Microsoft has a history of using a variety of strategies to influence user behavior in favor of its own products, often at the expense of competing offerings. This included the introduction of Bing search in the Edge browser and the promotion of Edge itself as a better browser.

However, there is an unprecedented approach where Microsoft is trying to redirect users of alternative browsers to Bing using browsers that many believe in. suspicious system messages.

What happened?

Users started complaining about the appearance of a system message urging Windows 10 and 11 owners to switch to Bing as the default search service in the Google Chrome browser. This ad message turned out to work Regardless of the Windows notification system.

Notification appears above other running programs / Photo: Tom Warren / The Verge

The executable responsible for generating these messages is defined as: “BGAupsell.exe”and he has Microsoft digital signature. This promotion method accidentally drew parallels with potentially harmful adware.

Microsoft’s response

Microsoft’s bizarre approach to product promotion seems to have caught the attention of company management. Microsoft spokesperson Caitlin Roulston acknowledged the reports and confirmed: The sending of such messages has been stopped. Roulston also stated that Microsoft is actively investigating the situation and plans to take steps to correct this unwanted behavior.

The development comes after another recent incident in which the Edge browser identified an installation file for Google Chrome as malicious, sparking discussions about competition among tech giants in the software industry. The combination of these developments raises questions about the nature of competition in the tech industry and its potential impact on user experience.