Microsoft has been pushing its products to Windows and Edge users in a variety of ways, such as pop-up ads and banners, constantly prompting users to change the default browser or search engine, reset the default settings of the application turn on telemetry data collection and so on. Despite repeated requests from users to reduce these practices, Microsoft doesn’t seem to have any intention of stopping. Recently, Microsoft made a new attempt to send Windows ads to Chrome users, begging them to make Bing their default search engine.
Steven Parker, co-founder of the Neowin website, spotted the ad on his Windows 10 PC this morning. The ad uses a number of enticements, such as promises to “improve the search experience,” “give away Microsoft Rewards Points,” and “offer the new AI-powered Bing,” etc. Unlike Windows 11, the ad is not an upgrade. Windows 11 upgrade prompt, which only has two “Yes” buttons, this ad also allows users to decline the offer with a “No Switch” button. The ad is said to appear as early as June 2023.
In addition to the intrusive ads appearing in the bottom right corner of the screen, users have also discovered an unknown process called “BGAUpsell” located in the C:\Windows\Temp\MUBSTemp folder, which is inaccessible.
Pushing Bing ads to Chrome users could be an experiment targeting a specific audience in a specific region or other criteria. Virustotal scans show that the executable pings several browser-related parameters, such as browser version, default settings, identifiers, and more.
While Microsoft has some great products, the company is overly aggressive in its marketing, constantly pissing off its core audience for the sake of a handful of new customers.
