- Microsoft will reduce promotional activity on Windows 11
- One executive said on X that “a goal is a calmer, more relaxed operating system with fewer upsells” with Windows 11
- Microsoft has mentioned other notable improvements to social media, including improving the taskbar beyond giving us the ability to move it.
Windows 11 without ads? Well, maybe it’s a pipe dream, but the amount of promotional activity Microsoft visits on its desktop operating system will apparently be reduced.
As discovered by OC3D, this is the last word from Scott Hanselman, vice president, member of Microsoft’s technical staff and one of the main players in the entire ‘fix Windows 11’ campaign that is underway with the software giant.
Hanselman posted on
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This was in response to someone who noted that while Microsoft just made a lot of laudable promises about what will be improved in Windows 11, one thing that wasn’t mentioned was a “commitment to removing the borderline malware tactics we’ve seen in recent years to power things like Edge, Bing, and ads in the Start menu.”
‘Borderline malware’ is a strong phrase, of course, but I agree that some of Microsoft’s pop-ups or menu inserts cross the line in terms of becoming overly aggressive.
On top of that, Windows Latest reports that in addition to the ability to move the taskbar in Windows 11 (which is incoming), users may have the option to have a more compact taskbar, as seen in Windows 10.
Once again, an
Pavan Davuluri, head of Windows at Microsoft, responded in this case by saying: “This is something we are considering implementing.”
This would be a particularly useful change for those with smaller screens (such as compact laptops), where the Windows 11 taskbar may appear unnecessarily large, eating up valuable desktop space.
Analysis: a calmer chameleon: let’s hope all these changes come true
It’s obvious that Microsoft wants to appear more directly involved with Windows 11 users this year. Having promised significant improvements to Windows 11, the company has just announced a slew of them, and it’s notable how much Hanselman and Davuluri are responding on social media to other highly requested features with generally positive responses.
However, it is one thing to want to be seen listening and another to carry out this work. I have to admit, I found it strange that Microsoft didn’t mention addressing cases of self-promotion in Windows 11 in its big announcement last week, but perhaps this was too close to say in an official blog post.
However, if Microsoft really wants to improve Windows 11, it is certainly a point that needs to be addressed. The various promo snippets from Edge, Bing, OneDrive, etc. They should definitely be removed as they are irritating to look at and also clutter up the interface. And if some people want reminders about features they might miss, create a dedicated area in Settings that they can visit to enjoy the upsells on offer.
One way or another, 2026 will be a big year for Windows 11. There are a lot of changes coming, that’s for sure, but it will be really interesting to see to what extent these additional social media promises will come true.
How serious is Microsoft about making Windows 11 the best operating system possible? Hopefully we will see all of these things come true and more. We’ll soon have an idea of how the delivery of all this work will play out, as the various changes will arrive fairly quickly to Windows 11 on a monthly basis, we’re told.
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