Windows 11 and 10 users who run with the combo of the Chrome browser and Google search have likely been irritated by a Bing popup in recent times – we know we have.
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This is how the Windows 11 desktop should be – blissfully free of ads (Image Credit: Microsoft)
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Windows Latest reports that this appears to be a fresh campaign to get those who are using Chrome, with Google set as their default search engine, to switch the latter preference to Bing.
As noted at the outset, we fall into this category, and we have seen this popup invade our PC twice last week.
While we were just at the desktop at the time on both occasions, we’re told that the advert – which Microsoft calls a ‘notification’ – can appear on top of apps, or indeed games, or it can even interrupt a focus session in what’s doubtless a very unwelcome manner.
Indeed, we’ve seen reports on Reddit asking whether this is a legit popup, or whether it might be some kind of malware.
Microsoft has acknowledged the popup, saying it has now been pulled. The software giant told Windows Latest:
“We are aware of reports and have paused this notification while we investigate.”
We should think so, too. When a ‘notification’ is making its presence felt mid-game – maybe when you were about to make that crucial sniper headshot, perhaps, putting you off – and when it’s mistaken for potential malware, well, that really isn’t a good look.
When we first saw this Bing panel on our desktop, we shrugged it off, but when it appeared once again, just a few days later – that’s crossing a line in our book.
With any luck, this is one prong of advertising for Windows that Microsoft won’t bring back.
In other recent Windows news, Microsoft has finished investigating that weird ‘unsupported processor’ bug – and has washed its hands of the matter, laying the blame at the feet of CPU makers.
