The Windows 10 Anniversary Update will increase the number of Promoted Apps to ten in the Start Menu, even though users have responded poorly to the feature.
The Windows 10 Start Menu has not been quite your own little PC space for some time. Microsoft’s Promoted Apps are essentially advertisements placed within the Start Menu, and they have been almost universally panned by users.
Undeterred, Microsoft is pushing the Promoted Apps idea further and the Windows 10 Anniversary Update will double the amount of app ads you see in the Start Menu. At the moment there are five applications promoted by Microsoft within the menu, but the Anniversary Update will increase that number to ten.
Microsoft is not taking app tiles of your choosing away, but will instead cull some of the static apps. These are the apps that are pinned to the Start Menu by default, and there will only be 12 of them, down from 17.
Promoted Apps are “Programmable Tiles” that look like the pre-installed static apps, but are actually advertisements for Windows Store apps that Microsoft suggests. Clicking the Promoted tiles will take you to the app location in the Windows Store, something that has caused controversy in the Windows community.
The company says the Promoted Apps serve two purposes. They give users the chance to see applications that have been recommended by Microsoft, while developers will be able to make their apps more visible in the Windows ecosystem.
Neowin found the new tiles via slides shown at Microsoft’s WinHEC, and it seems the new Start Menu will only be deployed on fresh installs of Windows 10 that are running the Anniversary Update.
I’m OK with this if the following is done:
1. All future versions of Windows are free, let MS make money off store sales.
2. Put these times in a “Promoted Apps” section at bottom of start menu, don’t mix then with real application tiles. This type it’s not editable, including title.
3. Allow users to hide the “Promoted Apps” section. MS could make this an option users pay for. Price to do so must be reasonable.
Bottom line, if MS starts to charge for Windows again they should not do this. They needed to listen to their Insiders who are giving feedback.