Yeah they do. It started with Windows 10. It’s one of the reasons I moved over to Linux for gaming last year (I have been using Linux for work for years)

I asked chatgpt about this recently and it seemed adamant that windows advertised to you and it was ok as you could turn it off and it helped fund the development.

I assume windows is free nowadays? Back in the 98 days you used to have to buy it, or at least acquire it in questionable legal circumstances

Why do you share what an AI may have hallucinated?

The rising prevalence of comments like this is concerning, and I’m worried this indicates the existence of a large number people using AI this way that don’t warn us.

Windows isn't free, though upgrades have been for a while after major releases since 10. You pay for it with a new PC or you have to buy it for custom built PCs.

ChatGPT was trained on data from 2021 and earlier. It's not a good original source.

So the adverts don’t pay for windows development? Where does the money go?

Or are Microsoft double dipping?

I recently deleted my Windows partition, but I recall how after an update it blocked me from login in until it could tell me I really should try out Office 365, informed me Edge is better for me than whatever browser I was using (Firefox) and asked me for a Microsoft account.