I have good news and bad news about Windows 11 24H2’s new update: it introduces nifty features and fixes... but also includes another ad

• Windows 11 24H2 just received a new optional update
• It has some interesting new features and fixes, but also brings in an advert
• That PC Game Pass ad in the Settings app will very likely be coming to all Windows 11 users next month with the March patch

Microsoft has deployed a new (optional) patch for Windows 11 24H2 and it does some important work, introducing some useful touches and critical fixes – but there’s a catch in that an advert has strayed in here.

I say advert, Microsoft would doubtless call it a recommendation, but it’s all about pushing other services from the firm, whatever label you pin on it. And in the case of this new KB5052093 preview update, it’s for PC Game Pass, and you’ll see it in the Settings app.

Microsoft explains: “Some of you might see a new referral card for a PC Game Pass subscription on the Settings home page. With it, you can invite friends and family to try PC Game Pass for free. If you qualify, the card only appears when you sign in to your PC using your Microsoft account.”

Other additions will prove much less controversial, such as a useful ability to be able to share files from a jump list on the taskbar. (If you right click an app on the taskbar, the menu that pops up is the jump list, allowing quick access to various useful functions in a context-sensitive manner).

There’s also some laudable work in the accessibility stakes, with Narrator getting fresh bits of functionality with its scan mode, such as a shortcut to ‘skip past link’ which will take you straight to the text after a link, and another that lets you jump straight to a list in a document.

Microsoft has also changed Windows 11 to allow multiple apps to access a webcam simultaneously. As the company explains, this has been developed for people with hearing disability to allow “video streaming for both a sign language interpreter and the end audience at the same time.”

There are a bunch of bug fixes here, too, with a lot of tinkering going on with File Explorer (the windows that show your folders and the files in them). Some of the more important cures include ensuring the context menu invoked with a right click doesn’t appear in a sluggish manner when working with cloud files, and improved performance when opening folders that have a large quantity of media files.

Problems with scanners not being properly recognized by Windows 11 have also been fixed, and a bug that caused the system volume to be ramped up to maximum when the PC wakes from sleep has been squashed (an unwelcome intrusion that doubtless woke up the owner of the computer on a few occasions, as well as the system). Indeed, Windows 11 has suffered a number of audio-related bugs in the recent past.

Analysis: Optional becomes mandatory next month, and that likely includes this new ad

As I outlined earlier this week, it’s apparent that File Explorer does need some considerable work in its Windows 11 incarnation, and it’s good to see some of that happening here. And the accessibility changes are obviously welcome, with this being an area Microsoft continues to score well in, too, so that’s all good.

The not-so-good is that advert, of course. The Game Pass ad was recently spotted in beta builds of Windows 11, when I went on a bit of a rant about it – and sadly, it appears to be motoring very swiftly through onto the release version of Microsoft’s OS. This preview update for February is not something you have to install – it’s optional – but it will transform into the March patch for Windows 11 next month. At which point, you will have to download it (and it’s unlikely the advert will be removed at the last minute).

True, the ad won’t appear for everyone, only those signed into a Microsoft account who are PC Game Pass subscribers. And arguably, you might even want to give your friends a free trial of the service (for two weeks), so they can join you in tackling some of the best coop games, perhaps. But still, I can’t help but feel frustrated with Microsoft continuing to push its own services in parts of the Windows 11 interface, when this is an OS that people have already paid quite a chunk of money for.

If Windows 11 was completely free (not just for Windows 10 upgraders), then ad-supported would be fine and perfectly understandable – but it isn’t free, so instead users are kind of getting the worst of both worlds. And I’ve never quite understood why Microsoft doesn’t get this.

Clearly, though, things aren’t going to change for the foreseeable, as integrated ads in the form of recommendations or suggestions is an angle Microsoft seems intent on exploring more often these days.

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