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

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

Microsoft has made its Bing Wallpaper app available on the Microsoft Store for Windows 11 users, but has seemingly opened up a can of controversy when doing so.

Windows Latest spotted the release of the app on the Microsoft Store, and in some ways, it’s rather odd that we didn’t see the software arrive here before now, considering Bing Wallpaper has been around since 2020 (as a download direct from the Microsoft website).

The release was announced by Michael Schechter, VP of Bing at Microsoft, who included a swipe at other wallpaper apps which charge for their services, pointing out that Bing Wallpaper is free.

If you’re not familiar with the application, it’s a simple enough affair that automatically sets your Windows wallpaper to the daily Bing 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 Microsoft MVP, who observes that the wallpaper app also installs “Bing 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.

Rivera also provides an example of one of the nasty tricks the Bing Wallpaper app can get up to, and as you can see in the post from X below, it pushes the Microsoft Bing Search extension for Chrome, for those using Google’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 ‘Bing Growth Apps’ as Rivera points out on X – and this shows a screen asking users to switch to the Bing search engine in Chrome.

Analysis: Big thumbs-down to the Bing 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 Microsoft or the Bing team on X to these revelations, and frankly, it seems like the Bing Wallpaper app is best avoided by those who are worried about privacy – and not getting hassled to use Microsoft’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 Bing Wallpaper app, but if not, the built-in option here sounds close enough. We’d install Bing Wallpaper to try it out and check, but frankly – we don’t want to, reading all this.

Other reports on Reddit indicate that the app wasn’t always like this, but was recently changed. A Redditor notes: “It [Bing Wallpaper app] used to be great and never gave popups for Bing, but over the past few months it has become a bit aggressive with recommending Bing and since it is the only Microsoft app I have that I installed on my own, that is the only possible culprit.”

Again, take that assertion with some liberal 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.

You may also like…