Windows 11 updates Start Menu with louder Microsoft advertisements

Microsoft has slowly been changing Windows 11 to feature more advertisements for its products, pushing users to adopt its services such as OneDrive, Microsoft 365, Xbox Game Pass, and more.

2

It was only last week Microsoft was caught turning on automatic OneDrive folder backup in Windows 11 without asking for the user's permission. New installs of Windows 11 were automatically found to have OneDrive backup on, meaning folders such as Desktop Pictures, Documents, Music, and Videos will automatically sync to a user's OneDrive account. Additionally, Microsoft recently took a step toward removing local Windows accounts.

Now it's been discovered that Windows 11's Start Menu is going to get slightly louder with advertisements for Microsoft's products, or at least that is what the latest test versions of Windows 11 that's available to Windows Insiders reveal. Build 26120.961 has introduced a redesign to the Start Menu, as users will be able to easily navigate to their Microsoft products, such as Microsoft 365, Xbox Game Pass, and OneDrive cloud storage. The above image showcases the difference between the Windows 11 builds.

While this change may seem minuscule, it's only one of many that Microsoft has made in recent months to push its Windows 11 users to use its products.

• Read more: Windows 11 'Government Edition' has zero bloatware, no system requirements
• Read more: Microsoft confirms existence of 'Skeleton Key' jailbreaking AI to make it evil
• Read more: Microsoft hack was worse than it seems as more customers are told their emails were stolen