Microsoft keeps insisting that it’s deeply committed to the quality of Windows 11

"Reducing unnecessary Copilot entry points" is one of Microsoft's action items.

See full article...

 

[real mikeb_60]

Ubuntu advertise their "Pro" client at least once per day when starting a new shell, and almost every time when I run apt.

Haven't noticed much advertising in Mint (based on Ubuntu LTS).

 

[J.King]

Billed as an improvement, but really it's the return of something that Windows 10 had since near its beginning (did Win8 have it?). Perhaps banging on that issue again and again finally got through to somebody?

As far as I can recall you'd been able to move the taskbar to either side since the taskbar has existed (so, since NT 4 and 95). For some people Windows 11 could have been screwing with almost three decades of usage.

 

[real mikeb_60]

Backwards compatibility is the only thing Windows has going for it, so that's never going to happen.

Backward compatibility using a lightweight VM has been demonstrated, in Windows even. Remember the DOS machine? Or for that matter DOSBox? Both allow(ed) old software to access the filesystem making integration with the main OS relatively seamless. Yeah, not great for some security purposes, but if you just have to run olde stuff sometimes...

And yes, I sometimes run stuff from Win98 days. Not often any more, but at least a couple of times a year. With DOSBox (currently using the DOSBox-X variant), I can even run in Win3.1 if I want to (enough to prove the concept, though not for any real work).

 

[Cat Killer]

For awhile, Ubuntu did have a deal with Amazon to shove advertising in people's faces. Needless to say it was hugely unpopular.

They didn't have advertising. They did include Amazon search results with the normal search. It was absolutely a bad idea, but it was nowhere close to what Microsoft does with Windows.

 

[The Lurker Beneath]

Unnecessary Copilot entry points = all of them.

Top right on the browser is legit, IMO. I don't need it anywhere else unless I have a specific purpose for it that I will set up myself.

 

[The Lurker Beneath]

I still think everyone that moved the taskbar also blocked telemetry so Microsoft legitimately thought it was a vocal but tiny minority.

Until it was locked by default I got a lot of calls for help from people who had moved it accidentally and couldn't figure out how to put it back.

That was an annoyance for me too. I somehow managed to unlock it sometimes and it's one of those things you don't easily remember how to fix. Maybe keep the option in Settings only.

 

[Goat of Steel]

Title:
"Microsoft keeps insisting that it’s deeply committed to the quality of Windows 11".

I believe them.

BAD is a level of quality.

Are they committed to increasing the level of quality? That I'm not so sure of...

 

[jdale]

They didn't have advertising. They did include Amazon search results with the normal search. It was absolutely a bad idea, but it was nowhere close to what Microsoft does with Windows.

So the search results included links to a store where you could buy related items? That's advertising.

Microsoft certainly goes farther than that, but let's not give it a pass.

 

[tumblrfan69]

ReactOS gets almost no attention or mention in these threads.

I haven't checked on them in a while, but am wondering if anyone has tried using it as a desktop replacement, and how far you can go with it.

Because it's not really a useful project. while the concept is novel, just running any Linux and then apps via Wine will be a better experience

 

[tumblrfan69]

That was an annoyance for me too. I somehow managed to unlock it sometimes and it's one of those things you don't easily remember how to fix. Maybe keep the option in Settings only.

The unlocked mode gives certain features that a simple select box doesn't offer. like being able to move the "main" start menu away from the primary monitor which is another stupid thing Win11 broke for no reason.

At this point StartAllBack is a better option and the only thing Windows updates will "solve" will be to unlock the start menu (React app btw!) so it can actually be top aligned where right now it's a bit silly because a top/right start menu still opens it in the bottom left/center

 

[dagar9]

Haven't noticed much advertising in Mint (based on Ubuntu LTS).

I use Mint on 3 computers, and have never seen any adverts if you don't count website cruft.

 

[AJ_Grey]

I would feel better about this if MSFT didn't have such a poor track record with such things. Cortana and Copilot have not been good.

 

[octolith]

I don't think that this is enough at this point (too little too late).

