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ZDNET's cardinal takeaways
- Microsoft yet acknowledged complaints astir Windows 11
- The institution is promising sweeping changes to a slew of features
- Windows Insiders volition person a greater dependable successful upcoming releases
Microsoft's customers person been grumbling astir Windows 11 since the time it shipped, and lately, those complaints person gotten louder and angrier.
They've complained astir the "glitchy mess" of Windows Update, astir the propulsion to cram Copilot-branded AI features into each nook and cranny of Windows, astir upsells and ads, and astir inconsistent strategy performance.
Also: Windows 11 has 1 cardinal users - and they're furious
And yet -- finally! -- idiosyncratic successful Redmond noticed.
In a agelong station titled "Our committedness to Windows quality," published connected Microsoft's website and sent via email to millions of members of the Windows Insider Program, Windows brag Pavan Davaluri laid retired a laundry database of changes Microsoft plans to marque successful Windows 11, starting this month.
What's astir singular astir this station is what it doesn't contain. Here's however Davaluri kicked things off.
Every day, we perceive from the assemblage astir however you acquisition Windows. And implicit the past respective months, the squad and I person spent a large woody of clip analyzing your feedback. What came done was the dependable of radical who attraction profoundly astir Windows and privation it to beryllium better.
That paragraph belongs successful the non-apology Hall of Fame, with a cross-reference to "Friday quality dump" -- a classical PR method that aims to minimize media sum of the awkward quality being released.
Here's what's connected the database of changes coming to Windows, on with my ain translation of what immoderate of those changes truly mean. Note that these changes volition beryllium rolling retired successful preview builds starting this period and continuing for the remainder of the year. There's nary announcement connected erstwhile they volition scope nationalist releases.
More taskbar customization
You couldn't inquire for a much cleanable illustration of however Microsoft yet caught up to what Insiders person been griping astir for years.
When Microsoft released the archetypal preview of Windows 11, astir 5 years ago, the caller taskbar was missing a diagnostic that had been a favourite of powerfulness users for decades: the quality to determination the taskbar from its default determination connected the bottommost of the show and drawback it to the broadside oregon top.
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On the Feedback Hub app, wherever Microsoft collects bug reports and comments from Windows users, 1 diagnostic petition has been astatine oregon adjacent the apical of the database since time 1: "Bring backmost the quality to determination the taskbar to the apical and sides of the surface connected Windows 11."
As of this morning, that proposition had been upvoted much than 24,000 times and had received much than 2100 comments, with their code increasing progressively aggravated arsenic the years passed with nary motion that this diagnostic was connected the roadmap.
This introduction has been astatine oregon adjacent the apical of the most-requested feedback itms for 5 years.
So it's fitting that this point is astatine the precise apical of today's list: "More taskbar customization, including vertical and apical positions ... We are introducing the quality to reposition it to the apical oregon sides of your screen, making it easier to personalize your workspace."
About time.
Less AI slop
As I noted earlier this year, Microsoft has been relentlessly shoehorning AI features into places wherever they perfectly don't belong. I travel feedback successful forums carefully, and I would estimation that astir 99% of the comments astir AI features boil down to a elemental request: Please stop.
In a blog station welcoming 2026, CEO Satya Nadella argued that "we request to get beyond the arguments of slop vs sophistication." In response, the net made "Microslop" the most fashionable meme of the caller year.
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In response, Microsoft present says it is backing off. "You volition spot america beryllium much intentional astir however and wherever Copilot integrates crossed Windows, focusing connected experiences that are genuinely utile and well‑crafted," Davuluri says. Specifically: "We are reducing unnecessary Copilot introduction points, starting with apps similar Snipping Tool, Photos, Widgets, and Notepad."
More power implicit updates
The Patch Tuesday docket was expected to marque Windows updates predictable, but that hasn't worked retired successful practice, judging by the measurement of complaints I perceive each period astir an unwanted Windows update abruptly interrupting an important online gathering oregon wiping retired hours' worthy of work.
The response? "We're giving you much control" implicit updates, Microsoft says, "while reducing update sound with less automatic restarts and notifications." When those changes rotation out, it should beryllium easier to skip updates during instrumentality setup, restart oregon unopen down without installing updates, and intermission updates for longer erstwhile needed.
Those are each invited changes, and agelong overdue.
Better performance
I regularly perceive complaints astir File Explorer being painfully dilatory to load and besides dilatory successful performing mundane tasks. Today's announcement promises "launch clip reductions" successful File Explorer, with "substantially little latency for search, navigation and discourse menus," on with an extremity to the annoying flickering that immoderate users person reported.
Also connected the roadmap is "improved representation efficiency, lowering the baseline representation footprint for Windows ... and much accordant performance, adjacent nether load."
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Key to the wide show betterment program is simply a propulsion to determination halfway parts of the Windows UX to WinUI3. Given that WinUI3 has been astir longer than Windows 11 has, it seems astonishing that this alteration is lone happening now.
Greater attraction to reliability
Today's station contains a agelong treatment of reliability, starting with this promise: "Across the operating system, we volition absorption connected improving ... baseline reliability [and] strengthening the Windows instauration by reducing OS level crashes, improving operator prime and app stableness crossed our ecosystem truthful PCs tally smoothly and reliably each day."
That sounds great, but isn't that what they were already expected to beryllium focusing connected each time already?
I'm particularly funny to spot a renewed accent connected the Windows Insider Program. As I wrote astir a twelvemonth ago, that once-groundbreaking programme has go a "confusing mess."
Pavuluri says the institution plans to "[raise] the prime barroom for builds and [offer] clearer visibility into what features are included successful each Insider build."
The full Insider enactment squad near the programme past year, and I haven't seen a nationalist announcement of immoderate caller unit changes.
And more
The database goes connected and on, with improvements promised successful Bluetooth and USB connections, printer support, Windows Hello, and search. There's adjacent a committedness to marque widgets little annoying. (Good luck.)
The station closes with a beauteous sweeping promise:
As portion of this effort, we are evolving however Windows is built down the scenes to rise the prime barroom and present innovation wherever it matters most, shaped by the feedback we are proceeding from you.
This includes deeper validation and broader investigating crossed real-world hardware and usage scenarios earlier caller experiences scope Windows Insiders, and a much intentional attack to wherever and however caller capabilities are introduced. The effect volition beryllium higher prime builds, much meaningful innovation and greater flexibility successful choosing what you privation to try. This is however we volition proceed to physique and vessel Windows 11, truthful we tin present amended experiences with greater confidence, period aft month.
That sounds to maine similar an admittance that the full process for gathering Windows has been breached for immoderate time. If you request to rise the prime bar, doesn't that connote that you've been shipping products that don't conscionable your customers' prime standards? If you're readying broader investigating crossed real-world hardware, doesn't that connote that the investigating authorities for the past fewer years has been insufficient?
Meanwhile, a elemental "We're sorry" wouldn't hurt.
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