Windows is in a weird spot. In its 40-year history, the operating system has weathered its fair share of missteps, but Windows 11 is testing the patience of its users in new ways. Persistent bugs, performance issues, intrusive prompts, ads, and bloatware have eroded the core Windows experience. Early system requirement decisions have also damaged trust among Microsoft’s most loyal users, an erosion that’s accelerated by the company’s aggressive push into AI that doesn’t always deliver on its promises.
Windows is at breaking point, and Microsoft knows it. Sources familiar with the company’s plans tell me Windows engineers are now focusing on fixing the core issues of Windows 11 over the coming months, in a process known as “swarming.” Microsoft is redirecting engineers to urgently fix Windows 11’s performance and reliability issues, aiming to halt the operating system’s death by a thousand cuts.
Microsoft is also going to spend the rest of the year focusing on all of the Windows 11 pain points. “The feedback we’re receiving from our community of passionate customers and Windows Insiders has been clear. We need to improve Windows in ways that are meaningful for people,” says Pavan Davuluri, president of Windows and devices, in a statement to Notepad. “This year you will see us focus on addressing pain points we hear consistently from customers: improving system performance, reliability, and the overall experience of Windows.”
Some of these improvements will be basic changes like fixing dark mode in Windows 11 and modernizing parts that have felt neglected over the past decade. While Microsoft has done a good job on improving driver stability and reducing BSODs in Windows 11, it still needs to address basic performance issues with File Explorer, or the fact that Linux can often run Windows games better than Windows.
The performance and reliability issues in Windows 11 have been apparent over the past year, as the pressure of supporting thousands of different PC configurations mounts up. Microsoft took months to fix Remote Desktop disconnection issues, then shipped a Windows Update that wiped out Copilot, and released updates that duplicated the Task Manager and created a nasty system recovery bug. Microsoft topped it all off with an update that was supposed to improve Windows 11’s dark mode, but also broke it with a white screen flash when opening File Explorer.
We’re only a month into the new year and the Windows 11 bugs are only getting worse. Microsoft’s first Windows 11 update of 2026 has been a buggy mess. Shutdown issues on some machines forced Microsoft to issue an unusual emergency out-of-band update, and then a week later, a second out-of-band fix arrived to address OneDrive and Dropbox crashes. Microsoft has also confirmed that some PCs used by businesses are failing to boot after installing its January update, because they were left in an “improper state” after failing to install December’s monthly update.
The bugs and reliability issues are exasperating the other issue: Windows 11 is annoying to use. Microsoft has been pushing Windows 11 users to switch to Edge and Bing in ways I’ve never seen before. At one point a couple of years ago, Microsoft even used malware-like pop-ups in a disgusting overreach. Windows 11 users are still routinely tricked into switching to Edge and Bing after some Windows Updates. If you search for an item on the Start menu, you’ll also get pushed into Edge for a Bing result even if you have Chrome or Firefox set as the default browser. Even parts of the Settings interface have links that force you into Edge and Bing.
Microsoft has also tried to upsell its OneDrive cloud storage with constant nags in Windows 11. At one point you couldn’t even close OneDrive without being asked why. It often feels like you’re fighting with Windows 11 to respect your defaults and settings. Microsoft is even forcing people into using a Microsoft account with Windows 11, making it increasingly difficult for the small percentage of users that want a local account.
The added tension of fighting with the OS and being served ads and pop-ups has also further broken down trust in Windows 11. Windows users were already wary of Windows 11 when Microsoft set system requirements that left millions of machines out in the cold, and Microsoft keeps doing things that eat away at any remaining trust. The launch of Recall, a Windows 11 feature that takes snapshots of mostly everything you see on your screen, was highly controversial and generated privacy concerns on top of suspicion around the telemetry data Microsoft collects from its OS.
This breakdown in trust has only made Windows 11 users balk at AI additions to the OS, leading to Microsoft often getting branded as “Microslop” when these features appear. Microsoft did some great engineering work with Windows on Arm for its Copilot Plus PCs, but it was undermined by Recall and the desperate need to push its Copilot AI into every single part of the OS. Microsoft’s Edge browser now has a Copilot mode, dedicated Copilot and Microsoft 365 Copilot apps are preinstalled, and Copilot is also coming to the taskbar. Even Paint and Notepad, which were once basic apps, now have Copilot buttons and Paint is getting AI coloring books. There simply aren’t enough useful AI features to make people care about AI PCs.
Microsoft now faces a tough fight to win back the trust of Windows users, let alone build back excitement around the OS. I’ve been covering Windows for more than 20 years, and it feels like fans of the OS have disappeared over the past couple of years. It’s a far cry from Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella’s promise to win back Windows fans more than a decade ago. “We want to move from people needing Windows to choosing Windows, to loving Windows,” said Nadella, months before the company shipped Windows 10.
Microsoft has remained tight-lipped about the problems with Windows 11, and the core members of its Windows Insider team moved to different roles inside the company recently. The Windows Insider program was created to help test Windows 10 and get feedback directly from users, after the disastrous changes in Windows 8. Microsoft needs its Windows Insider program more than ever before, but it now feels like a faceless operation, rather than one that’s built on community and trust.
I’m really hoping that Microsoft’s commitment to improvements means it also addresses the daily annoyances of Windows 11, especially as more and more Windows users seriously contemplate switching to Linux. There’s a long way to go, but it’s encouraging to hear Microsoft finally respond to the complaints.
“Trust is earned over time and we are committed to building it back with the Windows community,” says Davuluri.
