Windows chief Pavan Davuluri responds to a long-running complaint about Bing

Are you tired of seeing ads and prompts to switch to Bing? Microsoft’s new Windows and Surface chief, Pavan Davuluri, has said in a new interview that he “[hears] you on it.”

If you’re unfamiliar with the intrusive nature of Microsoft’s Bing pop-ups and prompts, here’s a brief refresher: 

Microsoft has an unfortunately pushy history when it comes to Bing. Pop-ups to switch to Microsoft’s proprietary search engine previously showed up in 2021 after a Windows 10 update, a year ago with a BGAUpsell.exe prompt, and in March of this year with an annoying Chrome notification. And that’s only a few examples over the past couple of years.

Four months ago, Redditor @Boomayeee on r/Windows 11 said that with every update, they’re “prompted to set [Bing] as default search engine,” despite clicking ‘No’ every time. One user (@Chedyus) chimed in: “It happens to me as well after every new version they push.”

In another Reddit thread on the Bing pop-up in Google Chrome two months ago, Redditor @b_86 aptly said, “Microsoft, stop using literal malware tactics to position your products and services.” 

Will Microsoft actually pull back on intrusive Bing ads?