Windows 11 looks like it may have a new default app in the future, or at least there are early signs in testing that this is the case – with a notable caveat.
2PC Manager isn’t all bad, but there are certainly dubious elements here (Image Credit: Microsoft)
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The app in question is PC Manager, and it’s an optimization app along the lines of CCleaner, but as it’s Microsoft’s own take on the idea, there are some dubious additions here. Most notably suggested fixes like a ‘repair’ for your PC that involves making Bing the default search in Edge.
We shouldn’t get carried away, though, as for now, PC Manager is only being turned into a default app in Windows 11 in China (and that’s just in testing, with the current incarnation of the Windows 11 24H2 update for that matter).
So, there’s a long way to go before it ends up on PCs elsewhere, like maybe the US – but if Microsoft does roll it out as a default app in one region, we must consider the possibility that it’ll come to others eventually.
Even then, though, Microsoft might change PC Manager before it arrives in the US, and may not try moves such as the sneaky suggestion that Bing is the optimal way to be searching on your computer (at least if you’re using Edge).
If you want to, you can download the PC Manager app in the US, by the way, and it’s not all bad by any means (it’s available for Windows 10, too). But as Neowin, which spotted this development, points out, alongside the issues we’ve mentioned, there are also potential spanners in the works with ‘questionable’ optimization measures.