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.

  • KillingTimeItself@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    1·
    7 months ago

    genshin impact and honkai star rail

    aren’t these both like pay 2 win, or at least free to play? Isn’t the whole genre of these games to make money off of it’s players?

    Sounds like a really healthy hobby.

    • RageAgainstTheRich@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      7 months ago

      If you want the characters, yeah. I have been playing since it came out and never paid a cent.

      While playing you get a ton of the gems you need to get characters. I play for the story and the world and music etc. If i get a character, that’s great. If i don’t, i don’t.

      The whole game and story and world is free. Only the characters cost gems.

      The only part to me that is pay to win is the abyss, but even that i got through with my free characters.

      Also, it’s not nice to tell me my hobby isn’t healthy when you don’t know me or how i play.

      • KillingTimeItself@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        1·
        7 months ago

        Also, it’s not nice to tell me my hobby isn’t healthy when you don’t know me or how i play.

        i mean, i just said it sounds like it. Doesn’t even mean im right or wrong. We all have really unhealthy habits, and hobbies tend to accentuate them as well.