Microsoft's redesign of the Windows 11's Weather app shoves in yet more ads

As Microsoft continues rolling out updates to Windows 11 and its included software that most people didn't ask for , alarm bells have rung with the redesign of the Windows 11 Weather app— an app that now appears to be not only less functional but seems to have been made worse just to place yet more advertisements. This was most thoroughly observed by user @ChangeWindows in their X thread, which is embedded below.

Microsoft has already received much criticism for adding egregious ads to nearly every facet of Windows 11, a paid operating system—the most egregious of them all being Start Menu Ads. The advertisements in an already-paid operating system have received plenty of backlash, and now Microsoft seems to be doing it while explicitly making its stock OS apps less functional.

Besides adding egregious advertisements, @ChangeWindows' original thread details how Microsoft removed many useful widgets and cards in favor of more ad space or just plain confusing replacements. Who needs to see the day's dew point temperature more than the weather forecast? Someone at Microsoft must, because the changes to the Weather app have moved that to the forefront.

Fortunately, we don't live in a world without recourse for these things. While the staple Windows 11 app for removing built-in ads has yet to be updated for these in particular, most of Windows 11's ads, including the infamous Start Menu ads, can already be disabled with the appropriately-named "Oh F*ck Go Back" utility .

Those looking for a better Weather app for Windows may also want to consider FluentWeather or Lively Weather . Both are ad-free, FOSS (Free and Open Source Software) solutions that fit well with the native theming of Windows 10 and 11.

As a silver lining, Windows 10 users who want to stay away from Windows 11 due to justified reasons like this may have some recourse if they don't want to pay Microsoft for the privilege of extended Windows 10 support past 2025 . However, as insisted by Microsoft and "the market," the era of Windows 10 PCs seems set to end sooner rather than later, regardless of the consequences to our environment or our eyes.