And this should come as no surprise, considering it is even considering an ad-supported variant of the OS.

The concept of ads in Windows has long been controversial in the community ever since the dawn of Windows 10. While some newbies find them welcome, most users believe that Microsoft has no right to spam them with advertisements once they pay for a product.

But Redmond doesn’t seem bothered by this, as the software titan continues to display ads for its products and services in the OS and, occasionally, third-party solutions.

Now, the company is experimenting with a new idea that is, again, sure to fuel frustration in the community.

As spotted, some new ads have made their way directly to the user session flyout in the Start Menu.

They show up once you access the user section controls, a private and cloistered area of the operating system. Seeing advertisements here is no fun sight, and putting advertisements there does not make the ads feel like home.

For starters, we have an ad for OneDrive, which promotes the cloud file storage service:

And then, there are recommendations for a Microsoft Account:

What’s more annoying than the fact that these ads are listed alongside important buttons that enable signing in and changing account settings is that they cannot be disabled. Windows 11 does not provide a way to turn off ads completely through the operating system, after all.

Microsoft justifies these new ads as helpful badges meant for new novice users, but it is clear that these are advertisements.

The software titan is still testing these ads with a select group of users in the latest preview builds, alongside ads and popups on the taskbar itself. Since these are still under testing, there is a chance that it could likely change based on the feedback and criticism from the community.

Speaking of which, the community seems annoyed by this, so we will have to see where it goes.

And smaller browser makers like Mozilla, Opera, and Brave waste no opportunity to highlight this.

This time, the nonprofit organization behind Firefox has once again implied that tech giants that control the popular operating platforms and web services use their position to deprive consumers of choice regarding web browsers.

Mozilla detailed this in a new report they just released.

Appropriately titled Five Walled Gardens: Why Browsers are Essential to the Internet and How Operating Systems Are Holding Them Back, it focuses on how people these days use web browsers in their daily lives.

The firm claims that the three most popular web browsers today are Chrome, Safari, and Edge, and the reason these enjoy a bigger user base is because of their parent companies.

Firefox is not far behind, but it has definitely slipped a lot in standing over the years.

The report argues that tech giants employ various methods to make it difficult or impossible for users to switch web browsers. This ultimately lowers the quality and experience for end users, but it can also increase their risks.

Five examples of consumer harm from operating system self-preferencing are outlined. These include limited or frustrating choices, lower quality, lower innovation, poor privacy, and unfair contracts.

Worth a read if you are into the browser wars and all that.

It is not the first time that Microsoft has been accused of directly or indirectly limiting the choice of web browsers for Windows users. Similar criticisms have also been levied at Apple with its iOS and macOS platforms and Google with its Android platform.

These companies have also faced lawsuits for restricting and influencing the browser choice for users on their operating platforms. What’s equally interesting is that there have been occasions when these smaller browser makers have taken things into their own hands.

But ultimately, this is something that looks like will continue far into the future.

Any thoughts here?

Many are now calling the company to stop adding these features to the web browser.

As you may be aware, Microsoft recently started adding some new features to Edge. These include testing a buy now, pay later integration powered by Zip. The feature allows folks to split purchases made online into four installments over a six-week period.

Pretty standard stuff, but one that has no place in a web browser, some say.

It goes without saying that the announcement post of this BNPL feature became littered with comments from fans and browser users who expressed their frustration.

The feature may be optional, but its detractors oppose the concept of Edge having such shopping features built in. The center of most complaints is that Microsoft Edge is becoming bloated with additions like these.

Instead of, you know, delivering a pure browsing experience.

Several pages of comments are included, most of which are negative. Critics of additions like these believe that such features should be left to extensions and dedicated websites rather than baked right into the web browser.

What are your thoughts on this precarious position?

We have been seeing ads in Windows since the days of Windows 8, and the amount and intensity of ads in the operating system have ranged from occasional to downright intrusive. Seemingly, this is not something the company wants to change soon.

Office 2021 has become the latest such example of Redmond using its software to promote its service.

In this case, users have paid a one-off fee for software that is being advertised as a subscription-based Microsoft 365 product. These are folks who have made a conscious choice to purchase the suite of productivity apps rather than paying a monthly or annual subscription.

No wonder people are not impressed.

Lee Holmes, a PowerShell developer and Azure Security’s Principal Security Architect, has seen these new ads.

He took to Twitter to share his disappointment:

This is so disappointing. pic.twitter.com/1b9fVMnY2U

— Lee Holmes (@Lee_Holmes) August 12, 2022

He is far from alone in feeling frustrated with the appearance of advertising in a paid-for product.

In recent memory, Microsoft has annoyed many customers by displaying ads for Edge, Office, and OneDrive throughout Windows. The company has even promoted its games and select third-party applications to users who would rather not see these ads.

