Windows 10 is now serving Edge advertisements to anyone that does not have it as the default browser.
These ads appear over the Edge icon in the Windows 10 taskbar, even when Edge is not open. They do appear only when Edge is not the default system browser but that covers the majority of Windows 10 systems.
Since it advertises Microsoft Edge and Microsoft Rewards, it is possible that the campaign is reserved to the United States. The reason for this is simple: Microsoft Rewards are only available in the US right now.
This is not the only ad that promotes Microsoft Edge that users may see however. Microsoft is pushing ads in the Action Center as well stating that Chrome is draining battery fast and that switching to Edge would better the situation.
Both ads have some use for users and try to promote a feature of Microsoft Edge or Microsoft that may be beneficial to users.
One could argue that this is a good thing, and it probably would not get such a bad reception if Microsoft would provide clear and concise options to turn of[f] these after they appear once.
The main issue that many Windows 10 users may have with these ads is however that is seems impossible to get rid of those advertisements once and for all.
Microsoft really wants Windows 10 users to use Cortana and Edge.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Thexalon on Saturday November 05 2016, @07:32PM
That's because their intended source of revenue from Windows 10 was spying on their users, and Cortana and Edge are all about providing that data for Microsoft. It's funny, it used to be that the bad guys would break into easily compromised Windows machines in order to install spyware, now Microsoft is providing the spyware right out of the box. And we're supposed to think that's a good thing somehow.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 05 2016, @08:04PM
Edge is also designed for increasing the use of Bing. The address bar isn't visible in a new tab or window unless you specifically click where it should be. They do this to try to get users to type what they want in the Bing box which will automatically increase Bing's usage.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Ethanol-fueled on Sunday November 06 2016, @12:12AM
To be fair, Bing is better than Google nowadays...in fact it started being better than Google right around the time of election season. Which means that it didn't become better, Google just became worse. Probably as a result of tweaks to better hide Hillary's dirty laundry.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 06 2016, @10:26PM
Yeah, right. As if anyone can tell when one US election season ends and the next begins.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Nerdfest on Saturday November 05 2016, @10:44PM
I was under the impression that one of the Windows 10 updates forcibly enabled Cortana on all machines. Does that mean it's always listening? I certainly wouldn't put it past them.
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Monday November 07 2016, @02:03PM
It did, but they backed off on that when the PR started looking bad. Of course, just because Cortana is off doesn't mean Windows 10 isn't phoning home [betanews.com].
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.