Hopefully, the issues will be fixed, but I believe there should be some kind of commitment from Microsoft that they won't get to where they currently are with Windows again. I'm not naive, I know exactly that there won't be such commitment, but I'm just saying, fixing the current issues does not mean that Microsoft won't get on the next hype train after AI and pump their OS full of whatever comes next instead of focusing on quality and UX.

 

[Quiet Entropy]

How could you forget Windows ME?

Arrgh! No! PTSD.

 

[historyprovesyouwrong]

Ubuntu advertise their "Pro" client at least once per day when starting a new shell, and almost every time when I run apt.

What does that look like? I run Ubuntu as well and I haven't noticed any advertisements for "Pro" clients?

 

[DuvJones]

ReactOS gets almost no attention or mention in these threads.

To be fair it's still very alpha software. While they're making heady progress, but they're always going to be somewhat limited because they are tracking NT kernels and Windows... which means that the projects always going to be somewhat defined by what Microsoft ends up doing and any comparison is simply going to fall short simply because they don't have the manpower that Microsoft has.

To put it into perspective, Haiku OS, which has been a beta state for years... is a much more stable place with as much if not less people working on that.

One way to calm down the Copilot (stuff) is to use trailing edge technology, it seems.

I'll be honest I spend most of my time ripping that out of the install (where it's not integrated into a piece of software I'm using) and nothing seems to have gone horribly wrong.

 

[Stern]

What does that look like? I run Ubuntu as well and I haven't noticed any advertisements for "Pro" clients?

When you start a shell and it lists the number of updates available, it also says how many ESM updates would be available with a Pro license, and when you list the available updates with apt, it lists them separately under "The following security updates require Ubuntu Pro with 'esm-apps' enabled:"

It's not difficult to disable this in apt's config, but it's enabled by default.

 

[Humiliatusque59]

Is it ok to say that at work I use an institute washed version of Win11 (annoying) and when I'm working from home I use MacOS which is really just stable and not annoying, even just a relief so I can do my work? I love the peace and quite of my Mac mini.

 

[maggotinfested]

Switching to Fedora was the best thing I ever did. Aside from some games not running without tweaks, or even fewer not at all right now, EVERYTHING else is so much better. Probably not a coincidence that two of the biggest games that aren't working are MS property (Starfield and Doom the Dark Ages), but also probably because I am on an Intel Alchemist GPU. You don't realize how much faster file system operations, dev work, and how much better qualify of life is until you make the switch.

Yep. I'm on Fedora now but started on Kubuntu back in 2010 for my desktop.

Unfortunately, my work still requires Windblows but that stays on my work PC. Damn near everything else is running Linux of some sort/flavor here with Fedora being my main gaming/dev system for over 3 years now. Overall, that's now well over 15 years of Linux and I couldn't be happier. I just wish I didn't have to use Windblows at all, it's just plain JANK.

 

[Wheels Of Confusion]

Maybe the should just buy File Pilot and replace File Explorer all together?

https://filepilot.tech/

Almost anything is better than Explorer.

I'm spoiled by Linux, where popular file managers are super featureful and tweakable without being overbearing... or needing a chatbot. The default behaviors are sane and powerful and it's easy to do what I need right out of the box. But just ticking a few buttons in the preferences dialog also makes me more efficient at it! I wasn't even using Norton Commander back then but the dual-pane workflow has been a revelation to me in the last year, and almost all the file managers in *Nixland can do it.
But for me, the original killer feature was middle-click to open a folder in a new window. It's infuriating that MS can't/won't implement something so basic and wonderful.

I've felt that way even before MS turned off updates to Windows 10 and force me to make the jump.
This is one of the reasons why playing with alternative OSes is good learning as well as good fun. You stumble across features and usability bonuses that you didn't even know you were missing.

100%. The problem for Microsoft is that the world's changed. Gabe Newell slipped them one hell of a sucker punch with SteamOS which also led to Proton. All of a sudden, the gamer crowd that supported the Windows consumer market is showing serious stress fractures. And if the gamers that make up family tech support go to Linux, their families aren't too far behind.

It's almost like the leadership at MS shouldn't have assumed they hold an unassailable monopoly on operating systems and that they could dictate how all computers everywhere should work, leaving users powerless and beholden to the latest corporate vision for shareholders.

