Microsoft has enabled Begin menu advertisements within the non-compulsory KB5036980 preview cumulative replace for Home windows 11 22H2 and 23H2.
The corporate first introduced that it was engaged on including advertisements to the Home windows 11 Begin menu simply 12 days in the past when it started rolling out this characteristic to Insiders within the Beta Channel to assist customers uncover “great apps” obtainable within the Microsoft Retailer.
“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,” it defined.
Whereas it additionally mentioned that it often tries “out new experiences and concepts that may never get released with Windows Insiders to get feedback,” Redmond has now turned on the Begin menu advertisements for all clients who set up the non-compulsory April 2024 non-security preview replace.
“The Recommended section of the Start menu will show some Microsoft Store apps. These apps come from a small set of curated developers. This will help you to discover some of the great apps that are available,” the corporate mentioned on Tuesday.
Nonetheless, you possibly can flip the advertisements off by disabling ‘Present suggestions for suggestions, app promotions, and extra’ in Settings > Personalization > Begin.
As an non-compulsory replace, KB5036980 permits Home windows admins to check upcoming fixes and options launched with the Might Patch Tuesday. Nonetheless, in contrast to Patch Tuesday cumulative updates, it would not embody safety updates.
Home windows customers can set up this replace by going into Home windows Replace in Settings and clicking ‘Examine for Updates.’ Because it’s non-compulsory, you’ll be prompted to obtain and set up it by clicking a hyperlink.
You may also manually obtain and set up the KB5036980 preview cumulative replace from the Microsoft Replace Catalog.
Microsoft additionally experimented with advertisements within the Home windows 11 Begin menu in November 2022, selling a few of its merchandise, together with OneDrive, within the Begin menu’s sign-out flyout menu and increasing the characteristic in March 2023 with new “treatments.”
Redmond Microsoft additionally confirmed advertisements for its merchandise to Insiders within the File Explorer app in March 2021 and promoted Microsoft Edge within the Begin Menu of Home windows 10 one 12 months earlier than. Nonetheless, whereas testing the Microsoft Groups advertisements, it by chance broke each the Begin Menu and Taskbar.
