Why didn't Microsoft add ads to Windows? I believe that many friends are puzzled by this question. If Microsoft's disregard for the rampant piracy of Windows is aimed at using the power of piracy to suppress other PC operating systems that may become competitors in order to achieve a monopoly on the PC side of Windows, it may not come as a surprise that Windows 11 Home and Pro users will soon see an ad from the official recommendation in the Start menu.
A few days ago, it was revealed that Microsoft has tested showing ads in the recommended area of the Start menu on Windows 11, which will include websites, apps, and brief promotional descriptions, such as 1Password password manager. In the words of foreign media, if users sometimes see other software here, don't be surprised to jump to the Microsoft App Store after clicking, because appearing here does not mean that the program is installed by itself. Subsequently, Microsoft has also admitted that it is testing the relevant ads on the Windows 11 beta.
In response, Microsoft said that the ads are currently only being tested in the U.S. market, and users can actively disable this feature in the settings. Simply go to Settings > Personalization > Start and turn off Show recommendations for tips, app promotions, and more to disable ads from appearing in the Start menu. After the test is completed, Microsoft may push this ad display feature to Windows 11 official version and more areas, and users can manually turn off this ad slot in the settings.
It's worth mentioning that Microsoft says that this ad will not be displayed on managed devices, i.e., devices managed by the company will not display this type of ad, while unmanaged consumer devices will display ads by default.
In fact, it's a very interesting question as to why a significant number of users have the stereotype that Microsoft won't introduce ads into Windows, given that Apple and Google are now the two most popular mobile operating systems, iOS and Android, to advertise their own services and even third-party products, but Windows has long seemed to be purer at this point.
For quite some time, the reason why Microsoft didn't choose to add ads to Windows is actually quite simple, because this is a tech giant that has been around for almost half a century. Don't look at the impression that Microsoft has always given the outside world, it is a technology company that will always stand on the top of the wave, from personal computers to smartphones, from cloud computing to AI, they have never been abandoned by the times. But Microsoft is not a typical Internet company after all, it was born in 1975 and started as a software company, as the first round of beneficiaries of the information revolution, they made money by selling software copies.
In 1994, when Microsoft founder Bill Gates first became the richest man in the world, the original Internet giant Netscape was just founded in this year. The meaning behind this sentence is that when Microsoft has begun to make money, the Internet is actually still in a "toddler" state, and the former did not see the potential of "free + advertising" capabilities at all, but became a software giant by selling one copy after another.
At that time, Microsoft's core business was for enterprise-level users, and this was the main reason why many industry insiders believed that it turned a blind eye to the piracy of consumer-level users.
Before the vigorous development of the Internet industry, Microsoft was already a giant, so this also led to their completely different perspective from the Internet unicorns born since the new century.
What's more, in the era when the Internet was not yet developed, Windows was used offline most of the time, and there was no place for online advertising, so there was no need for Microsoft to follow emerging Internet manufacturers to engage in "free + advertising". But in a sense, this is actually a manifestation of the disease of large companies, after all, instead of chasing unstable overnight riches, Microsoft may be more concerned about long-term and stable income.
However, with the explosive growth of the Internet industry, the charm of advertising has also emerged. According to a report released by Statista, a research data statistics agency, global digital ad spending will total nearly $720 billion in 2023. Microsoft itself has already become an important player in the digital advertising space, with a research report from Barclays predicting that its advertising business has the potential to generate $30 billion in revenue, and possibly an additional $20 billion in windfalls.
So as Microsoft recognized the value of the advertising business, it became inevitable to add advertising to its products. As for why you chose Windows, in addition to the fact that it has the largest user base, it's not really a productivity tool. In contrast, productivity tools such as Office and Teams are completely incompatible with advertising, which may distract users and drag down their work.
But the situation with Windows is completely different, because it has no competitors in the consumer space. Back in the days of Windows 10, Microsoft had actually tried to add ads to Windows. It's just that at that time, the ads in Windows were mainly to promote its Edge browser and OneDrive personal cloud storage, and now Microsoft seems to be opening its doors to third parties.