April 25, 2024, 4:03 pm | Read time: 2 minutes
The Start menu is the central hub for finding programs, apps, and settings. Changes are rarely well-received by users–especially when they involve unwanted ads.
After a brief testing phase for Windows 11 insiders, Microsoft is now actually introducing ads in the Start menu.
Suggestions for Apps from the Microsoft Store in the Start Menu
With Windows 11, Microsoft has thoroughly revamped the Start menu. Not only has the menu moved from the left to the center of the taskbar, but the layout has also changed. The upper half now contains installed apps. Tiles with widgets, a remnant from the Windows 8 days, are gone. Instead, the lower half is filled with recommendations, which can include recently installed apps or frequently used documents. At this point in the Start menu, Microsoft now displays ads for Windows apps from its own store.
The company had already announced this in advance on the Windows Insider Blog. The change is part of update KB5036980 for Windows versions 22621.3527 and 22631.3527. According to Microsoft, apps from “a small group of selected developers” now appear in the recommendations column. This is intended to help find “great apps” in the Microsoft Store.
Microsoft had been testing the app suggestions since mid-April in an Insider Preview of Windows 11. The company has quickly implemented the rollout for all users.
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How to Turn Off App Suggestions
After installing the Windows update, the display of app suggestions is enabled by default. However, they can be turned off at any time. This can be done via the path Settings>Personalization>Start under “Recommendations for tips, app ads, and more.”
Commercial Windows 11 distributions for businesses are exempt from the change and therefore remain without suggestions from the Microsoft Store even after the update.
Advertising in Windows Is Nothing New
Microsoft explicitly points out in its Insider Blog that the change “may never be released.” The company currently wants to gather feedback from testers of the Insider version.
It is not the first time that advertising has appeared in an official Windows distribution. In Windows 10, ads have been present for years not only in the Start menu but even on the lock screen.
In 2022, Microsoft also experimented with ad placements in Explorer in a beta version of Windows 11. However, the company later stated that this was a mistake. The feature was never intended for public release and was disabled in the beta version.