8mo ago

Windows 11 Start menu ads are now rolling out to everyone

www.theverge.com Windows 11 Start menu ads are now rolling out to everyone

A new Windows 11 update is rolling out this week.

Microsoft is starting to enable ads inside the Start menu on Windows 11 for all users. After testing these briefly with Windows Insiders earlier this month, Microsoft has started to distribute update KB5036980 to Windows 11 users this week, which includes “recommendations” for apps from the Microsoft Store in the Start menu.

Luckily you can disable these ads, or “recommendations” as Microsoft calls them. If you’ve installed the latest KB5036980 update then head into Settings > Personalization > Start and turn off the toggle for “Show recommendations for tips, app promotions, and more.” While KB5036980 is optional right now, Microsoft will push this to all Windows 11 machines in the coming weeks.

Microsoft’s move to enable ads in the Windows 11 Start menu follows similar promotional spots in the Windows 10 lock screen and Start menu. Microsoft also started testing ads inside the File Explorer of Windows 11 last year before disabling the experiment and saying the test was “not intended to be published externally.” Hopefully that experiment remains very much an experiment.

426 comments

If I see your company or app advertised on windows 11, you can be sure I will be actively avoiding said company/ App. Even if I need the services advertised, I will be looking for an alternative just because.
- I have the same policy for pop up ads.
- I’m not sure these ads are even paid for by the developers of the apps that show up. It looks like this is an ad for the Microsoft Store in general, as Microsoft gets a percentage of any sales.
  
  They also may be included if you pay for your app to be on the homepage of the Microsoft store
  
  Yeah if your app has in app purchases or requires payment it probably can show up here. Probably in the contract you sign to put your app in the Microsoft store
- Don't disagree with the sentiment but I didn't think companies had this much leeway in how their ads were displayed.
  
  They can pick which type of ads they buy which this certainly will be its own premium category
- No candy crush for this guy!
  
  Or 1Password, apparently
- Meirl
- The only place this will be active is on the computers of home users who don't know how or don't care to deactivate it. The computers of the common clay of IT usage. You know. Morons.
  And to tie that meme in with an older one: A fool and his money are soon parted.
  
  I appreciate the Blazing Saddles reference 👌

How did the default attitude toward the user get so hostile? The amount of toggles you need to set just to have a smooth experience with minimal tracking is insane. The people in here defending it by the fact it can be disabled are missing the point: we shouldn't have to deal with it in the first place.
- You shouldn't. I haven't. Microsoft is a plague and a choice.
  
  You're not wrong, but there's a larger issue here: the fact that there's an alternative does not make what Microsoft is doing okay. This shit ought to be prohibited by consumer protection law.
  
  The choice is hard to make when Microsoft's garbage has been shoved down your throat for decades, it's the default pretty much everywhere and the only viable alternative, for 99% of the population, is Apple.
  Governments have been way too lenient and passive towards Microsoft for far too long
  
  You don't choose your childhood education. Microsoft and Apple offer schools deals to create adults dependent on it - after all they'll be using it in work too.
- This is a direct result of our Wall Street economy. Wall Street demands that each corporation's stock price shall increase every quarter. No matter what. If that means the customer is unhappy or that a corporation must consume itself from within. Doesn't matter.
- Pretty simple. Stock go brrrr.
- Fewer people are buying PCs now that Smartphones have replaced the need to have one for most uses, but Microsoft still has to make more money every quarter than the quarter before because the stock market doesn't value stable profits.
- It got here because it’s super profitable, and that’s all the C-suite cares about, and they’re the ones calling the shots at the end of the day.
  I also think that engineering ethics has, in general, been strongly de-emphasized, and true holistic ownership of technical products is now usually held by business and finance types instead of engineers, with all the negative consequences that that entails.
  Edit: also, don’t forget the Peter principle
- Having control over other people's computing gives you power over them: you can gain from their detriment. It's not like everyone is uncaring or greedy but even people with good intentions do not have infinite willpower to resist temptation. When the user doesn't like a change from an update their choice is usually to put up with it. Defending ads in a menu or opt-outs that should be opt-ins in hidden menus is less mental work than learning what an operating system is and that you can use a different one.
  By sharing the source code instead you give up that power - if you fail to be good to the users then other devs can work on it without you.
  
  You don't give up anything by sharing source code. If anything, you share your power with the world. All other perceived outcomes are attributes of capitalism baked into your thought pattern.
- MS doesn't care about the desktop operating system except how can they control it like Apple and iphones. All the money is in O365 and Azure these days.

Didn't I pay for the OS?
- You pay for the privilege of getting ads beamed directly to your desktop
- Sure, we've had first payment..
  
  "We've had one payment, yes. What about second payment?"
- I paid for 10.
  Which is why I never enabled TPM on my motherboard. I didn't pay for 11. I do not want 11.
  
  I paid for 7 and upgraded it to 10. I may go to 12 later on (Windows alternates between solid and awful, so 12 may be fine) but it's also quite likely I'll wind up moving to a Linux distro as my primary and keeping Win10 as a fallback. No way in hell am I touching 11.
- Did anyone pay for 11?
  Microsoft has been giving it free left and right.
  