In this particular case, the ads appear in a bar beneath the Office toolbar and invite users to try out three months of Microsoft 365 Family for $0.99.

While this promotion is far from intrusive and actually offers a decent discount to those who are happy to switch to a subscription plan, that’s not the point.

The placement of this promotional link will definitely be a source of disappointment for these users who have already paid for their Office 2021 license. Worse yet, the company does not offer a way for these users to opt out of these ads.

Thoughts?

The long and short of it was that the browsers that the company launched for iOS and Android platforms were found to not block data for LinkedIn and Bing, two of the most popular Microsoft online services.

This drew a fair amount of criticism towards DuckDuckGo and its reputation for user privacy.

Good thing then that the company has come clean.

It confirmed in a blog post today that it is expanding the block list to include scripts from Microsoft in its browsing apps on mobile platforms and extensions for Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Safari, and Opera.

The site details the improvements it is making to privacy and transparency across its services, as DuckDuckGo aims to restore trust with its core user base.

But the company explained that this oversight—deliberate or not—was due to a policy requirement related to the company’s use of Bing as a source for its private search results.

Fancy way of putting it, but there you go!

DuckDuckGo confirms that there are no similar limitations with other companies. In fact, the scripts were never embedded in the search engine or apps, and equally importantly, they never sent any information to DuckDuckGo.

Microsoft, for its part, has also committed to not profile users from DuckDuckGo on ad clicks, even though advertisement on the site is done with a partnership between both companies.

At the moment, there is a reliance on a tracker to detect conversions for ad clicks, but work is underway to replace this with a private architecture in the future.

Glad to see this sorted.

With a billion active internet users, it is a leading provider of security solutions in China and has been a dominant force in the country for quite some time now.

In fact, the company believes their success is something that even Microsoft is imitating.

Zhou Hongyi, the co-founder of the Chinese internet security firm Qihoo 360 Technology, made some interesting remarks at the 10th Internet Security Conference in late July. He told the audience that the software titan is copying the Qihoo 360 Safe Center and creating a Microsoft computer butler.

According to the report, Zhou explained that the Redmond-based company is looking at the solutions Qihoo creates to improve its own offerings:

“As a technology giant, Microsoft draws lessons from Qihoo 360’s security concept in the security field, which also proves that our security concept is relatively advanced and is on a correct path.

There are always peers misleading the public and the government, saying that C-end security companies can’t do enterprise-oriented business, and the data is useless. This is complete jealousy of us. Security companies that only do enterprise-oriented business can’t see it because they don’t have big data on the whole network.”

As you may have guessed, these comments were made as a compliment.

In a later post on Weibo, Zhou went on to explain that Microsoft is actually doing a terrific job when it comes to its focus on the C-end:

“I have to clarify that I am not bombarding Microsoft, but actually expressing my appreciation for the company. In the digital age, only companies from the C-end can do a good job of security because they have numerous users and can put big data into the cloud for security analysis. I think Qihoo 360 and Microsoft are both future-oriented companies.”

Microsoft-branded security software is hot these days, actually, with the company amping up its abilities every chance it gets. It even recently made its programs available for individual users who are ready to move away from third-party solutions.

Microsoft’s experience and intelligence in this space are helping its security software succeed not only on Windows but also on devices powered by competing platforms.

Now, whether this success is cooked by inspiration from somewhere else remains a talking point.

Microsoft made switching from Edge to anything else in Windows 11 incredibly difficult.

Even if you wanted to, you were forced to change more than ten file associations just to make the modern OS open links in alternate browsers like Chrome and Firefox. This is in contrast to the single-click option that was the norm before.

This move naturally received significant backlash from the technology world, with browser makers voicing their outrage.

Redmond gave in, eventually, and fixed the problem.

But things are still brewing in this space, with Google now working on providing users with more ease in this regard. As spotted, a commit on Chromium Gerrit describes a new control that will let Chrome users set the browser as the default one with a single click.

Google describes this change best:

“Make Chrome the default browser. This function works by going through the url protocols and file associations that are related to general browsing, e.g. http, https, .html etc., and directly setting the relevant registry entries for each.”

The current version of Chrome does allow changing the default browser in its settings, but that implementation requires switching to the Settings app in Windows 11 and Windows 10.

This new implementation is much more convenient, not too dissimilar to how Mozilla bypassed these Microsoft restrictions back in 2021 with its own single-click solution for Firefox.

There is no information on when the updated behavior will be available, but considering it is this far ahead in development, it should appear in preview channels for testing soon before the search engine giant releases it to the public.

It does not help that Microsoft has not confirmed or denied this.

But a couple of days back, Russian news agency TASS began reporting that users in the country were unable to install Windows 11 from the official Microsoft Russia website. Below, you can find the original news report on the left, with an English translation on the right.

