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Microsoft IT Technology

Microsoft is Testing Ads in the Windows 11 File Explorer (bleepingcomputer.com) 164

Posted by msmash from the but-of-course dept.
Microsoft has begun testing promotions for some of its other products in the File Explorer app on devices running its latest Windows 11 Insider build. From a report: The new Windows 11 "feature" was discovered by a Windows user and Insider MVP who shared a screenshot of an advertisement notification displayed above the listing of folders and files to the File Explorer, the Windows default file manager. As shown in the screenshot, Microsoft will use such ads to promote other Microsoft products, for instance, about how to "write with confidence across documents, email, and the web with advanced writing suggestions from Microsoft Editor. As you can imagine, the reaction to this was adverse, to say the least, with some saying that "File Explorer one of the worst places to show ads," while others added that this is the way to go if Microsoft wants "people ditching Explorer for something else."
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Microsoft is Testing Ads in the Windows 11 File Explorer More

Microsoft is Testing Ads in the Windows 11 File Explorer

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  • First freezers doors now file browsers, we have to put an end to this, before they start putin it in bombs.

  • You can show me ads in local software when you start paying ME to run it. Free as beer with ads is fine and fair if you're hosting it but if I am hosting it, I expect a check!

    • It's ok, it's exactly one network trace and pi-hole rule from being shitcanned, just like the user-surly advertisements and shitty pop-culture streaming garbage Samsung put in their "smart" TVs.

      • It's ok, it's exactly one network trace and pi-hole rule from being shitcanned, just like the user-surly advertisements and shitty pop-culture streaming garbage Samsung put in their "smart" TVs.

        Hope you enjoy your pi [wikipedia.org].

        • I did. A local bakery celebrated by having "mystery boxes" of 3 slices of random pies for a discount. The chocolate bourbon pecan pie was delicious.

    • It's funny because you think Microsoft cares about what you think.

      Remember when we stopped enforcing anti-trust laws because we voted in pro-corporate, anti-consumer politicians who were slick talking actors that made us proud to be an American instead of boring old administrators?

      Pepperidge Farm Remembers, and now they're in your file explorer.

    • You can show me ads in local software when you start paying ME to run it.

      And paying for the network bandwidth used. I can see this causing some people real problems.

    • You can show me ads in local software when you start paying ME to run it. Free as beer with ads is fine and fair if you're hosting it but if I am hosting it, I expect a check!

      You'll be sorely disappointed if you're expecting a check. The answer - and to be fair this was apparent LONG ago - is to switch away from Windows (and macOS/iOS) if you care about this sort of thing. I don't think there's much point clinging to the possibility that these companies will change their policy on this.

      Apple has been doing the same thing in iOS for some time, the top of the settings app is an item to take you to your Account settings and the next 2 below that are advertising trials for Apple TV

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by DarkOx ( 621550 )

        Yeah, I abandon windows personally after win2k. I abandon it professionally after Windows 8.1.

        Win10 was even enterprise is just usable. I have played around with Azure a bit; but despite concluding it would be as good as AWS for hosting our stuff, Microsoft's client/user hostile history really tipped the scales in Amazon's favor.

        The most outrageous thing about Azure IMHO in that in the 2020's where infosec has been recognized as one of the most important things you can get right, and Microsoft wants to be

  • Nope (Score:2)

    by endus ( 698588 )

    I've used Windows since the 90s, and have never seriously considered using anything else.

    If Microsoft starts showing ads in explorer or otherwise in Windows, I will move off the platform. We're already inundated with ads, it's getting more and more insane all the time, and if I have to see it on my own PC as well that is a dealbreaker.

    • If Microsoft starts showing ads in explorer or otherwise in Windows, I will move off the platform.

      Sorry but that's an lame threat. If you haven't moved off due to the product placement in the start menu for games like candy crush, or the pop-up ads on the task bar for edge, or even the ads for OneDrive identical to the ones in this article which have existed for a while, you're not actually serious on leaving.

      • I haven't seen any of this. I got Windows 10 relatively late though and was on 8.1. There were some pre-populated icons on the start menu when I upgraded but I just removed them. I also have no Microsoft ID.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by splutty ( 43475 )

        Run Pro, and modify/configure it correctly, and you will never see any of that.

