• Microsoft Store apps can’t be updated or uninstalled due to a bug
• Thankfully Microsoft has now fixed the problem related to WinAppSDK
• The cure is in a Windows 10 optional update, so you may want to wait

Some Windows 10 users have been experiencing an odd bug with the operating system having problems running updates for apps from the Microsoft Store – but this issue has now been sorted.

Neowin reports that Windows 10 22H2 had a bug which meant that in some cases, apps from the Microsoft Store couldn’t be updated – or uninstalled, either – but a resolution for this has now been applied (as of November 21).

Microsoft explains that this wasn’t an issue with Windows 10 itself, but rather with the latest version of WinAppSDK. Those who received version 1.6.2, on November 12, or later – which may have been installed by an app that requires WinAppSDK, as it’ll pull down the latest version – may have been hit by the bug.

Those who’ve seen the issue will have noticed that updates fail with an unhelpful error message (‘Something happened on our end’) displayed in the downloads panel of the Microsoft Store.

Microsoft clarified that “this issue is not caused by a Windows security or preview monthly update,” while informing users that the fix for this is in the new Windows 10 update, KB5046714, which has just been released.

Analysis: Something happened… or not

Note that KB5046714 is an optional update for Windows 10, so it could have some bugs itself. If you’re worried about installing a preview release, you can always wait for the full version of the patch, which will be here next month (on December 10, to be precise).

Still, in this case, if you’re hit by the Microsoft Store bug and you aren’t getting any updates for your software from the store, grabbing the optional patch may be worth the risk (find it under Windows Updates, as ever).

Elsewhere, KB5046714 provides some other fixes for issues including a bug where dragging and dropping a file from a cloud provider’s folder (like OneDrive) may result in that file being moved over, rather than copied as it should be by default. Also, there’s an important solution for a problem where Windows 10 fails to activate after the PC’s motherboard has been replaced.

While you’re fixing bugs, Microsoft, you might want to do a bit of tweaking to that error message as well: ‘Something happened on our end’ is not very useful, and indeed nonsensical, really. The problem here being an update failing to apply, so in fact, the correct message should be ‘Something didn’t happen on our end,’ namely the app patch that should’ve gone through. Or ‘Nothing happened on our end,’ perhaps?

How about a simple rewording to ‘Something went wrong on our end’ – that fits better, right, Microsoft? That’s this month’s visit to ‘Pedantry Corner’ over, stay tuned for December’s ever-so-thrilling nitpicking observation.

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• Windows 11 24H2 just got a new optional update (still in testing)
• It makes useful tweaks to the taskbar, Start menu, File Explorer and more
• Microsoft also provides fixes for a range of bugs in this preview release

Windows 11 24H2 has just received an optional update which comes with some useful tweaks to the interface.

This is patch KB5046740 and it’s in preview – so as ever, you might come across glitches if you install it – and the main changes on the desktop are applied to the taskbar and Start menu.

Beginning with the taskbar, Microsoft has streamlined the system tray – on the far right of the bar – with the date and time being displayed in a more compact fashion. The year is no longer shown (as, let’s face it, that’s pretty much redundant anyway), so you only see the day and month for the date, allowing for the time and date to be shown in a small square (instead of the longer rectangle needed to also fit the year in).

The overall effect is a more neatly-sized system tray, especially when you consider that Microsoft has also made it so that when ‘Do not disturb’ mode is on, the bell icon (for notifications) no longer appears in the tray. Again, that saves space and you can still open the notifications center by clicking on the date and time area.

On top of that, a taskbar bug has been fixed whereby if you have the bar set to ‘automatically hide,’ the search box turns into an icon.

As Windows Latest, which spotted all these changes, also points out, Microsoft has tinkered with the Start menu so that you can right click on pinned apps to produce a jump list.

If you’re not familiar with the jump list, it offers quick access to common functions used with the app in question, or files that’ve been recently opened by the app – it’s basically a handy bank of shortcuts.

Elsewhere, KB5046740 adds a fresh bit of functionality to File Explorer’s context menu, so when you right click on a file, there’s a new Phone link option – selecting this shares the file in question to your smartphone. Also with File Explorer, Microsoft has fixed a bug which caused some weirdness with too much spacing between the icons in the left panel.

In fact, a collection of bug fixes is applied here, including the cure for a Windows Update fail, and the resolution of a problem where the Windows clipboard history got deleted, leaving it blank.

