With Windows 10’s official support timeline coming to an end, Microsoft is taking the opportunity to tweak the OS’s design and push its other services.
The company has started experimenting with new advertisements, broadening their focus beyond just promoting Windows 11 to include a variety of other products. These changes are currently hidden within a beta version of Windows 10 (specifically Insider Build 19045.4842), but one X/Twitter user has revealed what’s going on behind the scenes.
A New Look for the Start Menu, with a Catch
In this beta, the Start menu has been given a subtle redesign. While the changes are meant to enhance user convenience, they also make room for more prominent ads.
The updated Start menu features a repositioned account view, now located at the top left below the list menu, to highlight Microsoft 365. The account view itself remains largely unchanged, but it now includes a banner suggesting users purchase a Microsoft 365 license if they don’t have one.
Following in Windows 11’s Footsteps
Microsoft’s eagerness to promote its own products within its OS isn’t new. We’ve seen similar strategies with OneDrive, and more recently, with Microsoft 365 ads in the Windows 11 Start menu. These ads were unpopular with users, but at least they could be turned off.
Whether these Start menu ads will appear in the general, non-beta release of Windows 10 is still up in the air. Microsoft’s decision to keep this feature under wraps suggests they’re wary of criticism, but that hasn’t stopped them from pushing ads in the past. In fact, it often seems to encourage them!