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.

      • httperror418@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        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)

      • ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca
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        7 months ago

        Honestly the best solution is to find alternatives

        If the audience stays on Windows then there is no incentive to support Linux

      • xthexder@l.sw0.com
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        7 months ago

        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…

      • EngineerGaming@feddit.nl
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        7 months ago

        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.

    • TwilightVulpine@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      Windows 11 made my girlfriend’s laptop so slow, even she asked me to install Linux, and she is not even a techy type.

      • EngineerGaming@feddit.nl
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        7 months ago

        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 ab experience with an involuntary upgrade on our family laptop years earlier).

    • CaptKoala@lemmy.ml
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      7 months ago

      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)

      • AbsurdityAccelerator@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        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.