Microsoft has began testing advertisements within the Home windows 11 Begin menu, a brand new experiment the corporate says will assist customers discover new “great” apps within the Microsoft Retailer.
The trial is now rolling out within the Beta Channel to what Redmond describes as a “small set of Insiders” who’ve put in Home windows 11 Insider Preview Construct 22635.3495.
“Building on top of recent improvements like grouping recently installed apps and showing your frequently used apps, we are now trying out recommendations to help you discover great apps from the Microsoft Store under Recommended on the Start menu,” the corporate mentioned.
Microsoft says the app advertisements will seem solely on Home windows Insiders methods within the U.S. and never on managed units in enterprise environments.
These advertisements will probably be displayed within the Begin menu’s Advisable part, amongst not too long ago added purposes and ceaselessly opened information and packages, as The Verge first reported.
Throughout this take a look at section, customers can flip the advertisements off from Settings > Personalization > Begin by toggling off the “Show recommendations for tips, app promotions, and more” possibility.
This is not the primary time Microsoft has experimented with advertisements within the Home windows 11 Begin menu. In November 2022, the corporate began selling a few of its merchandise (together with the OneDrive file internet hosting service) within the Begin menu’s sign-out flyout menu.
Whereas initially rolled out as a part of an A/B testing experiment, the brand new “feature” was expanded one yr in the past with new “treatments,” that are now proven to customers who’ve put in the March 2023 preview replace or newer updates for Home windows 11.
In March 2022, Microsoft additionally displayed advertisements for some Microsoft merchandise (together with Microsoft Editor) within the File Explorer app as a part of one other Home windows Insider take a look at and Microsoft 365 Household subscriptions to Workplace 2021 clients in March.
Redmond additionally promoted its Microsoft Edge net browser within the Home windows 10 Begin Menu two years in the past and by chance broke each the Begin Menu and Taskbar whereas testing Microsoft Groups advertisements on some Home windows Insider builds.
“As a reminder, we regularly try out new experiences and concepts that may never get released with Windows Insiders to get feedback,” Microsoft added as we speak.
“Should you see this experience on the Start menu, let us know what you think. We are beginning to roll this out to a small set of Insiders in the Beta Channel at first.”
