Dare we dream of Windows 11 with fewer ads and promos? Microsoft exec promises a 'calmer and more chill OS with fewer upsells is a goal'

• Microsoft is going to cut back on promotional activity in Windows 11
• An exec said on X that "a calmer and more chill OS with fewer upsells is a goal" with Windows 11
• Microsoft has mentioned other notable improvements on social media, including making the taskbar better beyond giving us the ability to move it

Windows 11 without adverts? Okay, maybe that's a pipe dream, but the amount of promotional activity Microsoft visits on its desktop OS is apparently going to be cut back.

As OC3D spotted, this is the latest word from Scott Hanselman, who is a VP, member of technical staff at Microsoft, and one of the major players in the whole 'fix Windows 11' campaign now underway with the software giant.

Hanselman posted on X that "a calmer and more chill OS with fewer upsells is a goal" with Windows 11.

This was in reply to someone who observed that while Microsoft has just made many laudable promises about what is going to be improved in Windows 11, one thing not mentioned was a "commitment to cut out the borderline malware tactics we've seen in recent years to push things like Edge, Bing, ads into the Start menu".

'Borderline malware' is strong phrasing, granted, but I'd agree that some of Microsoft's pop-ups or insertions into menus cross a line in terms of getting overly pushy.

On top of that, Windows Latest reports that as well as the ability to move the taskbar in Windows 11 (which is inbound), users might get the option to have a more compact taskbar, as seen in Windows 10.

Again, a denizen of X noted that they hate the "jumbo" taskbar in Windows 11 – the height of which can't be adjusted – and that "Windows 10 and Windows 8 have a compact/slim taskbar option" which should be in the newest OS.

Pavan Davuluri, head of Windows at Microsoft, replied in this case to say: "This is something we're looking at implementing."

This would be a particularly useful change for those with smaller displays (such as compact laptops), where the Windows 11 taskbar can feel unnecessarily large, eating up valuable desktop real estate.

Analysis: calmer chameleon — let's hope all these changes come to fruition

It's obvious that Microsoft wants to seem more directly engaged with Windows 11 users this year. Having previously promised meaningful improvements to Windows 11, the company just announced a whole raft of these – and it's notable how much Hanselman and Davuluri are both replying on social media to other much-requested features with generally positive responses.

It's one thing to want to be seen to be listening, though, and another to actually carry through on this work. I must admit, I found it odd that Microsoft didn't mention tackling instances of self-promotion in Windows 11 in its big announcement last week — but perhaps this was too close to the bone to state in an official blog post.

If Microsoft genuinely wants to make Windows 11 better, though, it's certainly a point that needs addressing. The various crowbarred-in bits of promotion for Edge, Bing, OneDrive and so forth definitely need to be canned, as they're irritating to see, and clutter up the interface to boot. And if some people do want reminders about features they could be missing out on, create a dedicated area of Settings that they can visit to take in the upselling candy on offer.

One way or another, 2026 is going to be a huge year for Windows 11. A massive amount of change is on the way, that much is clear, but how much of these extra promises on social media will be realized is going to be truly interesting to see.

How serious is Microsoft about making Windows 11 the best operating system it can possibly be? Let's hope we see all these things come to fruition, and more. We'll get a flavor of how the delivery of all this work will pan out soon enough, as the various changes are going to come pretty swiftly to Windows 11 on a monthly basis, we've been told.

The best laptops for all budgets

➡️ Read our full guide to the best laptops
1. Best overall:
Apple MacBook Air 13-inch M4
2. Best budget:
Asus Chromebook CM14
3. Best Windows 11 laptop
Microsoft Surface Laptop 13-inch
4. Best gaming:
Razer Blade 16
5. Best for pros
MacBook Pro 16-inch (M4 Pro)

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