Microsoft is placing ads in the Start menu of Windows 11 beta testers. While there’s no guarantee that Redmond will roll out the feature across the board, Microsoft continues to look for ways to put more unwanted ads in front of users.

Microsoft is checking whether it can get away with advertising in the Windows 11 start menu. According to The Register, the company places these advertisements in the form of “recommended” applications in the Start menu of beta testers in the US. Although the test is currently limited and Microsoft has not indicated that the feature will necessarily be rolled out across the board, the experiment shows that Redmond is still looking for ways to push more advertising on users.

This test involves so-called recommended applications, which are regular apps. Users can disable the feature. The plan is reminiscent of an earlier attempt by Microsoft to inject advertising into Windows Explorer. After ongoing protests, the company had to shelve these plans. Previously, Microsoft also wanted to place advertising in its settings menu.

Sustained attempts

Microsoft isn’t afraid to use its paid software as a showcase for other features and applications. Anyone who pays for a private Microsoft 365 account is already familiar with the advertising banner at the top of Microsoft Word that occasionally asks you to download one or another function that you probably deliberately did not use.

It’s unclear why Microsoft continues to be so passionate about advertising in its own applications. The Windows stable regularly mentions how important user feedback is, and this time it’s negative too. At no point in Windows history have unwanted advertisements been welcomed by the majority of users, and Microsoft is aware of this. Hearing and listening are of course two different things.