It seems that Microsoft is experimenting with advertising in the menus of Windows 11. The company is promoting its services in the menu to shut down the PC.
Twitterer Albacore shows a screenshot where you, as a user, see a small line of text at the menu to turn off your PC with ‘back up your files’, ‘Sign up for Microsoft Account’ or ‘Complete your profile’; it is an advertisement for OneDrive, or to create or complete an account with Microsoft.
As far as we know, this test does not appear for all users. But it is not the first time that Microsoft has put unsolicited advertising in its software. For example, the free version of Office Web Apps already contained advertising, just like the Edge browser.
Just like with Meta or Google, Microsoft also earns money with digital advertisements, although it mainly seems to promote its own services. There are currently no formal plans to stop Windows 11 full of ads.
A Windows Insider Senior Program Manager responds to Albacore’s tweet by saying it’s trying “variations” in Windows Insider, citing a small notice in the documentation to tell users to take certain actions. But in Microsoft’s logic, promoting commercial services also falls under this.
Microsoft tries to use its position with Windows more often to ‘nudge’ users, to send them in a certain direction. For example, since this summer, anyone who uses Windows 10 today has received a warning several times a month when starting up that the PC is not yet completely finished. That’s a very misleading attempt to get people to move to Windows 11.
Only when you repeatedly click on ‘postpone’ or ‘later’ will you go to your trusted operating system.
