Microsoft Wipes Out Evidence Of Real Ads In Windows 11 Start Menu

Microsoft has backtracked on real ads in the Windows 11 Start menu.

Key Takeaways

Microsoft recently removed evidence of potential real ads in the Windows 11 Start menu.
Initial concerns arose when the Word “ads” was included in a toggle for recommendations.
Microsoft clarified that the mention of “ads” doesn’t indicate future ad plans.

There are lots of reasons many users don’t like the Windows 11 Start menu. But when evidence surfaced last month suggesting Microsoft could be working towards bringing real ads to the Start menu, it invited criticism even from people who don’t mind the flaws in the Start menu. Now, there is one more twist in the tale: the software giant has recently wiped out evidence suggesting real ads might be coming to the Windows 11 Start menu.

It all started when Microsoft changed the name of the toggle for showing recommendations for tips, shortcuts, and apps to include the word “ads” in Windows 11 Insider build 26200.5001 in the Canary Channel. Although there was no official announcement from Microsoft, that one small change led to people thinking that real ads in the Start menu are inevitable.

However, Microsoft has again changed the name of the toggle to what it was before the Insider build 26200.5001 rolled out last month. As spotted by @XenoPanther, the toggle now reads as Show recommendations for tips, app promotions, and more on the Settings app’s Start page in Windows Insider build 26212 for the Canary Channel. Simply put, you’ll no longer find any mention of real ads in the Windows 11 Start menu if you’re on the latest Windows Canary channel build.

According to Brandon LeBlanc, Senior Program Manager on the Windows Insider Program Team at Microsoft, the change in the toggle for recommendations that happened in April was identified as “a super old text string”. Hence, it has now been renamed to exclude reference to real ads in build 26212. In other words, Microsoft is denying that what happened last month doesn’t mean real ads are coming to the Start menu.

However, even if Microsoft does introduce ads at some point in the future, you’ll likely be able to toggle off the ads option or download third-party Start menu apps to get rid of any kind of recommendations.