[German]Microsoft tried it again, and rolled out a campgaign of aggressive ads for their Bing search engines to Google Chrome users on Windows 11. Could have been the reason why some people contacted me about the obskure files BGAUpsell.EXE /BGAUpdate.exe found on their system Meanwhile, Microsoft had to stop this campaign again because the ads even affected games running on Windows 11 and the notification covered parts of the game.
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I had seen the notice of the ad campaign on Twitter at Windows Latest over the weekend. The ads were rolled out to users who use Google or another search engine in Google Chrome for Windows 10 or 11.
A pop-up on the lower right edge of the desktop aggressively advertised the use of Bing.com as a search engine. They must be promoting Bing like sour beer – because people are more likely to use alternative search engines and don't want to be presented with Microsoft's AI crap.
Windows Latest addressed the behavior in this article, complaining that this popup, which is supposed to promote the use of Microsoft Rewards points and Bing chat, is making its way into various Windows 11 settings. It invades notifications and the focus assistant, they say. In addition, this ad is said to appear during gaming sessions. Some users have reported to Windows Latest that they got the pop-up window displayed even though they were running a game in full-screen mode. Actually, a "does not behave at all", which is known from adware and malware, but seems to be the order of the day at Microsoft.
Rolled out via server-side update
The campaign was rolled out via server-side update, according to Windows Latest. And here's where it gets interesting. After all, I had published the blog post Edge 116: Mysterious files bgaupdate.exe and bgaupsell.exe on August 27, 2023, which dealt with two obscure files that were rolled out with Microsoft Edge. According to Windows Latest, the pop-up prompt to use AI-powered Bing.com in Chrome as the default search engine is triggered by the BGAUpsell.EXE file, which is located in the folder C:\Windows\Temp\MUBSTemp.
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I mentioned this file in the above blog post after users came forward because some of the files were reported to be malware (which they basically are, malware signed by Microsoft to target its user base). The file is part of the "Microsoft Bing Service 2.0" and is also used to display notifications about Bing and Edge on Windows 11.
Microsoft stopped this campaign
EP just pointed me in a comment to another Windows Lastest article. Windows Latest had asked Microsoft what the aggressive campaign was about. A Microsoft spokesperson is now quoted by Windows Latest as saying that the company was aware that these Bing popups were being displayed over games and ignored Windows 11 notification settings.
It is said by Microsoft that this ad campaign has been stopped and the company is investigating the situation. Tests by Microsoft have confirmed that these ads have been disabled. In the article, Windows Latest writes that Microsoft can probably estimate, if Edge is not running for 48 hours and a search engine other than Bing is used in Google Chrome.
I guess, it's time to file another competition complaint against Microsoft. I'm checking currently, whether citizens of the European Union are affected. The Digital Market Act (DMA) is now valid, which could be the tool to stop Microsoft to ship it's malware to user systems.
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