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Windows Weekly 976: Full Thurrottle

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In 2015, Satya Nadella said that he wanted users to love Windows. But Microsoft has only enshittified Windows more aggressively since then. Paul wrote a book. And now Microsoft says it's changed, baby, and it's serious this time. Here's what was said ... and what was not said.

A Timeline

  • Early signs of positive change: Rust in the Windows kernel, numerous new security features in Windows 11 - "two sides" of Windows, the engineering side and the "let's push AI at all costs/UX" side - more recently, Baseline Security Mode and User Transparency and Consent announcement
  • Last September, Pavan Davuluri took over Windows and reorganized the business immediately, bringing Server/Core back in-house
  • In December, Paul saw the first signs of positive changes in OneDrive, while not perfect, a major step back from the enshittification there. It took a few months to understand exactly what changed.
  • In January, there are over one billion Windows 11 users. Davuluri first mentions a push for quality in 2026 - "pain points"
  • In February, Nadella announced leadership changes that included people directly in charge of security and engineering quality
  • Now, Microsoft has announced that it will address (some of) the complaints about Windows 11, and this includes performance and reliability improvements across the board

    • Microsoft said it will

    • Let you move the Taskbar to other screen edges, finally
    • Improve File Explorer performance
    • Make changes to how users to skip Windows Updates (vaguely)
    • Make improvements to Widgets (but what about the quality problem?)
    • Remove unnecessary Copilot entry points
    • Make the Windows Insider Program more transparent
    • More relevant recommendations in Start - ??
    • Reduce resource usage across the board, give more resources to what you're doing (good for gaming, especially)
    • Reduce interaction latency - WInUI3
    • Reduce search latency throughout - also context menus and navigation (which is WinUI3, I guess)
    • Make improvements to Windows Subsystem for Linux
    • OS, drive, and in-box app reliability improvements
    • Windows Hello improvements - Wonders if this is tied to the complaint about speed here

      • What Microsoft didn't discuss

      • Of the several items in the Windows 11 Enshittification Checklist, only one was addressed by Davuluri's post, Windows Update chaos, and then only partially. Not mentioned: Forced telemetry, bundled crapware, forced Microsoft account sign-ins, forced Microsoft Edge usage and configuration harassment, hardware requirements (less relevant today), OneDrive behaviors (partially addressed already).
      • Recall is rare in that it's opt-in, but most of the AI and unwanted features are opt-out or worse
      • Controlled Feature Releases are not controlled, but they do suck
      • Microsoft has monthly Security Updates that include new features. Security and Feature updates should be separate and have different pausing rules
      • Microsoft is not removing Copilot from Windows, nor is it doing less AI; it is just removing Copilot icons from most places and trying to be more thoughtful about how it deploys AI in Windows 11
      • The Windows Insider Program makes 0 sense right now, and this was only partially addressed; it's not clear what's changing yet
      • Davuluri says that WinUI3 UIs are the solution to many performance problems, but just using an old

        • Mor

        These show notes have been truncated due to length. For the full show notes, visit https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly/episodes/976

        Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell

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