        Windows 11 doesn't so far seem to have those options, however.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Reziac ( 43301 ) *

        Except that at least through Win10, I can disable the stupid ad crap in the menu by merely installing ClassicShell (er, OpenShell) which I would anyway, because I hate the launcher-style menu regardless of OS or desktop (I'm lookin' at you, Cinnamon). I don't use Edge so I don't see what it's peddling either.

        Ads (and other stupid behavior) I can disable or suppress aren't bothering me, it just wastes their money and does me no harm.

        But the file manager is different; I know of no replacement that's quite equ

        • But the file manager is different; I know of no replacement that's quite equivalent (I've tried a bunch, and find them in various ways annoying, lacking, or unstable),

          Dual pane file managers are far superior to Explorer (or Finder, for that matter). Starting with Norton Commander in the late '80s, moving to Total Commander on Windows in the '90s, and now Double Commander in both Windows and Linux, dual pane file management is just SO much easier and better in every way. Like Norton Commander before it, Total Commander supported zip files as folders when it was released. Microsoft didn't support zip folders until Windows XP, a decade later. Microsoft put tabs into Exp

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by znrt ( 2424692 )

      i wouldn't take this seriously. not that it isn't possible, and not that some degenerate might have actually thought of the idea (some obviously has hence that test code being discovered), but i wouldn't worry.

      anyway, rest assured that windows is not the only way to use personal computers, and not even the best one by a long shot. so worst case you do have alternatives.

    • I bet you won't move off to something different, we all say this but out dependent on the windows eco system is far too strong. What will happen is you will use an ad blocker someone is bound to make to circumvent this, or use a hacked windows file explorer, or use a different file explorer altogether, bot a different operating system

  • Microsoft used an identical delivery method to push adds for OneDrive in the File Explorer years ago. This isn't new.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Megane ( 129182 )
      I made my decision to move away from Windows about ten years ago when they silently "pushed" 6.5 gigabytes of Windows 10 updater to my Windows 7 laptop, which had 7 gigabytes of free disk space. (I'm mostly a Mac guy still using 2012-era stuff, so taking my time, but finally built a proper Linux desktop two months ago.)
  • My dual boot defaults to Kubuntu, with Win11 ready if I need it to help somebody with a problem. I've also started actively promoting the idea of leaving the MS BS behind. I thought Win11 was arrogant and presumptuous before but this really takes the cake.

  • Make it look like a warning?!? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by misnohmer ( 1636461 ) on Monday March 14, 2022 @04:09PM (#62357467)
    The ad has an exclamation in a triangle, a common icon associated with warnings. That is a sure way to train users to completely ignore warnings. New generation of MBA's designing features at Microsoft? But hey, at least they put a lot of effort into ensuring the wording used in their user manuals/guides is least likely to offend even the most sensitive snowflake.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      90% of advertising is some kind of malware. That's why we have to block all of it. That's why people are going to cling to Windows 10 until the end of support, and hope that Windows 12 comes along by then.

  • I've removed malware from systems that displayed adverts in the file explorer back in the Windows XP days. No, I don't mean Internet Explorer.

  • This could be a great idea, if they restrict the display of ads to unregistered/unlicensed versions of Windows.
    If you have a full, legit product key or hardware entitlement, then no ads.
    If you're running an unregistered version of Windows, then ads for you!

    • Restricting ads to unregistered/unlicensed versions of Windows is a great idea, but Microsoft's bean counters are far too greedy to go for it.

      • They're idiots. The obvious path to maximize revenue is to sell me an enterprise-grade LTSB license so I can avoid all this shit... but they refuse to do it.

        They could charge $1000 a year, and I'd probably pay it without (much) complaint.

        But the idiots won't do it, because they think shoving ads and garbage in my face is somehow more lucrative.

        • They're idiots. The obvious path to maximize revenue is to sell me an enterprise-grade LTSB license so I can avoid all this shit... but they refuse to do it.

          They could charge $1000 a year, and I'd probably pay it without (much) complaint.

          But the idiots won't do it, because they think shoving ads and garbage in my face is somehow more lucrative.