  Everyone paid for a windows os, but they've been forcing upgrades for what I assume are completely unrelated reasons
  
  I did. I was naive and had just built a gaming pc. 10 was no longer for sale
- I didn't pay for the OS.

You know, I get if they want to do this to Home editions, but why in the world would they do this to all editions? At the very least, this should never apply to domain-joined computers.
- Money
  
  Seems short sighted to annoy the people who pay you the most money already.
- how soon do you think ms gets hit with a lawsuit because a malicious ad infected BlackRock or Deloitte or some shit
  
  If there's anything that I've learned, it's that lawsuits are more often than not, just a joke to the large companies.
  Hell it's often easier for them to just classify whatever fine they get slapped on the wrist with as a business expense, than to do the right thing, it seems.

I installed Linux Mint a few days ago. It's been great so far.
- Windows 11 made my girlfriend's laptop so slow, even she asked me to install Linux, and she is not even a techy type.
  
  Nature is healing!
  
  I installed pop os and libre office on my wife's laptop not long after Pop was released, and by now I don't think she would know what to do on Windows or Mac. So proud of her.
  
  I installed Mint for my elderly mom a couple years ago, because Windows 7 was EOL and even 10 would've been too slow (had an experience with an involuntary upgrade on our family laptop years earlier).
- I wanna like Linux but I play too many games with anti-cheats that just don't work on Linux yet :(
  
  I mean, you’re not wrong. Anticheat is pretty much the one thing that Linux doesn’t play nicely with. Given, it’s largely on the game producers to fix, not on the OS. But it’s still a valid complaint from an end user perspective.
  If Linux fans truly want to encourage migration, stifling valid complaints isn’t the way to do it. The issue with everyone going “oh it’s so easy, it’s so much better, you won’t regret it at all” is that as soon as a user encounters a hangup they’ll be more inclined to just abandon it altogether. Because if everyone is going “oh it’s so easy” but you’re not having an easy time with it, then you’ll quickly conclude that maybe it’s just not the right fit for you. And the people going “lul just don’t play those games then dummy” need to get some friends. Because when all of those friends are playing the shiny new game but they’re locked out of it due to their choice of OS, they may consider dual-booting Windows just to be able to keep up with their friends.
  But this is Lemmy and the Linux fanboys can’t tolerate a single toe out of line. So I guess it makes sense why you got downvoted.
  
  Honestly the best solution is to find alternatives
  If the audience stays on Windows then there is no incentive to support Linux
  
  As far as I know, pretty much the only anti-cheat that doesn't work on linux is the kernel-level malware kind. I personally avoid those games at all costs regardless. That's easy for me to say though, since I barely play any competitive games...
  
  Easy solution, stop playing those game /s
  
  Technically they do work, but the publisher is blocking Linux.
  
  Hopefully those games go to steam deck as that seems like a way to have a market share they might then cater for (I can't play BF on Linux due to the antichear requirements)
  
  check https://areweanticheatyet.com to see if they work, they might
  
  Demand better from the devs. And seeks out games that work on linux. There are plenty of them.
  
  Another option is playing not on your hardware entirely - at least where I live, there are computer clubs where you can use high-end gaming computers for a small per-hour fee.
- Welcome to the good life, with the exception of VR and (rootkit) anticheat for multiplayer, it's all smiles over here.
  Hope Mint treats you as well as it's treated me! (Even though most of my tinkering breaks stuff, reinstall incoming I suspect)
  
  I don't play anything multi-player so it's not an issue. And I have to little time to play single player games I can simply ignore stuff that's not compatible.
  As far as VR, I am holding out hope that valve will make a Quest like VR headset.
- What do you like and don't like about it so far? What system did you install it on?
  
  For now it just works. I have no complaints. I ran into just a few tiny snags and was able to resolve everything with a google search. It's installed on my 10 year old desktop.

I’m getting extremely close to making a tiny partition for windows (so I can play gamepass) and then using a Linux distro for my day to day. Are there still issues with Nvidia drivers on Linux? Its been a long time since I’ve run Linux.
- PopOS handles nvidia drivers perfectly.
  
  I recently installed Nobara with Nvidia on my three year old alienware desktop because of Windows 11 turning to advertising shit. Nobara is finicky enough that I might jump over to PopOS. Lots of shearing and frame skips in video, let alone in gaming. I don't have this issue on my other laptop with PopOS on it.
- I've used both Linux Mint and Manjaro, and my Nvidia card has done fine in both. I switched to Mint from Windows because it was easier and faster to set up under Mint (Windows was missing a bunch of drivers and the OEM's site didn't have updated ones). The only configuration I had to do was select the proprietary driver (and Mint has a nice little GUI for that). If you're on the fence, I highly recommend trying Mint.
  
  Seconded. Mint is the best distro for anyone who wants to get started with Linux with the least amount of hassle. Installation is a breeze and it just works.
  
  I installed Mint last night as a dual-boot and had a few issues, the boot loader would not load into Windows Boot Manager and when I manually selected Windows Boot Manager in UEFI Windows booted but hard locked until it reindexed the drive I partitioned for Linux.
  The Mint OS works fine, to be clear. My issue with the dual boot is mostly getting Windows to play nice.
- I have not tried it, but I’ve heard good things about bazzite as a good steam deck clone that has a strong community committed to Nvidia support.
  Worth looking into at least!
  
  steam deck clone
  No way Jose. If anything their approach is inspired by Fedora Atomic, which is the cornerstone of Bazzite.
  Other than that, yes, a very very solid approach for daily usage for casual gamers.
  