Trying to download the operating systems from the official sources leads to a “404 — File or Directory not found” error message. The report claims that download works fine with a change in location via a VPN connection.

Apparently, both Windows 11 and Windows 10 are affected, with attempts to download ISO or installation utilities being met with error messages.

As noted, when trying to download Windows 11 ISOs in Russia, you are shown this error message above.

Interestingly, the Media Creation Tool download works fine, but it, too, eventually fails, giving an error code 0x80072F8F-0x20000. It is accompanied by a message revealing that this tool failed to run on your computer for some unknown reason.

Unknown reason?

Yeah, right!

At this point in time, there is a distinct possibility that this latest move is part of the company’s plan to slowly withdraw more of its products and services from Russia. Sure, there is still a chance that this could be a technical glitch, but that chance is very slim.

Microsoft, as you may be aware, is in the process of a major downsizing in its quest to disrupt Russia, with some 400 employees said to be affected by this withdrawal.

The company’s relationship with the country has been at odds ever since the invasion of Ukraine, with Redmond not only disrupting Russian cyberattacks but also suspending the sales of its products and services since March.

This latest barrier set by the company clearly is another step in that direction.

We’ll just have to wait and see if Microsoft has anything to say in this regard. And more importantly, if and when the downloads will be back on the plate. Until then, a VPN seems to be the only way to grab the newer versions of Windows straight from the source.

He started working at Redmond all the way back in 2001, eventually going on to lead the teams behind technologies like Xbox Kinect and HoloLens.

However, his days were counted after a recent report accused him of misconduct at the workplace. No less than 25 employees recounted their experiences working with Kipman and talked about his personality and the toxic culture propagated as a result.

This Business Insider report goes over the ugly details of the executive watching a pornographic VR video in front of everyone at the office and making employees uncomfortable by touching them. As a matter of fact, workers were instructed not to leave female employees alone around Kipman.

Following these allegations of misconduct, Alex Kipman has resigned from the company.

In an email procured by GeekWire, Scott Guthrie, the head of Microsoft’s Cloud & AI Group, informed employees that:

“Over the last several months, Alex Kipman and I have been talking about the team’s path going forward. We have mutually decided that this is the right time for him to leave the company to pursue other opportunities. I appreciate the tremendous vision Alex has provided to Microsoft over the years, and all that he has done to advance our Metaverse offerings. Alex is committed to helping the teams with the transition process over the next two months and ensuring success before pursuing what is next for him.”

Interestingly, no reference to the misconduct allegations.

But there is no other explanation for Kipman’s sudden exit. It’s clear that Microsoft is not comfortable having him around. He will stay around for another two months to help with the transition.

We also have confirmation that his entire mixed reality division will now be reorganized. The hardware team now reporting to the Windows + Devices organization led by Panos Panay, while the Mixed Reality Presence and Collaboration teams are to join the Experiences + Devices division led by Jeff Teper.

No telling, though, on what kind of an impact this major restructuring has on the HoloLens project.

Before we get down to the juicy details, an introduction to the company.

DuckDuckGo is founded on the promise of a more private web, with a search engine that does not heavily track every movement you make on the web. The firm also offers dedicated apps for the iOS and Android platforms and a slew of accompanying services.

So, naturally, a revelation like this is damaging, and the controversy is likely to impact the number of users it manages to attack.

That’s because a discovery by a security researcher reveals that the company is allowing data to be transmitted via Microsoft trackers to LinkedIn and Bing ad domains. What’s more, the company also admits that an agreement exists between itself and the Windows maker.

Zach Edwards, the security researcher, has a gargantuanly lengthy thread about his findings:

Sometimes you find something so disturbing during an audit, you've gotta check/recheck because you assume that *something* must be broken in the test.

But I'm confident now.

The new @DuckDuckGo browsers for iOS/Android don't block Microsoft data flows, for LinkedIn or Bing. pic.twitter.com/ol7Ydfo3BJ

— Zach Edwards (@thezedwards) May 23, 2022

He goes on to explain that if you download the current version of the DuckDuckGo browser on iOS and Android, you will find that the browser has a secret allow data flow list that is used to enable data transfer to super common advertising subsidiaries owned by Microsoft.

It stops all other trackers—including those from Facebook and Google—but not the ones owned by Redmond.

Apparently, this stems from a search syndication agreement between DuckDuckGo and Microsoft. To make matters worse, the company has kept this hidden, with no mention of this leeway afforded to the software titan in official communication or app descriptions.

The company is in damage control mode now that the cat is out of the bag.

In a statement, DuckDuckGo CEO Gabriel Weinberg clarified the stance. The app store descriptions have also been amended to let folks know that the company is not able to block all hidden tracking scripts on other websites for various reasons.