The software giant first introduced malware-like pop-up ads last year with a prompt that appeared over the top of other apps and windows. After pausing that notification to address “unintended behavior,” the pop-ups have returned again on Windows 10 and 11.
Windows users have reported seeing the new pop-up in recent days, advertising Bing AI and Microsoft’s Bing search engine inside Google Chrome. If you click yes to this prompt, then Microsoft will set Bing as the default search engine for Chrome. These latest prompts look like malware, and once again have Windows users asking if they are legit or nefarious. Microsoft has confirmed to The Verge that the pop-ups are genuine and should only appear once.
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They control your OS. Instead of just running the program you told it to, it’s checking what program you are running and then displaying a pop-up intended to make them more profit. Functionally, there isn’t really a difference when the OS can already do whatever injected code might want to do.
It’s like if your bank is inserting flyers for their investment services into any safe deposit boxes that include stock certificates and arguing about whether they are picking your lock to get in or just opening a door in the back that gives them access to each box.