Just like on your phones, you’ll probably be less than pleased if you saw ads within the operating system itself. But it looks like that could be the direction Microsoft is going on with Windows 11. A test build has shown that ads to the company’s other products can show up while using File Explorer.
The revelation came courtesy of Twitter user Florian Beaubois, who showed a cutout of a screenshot with said ad to Microsoft Editor. It’s small enough that you could miss it, but at the same time, once you see it, you probably won’t be able to unsee it later.
Some people will go mad if Microsoft starts adding ads in explorer. pic.twitter.com/rusnyrYyX2
— Florian (@flobo09) March 12, 2022
In a statement to The Verge, Brandon LeBlanc, senior program manager for Windows, says that “this was an experimental banner that was not intended to be published externally and was turned off”. But as the report notes, not intended for now doesn’t mean not intended ever. Users could one day see this on a stable build on Windows 11.
While Microsoft is notoriously aggressive with pushing its Edge browser, it looks like the company will, in time, start being as pushy with its other products. Though some of you have have seen this already even with Windows 10, with the company occasionally pushing for you to sign up for OneDrive.
(Source: Florian Beaubois / Twitter via The Verge)