Analysis: An option you should probably pass on

It’s worth noting that with those tweaks to the system tray in the taskbar, if you don’t like the new space-saving measures, you can turn them off and revert to normal (displaying the full date, with year) if you wish.

This update represents a solid polish of the Windows 11 interface, and also applies a raft of bug fixes which are handy, too. Speaking of bugs, however, we should remind you that this is a preview update, and as such, still in testing – so it could have glitches of its own (or said bug fixes may not work, or they could have unintended side effects).

For this reason, we generally recommend steering clear of preview updates, unless you’re really desperate to get the functionality therein. Just think of them as a glimpse of what you’re going to get soon, anyway, because this update will become the December patch for Windows 11 next month (in just over two weeks, on December 10, in fact).

If you follow Microsoft’s update schedule closely, like us, then you’ll likely recall that in December, the company takes a break for the holidays, so while there’s a main cumulative update issued (on December 10, as noted), there’s no preview or optional update for Windows 11 coming later in December. The next release will be the finished patch for January, which will likely be a minor affair.

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• Bing Wallpaper app has just arrived on the Microsoft Store
• The VP of Bing noted that it's free, unlike some rival wallpaper apps
• Digging into the app suggests it stealthily gets up to all manner of nasty tricks

Microsoft has made its Bing Wallpaper app available on the Microsoft Store for Windows 11 users, but has seemingly opened up a can of controversy when doing so.

Windows Latest spotted the release of the app on the Microsoft Store, and in some ways, it’s rather odd that we didn’t see the software arrive here before now, considering Bing Wallpaper has been around since 2020 (as a download direct from the Microsoft website).

The release was announced by Michael Schechter, VP of Bing at Microsoft, who included a swipe at other wallpaper apps which charge for their services, pointing out that Bing Wallpaper is free.

If you’re not familiar with the application, it’s a simple enough affair that automatically sets your Windows wallpaper to the daily Bing image (and some of these pics are really impressive, and provided in 4K too).

While the app is certainly free, there’s an apparent hidden cost, as some people have pointed out on X and other online forums.

Windows Latest highlights a complaint from Rafael Rivera, a developer and Microsoft MVP, who observes that the wallpaper app also installs “Bing Visual Search and has code to peruse and decrypt your Edge and Chrome cookies.”

Rivera then adds that applies to Firefox cookies, as well, before providing a list of extensions for IT admins to block in order to curtail said activity.

Rivera also provides an example of one of the nasty tricks the Bing Wallpaper app can get up to, and as you can see in the post from X below, it pushes the Microsoft Bing Search extension for Chrome, for those using Google’s browser. It does this by opening a new tab advertising that extension when you start up Chrome.

Windows Latest also discovered that there’s a ‘BGAUpsell’ process run in the background – BGA stands for ‘Bing Growth Apps’ as Rivera points out on X – and this shows a screen asking users to switch to the Bing search engine in Chrome.

Analysis: Big thumbs-down to the Bing Upsell

While we can’t confirm the info shared here, it’s clearly worrying, and both Rivera and Windows Latest appear to have dug up some concrete details. There’s no response from Microsoft or the Bing team on X to these revelations, and frankly, it seems like the Bing Wallpaper app is best avoided by those who are worried about privacy – and not getting hassled to use Microsoft’s products – on their PC.

As another post on X makes clear in the above thread from Rivera, there’s not really a need to install the wallpaper app anyway, considering that Windows Spotlight deliver the same functionality. (Turn it on in Settings > Personalization > Background > Personalize your background > Windows Spotlight).

Okay, so we’re not sure if this is identical to the Bing Wallpaper app, but if not, the built-in option here sounds close enough. We’d install Bing Wallpaper to try it out and check, but frankly – we don’t want to, reading all this.

Other reports on Reddit indicate that the app wasn't always like this, but was recently changed. A Redditor notes: “It [Bing Wallpaper app] used to be great and never gave popups for Bing, but over the past few months it has become a bit aggressive with recommending Bing and since it is the only Microsoft app I have that I installed on my own, that is the only possible culprit.”

Again, take that assertion with some liberal seasoning – and the rest of this – but there’s some consistency around the chatter here, and we’re definitely not liking the themes being raised around this app.

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• New ad suggests Windows 10 users buy a Copilot+ PC
• This is part of a raft of full-screen adverts pushing Windows 11 upgrades
• Expect the nagging to intensify next year, sadly

Windows 10 users are receiving a new advert prompting them not just to upgrade to Windows 11, but to get that OS on a new PC – specifically a Copilot+ PC.

