Maybe it's the Home vs. Pro difference, but I don't see any ads in my Windows 11 Pro Start Menu. Not even sure where they would appear because unlike the wonderful Windows 10 Start menu, Windows 11 it's just an ugly and boring field of icons. I know MS usage telemetry told them that most people didn't take advantage of all the power of the Live Tiles and other features of the Windows 10 Start menu, so fair to get rid of that stuff, but they also broke core features that we've had for many generations of Windows, including Jump Lists when right-clicking on pinned items in Start. That it's missing frow Windows 11 remains a daily pain point for me.
It seems Microsoft is trying to bring the smartphone experience to Windows, which is fine, but they have confused the Desktop with the Start menu. The DESKTOP is the equivalent to the home screen, not Start. Start is like the Apps tray. This has seemed so obvious since Windows 10, but MS apparently disagrees.
Don't get me wrong, on net, Windows 11 is my favorite version of Windows and I would not want to revert to any older version, but the changes to Start, for me, have been a big step backward.
I also miss being able to pin Windows 7 Gadgets to the Desktop -- something that would have made even more sense with Live Tiles and again shows that MS doesn't understand the role of the desktop for PC users vs the Start menu. Limiting them to a pop-up Start menu made no sense just like limiting Windows 11 Widgets to the Widgets Bar diminishes their value significantly. If you want to monitor something that changes over time like weather or market performance, then you should be able to keep it visible on your desktop at all times. Even Apple and Google get this distinction, hence the ability to have Widgets always visible on your home screen (the Desktop equivalent for an iOS or Android device). As long as they limit these to Start (Live Tiles) or a Widgets Bar (Widgets), they will not see much use.