Microsoft has been doing a soft-shoe-shuffle regarding the use of ads as a subsidy for its Windows development, but it looks like the song and dance from the company may be coming to an end as its explicitly states ‘ads’ are coming to the Starte Menu.
Unless there is some major change in the direction of the Windows Insider build pipelines, it looks like Microsoft will finally cop to the inclusion of ads appearing in Windows via the Start Menu.
Twitter user Albacore, aka @thebookisclosed, found a new string of text after enabling an experiment 48797684 in the latest Windows Insider Canary channel release that specifically mentions that the Start Menu will “Show recommendations for tips, shortcuts, new apps, ads, and more.”
Microsoft has been adding recommended apps to the Start Menu of Windows users since Windows 10 and the most vocal opponents to the practice have rightly identified as unwanted ads since most of the time the apps take up valuable visual real estate.
In addition to being a reminder of the lack of initial customization Windows users have with the Start Menu, the recommended apps are inconsistently applied to the operating system with some of them being pre-installed while others are simply an icon placeholder for an additional download of the app.
While Microsoft doesn’t appear to be backing down from its questionable recommended ad practice, it does seem it will try to be more targeted in its approach.
Albacore recently found a new UDK API that makes a request to Edge that could help pull user preferences and browser personalization into the Start Menu to power better targeted app recommendations, so users aren’t always presented with the latest cash grabbing microtransactions game from unknown indie developers.
Anecdotally, Microsoft’s recommended ads don’t bother me as much as its lazy application of the process.
There is no excuse for recommending Office 365 to paying Office 365 customers.
If Microsoft continues to fine tune its Edge porting from Google, and can bring those same preferences, settings, and personalization’s into the Start Menu, perhaps they could be successful in recommending apps people will actually pay for and download more often.
