Microsoft: ad in Explorer was an experiment and not intended for the public

Microsoft confirms it is experimenting with displaying promotions for its own products in a banner in the Explorer of a test version of Windows 11, but claims that it was not intended for this to be visible to the public. The experimental banner has been turned off.

Several users on Twitter saw an Insider Build of Windows 11 promotion for Microsoft products in a bar in Windows Explorer last week. It was not intended for people to see, Microsoft now says in a statement to The Verge. “This was an experiment that was not intended to be published externally and it has been turned off,” said Brandon LeBlanc, senior program manager for Windows.

With these words, Microsoft confirms that it is experimenting with displaying promotions for its own products in File Explorer. Although it was apparently intended as an internal test, Microsoft does not rule out showing such ads to users in the future.

Microsoft more often advertises its own products in Windows. In 2017, for example, advertisements for OneDrive were shown in Windows 10 Explorer. It was possible to disable it, but the promotion was shown by default. Even then, Microsoft received a lot of criticism from users about the advertisements in the operating system.

Ad in Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22572. Image via Florian on Twitter