  Oh it’s my time to shine! I just installed bazzite onto my ROG Ally yesterday.
  It is pretty fantastic so far. Not perfect but very good.
  Also, it doubles as a pretty OK developer machine because it comes with buildutils, unlike the steam deck. I was able to get my Nix dotfiles set up on it and do a little Rust work to try it out.
  
  Bazzite is a neat concept, and I run it too. Still haven't gotten VR to work properly, though (Quest 2)
- I made it through two whole top level comments before getting to a switch to Linux comment.
  
  It was my turn this week!
  
  So you're saying we should do better?
  
  Indeed it's so weird the practically only alternative to Windows comes up when discussing Windows issues.
  Perhaps BSD or ReactOS should be mentioned more. Or people told to buy a whole new Mac and throw their computer away.
- I've had the rare issue with my 4070ti that probably wouldn't have been a problem with AMD, but most things run great. Using endeavorOS
- Not really. With the super easy, friendly distros it basically just goes.
  I switched to Linux Mint Cinnamon a while ago expecting to just fool around a bit but mostly boot back into windows to do stuff. I've now found that the ONLY thing I need to go back to windows for is when I'm forced by dumb policies to use an MSOffice product, which fortunately doesn't happen to often (and no, LibreOffice is absolutely not a sub for MS Office. The spreadsheet app is worse than google docs, and I'd rather work in typst than have to deal with the libreoffice writer -- especially as soon as I need to display an equation/figure/table of contents. Of course, I'd rather work in typst than deal with MSWord too...)
  That said, I don't really play games anymore. Games may still require frequent windows visits. But... I've been looking forward to a complete edition of horizon forbidden west and all accounts say it's linux compatibility is near perfect, so maybe things aren't so bad these days on the gaming front.
- Well I changed my nvidia settings from on demand to a lower value and rebooted Mint a few weeks ago. Then there was no display at all and several hours/days of searching led me to reinstall Linux again and I did not have good backups. There was probably an answer there, but my frustration with Linux is real!!! I still refuse to use anything else and flop between manjaro and mint. I think having proper system backups and a live USB ready to go is helpful...I'm much more defensive running Linux because I keep getting shitty surprises, but I still feel better about it over using windows.
  
  If you like arch based, may I suggest you try Garuda?
  It's a gaming distro, which I don't know if you care about, but it's very stable, should work with NVidia and has many quality of life features.
- But a tiny partition will not do for Windows.
- I did the same for the few game I can't run. Nobara installed working drivers in 1 click. My GPU runs a bit more than it should on the desktop but the last driver update made a big difference.
  Im planning on switching the Window install back to 10 since 11 is too shit.
- I switched to Pop OS a year ago and the Nvidia drivers are fine. There are definitely some things that are a pain in the ass. My fingerprint scanner won't work even though it is in the list of ones that work in fprintd and I don't feel like going through the process of submitting a ticket and troubleshoot it. Getting some games to run properly in WINE can also be a pain. Overall though, I'm fine with it.
- Tried the same thing, but ended up running into issues with Linux constantly and needed to use Windows more than I wanted, so just ended up back on Windows 10. Once all the shit is disabled it's perfectly fine. Linux is getting there, but still only really good for general web browsing/office suites (unless you wanna play around in the command line for ages).
  
  It's frustrating that the answer to any of the questions/issues I have are generally reams of commands and walls of text that I only partially understand. If I find answers at all now that all discourse is being sectioned in to walled gardens like Discord. 😬
- I haven't had driver related issues with nvidia for a long time, last was some kde wayland stuff fixed a while ago, before that using x no issues for a long time

Win11: less functionality, more ads
And what's with the weasel words like "recommended"? Just call them "sponsored" or "ads", like they really are.
- Are they sponsored? I was under the impression they were usually just Microsoft advertising their own shitty stuff? Ads, sure. But for it to be sponsored, someone else has to pay for them
  
  The screenshot shows 1password, which to my knowledge is not affiliated to Microsoft, so I think yes, they are sponsored
  
  Might not be sponsored directly, meaning 1password paid Microsoft, but: even if Microsoft just uses it to promote apps in their store it leads to their profit eventually.
- Windows 11 (and how much I like my experience with the Steam deck, if I'm being honest) has me seriously reconsidering switching to Linux for my gaming desktop
  
  I've only been playing games on Linux for the past year and it's been a pretty smooth experience. Go for it!

How hard is it to make a decent OS Microsoft? Haven't you got enough of our money already?
- Honestly they peaked at windows XP.
  I haven't needed a upgrade and every time for the past 15 years, it's been forced on me.
  
  XP was great, but Windows 7 was the peak.
  its been all down hill from 7.
  
  Win7 was somewhat better IMO, at least at one point.
  
  Nah, I preferred Windows 2000. It was basically XP, but without the stupid taskbar design. I also liked 98 SE or whatever it was called, and 3.1 was pretty okay as well at the time.
  
