Security News > 2024 > April > Microsoft now testing app ads in Windows 11's Start menu
Microsoft has started testing ads in the Windows 11 Start menu, a new experiment the company says will help users find new "Great" apps in the Microsoft Store.
Microsoft says the app ads will appear only on Windows Insiders systems in the U.S. and not on managed devices in enterprise environments.
This isn't the first time Microsoft has experimented with ads in the Windows 11 Start menu.
While initially rolled out as part of an A/B testing experiment, the new "Feature" was expanded one year ago with new "Treatments," which are now shown to users who have installed the March 2023 preview update or newer updates for Windows 11.
In March 2022, Microsoft also displayed ads for some Microsoft products in the File Explorer app as part of another Windows Insider test and Microsoft 365 Family subscriptions to Office 2021 customers in March.
Redmond also promoted its Microsoft Edge web browser in the Windows 10 Start Menu two years ago and accidentally broke both the Start Menu and Taskbar while testing Microsoft Teams ads on some Windows Insider builds.
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