Windows 11 Start menu ads - now coming to a PC near you

Microsoft has been toying with the idea of ads in Windows 11 for quite some time, despite the paid license to use the operating system. Start menu ads — recommendations, as Microsoft calls them — first popped up in a Windows 11 preview build two weeks ago, with Microsoft now rushing the feature out to all users of its OS with build KB5036980. 

The Start menu ads will now appear in the Recommended section at the bottom of your Start menu, alongside all of your frequently used apps and files. Start menu recommendations can be turned off in Settings, under Personalisation, although there is likely a large user base that will never bother trying to dig into the settings to disable them.

Since the release of Windows 10, there has been a marked shift in how Microsoft approaches the desktop operating system. Instead of relying on users buying licences for Windows, Microsoft offered Windows 10 for free, and Windows 11 was also a free upgrade from Windows 10. This change was also accompanied by a push towards an always-online OS that required a Microsoft account to sign into and set up Windows 11 — as Tesla CEO, Elon Musk, recently lamented.

There are also reports on some subreddits about pop-up ads in Windows pestering users to use Bing Chat on their Windows PCs, although it is not clear if this is as widespread, and Microsoft has not mentioned anything of the sort in its update notes.

Microsoft's recent behaviour regarding ads in Windows 11 seems to be having a somewhat detrimental effect on its popularity, especially now that there are so many Linux distributions that provide a legitimate alternative to Windows, even for gaming applications. 

The reaction in the online Windows community has been about what you might expect when a paid operating system starts including ads in one of its main features. People are not happy. In r/Windows on Reddit, there are several comments pointing out that the addition of ads will push them to switch to Linux. Others have complained about game compatibility making Microsoft the de facto platform for PC gaming.

It remains to be seen whether those that say they will abandon Windows for greener, Linux-based pastures will have any effect on the overall Linux market share. It should also be noted that Linux market share is at an all-time high, breaking 4% of the worldwide desktop OS market earlier this month.