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Windows 10 Recent Update Triggered Microsoft Shopping App Spam

Windows 10 Recent Update Triggered Microsoft Shopping App Spam

Athena Dee

Microsoft has upped its game when it comes to advertising. Just last year, it was reported that the company had doubled the number of ads for promoted apps into its Start menu. From five, the number was increased to 10 - all of which will lead clickers to the Windows Store.

According to Engadget, the promoted apps were doubled in number in time for the launch of its Anniversary Update for Windows 10. As revealed at last year’s WinHEC Conference, each of the countries that the update was sent to will feature its own unique slate of ads.

Now, Windows 10 users will be even more plagued with more ads. Microsoft has started to advertise its Personal Shopping Assistant, not necessarily with the consumer’s consent.

As pointed out by Myce, whenever Chrome is pinned to the task bar, an ad for the company’s Personal Shopping Assistant will keep popping up. Although the pop-up is not an entire window or tab, there is an extension that hovers over the browser’s icon.

The extension reads, “Quickly compare prices online. Get Microsoft’s Personal Shopping Assistant for Chrome.” It will organize product pages for the consumer, displaying favorite items and notifying the Windows 10 user about any price changes. At present, it is reportedly currently installed by around 11,500 consumers. This add-on has actually been around for approximately a year. Apparently, the spam was just recently triggered with a new update.

As expected, disgruntled Windows users logged into the Chrome Web Store to complain about this extension. According to Thurrott, consumers are fearful that third party developers could gain access to this. Once this happens, Windows 10 will then become overrun with tons of unwanted ads.

Consumers foresee Microsoft charging extra for an ad-free version of Windows 10. This move is similar to what Amazon and YouTube did for its Kindle devices and YouTube Red, respectively.

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