          That's because in the big picture, it is. Sure, you and a handful of others would pay $1,000 for a Windows licence, but the others would not. So, if they sell ads to a captive audience, they can get paid far more than an ad on a random web page. With this, they get paid by everybody. And, what the bean counters want most of all is a stable revenue stream. Wall Street prefers that they can guarantee X revenue to cycle on a monthly basis rather than spikes of profit with lulls in between. Now, none of t

  • So glad Linux gaming is starting to look more & more like a reality, while taking away users from Windows

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by waspleg ( 316038 )

      Windows 10 was already malware/spyware, this is just a continuation of sewage without a treatment plant.

    • I'm not ready to game on Linux yet (I doubt performance and compatibility will be comparable to Windows in the short term) but I'd be willing to dual-boot and use Windows just for games.

  • Seriously? How did we reach a point where advertising became such a money maker that shoving more and more ads in everyone's face is seen as a net positive by the business community? Ads in our cars, ads in our home if you buy IoT products, ads in our phones, ads in our browsers, ads everywhere. At what point do the ad companies get that all that noise shoved in our face constantly just leads to us ignoring all of it. I mean, our choice is either learn to ignore it, or go schizophrenic to the extreme trying

    • ...where advertising became such a money maker ...

      Because people wouldn't pay for data over time. So Facebook and google needed another way to make money from subscribers. Worse, they needed to pay someone to make content: walls for Facebook and Android applets for Google. Linking such a reward to content popularity was a failure of capitalism, not its success. So, the process was designed for failure: click-bait on Facebook; script-kiddies offering identical ad-driven applets on Google.

      ... a net positive by the business community?

      Radio and Tv are limited in the number of adverts per minute all

      • Since large applications have telemetry, this also allows them to place advertising inside their User Interface. When one business decides to monetize such behaviour, every other corporation jumps on the band-wagon. Thus, a race to screw-over the non-paying customer begins. That customer, not having control of settings, or wanting the latest iShiny, agrees to this dehumanization, visual pollution and mental trash-fire because it includes the latest security 'update'.

        The problem to me is when this bullshit invades paid-for apps and OSes. Free = ads, sure, no problem. Pay for premium, still get ads? Nope. Completely unacceptable.

    • It's a matter of desperation. The middle class has been hammered, and we have a consumer economy where a large proportion of the population is broke. So the fight over the tiny amount of discretionary income still on the table is increasingly intense.

      The boomers who generally do have money have everything they want, so that market is dying, literally. The millennials who inherit something will be paying off debt and stashing the rest for their retirement. The zoomers have been set back two years by the pand

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Reziac ( 43301 ) *

      It's a money maker for marketing departments, not for the company whose products are being hawked. Don't forget we are not the target customer; the guy who buys the ads for his company is the target. It keeps marketing departments in cushy jobs, and that it annoys everyone else, and may not even sell enough product to make up the cost, is irrelevant.

      But we are headed toward Max Headroom, with an ad on every surface and the entire economy being marketing departments selling to each other.

  • All they are going to do is create reasons for customers to migrate to competing platforms like OSX. I would say Apple will be the biggest winners from this decision. That's where the vast majority of regular people will look when the ads start to get in the way of their day to day use of their home computer.

    Personally, except for a 2 year stint when I had to choice, I have been using Linux for work for the last 20 years. At home, my Windows install borked itself during an update on my dual boot computer 2

    • All they are going to do is create reasons for customers to migrate to competing platforms like OSX. I would say Apple will be the biggest winners from this decision.

      Sure Microsoft advertises Office services in their OS but Apple advertises [appleinsider.com] Apple Arcade and Apple TV in their OS and even things like Apple Care [digitalphablet.com] coverage too.

    • Free apps on Android have been doing this shit for years.

      Of course desktop Linux doesn't do this. That would be harder to get away with. Does that count as a competitor?

      "The year of Linux on the desktop" was the original "two weeks to flatten the curve."
    • Consumers, schools & students are already switching to Chromebooks. MS' biggest market for desktops has always been governments & corporations. As long as MS keeps them happy, they're golden. MS is more worried about governments switching to Linux & I bet that's where they're doing a lot of work to woo those decision makers/procurers.