  XP was bad enough that I was determined to switch to Linux then. I think you have Rose colored glasses.
  2000 was windows Peak.
  
  well i mean tbf, most modern software doesnt work on XP anymore, so.
- The shareholders must be appeased.
- When your business model revolves around indefinitely maintaining backwards compatibility with every weird bug and quirk your enterprise customers baked into their workflows back in 1983 while also trying to be on the cutting-edge and constantly overhauling your products, it's hard to develop and maintain a modern operating system that isn't a completely horrible shitshow.
  
  Maybe they should branch Windows like in the old times of 9x and NT.
  Keep a backwards compatible version for companies and create a new clean OS from scratch like Apple did with OS X.

Oh look another reason why I’ll be switching to Linux next time I have to upgrade my pc. Fml I’m going to have to learn what a package manager is ew
- Fml I’m going to have to learn what a package manager is ew
  Two minutes later
  "Wait, you mean I get fast, convenient package delivery without being advertised to?"
- The package manager was actually one of the simpler things about switching to Linux in my experience
  
  Here i was thinking we were talking about men's underwear
  
  Package managers was one of things that I had hard time adjusting to when I first adopted Linux, since I was so used to just searching for software on the internet, downloading, and installing it when I was using Windows. Now that I'm comfortable with a package manager, I find the Windows experience of installing software to be so much worse. It's so much nicer to just install software using one or two commands in the terminal.
- Out of all of things in Linux a package manager most of the time is there to save your sanity.
- I feel angry when I have to hunt down the installer for an application under Windows, and then know I have to go find it again later to update it. I have no clue how I got by without a package manager on Windows. Though if they had one, you have to know it would be complete intrusive dogshit about 5 minutes into its existence.
  
  You can use the official WinGet package manager for Windows pretty easily.
  
  As a former Windows user, Chocolatey is a great way to get used to a package manager through Windows. I used it to install stuff like hwinfo or wiztree.
  
  i still dont fucking understand updating packages on windows. God forbid you install it in a different directory 3 months from now when you no longer remember where you installed it.
- I've been using some Linux flavor for about 15 years. The biggest thing about switching (at least back then) was I knew how to configure Windows just to my liking. With Linux it was a lot more difficult because I had to google everything. Like "how do I change the wallpaper?" How do I get the login screen to appear on the correct monitor, etc. It was just frustrating because I knew how to do this in Windows, but I felt like a major noob again with Linux.
  
  15 years ago, you had to google everything, but people starting today will find it much easier with any of the modern GUIs.
  Plus consider the whole systemd fiasco. Old timers find it difficult to adjust to such a different paradigm and lose so much knowledge, but someone new to Linux doesn’t have any previous knowledge in the way, and may find it more similar to their Windows experience
  
  Yup same here. But I've compiled my own kernel already....copy pasting instructions. I've chrooted to a failed X computer from a USB Linux to then fix X and go back to a good computer. I mean there are levels of engagement and it just takes time to learn. But certainly android users are using a Linux-like system themselves not knowing anything about the levels below where all the action is. You can make Linux as dumb as windows 3.0...well maybe not as dumb. And you can make it as configurable as you want. I mean, you could even rewrite all modules and recompile them such that if a virus is hitting all other Ubuntus or mints, your system would be fine because it was different by a single letter or something as such.
- use NixOS to get absolutely fucked.
  I use NixOS btw
  (don't actually use NixOS as your first distro. It is really amazing and cool, but the learning curve will be so steep, it will kill you)
- Dont forget dependencies
  
  I didn’t know about them in order to forget :,(
- package managers are your heaven, and a windows users hell.
  They're great.

Thank god I use linux
- So what you're saying is we need adverts in the console?
  
  Ubuntu is calling
  
  you can implement that yourself RIGHT NOW! just stuff a little single liner at the end of your .bashrc, it'll be run everytime you open it ez pz.
  
  Technically Ubuntu did that. Buuuut it was one line of text advertising that you can get ultra-long term software support on up to 5 PCs for free.
  To my knowledge it also only showed it once.
  So a lot more forgivable than MS's bullshit.
  That said, I still avoid Ubuntu for other reasons.
  
  Join the telnet channel now! Porsche cayenne fir free now!

Windows sucks. I wish I could put Linux on my work computer.
- I brought an acer leptop a couple of years back and acer made it nearly impossible to install any other os then windows onto it
  
  Because of Intel RST? I just had to deal with that but was able to get a dual boot of mint on my acer.
  edit For those who come across this who has the same issue as I did. Video: https://youtu.be/sGJL62ZYRTU?t=77 Text: Boot to your BIOS. Get to the MAIN tab and hit CTRL+S to show hidden bios option. Disable Intel RST. Exit and Save. Re attempt to install Mint.

How long until Mom gets malware from them?
- This is what i fear. How much curation and monitoring will be done on the ads, or this will be another vector for malicious application
  
  How long until we get to the default "I don't get paid to ask questions" mentality of ad services.
  
