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.

  • Kairos
    link
    fedilink
    English
    -185 months ago

    It’s not an ad. Nobody is being paid to put that there. It’s a promotion.

    • Vardøgor
      link
      fedilink
      English
      13
      edit-2
      5 months ago

      they’re advertising their paid product, don’t really see a difference semantically

        • Vardøgor
          link
          fedilink
          English
          105 months ago

          advertisement /,ædvər’taɪzmənt/ noun a public promotion of some product or service

        • @NoFun4You
          link
          English
          15 months ago

          If by very different you mean exactly the same

    • @woelkchen
      link
      English
      55 months ago

      Microsoft: “Ours is not an ads either, it’s a recommendation for a store app. We’re not advertising products you cannot install on your PC.”

      • Kairos
        link
        fedilink
        English
        -35 months ago

        It’s an ad because its shown as a condition of payment/something economical.

        • @laughterlaughter
          link
          English
          15 months ago

          In that case, you’re contradicting yourself, because the Ubuntu “promotions” require a money exchange.