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Posts tagged "infiltrate"

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Windows 11 update delivers a fix for broken VPNs – but also sees adverts infiltrate the Start menu
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Happy Microsoft Patch Tuesday May 2024 to all who celebrate! Yesterday saw a new update for Windows 11 that brings fixes for existing issues, along with other changes, as part of Microsoft’s monthly patch cycle. Version KB5037771 is now available to Windows 11 users, and it brings some notable developments like new Start menu features and a fix for a previously reported VPN-related issue. 

To get the new update, check your Windows Update app. Your system might have already downloaded the update and prepared it for installation, but if not, click on ‘Check for Updates.’ Note that this is a mandatory update that Microsoft would strongly urge you to install for security reasons, and it’s available for Windows 11 23H2 and 22H2 users.

Windows Update panel

(Image credit: TechRadar España)

One of the changes that update KB5037771 delivers is adverts embedded in the Start menu, as previously witnessed in preview builds (including last month’s optional update for Windows 11). The ads are presented as recommendations, highlighting certain apps from the Microsoft Store from a group of selected developers. 

Explaining the rationale behind this move, Microsoft says it’s intended to help users discover apps that they might find useful or entertaining that they may not be aware of. If you don’t find a particular ad (sorry, ‘recommendation’) helpful, Windows Latest observes that you can dismiss it by right-clicking on it. 

You can go further and block these ads for recommended third-party apps in your Start menu by going to the following location: 

 Settings > Personalization > Start

Here, you can switch off the toggle next to the ‘Show recommendations for tips, app promotions, and more’ option, and this will prevent these promotions or recommendations, or whatever you want to call them (adverts, ahem), from appearing.

Further note that in the Recommended section of the Start menu, Microsoft has also started showing apps that you use frequently but don’t have pinned in your Start menu or taskbar.

These changes to the Start menu are due to begin rolling out to users in the coming weeks, but some people might not be shown the ads depending on the region they’re in, Windows Latest reports – noting that those in Europe may not get the adverts (lucky them).

A close up of a person sitting at a table and typing on a computer (a laptop)

(Image credit: Shutterstock/Gorodenkoff)

A long-awaited fix for some VPN users

The update also incorporates a fix for a problem that caused VPN connection failures, which were seemingly a side-effect of the April 2024 cumulative update. Some users reported issues with certain VPN connections, and Microsoft has since acknowledged the problems and added that they should be resolved after this new May 2024 update.

Other changes that KB5037771 brings include upgraded MSN cards on your lock screen and new widget animations.

It feels like a broken record at this point, writing about Microsoft pushing forward with this advertising strategy in Windows 11. Is there any chance the software giant will rethink this policy? It doesn’t seem likely, and if anything, I can see Microsoft continuing to integrate ads into more and more places in Windows 11.

Okay, so in this case, the adverts can be turned off, which is at least something – but I fear that Microsoft is going to continue in this direction, unless it starts getting a lot of negative feedback.

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Copilot AI’s mission to infiltrate the Windows 11 desktop appears to have advanced another step
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Copilot is creeping into another corner of the Windows 11 interface, it seems, with the AI assistant seen in the context menu of File Explorer.

This is still in test builds of Windows 11, mind, and not officially either. Windows Latest flagged up the change, which was first noticed by PhantomOfEarth, a well-known leaker on X (formerly Twitter) who previously picked up on clues that File Explorer integration was inbound for Copilot back in January 2024.

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Now we can see how the context menu option will work, enabling you to right click on a file, and choose to send it to Copilot – open the AI’s panel with the file active, as if you’d dragged it in there – or to elect to ‘summarize’ the file. The latter choice being the standard option for Copilot to summarize a document or PDF for example.

Even though we’ve caught a glimpse of the menu now, it still doesn’t work (which is why it isn’t officially running in Windows 11 previews – yet). As Windows Latest makes clear, if you click to summarize, a summary isn’t provided.

Other options may be added down the line, too. In fact, it’s very likely we’ll see a ‘rewrite’ choice for example, allowing for rewriting a document, another task Copilot is currently capable of.

Analysis: Copilot’s future flight path

We can expect to see Copilot’s tendrils snaking into all parts of the Windows 11 interface eventually, which may not be to everyone’s tastes.

Those who don’t want to use the AI, or even see it in Windows at all, can ignore it, or turn off the functionality for the time being (one way or another) – but there will come a point where Copilot will be the beating heart of Microsoft’s OS, and you’ll have to use AI, like it or not. Although the functionality provided will probably be pretty advanced and undeniably useful (or indeed indispensable) at that stage.

This particular move is not a big intrusion into the desktop, though. We’re talking about an extra line in the right-click menu, and perhaps Microsoft will be incorporating an option to turn it off as well. In the same way you can remove the Copilot icon from the taskbar if you wish – maybe there’ll be a way to switch all the AI’s functions off with an easy flick of a toggle. (Or an instruction, perhaps: “Copilot, remove yourself from all parts of my Windows 11 interface” – we wouldn’t bank on it, mind).

As long as users have a choice, that’s a good thing, but as we’ve already said, in the future we feel there likely won’t be a choice as such because Copilot will pretty much become Windows, or the central pillar of the OS. Windows 2030 might just be called Copilot 2030.

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