  I assumed it was "just" for apps in the Microsoft store. So they shouldn't get viruses, but that doesn't mean they aren't getting software that is garbage.
- Note:
  disable ads on moms notebook

"All you have to do is set some flags in GPO policy editor and relogin the first time and every time there's an update. Easy"
some Windows fanboi probably
- The post literally tells you that the option to turn it off is in the settings menu at: Settings > Personalization > Start Menu > “Show recommendations for tips, app promotions, and more "
  It's not good, but it's way better than you are making it out to be.
  
  At least until Microsoft decides to hide it deeper, like they do with all of their most useful options. Nothing like navigating fifteen layers deep into your settings just to change something basic.
  Hopefully WinToys will have an update with this option, so it won’t matter where Microsoft decides to move it this week.
  
  yeah and they also made an online account, optional.
  Good thing it's still optional.
- dude istg i see windows users coping harder than linux users.
  It's kind of sad.

And the wind screams Linux
- If only Linux wasn't so frustrating to use for the average enduser. I'd never recommend it as a daily driver for 95% of people.
  
  I'd argue that for the vast majority of users, a stable, modern Linux distro will meet their needs perfectly. Web browsing, watching YouTube, checking e-mail, looking at pictures of cats on the internet...
  It's special/professional use-cases that are still lackluster. Try doing professional level photo editing on Linux... It's a nightmare. Integrating with corporate cloud solutions? Nah. Are these things doable? Absolutely. By the majority of users in that specific use-case? No.
  But day-to-day, general use PC stuff? Yeah, absolutely. Even gaming is more accessible than ever. There's exactly one game in my Steam library that doesn't just work... To be clear, it doesn't work at all, but that's just because of my hardware setup. (Halo Infinite + Intel ARC + Linux = Game can't even launch. Worked fine with an AMD card, but when I upgraded late last year it borked. Known problem with Vulkan, DX12, and ARC)
  
  Windows is frustrating for average people, the thing is that they get used to ms bullshit because they think there are no other way.
  
  Understanding Linux kernel is medium hard, but not frustrating. Using a DE is NOT frustrating if you understand what's up with their core ideals. D-Bus, HOOKS, env variables... meh I can give you that. But 95% of users live in the web and/or office apps. And for that literally any flavor of Linux will do. My in laws would never in their lifetimes be able to distinguish Arch + KDE + SDDM + themes from Windows. I can bet my right testicle.
  
  Linux isn't frustrating at all. Not sure what you're on about.
  
  That's a fair criticism, but I wouldn't recommend Windows as a daily driver to 95% of people either. If you like/care/know about computers, use Linux, otherwise I'd recommend MacOS over Windows (unless said person uses their computer for gaming, in which case Windows'll give you the least hassle)

Everyone? This shit will be on my work computer???????
- I'm not sure tbh, but this should be deactivateable by gpos. Work machines should not be affected if the IT staff is on to it.
  
  I hope they are and the world will be forced to either make a law against it or goodbye windows because fu.
  Imagine having to pay employees to watch ads that make microsoft money, what a fucking joke that would be.
  
  what the fuck is a gpo? Is it like a gmo?
- When they rolled out the beta Microsoft said it wouldn't be, but they could always change their mind with the general release. Excerpt from a previous Verge article about the beta rollout (https://www.theverge.com/2024/4/12/24128640/microsoft-windows-11-start-menu-ads-app-recommendations):
  “This will appear only for Windows Insiders in the Beta Channel in the US and will not apply to commercial devices (devices managed by organizations),” says Microsoft in a blog post.
  Unfortunately, this article doesn't actually quote Microsoft saying it's rolling out to ALL machines. That bit in the article is from the author.

Yet another bullet dodged since my move to Linux, thank fuck. Fuck you cunts at Micro$hit.
- I like Linux, but I just use too many apps and programs that are only available for Windows. It's a no-go for me and, I suspect, many others.
- So angry
  
  Wouldn't be if they weren't constantly trying to load hardware I own with unwanted ads, software and unnecessary shit nobody asked for.

Think I will try Linux for real now
- Yeah I've been thinking that too. Not sure I have time to learn it though so I keep sticking with windows. But I really have to make the effort to switch.
  
  I'd suggest a cheap used or spare laptop/desktop with a beginner friendly distro like Linux Mint Cinnamon to learn on. Just use it for casual stuff -- you'll pick up what you need to learn as you go.
  That way if something breaks or you don't know how to do something while you're learning you're not "stuck".
  
  I just switched to Manjaro with KDE Plasma. The most complicated thing to set up was forcing steam to run games with the nvidia drivers, which took 5 minutes of adding a start parameter to my games.
  From a consumer perspective i even find many things easier than in Windows. It works out of the box. The package manager provides every tool you need, and if you want to change a setting, it is as easy as typing the name of the setting into the start menu.
  Seriously, if you do not want to dive deep, you can do everything without more complication than under windows, often even easier.
  
