Windows 11 Start menu ads are now rolling out to everyone - eviltoast
A new Windows 11 update is rolling out this week.

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.

      • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        2·
        7 months ago

        Yup, though I don’t think I could’ve switched earlier. I switched my first year of college when I rented a computer, and then used it ever since. My parents certainly wouldn’t let me change the family computer, but I did have my own computer as a teen that I installed FreeBSD on (some guy at the local community college gave me a disk).

      • ulterno@lemmy.kde.socialEnglish
        21·
        7 months ago

        The only regret i have is that i haven’t switched earlier.

        Seems like everyone who successfully switches, has this regret.

          • ulterno@lemmy.kde.socialEnglish
            1·
            7 months ago

            I actually kept dual boot specially for games.
            And never used the Windows boot after that (even though the option was there). Turns out it is more fun learning new stuff about a new OS than it is playing games on an OS that you have to fight every time.

      • KillingTimeItself@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        2·
        7 months ago

        you can implement that yourself RIGHT NOW! just stuff a little single liner at the end of your .bashrc, it’ll be run everytime you open it ez pz.

      • TheGrandNagus@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        7 months ago

        Technically Ubuntu did that. Buuuut it was one line of text advertising that you can get ultra-long term software support on up to 5 PCs for free.

        To my knowledge it also only showed it once.

        So a lot more forgivable than MS’s bullshit.

        That said, I still avoid Ubuntu for other reasons.