This is Why There Are Ads in Windows 10 (Premium)

While the tech blogosphere is finally waking up to the slippery slope of in-box advertising in Windows, I'm more curious now about the "why" than the "what". Why would Microsoft cheapen such an important platform like this? And what does this say about Windows as a platform?

I first raised this alarm in 2012, when I noted that Microsoft was cheapening Windows 8 with advertising in in-box apps like News and Sports, and noted that this was just the tip of the iceberg. Critics disagreed, but they were wrong then and they're even wronger now, with Microsoft escalating its use of advertising throughout Windows in subsequent releases of Windows: In 2016, I raised this issue again for Windows 10, and in recent weeks I've started documenting how you can remove the crazy distractions throughout Windows 10.

It's interesting what puts people over the edge.

In an earlier Windows 10 version, Microsoft slipped a little-known feature called sync provider notifications into File Explorer, the Windows 10 shell. For many months, it has only reminded users to connect OneDrive to their PC, a message that could be interpreted as a tip or suggestion. Or, depending on your view, an ad.

See, here's the thing. OneDrive is useful. It's the type of thing many users don't know about or use, and Microsoft mentioning it in this way in Windows isn't all that objectionable. Though it would be a lot less so if they simply provided a UI option called "never show this again."

But in recent weeks, that sync provider notification has switched over to a far less vague message, one that crosses the line from tip or suggestion into full-blown advertising. Microsoft isn't just recommending that you use a free service that's integrated with Windows. Now they're recommending that its customers sign-up for a paid Office 365 service---which provides more OneDrive cloud storage---at a cost of $6.99 or more per month.

That's an ad. Period. And this time, unlike in 2012, when Microsoft's biggest partisan cheerleaders could at least make a thinly-veiled argument to the contrary, there is no denying this truth anymore.

And now everyone is on board, suddenly. Hi, everyone. I've been waiting.

"Microsoft is disgustingly sneaky," one headline proclaims. "Windows 10 isn't an operating system, it's an advertising platform." "Microsoft’s ads in Windows 10 are getting out of control," a pro-Microsoft blog was forced to admit. And then we have to involve the shittier parts of the web, the clickbait headline writers: "Microsoft now puts ads in Windows 10 File Explorer, because of course." From quality publications to the absolute dreck, everyone suddenly agrees that Microsoft has gone too far.

I'm glad everyone has finally hit the acceptance stage and some, of course---myself included---have moved on to fixing the problem by explaining in various tips, and in my case in my book Windows 10 Field Guide, how to turn off these intrusions.

But folks, I'm sorry. That's no...