By now, those with a Windows 10 computer are used to being encouraged to upgrade to Windows 11 (assuming their device is up to the hardware requirements) with full-screen pop-ups informing them about support for the older OS running out next year.

This has taken a fresh twist, however, with a new full-screen advert that Windows Latest noticed on one of its Windows 10 PCs (and a virtual machine running the older operating system).

In this effort, Microsoft is specifically pushing Windows 10 users to “do more with a Windows 11 PC,” referring to buying a new one, and that for the “ultimate Windows 11 experience” you should purchase a Copilot+ PC.

Microsoft confirmed to Windows Latest that it’s pushing a bunch of Windows 11 upgrade adverts in this full-screen, in-your-face style, and that the features offered with a Copilot+ PC – which has additional AI functionality exclusive to these devices – are also part of the persuasion tactics employed here.

Analysis: Glossing over some major issues

As noted, this is part of a broad campaign to get Windows 10 users upgrading to Windows 11 on a compatible PC, and we’ve seen a fair few of these messages on our older Windows 10 computer throughout this year. In fact, we’ve lost count of the number of times this has happened, but we haven’t seen an ad pushing Copilot+ PCs – not yet anyway. Doubtless as 2025 rolls onwards, we’ll be seeing even more of this kind of badgering from Microsoft.

Buying a new PC is an idea Microsoft has been pushing elsewhere for those whose machine isn’t compatible with Windows 11’s hardware requirements – likely due to a lack of TPM, or having an older processor. However, as we’ve discussed in the recent past, this glosses over some truly worrying issues about a ton of old PCs heading to the scrapheap when Windows 10 hits End of Life in October 2025.

You won’t see a full-screen Windows 10 pop-up about a potential looming environmental disaster, as flagged up by multiple third-parties in the past year or two, that’s for sure.

One concession Microsoft has made, this time around on the OS merry-go-round, is that consumers can finally purchase extended support with Windows 10, albeit only for a year, effectively granting a stay of execution until October 2026 – which is at least something.

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• Windows 11 24H2’s cumulative update for November introduces more bugs
• There are some very odd instances of repeated installation failures
• Another bug is reportedly causing crashes while gaming

Windows 11 24H2 has run into more problems with bugs – some of them quite weird affairs – courtesy of the latest update released for this most up-to-date version of the operating system.

Windows Latest points out some of the fresh issues uncovered with the cumulative update for November, which was released last week.

One of the stumbling blocks for some Windows 11 24H2 users is that the new update, patch KB5046617, simply won’t install – failing with one of those unhelpful error codes (0x800f0991 and 0x800f0922 are flagged up as being a couple of the more common errors appearing). Sometimes this happens when the installation process comes close to the halfway point.

A new spin on this is that some Windows 11 users are reporting that the November patch seems to install okay, but when checking in the Windows Update history afterward, there’s a message saying it actually failed. In another case, a Redditor reports that this update has been installed a few times, despite seeming to complete successfully each time.

There are quite widespread reports of various installation woes at the usual places online, such as Microsoft’s Answers.com help forum and Reddit.

There are a bunch of other problems highlighted by Windows Latest, including the update promising to fix that nasty issue where Alt-Tabbing led to a big pause – and a black screen – when switching between apps. Apparently, this is fixed for some users, but not others.

PC gamers are also running into trouble with glitches causing weird colors in HDR (with them appearing to be overly bright in some cases), and some PCs are crashing randomly when playing games (and at other times, too, but more commonly when gaming, we’re told). Nasty.

Other miscellaneous problems include Taskbar icons vanishing, USB devices connected to hubs no longer working after KB5046617 has been installed, and Lenovo laptops having their keyboards and touchpads malfunction – which the tech site tells us is fixed by disabling Fast Startup.

Analysis: Stormy waters

The stormy seas Windows 11 24H2 finds itself trying to navigate don’t appear to be getting any calmer – we’ve seen plenty of bugs with the latest version of Microsoft’s OS, and a heap more on the pile thanks to this most recent patch isn’t helping.

Of course, installation failures are nothing new – these pop up with depressing regularity, in fact. However, the case in which the November update seems to install just fine, but then is reported as failed in Windows Update, is a new wrinkle. What we don’t know is if the error is the message informing the user about the failure, or whether the bug is the update seemingly installing okay, when in actual fact it hasn’t. It's all very odd, and the Redditor who is seeing the update install repeatedly, with no message about failure, caps off the weirdness here.

