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Most customers who have bought Windows 11 or upgraded from an earlier version of Windows that they bought may not have expected that they will see more and more advertisement in the operating system.

Twitter user Albacore, known for deep diving into Windows Insider Builds, has discovered that Microsoft is working on pushing ads on the Home Settings page of the system.

When users open the Settings app, Home is the start page. The upcoming Home page may display an ad for Microsoft 365 at the top. It offers a free trial for Microsoft 365. Below that, Microsoft may display storage information and tips on finishing securing the account.



A second iteration of the Home page has the Microsoft 365 ad displayed at the bottom of the screen, and the Storage component above it.



The Accounts page may display product support notification in the future. The following screenshot shows a notice informing the user that Office 2013 support has ended.



The Home ads are not the only areas of Windows 11 that may get advertisement for Microsoft 365 in the future. Microsoft has been testing Start Menu ads recently. These are displayed in the session menu when users click on their profile icon in Start.

Microsoft has tested several iterations of these, including one that displays an error icon on the profile icon if a local Windows account is used. There has also been an experiment with File Explorer ads in 2022.

Microsoft is pushing Microsoft Accounts on Windows 11 and, as the next step, a Microsoft 365 subscription. While using a Microsoft Account has benefits to a user, some users prefer to use local accounts. There are good reasons for using a local account, including that Microsoft does not know nearly as much about the user.

It is clear that Microsoft is pushing its subscription-based service to increase revenue. It almost seems as if these upsells could become one of Microsoft's major strategies going forward.

Most of these changes have appeared in Insider builds only up until now. It remains to be seen if and how they land in Stable versions, and whether users will have options to turn these off.

Now You: what do you think about this trend?



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