ReactOS gets almost no attention or mention in these threads.

I haven't checked on them in a while, but am wondering if anyone has tried using it as a desktop replacement, and how far you can go with it.

ReactOS is basically unusable on bare metal configurations in the wild. It's isn't fully compatible with MS hardware drivers. Nor natively MS software, even old stuff. What you can use is mostly limited to the repository full of old vetted shareware or FOSS software that someone compiled to run on a version of ReactOS that might already be outdated and broken. And there's no guarantee the package will be maintained to keep current with upstream, either.

It works best in a VM, and even there it's limited and fragile. That's why there's no 1.0 release.

It's a non-entity as far as real alternatives are concerned.

 

[Dulux-Oz]

Switching to Fedora was the best thing I ever did. Aside from some games not running without tweaks, or even fewer not at all right now, EVERYTHING else is so much better. Probably not a coincidence that two of the biggest games that aren't working are MS property (Starfield and Doom the Dark Ages), but also probably because I am on an Intel Alchemist GPU. You don't realize how much faster file system operations, dev work, and how much better qualify of life is until you make the switch.

Hear Hear!

Although Its Rocky Linux for me - but same family.

Now, if I could just find some alternative to Active Presenter (Windows & Mac, no *nix) that works on *nix I could throw away my old Win10 PC completely!

(And no, OBS Studio - which I use - doesn't do everything that Active Presenter does - and the bits it doesn't do are the bits I need/want! )

 

[Asecondname]

I still think everyone that moved the taskbar also blocked telemetry so Microsoft legitimately thought it was a vocal but tiny minority.

Until it was locked by default I got a lot of calls for help from people who had moved it accidentally and couldn't figure out how to put it back.

I don't. My wife got a new windows computer to work from home and hated it so much that we bought a chromebook for her casual usage. Also, if computer usage becomes less pleasant, a lot of casual home usage will get switched to phones. Outlook is so unpleasant (unintuitive mute feature, terrible search) that our admins now have a series of groupchats. It's fucking stupid to mix a subpoena-able data record with a personal program on a personal device, but most people fell in line.

 

[Asecondname]

It feels like sooner or later there’s going to be a major shift in the market. Microsoft does not seem to prioritize Windows the way it used to, and while I get it, it is eventually going to bite them.

I saw this as a fairly satisfied Windows user - I use 11, and honestly don’t get what most people complain about. I do have my own frustrations though. And while it’s a mature platform and I don’t want to see major changes… I also don’t feel like it’s improving or even keeping up.

Basic stuff people have been complaining about for years just never seems to get fixed. You need to stay on top of the basic stuff if you want users to trust you.

This thing with side mounting the taskbar is a perfect example. I don’t do that. I don’t want to. I don’t get why anyone else does - though I accept that other people have their own workflows where it makes sense. But come on Microsoft, I want that fixed so that I can stop hearing people complain about it! The fact that it took this long makes me think that I’m SOL if Microsoft ever breaks something that is important to me.

I think the real question is how much is it really going to bite them? Windows is slightly less than 10% of their revenue. It's only .7 percentage points higher than their gaming division. A switch away from Outlook or Office would be far worse for them, and I haven't heard anyone talking about that. They seem to be positioning themselves for an IBM style switch from dominant to a profitable software company that slowly fades from relevance.

 

[dkazaz]

OK, great, thanks Microsoft. About 10 years too late IMO, with everything being steadily downhill since Windows 7 (God I miss that OS).

You know who does't issue such notices? Apple. You know who doesn't have issues with updates even though they issue about 6 a year? Apple. And no, I'm not a fanboy, but over the years I've gone from snubbing them for the silly prices to appreciating how I can just get stuff done with MacOS running on 2nd hand hardware.

In fact, I think that interestingly, the recent spate of "just swtch to Linux" proclamations are not driven by Linux having become so user friendly (it has improved, but not by that much) but by windows having become so enshitified that the effort involved in using it, is now comparable...

 

[Tom8747]

I am so glad I have been Micro$oft Windoze free for almost 15 years.(Linux)
I really feel for the folks who are forced to use it daily and more
so for those who must support it!!

