Microsoft seems to think it’s okay to put a popup window on your computer above my applications and games just because users are using Chrome instead of Microsoft Edge, their own browser.
And don’t think it’s a regular notification. It doesn’t show up in the Windows 11 notification center, nor is it connected to the part of Windows 11 that suggests new features.
This notification is, literally, a fake executable file that has somehow appeared in c:\windows\temp\mubstemp and is digitally signed by Microsoft, as explained by Tom Warren in The Verge.
And Microsoft is apologizing… and they’re saying they will try to fix it
“We are aware of these reports and have paused this notification while we investigate and take appropriate action to address this unintended behavior,” says Caitlin Roulston, Director of Communications, in a statement to The Verge.
If we look on the internet, there are many users who thought it was malware; for three months, you can see on Reddit users trying to figure out why they were seeing the popup window.
The problem is that this isn’t the first time they’ve done this. Their feud with Google Chrome goes back a long way, and even in Windows 10, the hostilities began with Google’s browser.
The company has used various methods to get people to switch from Google and Chrome to Bing and Edge. Microsoft has been employing a variety of prompts for years, with popup windows appearing within Chrome, on the Windows taskbar, and in other places.
Microsoft has even forced people into Edge after a Windows update, and regularly displays a full-screen message to switch to Bing and Edge after updates.
We already pay for Windows; we don’t want ads
Windows isn’t free; it requires a license that almost all consumers end up paying for. It might be included in the price of a laptop with an OEM Windows license or a product key if you’ve built your own PC.
That’s why Microsoft should respect the fact that people already pay for Windows and don’t want to be bombarded with ads, as Tom Warren rightly complains.
Windows is a crucial productivity tool for many people and shouldn’t be treated like a cheap streaming device loaded with ads.
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