Microsoft's latest bribe to use Edge or Bing is a prize of $1,000,000 in new sweepstake

Microsoft is offering a prize of $1,000,000 as a fresh incentive to switch over to use its search engine, Bing, or web browser, Edge, or indeed other services.

This is part of the Microsoft Rewards loyalty program, a scheme whereby you pick up reward points by using Microsoft services such as the aforementioned products.

Windows Central flagged up the new million-dollar sweepstakes program, which was announced via an email from Microsoft that the tech site received, and is also detailed on an official website.

The broad idea is that the 'Ultimate Giveaway' will reward one person with said $1,000,000, and another 10 entrants will get prizes of $10,000 - not too shabby by any means.

Signing up for the sweepstake gives you five entries, and you can earn further entries by using Microsoft products as mentioned. The more entries you have, obviously the more chance of your lucky number coming up, as it were.

Currently, using Bing can get you some fresh entries, as can installing the Microsoft Rewards extension in your browser - so can implementing a Windows Backup, too. Referring friends to sign up for the sweepstake will get you entries for each person you point in the direction of the scheme, as well.

The maximum number of entries that you can accumulate is 200, incidentally, though it'll take some doing to push up to that level.

The sweepstake is open to those in the US, Puerto Rico, and the United Kingdom, France and Germany.

Microsoft Rewards points can be clocked up fairly swiftly if you're prepared to ditch Chrome (or whatever browser you use) for Edge, Google for Bing, and so forth - and going all-in with the scheme can actually get you some quite tasty rewards, million-dollar sweepstake aside. Although obviously this latest prize is a real eye-opener.

The carrot this time, not the stick

Still, not everyone will want to use Bing or Edge, and indeed there are doubtless folks out there who wouldn't use these services on principle - mainly due to how aggressively Microsoft has pushed them with its various recommendations in Windows 11 (and 10) over the years.

Suggestions or recommendations bordering on advertising - and some are outright adverts, frankly - has been an unwelcome developing motif in the Windows operating system, sadly.

In other recent Microsoft news, the software giant has announced that for the first time ever, consumers will be able to extend the shelf life of Windows 10 when it hits end of life by purchasing a year's worth of additional support. That will cost you $30, and will carry you through to October 2026.