Back in the 2010s, I was all-in on Microsoft. I even had a brief phase where I used a Windows Phone, because it genuinely felt different. But over the years, it’s become increasingly difficult to ignore how much the company has fallen off.
Instead of focusing on the real problems people keep complaining about, Microsoft keeps pushing pointless features into Windows 11. The more I use its products today, the more I find myself questioning the direction the company is heading in. It feels like it has lost sight of what made its products great in the first place.
Windows keeps getting worse with every update
File Explorer isn’t that big of a priority, right?
Let’s start off with Microsoft’s biggest product, Windows, which feels like an absolute dumpster fire right now. The amount of bloat and the number of issues the OS keeps running into has only gotten worse, especially since Windows 10 hit end-of-life recently. There have been so many problems that don’t make sense to me anymore.
What baffled me was a recent Microsoft Support page bluntly admitting that large parts of Windows’ core functions are broken. Instead of giving a timeline for proper fixes, the company has offered weird workarounds for those problems.
The funniest example is the “fix” for File Explorer being extremely slow in Windows 11. Microsoft has recently acknowledged the problem, but instead of trying to fix the root cause, it has decided to preload File Explorer every time your PC boots. This isn’t really a solution; it’s more so slapping duct tape on a leaking water tank.
And this isn’t the only bizarre bug. There was another recent Task Manager issue where clicking the close button would instead send the app to the background. You could keep opening new instances without realizing your system was hoarding Task Manager windows.
These are just a few instances. There are countless weird little issues like this, yet the priorities seem laser-focused on Copilot (more on that later) instead of the actual operating system. It’s bizarre to me how the bloated features nobody asked for never seem to break.
Meanwhile, consumer-friendly features, like the simple ability to create a local account, are the ones Microsoft keeps trying to remove. The whole “work in progress” future of Windows feels directionless, and every new update makes that feeling stronger.
Nobody asked for Copilot
Read the room, Microsoft
As I mentioned earlier, Microsoft seems completely hell-bent on believing that Copilot is the future of every product it makes. At this point, even Notepad has a Copilot button, which feels so forced every time I open it. The problem isn’t AI itself. It’s that Microsoft is completely tone-deaf to what users actually want. It’s far too focused on impressing investors by stuffing AI buzzwords into everything.
Microsoft’s president of Windows and Devices recently posted a tweet about how Windows is turning into an “agentic” operating system (attached below), which is painfully out of touch. You can read the comments yourself to see how everyone wants Microsoft to fix Windows before adding another layer of AI complexity on top of already-broken features.
What made everything worse was when Microsoft AI’s CEO tweeted that people were being “cynics” for not appreciating these new AI features. That completely misses the point. The criticism isn’t about rejecting AI altogether. It’s about the simple fact that Windows has far bigger problems at its core that need to be fixed first.
Even beyond all this, it’s genuinely hard to trust it when it comes to AI. The Recall controversy alone was enough to make me avoid experimenting with any of its new features. Watching Copilot spread into every corner of the OS: my apps, my taskbar, the sidebar, even my files—only makes me more skeptical. And its history of intrusive behavior with Edge and Microsoft accounts doesn’t exactly make me feel any safer.
Even if Copilot eventually becomes something truly useful, Microsoft still hasn’t earned enough trust for me to feel comfortable with AI being built this deeply into the operating system. The leadership seems to be struggling to understand that, and until they do, Copilot will continue to feel like an unwanted guest rather than a helpful addition.
What does Xbox even mean anymore?
I would’ve preferred the Xbox 720
Xbox is also going through a major identity crisis right now. It used to be simple: it was a first-party console, which then also included a subscription service with Xbox Live, and later Game Pass. After that, it became a full-blown publishing house as well, and now we’re in this weird phase where Xbox hardware is being made by partner OEMs.
Despite all these shifts, the results haven’t been good. Retailers have started reducing Xbox stock, and most first-party titles this generation have been underwhelming. Game Pass used to be one of the best deals in gaming, but after almost doubling in price recently, it’s hard to say it still offers the same value.
And while all this is happening, Microsoft continues laying off large portions of its gaming workforce. Altogether, it doesn’t create a confident picture of where Xbox is supposed to be headed.
Microsoft should be worried about competition, too. I recently switched to Linux for gaming, and was shocked to get higher frame rates while running Windows games through an emulation layer. With the newly announced Steam Machine, and Valve opening SteamOS to other OEMs, the pressure is real.
The only real advantage Microsoft still has is games with strict anti-cheat systems that don’t run on Linux. Beyond that, there’s no meaningful benefit to choosing Xbox, whether you’re playing on PC or console.
Surface devices no longer represent the best of Windows
No longer the king of ultrabooks
Surface devices used to be the gold standard for thin-and-light Windows laptops. If you wanted the cleanest, most polished Windows experience, you bought a Surface and you knew exactly what you were getting. But ever since Microsoft shifted most of the lineup to Snapdragon chips, that reputation has taken a noticeable hit.
Windows on ARM has definitely improved, but it’s still far from perfect. App compatibility is still all over the place. A lot of programs don’t run properly even with emulation, and performance can feel inconsistent depending on what you’re using. It’s a completely different story from Apple, which handled the transition to its own silicon almost flawlessly.
Right now, it’s ironic that Apple, the company people love to call “overpriced”, ends up offering better value on the laptop side. You get stronger performance, reliable battery life, and none of the strange Windows or Copilot issues I’ve talked about.
Microsoft needs to get its priorities straight
Microsoft’s leadership really needs to step back and look past the AI hype train. I’m not saying AI is bad or that it shouldn’t exist in Windows, but the company is acting like it’s the only feature that matters right now. Meanwhile, the actual issues people keep complaining about continue to sit there, untouched.
Microsoft can get back to its glory days for sure, but it needs to get its priorities straight instead of chasing the next big buzzword in tech.