Windows is not free. And not only does it cost us what the license key is worth that we must activate in order to use it, but we are also paying, indirectly, while we use it. Microsoft takes advantage of its operating system, and all its infrastructure, to generate extra income at the expense of its users, either collecting and analyzing data very valuable that it collects with Windows or, as it has done on other occasions, through advertisements and banners that it includes in different parts of the OS.
We have already been able to see, on other occasions, Microsoft banners in which it recommends us to use certain functions of the operating system or, also, recommends us to buy extra services, such as Microsoft 365. One of the points where we have already been able to see this kind of advertising It is in the Windows start menu itself, an element that Microsoft takes great advantage of to display this type of announcements and recommendations. Another point where we already saw ads was in the browser, in the form of an experiment, where the system recommended us to use OneDrive.
However, Microsoft is not going to stop there, and has already prepared the new site where it will show its new ads. And it is none other than one of the programs in which we spend the most time per day: the Windows file explorer.
Many more announcements are coming to Windows 11
In the latest Windows 11 Insider Updates, Microsoft has introduced some changes to two system libraries: shell32.dll.mui and propsys.dll.mui. Within these libraries we can find that, within the explorer options menu, a new entry will appear that will allow us to choose whether or not we want to view recommended content within File Explorer.
This new entry is deactivated by default in the latest build of windows 11Therefore, unless we activate it using the ViveTool tool, we will not see the fourth option of the privacy panel. But it’s an indication that these “recommendations” will be coming to Windows File Explorer very soon.
The new news is that, it seems, we are going to have a box to choose if we want these ads to be shown or not. The bad news is that many will not know about this option and will have to swallow the ads by force.
Files is, every time, a more striking alternative to the explorer
The arrival of ads in a program as essential and basic as the file explorer is not good news. After all, it is the program we use to move through all the files and folders on the PC. Luckily, there are great alternatives that, if we get used to them, will allow us to forget about this Microsoft tool. And one of the best is Files.
Files is, roughly speaking, the file explorer that Windows 11 should have had from the start. This completely free and open source software has all kinds of functions and features to help us work better with the operating system and move through all the data. It is a program that, once you try it, you can no longer live without it. And much less with Microsoft’s plans to introduce more and more ads.
