Microsoft announced today that it has stopped showing Chrome users on Windows 11 a new type of intrusive Bing pop-ups suggesting they switch their default search engine to Bing. The new pop-ups were quite annoying as they appeared above full-screen apps and games, which is definitely not something you’d want to see.
The Verge’s Tom Warren found the executable file responsible for these pop-ups and noted that it pretty much behaves like malware, even though the file is digitally signed by Microsoft. Anyway, many people on Reddit who also saw the intrusive pop-ups were also very suspicious about their origin.
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Microsoft’s intrusive Bing pop-up showing up above a game (Image credit: The Verge).
In a statement shared with The Verge, Microsoft acknowledged the confusion and said that it has stopped showing these pop-ups to Windows 11 users. “We are aware of these reports and have paused this notification while we investigate and take appropriate action to address this unintended behavior,” said Caitlin Roulston, director of communications.
In recent years, Microsoft has received a lot of criticism for the not-so-subtle ways it promotes its services like Edge, OneDrive, and even Game Pass on Windows 11. Paul and many other Windows enthusiasts have been pretty vocal about this, yet Microsoft keeps finding new ways to advertise its services on its OS. The feeling of not being 100% in control of an OS you paid for can be quite frustrating.
Windows 11 probably pushed things a bit further by making features like Windows Search and the Widgets open all links in Edge. However, that may change soon in the EU: The release notes for the latest Dev Channel build mentioned that “Windows system components use the default browser to open links,” even though Paul couldn’t get it to work.
Don’t worry, Microsoft will probably find other ways to show you “ads” on Windows 11. Because even if you’re growing tired of Microsoft’s heavy-handed approach, the software giant probably thinks that the probability people will be annoyed enough to switch to Linux or macOS is really low.