  I will just dual boot at the beginning and play around with Linux for a bit.
- Two big things to do before you decide that.
  Do you run nvidia graphics? cause they are a PITA and influence your distro choice (you'll want a distro that has nvidia drivers baked in.)
  If you game, go to https://www.protondb.com/ and check out a handful of the games you play. 99% of games work on linux with steams Proton (lets windows games run on steam), the only ones that dont are ones with invasive anti-cheat, so use protondb to see if any of your important games have issues.
  and as a final note of encouragement.. I made the swap years ago, it was daunting..and there were a couple issues, but overall, far more easy than I ever expected it to be. (for me, cause I built the PC with the switch to linux in mind, so all my hardware is AMD). I am not a sysadmin or anyone who had any significant experience linux before my swtich, and I switched cold turkey after a brief weekend of basic researching. In other words, I'm a moe-ran. So if I can do it, pretty much anyone can. Good luck with it if you do try to make the switch :D
  
  Thanks for the advice, my PC is already full AMD so I guess that makes it a bit easier? :D lucky
- Try Mint, it's nice :)
- Come to the dark side. We have ~~cookies~~ no ads
  
  Linux is a pathway to many abilities some consider to be.... unnatural.
- DO IT
- I reccomend fedora KDE
  
  Nobara.
  Its Fedora, but for gaming.

Why does the OS have to recommend you apps?
- In case you accidentally misplaced your brain in the trash, for example.
  
  Don't do computer tasks if you're drunk?
- Just in case you didn't have enough apps installed from the factory.
- Because they care about your experience and want to ensure you’re getting the most out of your computer by suggesting helpful productivity apps?
  
  rofl 🤣

Fucking unhinged idiocracy. Capitalism is the cancer of humanity

For those who want to stay on windows and avoid this trash:
https://github.com/Open-Shell/Open-Shell-Menu
An open source start menu replacement. Been using it for 6 months seamlessly and it’s great
- MS: "were just gonna break that next update...thaaaeeunnnks."
- cant wait until 6 months when this breaks completely.

"Tips and recommendations".
For years I had that turned on in Windoof 10 as it sounded like: "we see you're regularly doing X or having problem Y. Here is a way how to make X simpler and a solution for Y."
Instead it was nothing like that. It was literally nothing at all. Probably they just tried to shove some ads down my throat, which I luckily didn't see.
But it has become clear enough: it's not about helping users with useful tips and recommendations. It's about luring them into buying some stuff.
They can find new clever euphemisms, like EA did with their "surprise mechanics". But it is what it is: ads, digital noise, a waste of resources and probably one of the last incentives I needed to fully switch to a good Linux distro.
I used Windoof just for gaming anyway. And as I'm already working professionally with Linux, it will hardly be a miss.
- Corporate America has gone from providing value to extracting it...

Good thing I switched to Linux 10 years ago. No regrets.
- Sudoer for about 18 now. Full on Year of the Linux Desktop for about 5 years now.

I'm not even on Windows 11, lol. Dodging so many bullets from that shithole OS.
The only things preventing me from going full on Linux is driver support/compatibility, full gaming (we're talking, things from GOG more than Steam) and using the same utilities that run better on Windows.
- GOG Galaxy runs perfectly on Linux via Lutris. I use it all the time.
- I made the switch from W10 to Pop_OS for my gaming rig about 2 months ago. Beyond some hiccups with the experimental branch of proton and just getting used to the new UI its been great. Come on in, they water is fine.
  
  Yeah I use Garuda, but generally recommend kubuntu or mint for most people switching. Switching is so much less painful than I expected it to be
  
  My current full-stop is lack of support for a lot of peripherals, particularly music equipment.
- I switched in 2003, and I was happy to do it back then. I have an MSDN, support windows application development and back end Microsoft Services for a living. I still can't stand their crap.
  I do everything I could do in windows, play games, and generally have a better experience. If I absolutely need to access a windows desktop, I can RDP in an pay as you go Azure virtual desktop. But I will never have windows at home again.
- Lol

I'm just here waiting for my wife to finally snap and ask about getting Linux on her gaming PC. I've been using it for 20 years now. The complaints are becoming more and more numerous these days, it's only a matter of time.
- You could also disable all this shit pretty easily too, for about the same amount of effort as getting someone acclimated to a new OS.
  Every single bullshit thing these articles bring up, there's simple controls built into Windows to handle. Most easily through Group Policy with a Pro license, easily bought from an OEM license seller for $20 or just spoofed.
  For this bullshit in particular: Settings > Personalization > Start and turn off the toggle for “Show recommendations for tips, app promotions, and more.”
  
  That's the thing, she's getting tired of having to do all that bullshit and then getting a lot of it reverted during an update. The annoyances are starting to outweigh the convenience. She's not dumb, she knows her way around computers and is well aware of methods to disable this crap.
  
  for every person that figures out how to disable this stuff, there are many thousands of others who don't, don't bother, or don't even know it might be possible to... which is why they pull this shit in the first place--and (usually) get away with it.

The ~~spice~~ shit must flow

They can at least be disabled but it's always something with MS these days.

Realistically, how many years do you think Microsoft will support Windows 10? I dread having to switch to 11 some day, at the rate they're going.
- This is my line for biting the bullet and switching to Linux. I hope gaming gets to where I want it to be (braindead easy for anyone with 'actually' on their lips)
  
  I'm thinking the same regarding Linux, but I dunno shit about it and while I'm not totally computer illiterate, switching operating systems like that is very intimidating to me.
  
