Windows 11 starts testing ads in sign out menu
Microsoft has started testing ads in the account sign-out menu in Windows 11, BleepingComputer reports.
Screenshots of the ads were shared by Windows enthusiast Albacore (@thebookisclosed) on Twitter a few days ago.
They show three different ads that appeared in the flyout menu that popped up when users clock on their account name or picture in the Start Menu.
The ads appear as a line item in the menu list above the “Change account settings” option.
In one instance, Microsoft advertised OneDrive storage with a “Back up your files” line.
In two other cases, it encouraged the user to sign up for a Microsoft account either with a direct “Sign up for Microsoft Account” ad or more subtle “Complete your profile” prompt.
The screenshots below show what the ads looked like.
Several users said the inclusion of the ads within the Start Menu was curious, given that Microsoft already used much of the component for recommendations, which promotes its products.
BleepingComputer could not replicate the ad prompts on several of their own systems, which suggests that they are part of an A/B testing experiment. Therefore, some users will see them and others won’t.
MyBroadband also did not see the ads on one of our systems, although this could have been due to the user being logged into a Microsoft account with a OneDrive subscription.
Microsoft has been testing ads for several of its products within various Windows 11 components in the past year.
That has included banners promoting OneDrive and other Microsoft products in File Explorer.
It previously also tested promoting its Office web apps and Edge browser in the Windows 10 Start Menu and Wordpad app.
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