Bing Wallpaper app arrives on Microsoft Store in Windows 11, and it’s free – but there could be hidden costs here

[Pelican Press 0]

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Wallpaper app arrives on

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Store in Windows 11, and it’s free – but there could be hidden costs here

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  Wallpaper app has just arrived on the
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  Store
• The VP of
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  noted that it’s free, unlike some rival wallpaper apps
• Digging into the app suggests it stealthily gets up to all manner of ****** tricks

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has made its

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Wallpaper app available on the

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Store for Windows 11 users, but has seemingly opened up a can of controversy when doing so.

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spotted the release of the app on the

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Store, and in some ways, it’s rather odd that we didn’t see the software arrive here before now, considering

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Wallpaper has been around since 2020 (as a download direct from the

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website).

The release was announced by Michael Schechter, VP of

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at

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, who included a swipe at other wallpaper apps which charge for their services, pointing out that

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Wallpaper is free.

The

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Wallpaper app is now in the

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Store, and it does not cost $50 per year https://t.co/FPE7pUTm38

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If you’re not familiar with the application, it’s a simple enough affair that automatically sets your Windows wallpaper to the daily

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image (and some of these pics are really impressive, and provided in 4K too).

While the app is certainly free, there’s an apparent hidden cost, as some people have pointed out on X and other online forums.

Windows Latest highlights a complaint from Rafael Rivera, a developer and

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MVP, who

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that the wallpaper app also installs “

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Visual Search and has code to peruse and decrypt your Edge and Chrome cookies.”

Rivera then adds that applies to Firefox cookies, as well, before providing a list of extensions for IT admins to block in order to curtail said activity.

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Rivera also provides an example of one of the ****** tricks the

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Wallpaper app can get up to, and as you can see in the post from X below, it pushes the

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Search extension for Chrome, for those using

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’s browser. It does this by opening a new tab advertising that extension when you start up Chrome.

Windows Latest also discovered that there’s a ‘BGAUpsell’ process run in the background – BGA stands for ‘

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Growth Apps’ as Rivera points out on X – and this shows a screen asking users to switch to the

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search engine in Chrome.

Here’s an example of one of MANY ****** tricks

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Wallpaper employs.After some time passes, and you close your non-Edge default browser,

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Wallpaper fiddles with it and open this tab on start. pic.

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.com/nnuzYCRgVb

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(Image credit: Shutterstock)

Analysis: Big thumbs-down to the

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Upsell

While we can’t confirm the info shared here, it’s clearly worrying, and both Rivera and Windows Latest appear to have dug up some concrete details. There’s no response from

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or the

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team on X to these revelations, and frankly, it seems like the

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Wallpaper app is best avoided by those who are worried about privacy – and not getting hassled to use

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’s products – on their PC.

As another post on X makes clear in the above thread from Rivera, there’s not really a need to install the wallpaper app anyway, considering that Windows Spotlight deliver the same functionality. (Turn it on in Settings > Personalization > Background > Personalize your background > Windows Spotlight).

Okay, so we’re not sure if this is identical to the

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Wallpaper app, but if not, the built-in option here sounds close enough. We’d install

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Wallpaper to try it out and check, but frankly – we don’t want to, reading all this.

Other reports on

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indicate that the app wasn’t always like this, but was recently changed. A

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notes: “It [

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Wallpaper app] used to be great and never gave popups for

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, but over the past few months it has become a bit aggressive with recommending

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and since it is the only

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app I have that I installed on my own, that is the only possible culprit.”

Again, take that assertion with some ******** seasoning – and the rest of this – but there’s some consistency around the chatter here, and we’re definitely not liking the themes being raised around this app.

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#

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#Wallpaper #app #arrives #

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#Store #Windows #free #hidden #costs

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