Coming back to the issue of Alt-Tab misfiring and being seriously sluggish, there are suggestions of tricks to try for those finding that the November update doesn’t fix this problem. Firstly, try turning off Game Mode, and if that doesn’t help, update your graphics driver to the latest version for Nvidia GPUs (it might not hurt for AMD or Intel graphics cards, either).

Otherwise, we’ll have to wait for the next update for Windows 11 24H2 to come through and hopefully stamp out this bug for good – and the fresh ones that have popped up in KB5046617. As we’ve said before: ever get the feeling Microsoft is playing whack-a-mole here?

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• Microsoft has deployed one final preview build to the Beta test channel
• The Beta channel is being closed down, leaving only Release Preview now
• This effectively means Windows 10 won’t get any more new features

Microsoft has just dropped the guillotine on the Beta channel for Windows 10, a testing platform that was only recently resurrected earlier this year.

The news was delivered as part of a new Beta preview in the usual blog post from Microsoft detailing the changes with build 19045.

In fact, this build is being released simultaneously to both the Release Preview and Beta channels for Windows 10 22H2, but it marks the end of the road for the latter.

Microsoft explains: “The Beta channel and Release Preview channel will receive the same Windows 10 build today just like we’ve been doing since June. However, this will be the last time we release a Windows 10 build to the Beta channel as we will be shutting down the Beta channel for Windows 10.”

Those Windows 10 testers who are currently in the Beta channel will be moved over to the Release Preview builds.

As for the work done in build 19045, it consists of some bug fixes, with the only actual change feature-wise coming to the Beta channel.

Don’t get excited, though, as Microsoft’s parting gift to Windows 10 is the Start menu now showing adverts (or ‘suggestions’ as the software giant puts it) for apps from the Microsoft Store which are from a “small set of curated developers” apparently.

Boo, hiss, etcetera – though you can turn off the ‘Show suggestions occasionally’ for the Start menu (head to Settings > Personalization > Start).

Analysis: Time is running out for Windows 10

The Beta channel only came back to life in June 2024, as a platform for testing and continuing active development of Windows 10 – albeit in a limited fashion – so it was only briefly resurrected for not even half a year before getting the axe again.

This means that changes such as the above Start menu tweak won’t be coming to Windows 10 any longer (though in the case of this addition from Microsoft, you might be glad to see the back of active development for the older OS).

Effectively, this is Microsoft putting Windows 10 on ice, without saying as much – and that’s no surprise. After all, Windows 10 only has 11 months left on the clock before it runs out of support, so feature additions don’t make much sense at this point. Going forward, all we’ll have is the Release Preview channel for testing, the final stage of Insider builds before the release version of Windows 10, where minor fixes and bug squashing will be carried out.

Don’t expect anything new, in short, though we suppose Microsoft could still surprise us – this has happened in the past, after all, when the software giant announced an effective feature freeze, only to thaw that move with some reasonable-sized feature drops.

At any rate, the shuttering of the Beta channel is another reminder that if you are on Windows 10, you should be starting to consider your End of Life options. Whether that’s upgrading to Windows 11 somehow, or an entirely alternative approach like one of the more Windows deserter-friendly Linux distros, perhaps.

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A new Windows 11 update, KB5046633, has introduced a peculiar glitch that causes a message to pop up and tell users that their version of Windows ‘has reached the service’ , and encourages them to ‘get the newer version of Windows to stay up to date.’

This could cause undue worry for people, as it implies that their system is outdated a even though there’s no cause for alarm and their PC actually is up to date (especially right after downloading and installing this update).

In a screenshot demonstrating the glitch on the Windows Update page provided by Neowin, you can see a ‘Learn more’ link, which apparently takes people to a Windows 10 support article.

This only adds to the mystery and Neowin speculates that the notification was intended for an update like KB5001716, applicable to other versions of Windows 10 and 11, which is meant to remind users that their version will soon no longer be supported. Microsoft doesn’t appear to have acknowledged the hiccup yet.

Waiting for answers to come out in the wash

It’s not totally unusual for Microsoft to issue reminders like this as Windows 10’s end-of-life date is coming up in less than a year. For users of operating systems which will soon stop being supported, these are important reminders. KB5046633 is for Windows 11 users, however, who don’t need to worry about their operating system no longer being supported.

Hopefully, Microsoft will acknowledge the blip and put out corrective measures soon, as spooking its users with false alarms won’t go down well - and could even lead to a ‘boy who cried wolf’ scenario in the future.

