Earlier this month, Microsoft took a big step in making Windows 11 better: it admitted that the operating system has problems and said it wants to fix them. This led to a lot of promises to deliver faster performance with more control over how your machine updates, and even some promises that it would stop shoehorning AI into every nook and cranny. Now, though, less than a month later, those promises are already starting to fall apart.
Copilot starts injecting ads nobody asked for
This is the Microsoft way
If you had ‘Copilot somehow messes everything up’ on your Windows bingo card this year, then go ahead and mark out that space, as that is exactly what has happened. According to a report from Neowin, some software developers using AI to fix small errors in their pull requests have been rewarded with a nice and unasked-for advertisement for Copilot coding agents that says, “Quickly spin up Copilot coding agent tasks from anywhere on your macOS or Windows machine with Raycast.”
This is not an isolated incident, either, as a deeper search by Neowin into the situation revealed that there was a hidden HTML comment right before the advertisement. This comment, which simply reads “start copilot coding agent tips,” then appears in several other files when searching for that text on GitHub. The issue also appears to be affecting merge requests, too, with the same advertisement appearing in at least one reported merge request on GitLab.
In the past, Microsoft has been no stranger to annoying advertisement tactics: the company has pushed its Edge browser onto users mercilessly, even going so far as to have the browser be recommended in other apps across the Windows ecosystem. What’s even more interesting about that is the fact that other browser companies, like Opera, have even started legal complaints over how Microsoft tries to push people into using Edge, as previously reported by XDA.
Microsoft pulls latest Windows preview
Timing really is everything
As if the Copilot ordeal here wasn’t enough, Microsoft has also pulled the latest Windows preview update, which just launched last week, according to Windows Central. That update, which finally showed some progress in resolving File Explorer’s many issues, initially gave me some hope that Microsoft might actually be up to the task. However, that hope was short-lived, as the update proved to be rife with installation errors.
That’s not exactly a great look considering Microsoft’s promises about ensuring better quality. While some bugs and issues should be expected in pre-release software, the fact that things were so bad that Microsoft had to just pull the entire thing to fix the problem is not a particularly great sign.
Ultimately, both of these issues are just more of Microsoft doing what it always has. However, the timing is what makes this important. With all Microsoft’s talk about better quality, being less annoying, and making Windows the operating system people want, there are a lot of eyes on the company and what it has to offer.
Sure, advertisements in AI have become a bit of a normal thing these days, with ChatGPT adding advertisements just recently. However, injecting them into pull and merge requests of developers that are already using your Copilot services just feels a bit like a slap in the face. Hopefully, Microsoft sees the error of its ways sooner rather than later.
