Ads in Windows 10 apps may open deceptive webpages
Windows 10 users who run ad-powered applications on their systems may be targeted by deceptive and fraudulent campaigns that make them believe that their PC is infected or that they have won an iPhone currently.
Several core Windows applications, e.g. Microsoft News, that come with the operating system natively display advertisement, and it appears that several of these ad-powered applications are causing the issue for users currently.
When a fraudulent ad is picked by the ad server, it is displayed to the user in the application. The advertisement opens a webpage in the default browser and displays either something scary, e.g. the PC is infected, or tempting, e.g. you won an iPhone.
The webpage that tries to intimidate the user states for example that viruses were found on the PC on a webpage that resembles the official Microsoft webpage.
It may not be clear right away that the message is fake; experienced users may notice that it is and close the window, but inexperienced users may follow the advice and either get their systems infected in the process, submit personal information to the operator of the fake site, or make a purchase.
A (German) Microsoft Answers support page highlights the issue already. Microsoft MVP volunteer moderator Ingo Böttcher confirms that Windows Apps may open fake websites that scare the user with virus infection messages or suggest that the visitor won a high end gadget in the lottery.
According to the post, the issue is caused by fraudulent advertisement campaigns that run on Microsoft's advertising network.
Users are advised to close the tabs or webpages; doing so won't do any harm to the computer or personal files. The messages are fake, and the computer us not infected with a virus or trojan as suggested by the fake webpage.
There is little that affected users can do currently. Apart from not running the applications that display these fraudulent advertising campaigns, there is little that the average user may do. Experienced users may install and configure a DNS-based ad-blocking solution to deal with the issue. Everyone else needs to wait for Microsoft to kick the fraudulent campaigns and their publishers from its network.
Closing Words
Microsoft is not the only company that lets fraudulent advertising campaigns on its network. Google Search displayed "your computer appears affected" messages on Google Search in the past, and other major advertising companies had similar incidents in the past.
The incident shows once again that advertisement in its current form poses a risk on the Internet. The only option that users have is to protect their systems with ad-blockers.
Ad companies like Microsoft, Google, or Facebook, need to make advertisement safe, e.g. by restricting advertisement, before things have a chance to normalize themselves.
Advertisement is needed to power sites like Ghacks and many others but it is getting more difficult each year to finance sites through advertisement.
Now You: What is your take on this?
What mental age of reader are you targeting with the first sentence? 10?
Why not write an article on how to *avoid* upgrading from W10 to W11. Analogous to those like me who avoided upgrading from 7 to 10 for as long as possible.
If your paymaster Microsoft permits it, of course.
5. Rufus
6. Ventoy
PS. I hate reading these “SEO optimized” articles.
I used Rufus to create an installer for a 6th gen intel i5 that had MBR. It upgraded using Setup. No issues except for Win 11 always prompting me to replace my local account. Still using Win 10 Pro on all my other PCs to avoid the bullying.
bit pointless to upgrade for the sake of upgrading as you never know when you’ll get locked out because ms might suddenly not provide updates to unsupported systems.
ps…. time travelling?
written. Jan 15, 2023
Updated • Jan 13, 2023
This happens when you schedule a post in WordPress and update it before setting the publication date.
Anyone willing to downgrade to this awful OS must like inflicting themselves with harm.
I have become convinced now that anybody who has no qualms with using Windows 11/10 must fit into one of the following brackets:
1) Too young to remember a time before W10 and W11 (doesn’t know better)
2) Wants to play the latest games on their PC above anything else (or deeply needs some software which already dropped W7 support)
3) Doesn’t know too much about how computers work, worried that they’d be absolutely lost and in trouble without the “”latest security””
4) Microsoft apologist that tries to justify that the latest “features” and “changes” are actually a good thing, that improve Windows
5) Uses their computer to do a bare minimum of like 3 different things, browse web, check emails, etc, so really doesn’t fuss
Obviously that doesn’t cover everyone, there’s also the category that:
6) Actually liked W7 more than 10, and held out as long as possible before switching, begrudgingly uses 10 now
Have I missed any group off this list?
You have missed in this group just about any professional user that uses business software like CAD programs or ERP Programs which are 99% of all professional users from this list.
Linux doesn’t help anyone who is not a linux kid and apple is just a fancy facebook machine.
Microsoft has removed KB5029351 update
only from windows update though
KB5029351 is still available from the ms update catalog site
1. This update is labaled as PREVIEW if it causes issues to unintelligent people, then they shouldn’t have allowed Preview updates ot install.
2. I have installed it in a 11 years old computer, and no problems at all.
3. Making a big drama over a bluescreen for an updated labeled as preview is ridiculous.
This is probably another BS internet drama where people ran programs and scripts that modified the registry until they broke Windows, just for removing stuff that they weren’t even using just for the sake of it.
Maybe people should stop playing geeks and actually either use Windows 10 or Windows 11, but don’t try to modify things just for the sake of it.
Sometimes removing or stopping things (like defender is a perfect example) only need intelligence, not scripts or 3rd party programs that might mess with windows.
Windows 11 was a pointless release, it was just created because some of the Windows team wanted to boost sales with some sort of new and improved Windows 10. Instead, Microsoft cannot support one version well let alone two.
Windows 11 is the worst ugly shame by Microsoft ever. They should release with every new W11 version a complete free version of Starallback inside just to make this sh** OS functionally again.
motherboard maker MSI has recently released a statement regarding the “unsupported processor” blue screen error for their boards using Intel 600/700 series chipsets & to avoid the KB5029351 Win11 update:
https://www.msi.com/news/detail/MSI-On–UNSUPPORTED-PROCESSOR–Error-Message-of-Windows-11-Update-KB5029351-Preview-142215
check out the following recent articles:
Neowin – Microsoft puts little blame on its Windows update after UNSUPPORTED PROCESSOR BSOD bug:
https://www.neowin.net/news/microsoft-puts-little-blame-on-its-windows-update-after-unsupported-processor-bsod-bug/
BleepingComputer – Microsoft blames ‘unsupported processor’ blue screens on OEM vendors:
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/microsoft/microsoft-blames-unsupported-processor-blue-screens-on-oem-vendors/
While there may be changes or updates to the Windows 10 Store for Business and Education in the future, it is premature to conclude that it will be discontinued based solely on rumors.
My advice, I left win 15 years ago. Now I’m a happy linux user (linuxmint) but there is Centos, Fedora, Ubuntu depending on your needs.
motherboard maker MSI has recently released new BIOS/firmware updates for their Intel 600 & 700 series motherboards to fix the “UNSUPPORTED_PROCESSOR” problem (Sept. 6):
https://www.msi.com/news/detail/Updated-BIOS-fixes-Error-Message–UNSUPPORTED-PROCESSOR–caused-BSOD-on-MSI-s-Intel-700-and-600-Series-Motherboards-142277