 

[IceStorm]

All Microsoft is doing is committing to what they already have - Windows 11 Enterprise IoT LTSC. All they have to do is make it easier for the public to access.

 

[senjaz]

But we’re already nearly halfway through that year, which means a Windows 11 upgrade is probably in your future one way or another.

Nope. This marks the point where I’ve persuaded the last of my Window’s using friends to ditch the OS entirely.

 

[thelongdarkteatimeof]

Until you can completely opt out of being tracked and having ads and bloatware shoved down your throat.
Yank's invasive trackware is embedded in everything.
Windows will never grace any of my machines, ever.

 

[jdawgnoonan]

I think the real question is how much is it really going to bite them? Windows is slightly less than 10% of their revenue. It's only .7 percentage points higher than their gaming division. A switch away from Outlook or Office would be far worse for them, and I haven't heard anyone talking about that. They seem to be positioning themselves for an IBM style switch from dominant to a profitable software company that slowly fades from relevance.

It won’t bite them at all because they are an enterprise software company. They lost the only hugely profitable consumer businesses years ago other than AAA gaming. Their primary advantage in the consumer space is that most people use Windows and Office at work.

 

[Tactical Finesse]

It feels like sooner or later there’s going to be a major shift in the market. Microsoft does not seem to prioritize Windows the way it used to, and while I get it, it is eventually going to bite them.

I saw this as a fairly satisfied Windows user - I use 11, and honestly don’t get what most people complain about. I do have my own frustrations though. And while it’s a mature platform and I don’t want to see major changes… I also don’t feel like it’s improving or even keeping up.

Basic stuff people have been complaining about for years just never seems to get fixed. You need to stay on top of the basic stuff if you want users to trust you.

This thing with side mounting the taskbar is a perfect example. I don’t do that. I don’t want to. I don’t get why anyone else does - though I accept that other people have their own workflows where it makes sense. But come on Microsoft, I want that fixed so that I can stop hearing people complain about it! The fact that it took this long makes me think that I’m SOL if Microsoft ever breaks something that is important to me.

Of course not. Windows, the OS, isn't much of their revenue. They make money with Office and Azure subscriptions/licensing. The same way that Amazon, by revenue, isn't a logistics company--it is an IT infra company with a side hustle in retail.

 

[randomizer9]

I just want that silly Copilot key gone and my right CTRL key back.
I tried to re-map it and now it acts weird.

 

[saladwithhotdogsinit]

Windows Vista was an objectively terrible OS. If they released Windows Vista as a response to Windows 11 people would work around it's shortcomings and the community would create all kinds of software to remedy the problems just so that we wouldn't have to go back to Windows 11.

 

[Bernardo Verda]

OK, great, thanks Microsoft. About 10 years too late IMO, with everything being steadily downhill since Windows 7 (God I miss that OS).

You know who does't issue such notices? Apple. You know who doesn't have issues with updates even though they issue about 6 a year? Apple. And no, I'm not a fanboy, but over the years I've gone from snubbing them for the silly prices to appreciating how I can just get stuff done with MacOS running on 2nd hand hardware.

In fact, I think that interestingly, the recent spate of "just swtch to Linux" proclamations are not driven by Linux having become so user friendly (it has improved, but not by that much) but by windows having become so enshitified that the effort involved in using it, is now comparable...

Yes, Windows 7 was actually a decent operating system. IMO Windows 7, as an operating system, was the first really good version of Windows that Microsoft released. And arguably also the last. Though I don't doubt I would have had a better opinion of Microsoft's other offerings if I hadn't become acquainted with Linux.

Unfortunately, despite it's good points, using Windows 7 meant one still had to deal with the shenanigans of Microsoft, so it remained an OS I helped friends and family with, rather than my own "daily driver". (I'm not a techie, but I was also the person who ended up taking care of the very small Widows network at work, which made it difficult to say "I don't do Windows".)

In truth, as an operating system, Linux has been "user friendly" for twenty years. Being user friendly has not been a real problem for Linux adoption -- the real problem(s) for Linux adoption on the desktop (especially the consumer, home user and small business desktop) have been largely due the difficulties of competing against the incumbent Windows/Mac default ecosystem.