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Microsoft is busy fixing a whole host of bugs with Windows 11, and that’s clearly illustrated with the work in the latest preview build for the OS, which is almost entirely focused on squashing glitches – of which we’ve seen plenty with the new 24H2 update, of course.

In fact, Windows 11 build 27749 for the Canary channel only has one change that isn’t a bug fix, with Narrator getting a new keyboard shortcut combo (‘Narrator key + control + X’) which copies what was last spoken by the screen-reading tool to the clipboard. Also, Narrator now works to auto-read emails in the new Outlook app, as it did with the classic app.

Let’s cover Microsoft’s raft of troubleshooting work in this build next, then, bearing in mind that the Narrator capabilities are just in testing, as are the bug fixes – albeit with a notable exception.

That’s the fix for a bug where Task Manager errantly tells the user that zero processes and apps are running – which is, of course, impossible, given that the OS itself is built on a load of background processes – as this is also resolved with the cumulative update for the full version of Windows 11 in November. That Patch Tuesday update fixes another weird bug where Alt-Tabbing to switch between apps causes a lengthy pause and a black screen before the app you’re changing to is presented on the desktop – and a problem where the internet connection was failing on some PCs.

Back to preview build 27749, which also shores up a bunch of glitches with the core parts of the Windows 11 interface. That includes File Explorer having the contents of its navigation pane spread out too much (with extra space between them), and also some fine-tuning for the taskbar. Microsoft notes it has: “Made a change so you will now see a search box if the taskbar auto-hides when the setting for search on the taskbar is set to ‘Search box; (rather than an icon).”

On top of that, there’s a cure for an odd issue where a blank entry is present in the Privacy panel in the Settings app, and if clicked, it causes Settings to crash. Microsoft has also fixed an issue where Windows 11 would crank the volume to maximum on “certain audio devices” which doubtless made for a rude awakening after your PC returned from sleep (or it could happen on the first boot-up, too).

Narrator got some fixes as well, including the resolution of an issue where it would slow down after 15 minutes of continuous use in a single app.

There’s a clutch of other miscellaneous fixes here which Microsoft lists in the usual blog post.

Analysis: The current prevalence of weird bugs

What’s clear is that there’s a growing theme with Windows 11 being hit by some very strange bugs since the 24H2 update hit the scene. The weird spacing in the interface seen in File Explorer, zero processes showing in Task Manager, that blank entry in Settings that causes a crash, your audio suddenly being ramped to full volume, and many more oddball glitches besides (that menu disappearing off the top of the desktop springs to mind, too).

Normally, these kinds of bizarre issues are relatively rare, but seem to have become more common since the release of Windows 11 24H2, both in the update itself, and as we see here, in preview builds. It’s our theory that the major change to a new underlying platform in Windows 11 – Germanium – might have some side effects that we’re seeing manifested in these stranger kinds of bugs.

Hopefully, this run of quality assurance turbulence will start to calm down soon enough, and as we can see with this long laundry list of fixes in the latest preview, Microsoft is busy doing a lot of firefighting to resolve these multiple issues. We’ve already seen other preview updates where a lot of the work is bug fixing in recent times, and indeed in fairness, this era of heightened bugginess does go back further than the new version 24H2. Overall, 2024 has been something of a rocky year for Windows 11.

All of this seems to broadly point to the need for Microsoft to get a better handle on QA and testing processes for Windows 11, something that some people have been banging on about for some time now (ourselves included). The good news with 24H2, at least, is that it’s a major piece of work – in terms of the mentioned new Germanium platform underpinning the OS – and we haven’t seen any huge showstopping bugs (yet – touch wood). Just a lot of weird little cockroaches scurrying about.

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• Instant Games has been ditched nine months after it went live
• The feature let you instantly play arcade games without installing them
• It’s the ability to play instantly that’s scrapped, not the games themselves

Early in 2024, Microsoft started rolling out ‘Instant Games’ to its store in Windows 11, but the feature has come off the rails – and is now being scrapped.

The idea with Instant Games was to give Windows 11 users another reason to visit the Microsoft Store, allowing them to enjoy some quick-and-easy casual games that didn’t need to be downloaded or installed.

Yes, these were free games you could play on your PC there and then – instantly – with no fuss around setting them up.

Okay, so as you might imagine, they were just simple arcade or puzzle-style casual games – they were housed under the ‘Arcade’ tab in the Microsoft Store’s side panel menu, in fact – but still, they were free, and very easy to access.

