Microsoft Wants to Show You Ads in the Windows 11 Start Menu [Video]

You expect to see ads everywhere online, but ads in your operating system are a rarer beast—though not as rare as they used to be. Recently, Windows 11 Pro and Home users have reported seeing ads in the operating system’s Start menu, with ads for “recommended” apps and websites appearing beneath the list of installed apps.

It’s not a hugely surprising move, given the company has been pushing ads to the Windows 11 lock screen too, and opening the Settings app will hit you with a huge advertisement for Office 365 if you aren’t a subscriber. Microsoft has even been pushing ads for Bing in Google Chrome.

Thus far, the Start Menu change only appears to be showing in the latest preview builds available to Windows 11 Insiders. As such, it’s possible it might not graduate into the consumer build of Windows 11 if the reaction to it is negative …