 

[sword_9mm]

Microsoft has built infrastructure allowing large corporations to manage huge fleets of PCs easily and effectively. They also have collaboration tools (Outlook email and calendaring, Teams, Onedrive, etc) that integrate very well with each other and with Microsoft's cloud IaaS and SaaS systems very well, right along with the ability to manage all these in one user profile along with the user's hardware and mobile apps. If you have thousands of employees, it becomes very difficult to manage an IT fleet at that scale. That's Microsoft's true "moat" that no one else is even close to touching.
I've Google Workspace and Microsoft Office both. Google's stuff is garbage compared to Microsoft's Office. Yes, the Office Apps are also degrading in quality - Outlook, which I live in for hours every day at work, has become really bloated and slow, and Copilot search is literally useless, yet the Calendaring, integration with Planner (which is great for group projects), and other features still make it the only game in town.
Teams has become better ever since they have ditched the Electron version of it. It's not GREAT, but it works fine - I have 4-5 meetings every day, including with multiple outside clients, and I've never had problems with it unlike Google Meet (browser-based, so any browser issues break it), WebEx (glitchy, slow), or Zoom (which used to be tight and light-weight but now is not).

Pretty much the only reason to run Windows and the Office apps.

Outside of corporate fleets and some video games I see no reason to run it. I keep an old laptop around with win10 on it in case (Xbox controller updates and what not) but that's it. Mac Air for web browsing and Steam Deck/PS5 for gaming.

 

[FSTargetDrone]

which means a Windows 11 upgrade is probably in your future one way or another

For me, it is not. I started using a computer at home in 1995 with Windows 3.0/3.1, then over the years Windows 95, 98, 98SE, 2000, XP, 7 and 10 (which has extended updates for my 2 PCs). In December 2025 I got a Mac mini M4 and that will be my main work machine going forward, particularly after support ends for the Windows 10 machines (which I will continue to use). I have no plans to ever install Windows 11 on my machines, especially as neither one supports it (but both run Windows 10 perfectly fine). I won’t be buying any new Windows 11 machines.

 

[Cod3rror]

Issues with Windows 11...

• Bloated looking windows and menus with too much padding and space on everything.
• There are menus layered on top of other menus, hiding useful items. I had to find a registry tweak to get rid of the initial right click menu that pops-up.
• Too bloated looking, too much padding, too rounded. This is how much thicker (taller) Windows 11's toolbars are compared to Windows 10's
• When you launch it, it takes a few seconds to render, and it renders piece by piece
• Toolbar and other elements blend in too much because they so similarly shaded.
• No separator lines for groups in the "Group by" view. Minimalism is good, but when minimalism gets in the way of productivity, and the user experience, it is not good. It should aid in focus, not confuse.
• Cannot pin shortcut icons to the top anymore.
• Windows 10 Explorer is much better. And even with Windows 10 they made things a bit worse, because in Windows 7 you could freely drag and sort items in the details view, and you can't do that in Windows 10, they just reset to their default order.
• Windows 11 has cartoonish iconography.
• The Wi-Fi, Volume, Battery icons are as one button in the tray, that cannot be hidden. Why? On Windows 10 I just have volume visible and quickly available, the rest are not required, so they are hidden. They copied Linux. And even then, it takes two clicks to change the playback device now.
• Introduced busier, Android like Start menu. Windows 10's was so much better, cleaner.
• The taskbar looks odd and I prefer Windows 10's. Even though it is flat, somehow it gives me a feeling like it looks convex towards the screen. It looks oval, I am not a fan of it.
• Windows 11's performance is terrible.
• Windows 11 has ads! Maybe they should have an ad-supported, free version for those that don't buy the license and register it, but there should definitely not be any ads in the paid versions.
• I wish they had stuck to their "tiles" design language, at least it was unique, still looked fresh, and it was Microsoft's idea. Windows 11 looks like a hodgepodge of Linux and Android. It's inspired, rather than inspiring.