At the last count, there were close to 70 games that could be instantly played using the feature in the Microsoft Store.

It seems the feature simply wasn’t very popular, though, because as Windows Latest reports, Microsoft has now canned Instant Games, as of today (November 14). The games themselves aren’t going anywhere, we should note; it’s just that the only option will be to download them going forward – there’s no instant play button anymore.

Analysis: Stumbling blocks that led to derailment

As Windows Latest points out, one of the frustrations with Instant Games was that it took a long time to roll out to everyone on Windows 11. Rather ironically, the delivery was anything but instant, as the idea was announced in September 2023, but as noted, the rollout didn’t begin until early 2024 (in February). And even when it did kick off, the feature was slow to be rolled out to Windows 11 users.

That probably didn’t help, and going by reports, there was another stumbling block with Instant Games. While the convenience of just clicking and playing a game there and then was great, running the title directly within the Microsoft Store was seemingly quite resource-intensive. Anecdotally, things could be less than smooth when running these arcade titles, even though they are by their very nature much less demanding than you’re the best PC games.

Granted, the level of smoothness doubtless depended on your PC (and Windows) configuration, but still – there were issues here by all accounts. Although to be fair, the feature did still allow you to try out these casual games, and if you liked them, you could then fully download and install them, to get smoother gameplay.

Whatever the case, ultimately the Instant Games library couldn’t have got much traffic, otherwise Microsoft wouldn’t be shutting it down just nine months after the feature was sent live. The idea was to attract more users to the Microsoft Store – which needs all the help it can get – but the plan seems to have failed in this instance.

Microsoft is, however, very much continuing its efforts to make the Microsoft Store a better place, including ushering in a major visual revamp, and changes to boost performance in various ways, making the app more responsive and much quicker to boot.

None of which can hurt, but in the end, it’s the content that the store will live and die by, and Microsoft still has a lot of work to do in that respect...

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• Edge now auto-starts in Windows 11, nudging users to set it as their default
• Prompts and persistent notifications make dismissing Edge harder
• Microsoft’s aggressive push for Edge and its other products persists, despite backlash from users

In a disappointing (but not entirely surprising) move, the Edge web browser has started to open automatically in Windows 11, ignoring users’ default choices and urging them to use it as their default browser. Something similar happened at the beginning of the year, with users noticing that Microsoft was seemingly helping itself to their Chrome data to try and steer them in Edge’s direction.

There was a backlash when it happened, and while Microsoft did remedy the issue the first time, it looks a lot like history might be repeating itself.

According to Neowin, Edge is apparently automatically starting for some users, suggesting that they ‘enhance’ their browsing experience with Copilot. Copilot is the AI assistant that Microsoft debuted a short while ago, claiming that it could be an all-purpose digital assistant that will help you do all kinds of tasks and activities on your PC. However, it looks like Microsoft is struggling to get its users to be as enthusiastic about Copilot as it is.

In the notification that takes over the screen, originally spotted by The Verge, the option to import your data from the browser you use regularly is ticked automatically and all you have to do is click ‘Confirm and continue.’ This was shown to users automatically, and it’s also not obvious how you can navigate away from the message without agreeing to change your web browser to Edge. This seems to have been deliberately designed, with the only way to get out of the process being a faint small ‘x’ in the top right corner.

A Microsoft spokesperson confirmed to The Verge that it was a deliberate strategy, stating:

“This is a notification giving people the choice to import data from other browsers. There is an option to turn it off.”

Neowin points out that if you wanted to stop this from happening repeatedly, you would have to open Edge, close all reminders in there prodding for you to share your data, sign into your Microsoft account, and only then be able to turn off autostart.

Microsoft: the great nag of the software world

Unfortunately, this is pretty in line with Microsoft’s previous behavior when it comes to trying to convert users to Edge. It showed pop-up ads on the official Chrome website and created a survey to find out why users are choosing Chrome over Edge, which some people felt was a rather pushy way of getting people to change their minds about Edge.

Microsoft’s rivals in the browser game, as well as consumer rights advocacy groups, have not been happy about Microsoft’s heavy-handed approach to trying to get users to stick with Edge, and have brought their complaints to regulators, but this hasn’t changed Microsoft’s mind.

It doesn’t even seem like this has resulted in Edge gaining many new users, so it doesn’t seem like this approach is paying off. I don’t see Microsoft changing course until regulatory bodies get involved, though I would guess that Microsoft might put an end to this specific Edge push and just try again, perhaps in some other way, in a few months.

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