Microsoft is starting to enable ads inside the Start menu on Windows 11 for all users. After testing these briefly with Windows Insiders earlier this month, Microsoft has started to distribute update KB5036980 to Windows 11 users this week, which includes “recommendations” for apps from the Microsoft Store in the Start menu.
Luckily you can disable these ads, or “recommendations” as Microsoft calls them. If you’ve installed the latest KB5036980 update then head into Settings > Personalization > Start and turn off the toggle for “Show recommendations for tips, app promotions, and more.” While KB5036980 is optional right now, Microsoft will push this to all Windows 11 machines in the coming weeks.
Microsoft’s move to enable ads in the Windows 11 Start menu follows similar promotional spots in the Windows 10 lock screen and Start menu. Microsoft also started testing ads inside the File Explorer of Windows 11 last year before disabling the experiment and saying the test was “not intended to be published externally.” Hopefully that experiment remains very much an experiment.
i can say, having used a WM, that generally, they come with nothing fancy, unless you get a less spicy one, so you would be experiencing a lot of non configured garbage not work very much. Scaling might be fine though. Although from what i can vaguely recall, if it’s with steam exclusively, steam can sometimes require a specific font type, otherwise things can get weird, might be that.
Also have you ever tried a tiling WM? If not i would recommend it, they’re weird, but the amount of time i no longer spend moving between windows is SO much lower. Probably pick something that comes as a full package though. Otherwise things will be very exciting.
a lot of applications also have an individual scaling, which can sometimes cause issues, i had that problem with GIMP for instance, though i was manually able to configure it’s scaling to fix it.