The New, Improved, Ad Supported Windows Start Menu

Windows 11 Is Now Officially Adware

Move over Roku, Microsoft has an even better idea!  The optional update being fed to Windows Insiders, KB5036980, improves your Start Menu experience by showing you “great apps” available in the Microsoft Store.  This is of course a brilliant idea, that all of us have wanted from Windows 11 and we definitely wouldn’t go into Settings > Personalization > Start and toggle ‘Show recommendations for tips, app promotions, and more’ off.

As some may recall, this is not the first time Microsoft have tried slipping advertisements into our Start Menu.  The most famous of which was several years ago when they attempted to insert ads for Microsoft Teams which managed to completely break the Start Menu and Taskbar.  So far the Insiders who have received this update haven’t run into similar issues, but not many are overly impressed by the Microsoft Store apps they are being encouraged to install.

We can only hope that another update doesn’t remove the ability to opt out of these updates, and that businesses are easily able to suppress this rubbish.