Windows 11 appears to be not only Microsoft’s latest operating system but an enticing promotional tool, as Windows Insiders have noticed that advertisements for Microsoft services appear in the Start menu in some pre-release builds.
It appears that these promotions are trying to sell Windows 11 users when they use other Microsoft services, including OneDrive. While these ads seem to push people deeper into Microsoft’s ecosystem (so far) by urging users to do things like kill their profile or back up their files to OneDrive (which offers up to 5GB of storage for free but for more), they It seems like an unwanted addition to an operating system that already suffers from low adoption rates.
These glimpses of what could change in Windows 11 in the near future come to us from a Twitter user Albacore (Opens in a new tab), who posted screenshots this week of ads appearing in the popup that pops up when you click your profile icon in the Start menu to sign out. With promotions like “Back up your files,” “Sign up for a Microsoft account,” and “Complete your profile,” these ads are short and straightforward, but it’s hard to imagine why anyone would want to see them.
Do we really need to fill in OneDrive promotions in the user session popup? Anything for those sweet KPI 😭 pic.twitter.com/ZsQGmkntDSNovember 6, 2022
Since these ads appear in pre-release versions of Windows 11 sent through the Windows Insider Dev channel, there is no guarantee that they will ever appear correctly on Windows 11. However, it is unfortunate to see Microsoft once again trying to increase sales of Windows users when purchasing in other services and engaging themselves more deeply in its ecosystem.
This isn’t the first time the company has tried this either. Back in March 2022, Microsoft was caught slipping banner ads for other Microsoft services into File Explorer on pre-release versions of Windows 11. Shortly thereafter a Microsoft representative claimed that the ad “was an experimental banner that was not intended to be published externally and was, “But the experiment appears to be going on in full swing.
We’ve reached out to Microsoft for more details on when or if these promotions will start rolling out Windows 11 versions, and we’ll update this story if we hear back.
Analysis: Windows 11 has a big “why?
As a Windows 11 user, I’ve struggled enough trying to come up with good reasons why friends and family should upgrade from Windows 10.
The prospect of cluttering the disappointing interface of Windows 11 with annoying sales of other Microsoft services certainly won’t help.
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