The new integration was initially announced back in March as part of a wider upgrade of the Microsoft Store. Months later, the company is now ready to test the integration within the marketplace. When a user searches for an app or other content in the Store, they will see contextual ads that are specifically tailored to them. Alongside the regular results from a search, the Microsoft Store will display additional listings that will have an “Ad” badge on them. This will mean some of the surfaced results will be placed there by companies paying to have their ad in place. Microsoft insists these ads will be along with the search of the user’s previous activity and not intrusive.

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In terms of rules, Microsoft says only developers who have content on the Microsoft Store can participate in ads. “A developer of a music-making app, for example, will be able to create an ad campaign to get their app in front of an audience that likes music or likes to make music… In the coming months, developers will be able to create ad campaigns in the Microsoft Store using Microsoft Advertising.” Developers can register their interest in using Microsoft Store ads on the following form. Tip of the day: It’s a good idea to backup your computer on a regular basis, and the most fool-proof way is to manually create a disk image and save it to an external hard drive.

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