Keep in mind again when Home windows 11 first got here out and Microsoft gave everybody a free cross to improve? On the floor, it was a beneficiant transfer; in fact, it was a ploy to lure us away from Home windows 10.
Clearly, if Microsoft was giving one thing away, it was going to return with a catch. On this case, it’s all of the advertisements which are being added to Home windows 11, going above and past what we’ve seen in earlier variations. Happily, we are able to disable these advertisements… for now, a minimum of.
For those who’re fed up with all of the advertisements and proposals all through Home windows 11, there are many methods to push again. Listed below are the settings you have to flip off to ditch Home windows’ worst advertisements.
Additional studying: 13 necessary Home windows settings to vary instantly
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The Begin menu has been fertile floor for Microsoft’s “Really helpful” apps since Home windows 10, and it’s alive and effectively within the newest builds of Home windows 11. Happily, it’s easy to show off.
Navigate to Settings > Personalization > Begin, then search for the choice titled “Present suggestions for ideas, shortcuts, new apps, and extra” and toggle it to Off.
Ditch Home windows notification advertisements
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I’m not a fan of notifications. I’ve sufficient hassle concentrating on duties each day with out pop-ups and alerts distracting me — and the very last thing I want are advertisements disguised as necessary notifications.
Let’s flip these off, lets? And whereas we’re at it, let’s take away these pesky full-screen “End organising” prompts, too.
Navigate to Settings > System > Notifications. Scroll all the way down to the underside the place you’ll discover Further settings. Click on to broaden these choices, then uncheck the bins for “Get ideas and strategies when utilizing Home windows,” “Recommend methods to get probably the most out of Home windows and end organising this system,” and “Present the Home windows welcome expertise after updates and when signed in to indicate what’s new and steered.” Phew, what a mouthful.
Cease steered advertisements in Settings
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Fed up with Microsoft’s “strategies” for Copilot and different options within the Settings app? You possibly can flip these off, too. Navigate to Settings > Privateness and Safety > Basic, then toggle the choice for “Present me steered content material within the Settings app” to Off.
Take away File Explorer advertisements
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OneDrive will not be considered one of our top-pick cloud backup providers, however it’s nonetheless fairly good and inexpensive. The issue is, being bombarded with advertisements for it may be an enormous turn-off — and if you happen to’re like me, you’re in all probability sick of these advertisements in File Explorer. Right here’s swap these off.
Open File Explorer and choose the three-dot menu within the actions toolbar. Choose Choices adopted by the View tab. Scroll down to close the underside of the record and search for “Present sync supplier notifications.” Be certain it’s unchecked, then choose OK.
Jon Martindale / IDG
For those who make use of Home windows’ widgets, all too effectively that they usually attempt to push you in the direction of breaking tales, inventory updates, and different content material that could be irrelevant to you. To disable these, you possibly can both flip off particular feeds or disable widgets completely.
To take away a person widget feed, choose the widget icon on the bottom-left of your display screen, then choose the cog icon on the top-right of the widget window. Choose Present or conceal feeds and swap the feed(s) to Off.
To take away widgets completely, right-click in your taskbar and choose Taskbar settings. Then, toggle “Widgets” to Off.
Disable producer bloatware advertisements
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For those who purchased your PC or laptop computer from a significant producer like Dell, Lenovo, or HP, there’s a superb likelihood it got here preloaded with unsolicited apps (“bloatware”) you don’t need or want. For those who don’t wish to uninstall them altogether, you possibly can a minimum of minimize down on notification spam.
Navigate to Settings > System > Notifications and look by way of the record of apps till you discover any named after your PC’s producer. Disable these advertisements by toggling these notifications to Off.
Generally they provide their apps names which are much less clearly figuring out. For those who spot any suspicious or uncommon apps, do a fast Google search on them to see in the event that they’re value disabling.
Block lock-screen and background advertisements
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The Home windows Highlight function dynamically modifications your background and lock display screen photographs to maintain your desktop feeling contemporary and fascinating. However Microsoft has sometimes proven advertisements for varied video games with it, and the associated ideas generally is a little ad-like at occasions, too.
Sadly, the one technique to cease that for now could be to show off Home windows Highlight. For those who’d quite resort to static photographs that you just change your self, right here’s what you are able to do:
Navigate to Settings > Personalization > Background. Then, subsequent to Personalize your background, use the drop-down menu to pick out something aside from Home windows Highlight.
Additionally, navigate to Settings > Personalization > Lock Display. Then, subsequent to Personalize your Lock Display, use the drop-down menu to decide on any possibility that isn’t Home windows Highlight.
Conceal the spotlight advertisements in Home windows search
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Ah, Home windows search, how I really like and detest thee. You’re good at discovering apps so long as I sort them out accurately, however I don’t want you to indicate me advertisements and steered purchasing content material. Let’s flip that off.
Navigate to Settings > Privateness and safety > Search permissions. Scroll down till you discover “Present search highlights” and toggle it Off.
No extra customized advertisements
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Whereas all of the above settings will stop Microsoft from serving you as many advertisements inside Home windows itself, they gained’t cease the working system from gathering your knowledge to serve you customized advertisements sooner or later. You possibly can put a cease to that now in order that even when an advert does in some way get by way of, it gained’t be extremely focused to you and your exercise.
Disable Home windows system utilization monitoring by navigating to Settings > Personalization > Machine Utilization and toggling Off all of the choices there.
You may as well disable additional gathering of diagnostic knowledge by navigating to Settings > Privateness and safety > Basic and toggling all of the choices there to Off as effectively.
Additional studying: All of the methods Home windows 11 collects your knowledge