- Windows 11 has reached one billion users faster than Windows 10. It’s not all bad news for Windows 11, as Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella revealed this week that the OS has reached an important milestone. Windows 11 has managed to reach one billion users faster than Windows 10 did nearly six years ago. The growth of Windows 11 over the past quarter will be related to Microsoft’s end of support for Windows 10, which also helped increase Microsoft’s Windows OEM revenues.
- Microsoft reports strong cloud earnings in Q2 as gaming declines. Microsoft’s fiscal Q2 earnings highlight that its More Personal Computing division, which includes Windows, Xbox, and Surface, is increasingly becoming a smaller part of Microsoft. Intelligent Cloud, which includes Azure and server products, contributed $32.9 billion in revenue this quarter, more than double the $14.3 billion from More Personal Computing. In fact, the More Personal Computing division declined by 3 percent in revenue year-over-year, the only business unit to do so this quarter. Microsoft is blaming that particular decline on gaming, after overall gaming revenue was down 9 percent, Xbox content and services was down 5 percent, and Xbox hardware was down 32 percent. The Xbox content and services revenue decline is being attributed to stronger first-party content performance in the previous year, which suggests that softer sales of Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 have had a big impact on Microsoft’s More Personal Computing business.
- Microsoft gets approval to build 15 data centers in Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin. Microsoft’s new data centers will be built on land that used to be owned by Foxconn, after the device manufacturer pulled back from its promises to build a 20 million-square-foot LCD complex. Local officials have signed off on Microsoft’s plans to build the data centers, and jobs at the project could last 10 years, according to Mount Pleasant’s village board president.
- Xbox Cloud Gaming’s new design teases the future of Xbox console UI. Microsoft has started testing a refreshed web experience for Xbox Cloud Gaming that looks much more like the Xbox console dashboard. It includes updated navigation features, plenty of new animations, and a refreshed design. I tested it this week, and it feels like Microsoft is unifying its Xbox UI across PC, console, and the cloud with this big update.
- Microsoft’s latest AI chip goes head-to-head with Amazon and Google. Microsoft announced its latest in-house AI chip this week, which will help host GPT-5.2 and other models for Microsoft Foundry and Microsoft 365 Copilot. The Maia 200 chip is designed for large-scale AI workloads and will go head-to-head with similar AI inference chips from Amazon and Google. The news of Maia 200 also sent SK Hynix shares to a record high, after the memory maker revealed it was the sole supplier for Microsoft’s new AI chip.
- Microsoft handed the government encryption keys for customer data. Microsoft complied with an FBI warrant last year to unlock encrypted data stored on three laptops. It complied because the laptops had stored BitLocker recovery keys in Microsoft’s cloud service, a default setting that makes it easier to recover devices. The incident has highlighted that you definitely should not be accepting Microsoft’s default of storing BitLocker keys in the cloud when signing into Windows with a Microsoft account.
- Microsoft Paint can now make AI coloring books. Paint is getting a new AI-powered coloring book feature on Copilot Plus PCs that lets you make blank coloring templates using a text prompt. Notepad is also getting the ability to stream AI-generated results for Write, Rewrite, and Summarize features, as well as support for additional Markdown syntax features, including strikethrough formatting and nested lists.
- Winapp is Microsoft’s new command line utility for developers. Microsoft has released a public preview of its new Windows App Development CLI (winapp) utility. The open-source utility is aimed at Windows app developers, to make it easier to work across multiple frameworks and toolchains. Microsoft says it’s perfect for any developer “wanting native Windows features or targeting Windows.” Unfortunately, winapp doesn’t whip the llama’s ass.
- The Surface Pro 12 now has better Surface Pen support. Microsoft has released new firmware updates for the Surface Pro 12 this week that improve stylus support on the device. “We’ve fixed issues where the Surface Slim Pen 2 unexpectedly loses pairing after inking, pen erasing isn’t stable, and the cursor position isn’t aligned to the pen during hovering,” says Microsoft. The firmware updates also protect against security vulnerabilities that could lead to “unexpected shutdowns and privilege escalation.”
- Windows 11’s ability to resume Android apps on your PC is getting closer. Microsoft is getting ready to improve Windows 11’s ability to resume Android apps on a PC. The software giant first introduced its cross-device handoff feature last year, letting Windows 11 users resume OneDrive sessions from their Android device on a PC. Now, it’s expanding this to Spotify playback, browsing sessions, and Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. The feature is very similar to Apple’s Handoff, which lets you resume tasks across Mac, iPhone, iPad, or Apple Watch. Microsoft has started testing these additions with the Release Preview ring of Windows 11, which means they’ll be released to all Windows 11 users imminently.
- Microsoft illegally installed cookies on school devices, says Austrian data protection authority. Austria-based campaign group None of Your Business (noyb) has won a ruling against Microsoft over the use of Microsoft 365 Education in schools with the Austrian data protection authority (DSB). The authority found that Microsoft acted unlawfully by placing tracking cookies on devices of a minor using Microsoft 365 Education. Microsoft told The Register that “Microsoft 365 for Education meets all required data protection standards and institutions in the education sector” and that it’s reviewing the Austrian data protection authority’s decision.
- Microsoft has patched a zero-day vulnerability in Office. Microsoft has issued updates for a variety of Office apps this week, to address a security feature bypass that was discovered by Google’s threat intelligence group. Affected Office versions include Office 2016, Office 2019, Office LTSC 2021 and 2024, and Microsoft 365 apps.
I’m always keen to hear from readers, so please drop a comment here, or you can reach me at notepad@theverge.com if you want to discuss anything else. If you’ve heard about any of Microsoft’s secret projects, you can reach me via email at notepad@theverge.com or speak to me confidentially on the Signal messaging app, where I’m tomwarren.01. I’m also tomwarren on Telegram, if you’d prefer to chat there.
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