  Gaming is pretty close now thanks to the Steam Deck and Valve’s work on Proton. It depends on what games you play since some anticheat requires Windows or console but I mostly play single player games and have a console if I want to play something competitive.
  If you have a specific, competitive game you play, you might want to stick with Windows (or console) if support isn’t there. AMD GPUs are also better for Linux (because they open source their drivers) but Nvidia is getting better since a lot of machine learning customers use Linux. They have a huge financial incentive now that it’s data center customers complaining instead of random Linux users.
- Windows 10 eol is Oct. 14, 2025. 18 more months.
  
  Omg, this isn't long enough
- You mean, how long they will be actively putting trackers and malware into it? I mean, win 10 is where it all started, 11 is just continuing it.

turn off the toggle for “Show recommendations for tips, app promotions, and more.”
I turn this off anyway, as in Windows 10 it always kept pushing 3rd party apps. Is this ad any different to the Windows 10 "Suggested App" that was in the start menu for it?
- It's totally different because Linux!

I'm calling it now.
Windows 11 will be the new Windows 8. Or NT. Or millennium.
- NT? You mean Vista maybe? NT was a massive product line that was pretty popular, and the kernel touches most releases to this day.
  
  Yeah... NT was hugely successful and it's been the core of every Microsoft OS for over 20 years.
- There were no ads on Windows 8, NT, or ME

Lol. Another reason to be glad I don’t use Windows as my main OS.

Is there a way to GPO this 'feature' off? Worried about some of our users getting confused.
- Possibly, but these will change on the regular
- Of course, all those things just have a toggle.
  They get paid to implement the ads, not to enforce them.
  And even if they hadn't there would be a third party program somewhere that turns them off.

Me, on my Ubuntu machine: 🧐🤔😂😂😂😂😂😂
- yeah you get ads in the terminal instead
  
  Wait, what? Ubuntu spams you in the terminal?
  
  It's not an ad. Nobody is being paid to put that there. It's a promotion.
- Your comment is hilarious because Ubuntu placed ads for Amazon in the equivalent of start menu way before Microsoft even had that idea. Ubuntu now displays ads for Ubuntu Pro (or Premium, whatever the name is) in the terminal. Ubuntu is the Windows wannabe of the Linux world.
  
  Thankfully I stay away from the terminal whenever possible and I started using this thing after the ads from Amazon were no longer a thing xd
- "You need these updates!!!!! But they're only available with Ubuntu Pro."
  So.....
- Ubuntu is in the Microsoft Store. Maybe there will be an ad for that.

They aren't even labeled as ads/paid promotion, so I wonder if this even got legal's input. Something the FTC probably might be interested in.

This is the best summary I could come up with:
After testing these briefly with Windows Insiders earlier this month, Microsoft has started to distribute update KB5036980 to Windows 11 users this week, which includes “recommendations” for apps from the Microsoft Store in the Start menu.
“The Recommended section of the Start menu will show some Microsoft Store apps,” says Microsoft in the update notes of its latest public Windows 11 release.
Microsoft only started testing these ads two weeks ago, so it’s surprising to see this “feature” progress from the Beta Channel to release in such a short period of time.
At the time of initial testing I mentioned Microsoft “could decide to ditch these ads” if there was enough feedback that suggested they weren’t popular, but two weeks of feedback certainly isn’t long enough to determine that.
If you’ve installed the latest KB5036980 update then head into Settings > Personalization > Start and turn off the toggle for “Show recommendations for tips, app promotions, and more.” While KB5036980 is optional right now, Microsoft will push this to all Windows 11 machines in the coming weeks.
Microsoft’s move to enable ads in the Windows 11 Start menu follows similar promotional spots in the Windows 10 lock screen and Start menu.
The original article contains 303 words, the summary contains 200 words. Saved 34%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
- 2 weeks is most certainly enough time to read the listen in on the thousands of thousands of people saying fuck off Microsoft, stop with the fucking ads.
  Nobody outside of those getting profit thinks this is a good idea...literally no one.

Microsoft only started testing these ads two weeks ago, so it’s surprising to see this “feature” progress from the Beta Channel to release in such a short period of time.
Is it surprising, though? When earning more money is involved?

The direction Windows 11 is taking is terrible but i've tried on multiple occasions (even this morning!) to game and consume my content on Ubuntu or Fedora and i run into so much trouble, that ill have to stick with Windows 11. I have been using Ubuntu at work for the last 10 years though as web development is great on it.
Issues i have:
Lutris not finding GoG games
Heroic working, but not being able to sync savegames for GoG
Having installed GoG with Bottles and then the game itself works, but my framerate wasn't that great
Nvidia driver getting borked after kernel update, need to switch to old kernel, uninstall, switch to new kernel, reinstall
Mangohud flatpak not working together with Goverlay repo version
Need alternative for Synology cloud sync. Maybe Syncthing or rsync with SMB
And i need alternatives for fps limiting, undervolting and cpu undervolting. Haven't put enough time into it yet though
I like the mouse acceleration on Windows and in KDE both flat and adaptive feel pretty flat. Probably can be tweaked with xinput or something, but you can't configure the acceleration amount by default
Maybe one day, but for now Windows is probably just the better choice for me and gaming (on a laptop). At least in Windows 11 they now allow you to not group the taskbar by default..
- If you're not ready to switch, most of the issues and anti consumer shit with Windows can be managed through a combination of Group Policy, Registry, various settings and configurations menus, and a wee bit of PowerShell.
  
