Windows Ads Everywhere: The Unwelcome Presence in the Surface App
Windows 11 is full of suggestions and recommendations that often feel like ads, but the Surface app takes this to a whole new level. This app, intended to manage Surface devices, is now packed with persistent advertisements pushing you to buy various products from Microsoft and its partners — and it looks like you’ll just have to accept it.
I happen to have a small collection of Windows laptops, including several Surface devices, to test new features. As part of the Beta Channel, I was happy to see the battery indicator feature finally rolling out, but I was also frustrated to discover that smart charging, which is supposed to protect the Surface battery, had been disabled. This feature, commonly included in other laptop brands’ utility apps like MyAsus or Lenovo Vantage, is controlled through the Surface app. So, I opened it up to quickly fix the issue, but what I didn’t expect was to be bombarded with an ad for a new Xbox controller (currently 30% off), along with other recommendations like the Surface Thunderbolt 4 Dock.
The ads don’t stop there. Despite being a system utility app, the Surface app also features a “Discover offers & devices” dropdown that’s filled with more ads, including a pitch for an Adobe Creative Cloud subscription and, bizarrely, a link to buy Microsoft’s Copilot+ PCs. All told, I was presented with three separate opportunities to buy Surface hardware and accessories.
This type of ad is new for the Surface app, and it’s a feature that feels deliberately coded in. On both Beta and Dev Channels, I encountered these ads, even on older devices like the Surface Laptop Go 3 (released in 2023), which had never used the Surface app before. Upon setup, the app instantly loaded a series of ads promoting products I should have bought alongside the laptop, such as Copilot+ PCs — products that weren’t even available when the laptop launched.
Unblockable Ads in Windows
If you’re a regular Windows user, you’ve probably seen similar suggestions, with options to block them in places like the Start menu and File Explorer. However, there’s no clear way to block ads within the Surface app. Unlike other Windows notifications or Spotlight ads, these Surface ads act like traditional web ads, even bypassing ad-blockers in Edge.
While Microsoft has provided ways to reduce suggestions across other Windows features, it seems these ads in the Surface app are here to stay. It raises the question: why the Surface app, specifically? After purchasing an expensive Surface device, the last thing you want is to see ads for products that should’ve been bundled with it in the first place. And while the Microsoft Store app should be the one handling hardware recommendations, it remains focused solely on software and subscriptions — an unnecessary limitation that further complicates the issue.
If you’re already tired of the growing number of Windows ads, you might want to think twice before investing in a Microsoft Surface — the app will remind you of all the things you still need to buy.
