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.

    • TwilightVulpine@lemmy.world
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      6 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.

      • ArtVandelay@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        I installed pop os and libre office on my wife’s laptop not long after Pop was released, and by now I don’t think she would know what to do on Windows or Mac. So proud of her.

      • EngineerGaming@feddit.nl
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        6 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 an experience with an involuntary upgrade on our family laptop years earlier).

      • PM_Your_Nudes_Please@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        I mean, you’re not wrong. Anticheat is pretty much the one thing that Linux doesn’t play nicely with. Given, it’s largely on the game producers to fix, not on the OS. But it’s still a valid complaint from an end user perspective.

        If Linux fans truly want to encourage migration, stifling valid complaints isn’t the way to do it. The issue with everyone going “oh it’s so easy, it’s so much better, you won’t regret it at all” is that as soon as a user encounters a hangup they’ll be more inclined to just abandon it altogether. Because if everyone is going “oh it’s so easy” but you’re not having an easy time with it, then you’ll quickly conclude that maybe it’s just not the right fit for you. And the people going “lul just don’t play those games then dummy” need to get some friends. Because when all of those friends are playing the shiny new game but they’re locked out of it due to their choice of OS, they may consider dual-booting Windows just to be able to keep up with their friends.

        But this is Lemmy and the Linux fanboys can’t tolerate a single toe out of line. So I guess it makes sense why you got downvoted.

        • kent_eh@lemmy.ca
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          6 months ago

          Anticheat is pretty much the one thing that Linux doesn’t play nicely with.

          It’s the other way around.

          Anticheat doesn’t play well with Linux.

          • ArtVandelay@lemmy.world
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            6 months ago

            An important distinction, for sure

            Edit: this was not sarcasm, I honestly agree. Lemmy needs a not sarcasm tag.

          • PM_Your_Nudes_Please@lemmy.world
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            6 months ago

            Did you stop reading right there to comment? Because I say exactly that in the very next sentence. I agree with you. It’s just odd that you’d quote that one specific sentence with a “well akshually” when I literally addressed that exact thing one sentence down.

        • laurelraven@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          6 months ago

          I will say the solution to that IS to not play those games, but that only starts to work when enough people do that to hurt the bottom line of the devs

      • ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca
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        6 months ago

        Honestly the best solution is to find alternatives

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

        • RageAgainstTheRich@lemmy.world
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          6 months ago

          Its not that easy. There is no alternative for some of the big games. I play genshin impact and honkai star rail and these games do not run on linux.

          I use linux but keep windows dual booted purely for these games.

          Asking people to give up their hobby is not a solution.

          • ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca
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            6 months ago

            Asking people to give up their hobby is not a solution.

            A solution doesn’t mean everyone will use it

            Even if no one uses it that is still what has to happen for devs to target Linux instead of Windows

            Imagine every Genshin player moved to Linux. Would the game move to Linux or just die?

          • Grangle1@lemm.ee
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            6 months ago

            I hear you, it sucks sometimes, especially with Asian-made games/software which LOVE locking themselves to one OS or platform literally for completely random, arbitrary reasons. You can still play them on mobile though. Especially given that you don’t quite want to install a Linux OS on your phone yet (I mean traditional Linux, not Android or a de-Googled Android offshoot) since that’s still largely a work in progress and not ready for primetime yet.

      • xthexder@l.sw0.com
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        6 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…

        • A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world
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          6 months ago

          shrug.

          its what I did. Its not that hard a sacrifice.

          really only asian mmos that had the obnoxious no-worky-linux anticheat to begin with, in my experience with what i played.

      • bitwolf@lemmy.one
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        6 months ago

        Technically they do work, but the publisher is blocking Linux.

      • httperror418@lemmy.world
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        6 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)

      • EngineerGaming@feddit.nl
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        6 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.

      • AbsurdityAccelerator@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        For now it just works. I have no complaints. I ran into just a few tiny snags and was able to resolve everything with a google search. It’s installed on my 10 year old desktop.

    • CaptKoala@lemmy.ml
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      6 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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        6 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.