Microsoft is using pop-ups in Windows 11 to get users to ditch Google

Users are reporting seeing Microsoft Edge pop-up ads while browsing on Google Chrome. The pop-up doesn't appear in the notifications window but in c:\windows\temp\mubstemp and is digitally signed by Microsoft.

“We are aware of these reports and have paused this notification while we investigate and take appropriate action to address this unintended behavior,” says Caitlin Roulston, director of communications, in a statement to The Verge.

Reddit users have been trying to figure out why they have been seeing these pop-ups since the past three months. The company is known to reportedly use a number of prompts to get users to switch from Chrome to Edge Browser, with pop-ups appearing even on the Windows taskbar. Microsoft tried to force Windows users to move to Edge after every update with a full-screen message.

Recently Microsoft began taking over Chrome searches in Bing to deliver a response similar to ChatGPT-4 chatbot, which produced a full Bing page to entirely take over the search result for Chrome.