I would really like for them to add some small quality of life features

I would like to be able to wrap selected text in quotes. When I have some text selected, and I enter:

• Double Quotes " "
• Single Quotes ' '
• Braces { }
• Parentheses ( )
• Square Brackets [ ]
• Angular Brackets < >
• Asterisk * *
• Multiline Comment /* */
• Hash # #

I would like it to surround the selected text with the special character I entered, rather than replace it. Almost all IDEs and text editors have it now, but it would be great to have it by default in the OS.

Window Always on Top
I would like a keyboard shortcut as well as the fourth window control icon next to Underscore, Square, X to keep the current window on top of the others.

CTRL + C on a line should copy the whole line
If I enter "Ctrl + C" anywhere on text, even if it's not selected, I would like the line to be copied into clipboard.

Expand Current Selection
I would like a keyboard shortcut to expand the selection of text.

Clipboard window (Ctrl + V) size needs to be adjustable (resizeable)
Also fix the sync with SwiftKey, it is currently broken.

SwiftKey
Cloud clipboard sync should support syncing images, and maybe files too. I would really like to copy an image on Windows and sync it to SwiftKey.

Snipping Tool
I would like a magnifier for the cropper, so I can select the sides to crop precisely.
I would like to add shapes, numbers tags, text. I know they added some, but more is needed.

 

[gijames1225]

I still feel the situation around Windows 11 is surreal. I have used it on multiple computers since it was in preview and have never felt strong emotions around it. The biggest beef I have with it is that it got rid of the really handy Bluetooth connection shortcut key combination that 10 had. Otherwise, it's been reliable, performant, and gets out of my way just fine (and I have never adjusted any system settings around minimizing ads or ai or something).

I have two Mac OS machines and Windows 11 seems to be neither better nor worse than them, so all the ruckus year-in-year out is really confusing. Now, I do allow that I don't have anything that runs Recall, but a quick google search makes it look like that's one toggle to disable, so anybody who can't manage that probably shouldn't be here complaining anyways.

Edit: Ah, looking at the above comment did remind that the regression in the right click menu is utterly bizarre and annoying. Then again, I cannot stand Mac OS Finder and feel like I constantly am fighting with it to give me the options I want, so maybe this is supposed to be the new direction in computing and it's just not for me.

 

[Edubfromktown]

Windows was ejected from my home more than two decades ago.

ChromeOS (daily driver for surfing, e-mail, etc.), macOS (heavier i/o demands and big commercial applications) and Linux (servers and appliances) all do exceptionally well.

Work finally "got with the program" and dealt me an enterprise-managed Mac (without $$JAMF$$) last year too

 

[TylerH]

These are all promising changes, so I hope they implement them as described in the article, and soon. Plus, of course, killing Recall and bringing back the local Windows account option during install as a first-class option.

That being said, we're really due for them to announce Windows 12 sometime soon, and that one should be a good "tick" OS with regard to their usual "tick" = good OS followed by a "tock" = bad OS (while I did use Win 95 and 98 ever so briefly, I only recall as far back as Win 2000, and it's been a reliably tick tock pattern ever since then, at least).

 

[Quirinus]

• Windows 11 has ads! Maybe they should have an ad-supported, free version for those that don't buy the license and register it, but there should definitely not be any ads in the paid versions.

This. This is the largest and most unforgiveable sin IMO. I get they want to generate more revenue for services. Making the platform I run software on to be an adverstisement machine is an incredible hassle and counter to what a good OS should do. Same with the tracking.

I would really like for them to add some small quality of life features

Snipping Tool
I would like a magnifier for the cropper, so I can select the sides to crop precisely.
I would like to add shapes, numbers tags, text. I know they added some, but more is needed.

Seconded.

I have never liked that the snipping tool has had some terrible markup tools on it for years. I can't speak for all users but I use the snip too usually to clip out some example of something I need to share with others and I would draw on it to emphasize where on the clip the problem is or add notes to it for documentation. Just draing freehand is terrible for me. It is only recently (as I remember) that they added the ability to draw straight lines and arrows. Still no text box or number tags function.

I have been using Greenshot for a few years now that easily does this work for me in one tool. Make this better, MS, please.