Microsoft officially bakes in another advertisement into Windows 11

It was only a few weeks ago that Microsoft continued with its plan to roll out a controversial Windows 11 update that implemented new advertisements into Windows 11, and now users have spotted yet another additional promotion now baked into Windows.

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The new advertisement from a few weeks ago was implementing a "Recommended" section within Windows 11's Start menu. This new section first began testing within Microsoft's Insider program and according to Microsoft the recommendations within the section will be for apps sourced from a "small set of curated developers" that will meet Microsoft's quality standards. Notably, users are able to switch off recommendations within the Personalization section of Windows 11.

Now, Microsoft has rolled out a new advertisement within the "Settings" option for Windows, and this advertisement is for its Game Pass subscription service. The advertisement was discovered in the latest Dev channel version 26120.470 (KB5037864). The new Game Pass promotion ties in with the company's previous statements regarding Game Pass growth on PC still being present, while it stagnating on Xbox consoles.

Presumably, the idea behind the new promotion is to make more Windows 11 users aware of the service that isn't traditionally exposed to gaming. Furthermore, users will only see the advertisement if they have the Home or Pro version of Windows 11 or have "actively" used the subscription service.

While being more targeted to a specific user, the new advertisement doesn't appear to be removable, and there doesn't appear to be any incentivization of signing up through the OS, such as a discount code or a free month. If the new advertisement isn't removable, it should at least come with some form of incentivization.