We will see advertisements in Windows 11, this is what has been implemented in the latest update of the operating system that will soon arrive to users. However, we are not talking about the same invasive advertising that we can see on mobile phones, but something more subtle that could change the way we consume software in general and even Windows itself.
In the 90s, a business model called Shareware became very famous, in which programs were distributed free of charge, but had reduced functions while waiting for the end user to pay for the full version. All this with advertisements that reminded us of them. Well, Microsoft could revive this business model for its apps and services.
Ad Bombing in Windows 11
Microsoft releases regular updates to its operating system, the first to try them are the developers, who test their applications so that they do not have performance or compatibility problems or simply take the opportunity to implement the new ones “features”. However, among Insiders who have access to the latest version of Windows, there is one controversial feature.
Well it turns out it occurred to them that we see ads in the middle of Windows. Even if it’s not the traditional waybut as something more subtle. Taking on the appearance of additional options in the menus and recommended actions to perform. Type of surreptitious advertising in which the goal is to promote additional payment or subscription options. We do not know if any third-party applications will use it, but it will be curious to see in the menus and toolbars of many programs full of yellow dots reminding us that we must go through the box to use them .
That is, Windows 11 via secret advertisements remind us to checkout for your subscription services such as Office 365, GamePass or in this case OneDrive. Anything related to joining a Microsoft service. And let’s not forget that the company’s business model has shifted from apps as a product to apps as a service. Since it allows them to continuously capitalize on users and give the general feeling that their products are cheaper than them.
What really upset you?
Within the documentation published with the new Windows 11 beta for insiders, the announcements are not described as such, but using obscure language worthy of the purest “legal”:
We’re trying out a small change to the start menu, where some insiders will see emblems in their user account notifying them that certain actions need to be performed.
That is to say that Microsoft does not call it advertising and to top it off uses a language that for the lay user can make him understand that paying for these subscriptions is something necessary to use his PC with Windows 11. So in principle it wouldn’t be a way to capitalize on ads, but in Redmond they are desperate with the adoption of certain services like OneDrive and with new ways to capitalize.
And it is that Windows and Office continue to dominate their market with an iron fist and without rival, on the other hand, other services like Game Pass on PC turn out to be a real commercial fiasco and cannot raise prices. . Although in video games content has been sold in chunks for a long time and we don’t think there will be any changes in this regard. Pray that some Windows features, which until now were free, do not end up under a payment gateway.
