Microsoft confirms: We are working on advertising in File Explorer

Hans Christian Dirscherl

Yesterday, many Windows 11 users were startled by the message that Microsoft is showing advertising in File Explorer: Windows 11 – Microsoft is testing advertising in File Explorer. This is currently only the case in the test version for insiders and even there not for all users. But that was enough for unrest and negative comments.

Microsoft has now made it clear to our US sister publication PC-World that these advertisements are not yet intended. Although Microsoft would work on advertisements in File Explorer, these should not be displayed at the moment.

Brandon LeBlanc, Senior Product Manager, Windows, told PC-World: “It was an experimental banner, not intended for outside release and was therefore shut down.” However, these will probably no longer appear in the test versions for insiders in the near future and therefore not in the final version 22H2 of Windows 11. But what the more distant future will bring remains completely open, so Microsoft does not deny that there will ever be advertisements in File Explorer, but Microsoft didn’t respond to a question about whether it would allow users to turn off ads once they were built into File Explorer.

Windows offers huge reach for advertising

Advertising in Windows is nothing entirely new. Microsoft keeps adding information about its paid Office package or Office 365 to Windows. Microsoft also advertised OneDrive cloud storage in Windows 10’s File Explorer in 2017. The extraordinarily large number of users inevitably makes Windows very attractive for advertisements.