Running the Windows 10 May 2020 Update? Good. Not running the new Microsoft Edge web browser? Not good. Apparently, that’s what Microsoft thinks too, as the company amps up its marketing efforts for Edge.
For users that have not installed the new Chromium powered Edge in the May 2020 Update, Redmond is now showing an add recommending the web browser.
Right in the Start Menu.
This new advertisement appears if you search for other browsers in the Start Menu — browsers like Internet Explorer, the classic old Edge, Firefox, and Chrome. And the promotion appears across all the key areas of the operating system.
Windows Search, for example, shows the new Microsoft Edge ad with a “Download now” button that claims how this new browser was built to bring you the best of the web.
Hard to deny with this claim.
You can dismiss this recommendation by clicking the X icon, though.
And then, if you search for Edge and its competing browsers like Chrome and Firefox, the Start Menu also serves up a similar promotion. The new browser shows up as a recommendation right at the top, with a link to download it.
Microsoft has a long history of promoting its browser in the OS in this fashion, so this latest drive comes as no surprise. Not too long ago, users reported ads targeting Firefox in the Windows 10 Start Menu.
While the ads displayed are not intrusive in any way, it is worth a mention that there is no setting to control them. These recommendations continue to be displayed, even with the “Show suggestions occasionally in Start” option disabled.
Oh well, no harm in letting others know of excellence.
And the new Edge is excellent.
Your thoughts on this? Are you okay with the occasional nudge towards the new Edge? Or would you prefer Microsoft not clutter your Start Menu with these messages? Sound off in the comments.
