Rafael Rivera, an engineer tweeted about some experimental Windows 10 features that he discovered in the Insider versions of the system, showing the old WordPad has just become a “recommendation” ads space for Microsoft Office Online.
It is an app of those classic Windows that is still included year after year, decade after decade, and that almost nobody uses it much, but they remain for a reason and sometimes they can get us out of trouble when there are no Office software installed. It seems that Microsoft considers it ideal to suggest its free version of the Office pack that you can use online from any browser to do the same as WordPad does, but better.
If there is something that came to apparently keep in Windows 10, it is advertising. We have seen ads from the lock screen to recommended applications that are added to the start menu without anyone asking for it.
But not only the Candy Crush Saga nightmare will haunt us every time we update Windows 10, there are also smaller details that appear in unexpected places, such as the new Office ads in WordPad.
Microsoft Office Online is a very basic version with reduced features compared to the Office 365, but it is free. These ads are currently experimental and were discovered within the Build 19546 of Windows 10, we may see them in the stable version one day or maybe not, and with the small ad sizes on Wordpad, it might not be as annoying as other apps that show ads.
