The software giant first introduced malware-like pop-up ads last year with a prompt that appeared over the top of other apps and windows. After pausing that notification to address “unintended behavior,” the pop-ups have returned again on Windows 10 and 11.
Windows users have reported seeing the new pop-up in recent days, advertising Bing AI and Microsoft’s Bing search engine inside Google Chrome. If you click yes to this prompt, then Microsoft will set Bing as the default search engine for Chrome. These latest prompts look like malware, and once again have Windows users asking if they are legit or nefarious. Microsoft has confirmed to The Verge that the pop-ups are genuine and should only appear once.
Every trick Microsoft pulled to make you browse Edge instead of Chrome
This is the best summary I could come up with:
The software giant first introduced malware-like pop-up ads last year with a prompt that appeared over the top of other apps and windows.
“This is a one-time notification giving people the choice to set Bing as their default search engine on Chrome,” says Caitlin Roulston, director of communications, in a statement to The Verge.
There are a variety of ways that Microsoft attempts to prompt Windows users into switching to Bing and Edge, making it difficult to avoid them through tweaking settings.
I’ve been growing increasingly frustrated with Microsoft’s attempts to aggressively push pop-up ads on Chrome users in recent years.
Earlier this year, Microsoft even had to fix an issue where its Edge browser was automatically importing browsing data and tabs from Chrome without consent.
I’m still hoping Microsoft will eventually give up with these annoying pop-ups and respect Windows users’ choice to pick whichever search engine and browser they wish to use.
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