  • I have a Windows laptop to play the odd game (it's a Thinkpad with a Ryzen 4650, so can play the occasional Elite Frontier, Civilization VI etc), and it had been bugging me to "try Windows 11". So I did. And it actually looked good to start with, the taskbar and start seem to be an improvement over Win 10, the upgrade was quick and seemed painless... Until I run across some issues. E.g. I exited Civilization VI, in a desktop where the taskbar was dead, unclickable, although I could still click on the deskto

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Teckla ( 630646 )
      Ctrl+Shift+Esc brings up Task Manager in Windows (including Windows 11)

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Ecuador ( 740021 )

        Didn't work either. Also, I am not sure if it's changed recently, but Ctrl+Alt+Del is supposed to be a higher level interrupt, so if other things don't work, it should itself work, not the other way around. Well, given that it was not working though, they probably changed something recently...

  • It used to be only viruses caused crap to pop up on your screen. The following scene from IT Crowd is apparently now a documentary:

    https://youtu.be/YDNmyyrEZho [youtu.be]

  • For a company, in this case Micro$soft, to show ads in our file explorer implies it knows what type of ads trigger purchase behavior. Knowledge of what ads should appeal to a user means they are likely already collecting user information to determine areas of potential interest then sell that data to advertisers. This is unlike FaceBook ecosystem, where mindless social zombies gleefully post images, personal information, and like friend responses in metaland to feed the dopamine feedback loop addictio
  • how long before someone exploits it?
  • Now proceed to stick your ads up your ass. While you are at it, stick your OS too.

  • This is Windows tasting death.

  • I read this and heard "Thirds party file explorers will be common in Windows 11".

  • This will be the interface of the file explorer Windows15
    https://scifiinterfaces.com/id... [scifiinterfaces.com]

    Gimme my Brawndo!

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Megane ( 129182 )
      I remember when Altavista did that with their web search. Remember them? They were the original search engine, before Google.
  • This is in the "free" version that comes installed on a new PC or laptop, right? I'll be damned if I'm fine with adds in something I pay over $100 for.

    • This is in the "free" version that comes installed on a new PC or laptop, right? I'll be damned if I'm fine with adds in something I pay over $100 for.

      I don't think there is a "free" version of Windows. You may not directly pay for it, but Dell, Lenovo, etc. pay Microsoft for each of the systems they sell with MS Windows installed. They are, of course, paying (much) less than the published retail price per system, but money is changing hands and you are (indirectly) giving money to Microsoft when you buy most new machines from the big vendors.

  • By the ad at the bottom of the page. âoePot, this is Kettle. Prepare for a chromatic critique âoe

    • Your intention to use ASCII was blocked, no doubt by your choice to use an Apple product that thinks curly quotes and emdashes belong in plain text forums.

  • ... would most windows users happily ditch the platform?

    We are now in a world where desktop computing in the home has been decimated by mobile devices - smart phones and tablets.
    Sure, many homes still have a desktop computer, but it's becoming more niche - study or home working, hobbies that require this kind of platform.
    Gone are the days of casual web browsing, for the most part.

    It didn't take that long for this change to happen - for a mobile device to replace the desktop computer for 90% of use cases.
    A g

  • so why put them in a product people already paid for ? This is a harebrained idea that only MBA's can come up with.

    • You only have to care what people like *before* you get paid for the product. After that, you can shoot them on 5th Avenue if you want.

  • I wonder how well this idea will fare once managers and bosses will realize that their employees OS is enticing them to do online shopping instead of their job during work hours.

    Or in a context where targeted ads become really inappropriate and show the wrong ad at the wrong time in a business meeting or something like that.

  • We have been screaming for this feature for what seems like forever. I'm glad Microsoft is finally listening to their users and giving us what we want. Just the other day I was looking at my screen and I didn't see a single goddamn ad, and all I could think was, "There's got to be a better way!"
  • People say "File Explorer one of the worst places to show ads"? I say anywhere in an OS I've paid money for is a bad place to show ads.
    If I pay for Windows (which I do) don't show me any ads. This is getting ridiculous.

  • I don't believe Microsoft's plan is to to promote a lot of random ads, but more focus on their own product portfolio.
    The main thing with this is that it needs to be possible to disable it. It that's possible, I don't see an issue with it.

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