising, though? When earning more money is involved?

[–] [email protected] 8 points 6 months ago

They aren't even labeled as ads/paid promotion, so I wonder if this even got legal's input. Something the FTC probably might be interested in.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 6 months ago (1 children)

This is the best summary I could come up with:


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.

“The Recommended section of the Start menu will show some Microsoft Store apps,” says Microsoft in the update notes of its latest public Windows 11 release.

Microsoft only started testing these ads two weeks ago, so it’s surprising to see this “feature” progress from the Beta Channel to release in such a short period of time.

At the time of initial testing I mentioned Microsoft “could decide to ditch these ads” if there was enough feedback that suggested they weren’t popular, but two weeks of feedback certainly isn’t long enough to determine that.

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.


The original article contains 303 words, the summary contains 200 words. Saved 34%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 months ago

2 weeks is most certainly enough time to read the listen in on the thousands of thousands of people saying fuck off Microsoft, stop with the fucking ads.

Nobody outside of those getting profit thinks this is a good idea...literally no one.

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

The direction Windows 11 is taking is terrible but i've tried on multiple occasions (even this morning!) to game and consume my content on Ubuntu or Fedora and i run into so much trouble, that ill have to stick with Windows 11. I have been using Ubuntu at work for the last 10 years though as web development is great on it.

Issues i have:

  • Lutris not finding GoG games
  • Heroic working, but not being able to sync savegames for GoG
  • Having installed GoG with Bottles and then the game itself works, but my framerate wasn't that great
  • Nvidia driver getting borked after kernel update, need to switch to old kernel, uninstall, switch to new kernel, reinstall
  • Mangohud flatpak not working together with Goverlay repo version
  • Need alternative for Synology cloud sync. Maybe Syncthing or rsync with SMB
  • And i need alternatives for fps limiting, undervolting and cpu undervolting. Haven't put enough time into it yet though
  • I like the mouse acceleration on Windows and in KDE both flat and adaptive feel pretty flat. Probably can be tweaked with xinput or something, but you can't configure the acceleration amount by default

Maybe one day, but for now Windows is probably just the better choice for me and gaming (on a laptop). At least in Windows 11 they now allow you to not group the taskbar by default..

[–] [email protected] 9 points 6 months ago (1 children)

If you're not ready to switch, most of the issues and anti consumer shit with Windows can be managed through a combination of Group Policy, Registry, various settings and configurations menus, and a wee bit of PowerShell.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 months ago

I'm still ok with windows 10 and by the time it's no longer supported, proton should be mature enough for me to make the jump with no regrets.

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