Microsoft is up to some shady old tricks again with the new Bing Wallpaper app

The Bing Wallpaper app in the Microsoft Store on Windows 11
Wallpapers, or something more than that? 🤔 (Image credit: Windows Central)

What you need to know

  • Microsoft recently released a new Bing Wallpapers app into the Microsoft Store to give us, you guessed it, wallpapers from Bing.
  • However, despite its description, it looks like Microsoft is doing more than just serving up wallpapers using the app.
  • Bing Search, Bing Visual Search, and a 'helpful' reminder in your non-Microsoft Edge default browser are all 'features.'

Recently, Microsoft launched its Bing Wallpaper app into the Store, which, on the face of it, should be a pretty good thing. Bing serves up some of the best looking images on the web every day, and setting them as wallpapers is definitely something worth doing.

The app itself, however, seems to be concealing some shady tricks, with Microsoft trying its best to shovel its services on potentially unsuspecting users. It's described as:

"Bing Wallpaper includes a collection of beautiful images from around the world that have been featured on the Bing homepage. Not only will you see a new image on your desktop each day, but you can also browse images and learn where they're from."

However, Rafael Rivera (@withinrafael) has been poking around inside the app and found it's doing much more than that.

There's a whole thread below that initial post which details (in quite technical detail, no less), what's going on, and it doesn't make for great reading. It's bad enough that it's diving into your cookies, but this is my personal favorite.

I'm far from a developer, but I'm not sure that Microsoft would appreciate Google, or Opera, going inside the Edge browser and trying to divert users away from it. It does feel like something of an abuse of power, because you'd like to hope an app behaving this way from someone else wouldn't be allowed into the Store.

On one hand, I get it. We're the product, and our eyeballs (and our data) is the payment. Microsoft wants it, just like Google wants it. But yet again we're talking about underhanded tactics to force Bing/Edge on users, rather than selling the products on their merits. I use Bing primarily because it's integrated with Microsoft Rewards, for example. And Copilot is a pretty good AI tool, even if I wish Microsoft would make up its mind on what exactly it wants it to be.

But above all, nobody should install an innocent sounding wallpaper app and have all kinds of other crap shoved on them. Do better, Microsoft.

🍁More great Black Friday deals🦃

TOPICS
CATEGORIES
Richard Devine
Managing Editor - Tech, Reviews

Richard Devine is a Managing Editor at Windows Central with over a decade of experience. A former Project Manager and long-term tech addict, he joined Mobile Nations in 2011 and has been found on Android Central and iMore as well as Windows Central. Currently, you'll find him steering the site's coverage of all manner of PC hardware and reviews. Find him on Mastodon at mstdn.social/@richdevine

Read more
Artificial Intelligence AI Assistant Apps - ChatGPT, Anthropic Claude, Google Gemini, Microsoft Copilot, Perplexity, Poe.
Copilot gets a boost from Bing. Microsoft's search engine now promotes Copilot if you search for Gemini, ChatGPT, Grok, or other AI tools.
Microsoft Edge web browser app in App Store seen displayed on a smartphone.
Microsoft tries again with aggressive tactics against Google and Chrome, touting Edge's "world-class performance" with a pop-up ad promo
Bing looks a lot like Google now
Microsoft wants you to use Bing so badly that it's using "deceptive tactics" to transform the search engine into an imitation of Google — Google responds
Bing search
Microsoft stops tricking people into using Bing instead of Google, at least on Chrome
Themes section of the Microsoft Store on Windows 11
Microsoft replaces free wallpaper website with an unorganized mess in the Microsoft Store
This is fine meme with the Microsoft logo on the dog surrounded by flames.
Microsoft News Roundup: Nightmare week of price hikes, rebrands, and remembering how Bill Gates lost $400 billion
Latest in Software Apps
Excel spreadsheet with checkboxes
Microsoft 365 sales are few and far between these days — grab this one before it goes away!
Office 365 on Razer laptop
Microsoft 365's best apps are about to get a speed boost — here's when the rollout begins
Photo of Microsoft's new sign-in page for Xbox.com using the Microsoft Edge browser.
Over one billion users will get a new Microsoft user experience, and it has a dark mode
Windows 11 answer file
How to easily create an unattended answer file for Windows 11
ChatGPT logo is seen displayed on a smartphone screen next to a laptop keyboard.
I love ChatGPT-4o's unhinged image-generation capabilities — but I'm afraid imminent censorship by OpenAI lurks on the horizon
Bill Gates, co-chairman of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, delivers a keynote speech on the closing day of the Global Solutions Summit in Berlin, Germany, on Tuesday, May 7, 2024.
Bill Gates says "AI will replace humans for most things" — Rendering doctors and tutors obsolete within a decade
Latest in News
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Zombies mode screenshots for Shattered Veil map.
The next Call of Duty Zombies map, "Shattered Veil", is dropping earlier than expected
Helldivers 2
The new Helldivers 2 Illuminate Major Order is so important that we got a new stratagem for it
Hogwarts Legacy troll hero image
Hogwarts Legacy DLC reportedly canceled by WB Games
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege
Rumored Ubisoft and Tencent agreement comes to fruition with 25% stake and new division for the Assassin's Creed developer
In-game screenshot of the player consuming an enemy in Shadow Labyrinth
This isn't your grandpa's Pac-Man — Bandai Namco's iconic character gets a gritty new action game this Summer
Key art for Dragon Quest 1 and 2 HD-2D remake
Every PC and Xbox game shown off during Nintendo Direct March 2025