  I used to post comments like this on Reddit. I’m an expert in PowerShell, group policy, and Windows enterprise management in general. Point being I know how to do all that stuff. Over 99% of Windows users do not. But I completely decrapified my Win10 install and was mostly happy with it.
  When it was time to go to Win11 I realized all this effort is just Stockholm Syndrome. I shouldn’t have to protect myself from the maker of my OS. And it’s clearly getting worse so why put in the continual effort?
  Moved to Tumbleweed a month ago on my main home PC. Microsoft is just my day job again, and I feel so much relief not having to be on guard for whatever shady shit they pull next.
  Edit: to be clear I’m not critical of your post. It’s nice to educate those that want to protect themselves. I’ve just come to realize there’s a better way for me.

I'm still ok with windows 10 and by the time it's no longer supported, proton should be mature enough for me to make the jump with no regrets.

Note that you can turn the ads off quickly and easily. I agree that there's someone off-putting about an operating system with built-in ads, but a tech-savvy person will see them once and then never again. (A person who isn't tech-savvy probably won't care.)
- My money is on them being re-enabled after every update.
  
  Ah, the ol' "Please use Edge" update screen that pops up every few months.
  
  This setting exists on 10 and I've never had it re-enable itself.
- I'll still be using Windows (no time for Linux), but really, why does the user have to do this for a pleasant experience? MS shouldn't be hostile towards their users.

I really, really wish Linux worked better on my gaming laptop. I used it for many years on desktop as my only OS (hopped many distros and ended back on mint) but on laptops I just can't find a distro without considerable issues. Whether it be display scaling problems, performance, not being able to switch my video card mode, etc...
- nvidia card im guessing? Switching using nvidia is almost never fun. Theoretically i think proprietary drivers should maybe support this, but i've never tried.
  Scaling problems are usually related to having multiple monitors, so i'm confused that you were having those, unless you were using multiple monitors, then it would make sense.
  
  Yep, Nvidia. As for the scaling issues I'm not sure either. UI elements were fine but no matter what desktop environment I used, some things (though I can only remember steam immediately) would be super tiny in full 1080p instead of scaling with the rest of the applications. Didn't try tiling window managers because honestly I don't enjoy them so no comment on that one.
- Linux has huge problems on my laptop, cause HP in their infinite wisdom decided to disable S3 sleep at firmware level. I still find myself dreading the thought of reinstalling windows though. I'd rather manually shut off my laptop every time I stop using it than go back to that awful proprietary OS.
- I just got a Framework laptop, and it’s really refreshing to have everything (literally everything) just work out of the box.
- Running a 4k 27" monitor under KDE Neon 2.0.4, fractional scaling works better than it does under Windows.

Have fun with em kids

I finally activated windows last week through the cmd... Didn't pay a cent
- How?
  
  massgrave.dev
  
  I won't post a specific website but if you search it you'll find tons of guides on how to do it.

If I could get easy to access, judgement free tech support for Linux then I'd be fine (outside of walled gardens like Discord). I just don't know how to solve my problems in Linux especially considering there are so many additional variables and often you either don't get answers, are asking in the wrong place, or are asking in the wrong way. A lot of the time you just get scorn for not being born a Linux power user.
I do feel like I have basically no choice but to switch once W10 runs its course. I've got a dual boot of Fedora 40 KDE that I'm toying with.
- honestly, i love helping people with linux, so you can just pm me either here, on discord or on matrix and ill reply as soon as i can
  
  My current woes relate to choosing a distro (Fedora 40 KDE) that is compatible with secure boot, for simplicity of dual booting, only to find that the DisplayLink driver that I need to run my screens is not signed. Therefore I either have to switch off Secure Boot anyway, or manually re-sign it after every kernal update with some convoluted series of terminal commands... which I will not be doing.
  That and there not being an equivalent of the CRU configuration tool that lets me tweak my Freesync monitor's ranges to stop intolerable brightness flickering.
  Finding that none of the useful AMD Software settings like Fluid Motion Frames or Anti-Lag are supported is also a random pain.
  Every attempt I go for, I generally find roadblock after roadblock until I give up because I have too limited a lifespan to spend it bouncing between forum pages tangentially related to my issue.

I am just waiting for a malware developer or state actor to use this as a way to infect computers with 0-days.
This is a disaster. Why anybody would decide to use Windows for any serious workloads is unfathomable to me.
Office products are mostly cross-platform (outlook, word, excel).

Finally! Seemed unfair that only a select few were getting these initially.
Anyone remember when OS updates were actually something we looked forward to?

Linux.

Do Win 10 LTSC users still get shoveled this shit? I'm asking for a friend.
- I haven't gotten shoveled this shit for the entire course of my install, which has been since win 10 came out

We need to hunt down whoever these ads are working on.

Good thing Ubuntu 24.04 LTS comes out tomorrow. I’ll be doing a reinstall on my machine and sticking with it until the next LTS release in two years.

I got my first notification on my Win10 Pro box today about support ending too

I'm on 10 still. (And if I wasn't a gamer and sucker for games that don't work on Linux - I would be on Arch)
- Proton works wonderfully these days.

And they called Google scroogle😆

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