How to turn off Windows 11 Start Menu ads

A new Windows 11 update has introduced ads to the start menu, which can be obtrusive. If you want to turn off Windows 11 ads in the Start menu, we guide you through the entire process here.

Windows 11 update KB5036980 has begun to roll out to users, and it includes ‘recommendations’ for apps in the Microsoft Store that will appear in the Start Menu. This feature is being distributed to a broad range of Windows 11 users after a two-week testing period with Windows Insiders.

Luckily in this update, Windows 11 start menu ads can be disabled by changing a simple setting.

How to disable Windows 11 ads in Start Menu

• Right-click on the Start Menu icon and click on SettingsClick on the three lines in the top right corner
• Scroll down to ‘Personalisation’ and click it
• Click on the ‘Start’ option
• Find the option named ‘Show recommendations for tips, app promotions and more’ and toggle this to ‘Off’.

The process is very straightforward, and if you do not want to see personalized ads on Windows 11 at all, you can configure this during the initial setup of the OS, too. As Windows 11 is evolving, this process could change if Microsoft decides users must see these app ‘recommendations’ in future updates. But, for now, this method takes just a few minutes to go through and will prevent these ads from appearing on your system.

At the moment, KB5036980 is only an optional update but is expected to roll out to all Windows 11 PCs over time. Luckily, unlike Copilot, you don’t have to resort to registry edits to get rid of them.