In an ideal world, Microsoft would only allow Windows users to use Windows-based products, such as the Microsoft Office suite or Internet Explorer/Edge. However that is not the world we live in which is why many users have opted for alternative products, such as Google’s suite of productivity apps, and other browsers like Chrome, Mozilla’s Firefox, Opera, and more.
However it looks like Microsoft might have come up with a way to take advantage of the fact that you aren’t using Edge. According to a report from Myce (via Engadget), it seems that Windows 10 users are seeing an ad that is floating above the Chrome icon that is pinned to the taskbar.
As you can see, the ad is for Microsoft’s Personal Shopping Assistant extension for the browser. Note that the extension itself isn’t new and according to Engadget, it has been around for about a year, but thanks to an update it seems that the popup keeps triggering and feels almost spam-like in nature.
The issue is also not so much about the ad itself, but as Thurrott notes, what if similar access was given to third-party developers? Imagine using Windows and finding yourself bombarded with all kinds of ads, wouldn’t that be terrible?
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