Microsoft Admits Windows 11 Has a Trust Problem, Promises To Focus on Fixes in 2026
- Reference: 0180689430
- News link: https://it.slashdot.org/story/26/01/29/1923222/microsoft-admits-windows-11-has-a-trust-problem-promises-to-focus-on-fixes-in-2026
- Source link:
"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," Pavan Davuluri, president of Windows and devices, told The Verge. The company plans to spend the rest of 2026 focusing on pain points including system performance, reliability, and overall user experience.
January has been particularly rough for Windows 11. Microsoft [3]issued an emergency out-of-band update to fix shutdown issues on some machines, then released a second out-of-band fix a week later to address OneDrive and Dropbox crashes. Some business PCs are [4]also failing to boot after the January update because they were left in an "improper state" after December's monthly update failed to install. Users have also grown frustrated by aggressive Edge and Bing prompts, constant OneDrive upselling nags, and Microsoft's push to require Microsoft accounts.
The core members of the company's Windows Insider team recently moved to different roles. "Trust is earned over time and we are committed to building it back with the Windows community," Davuluri said.
[1] https://tech.slashdot.org/story/26/01/29/1611252/windows-11-has-reached-1-billion-users-faster-than-windows-10
[2] https://www.theverge.com/tech/870045/microsoft-windows-11-issues-rebuilding-trust-notepad
[3] https://tech.slashdot.org/story/26/01/18/1932246/microsoft-forced-to-issue-emergency-out-of-band-windows-update
[4] https://tech.slashdot.org/story/26/01/16/2144202/patch-tuesday-update-makes-windows-pcs-refuse-to-shut-down
Meaningful (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't believe Microsoft understands fully what would be "meaningful" to their customers. How about removing the Microsoft account requirement, removing the telemetry, removing the ads, removing the AI, removing the cloud integration, removing the bloat? How about giving customers real control, like being able to turn off updates. That would be meaningful.
Re: Meaningful (Score:2)
"Sorry all we can do is more AI" have you tried AI as your background yet? Best thing ever we promise"
"passionate customers"? (Score:2)
I am forced to use Windows at work. Is it too much to ask that it's not a buggy piece of shit?
Re: (Score:3)
> I don't believe Microsoft understands fully what would be "meaningful" to their customers. How about removing the Microsoft account requirement, removing the telemetry, removing the ads, removing the AI, removing the cloud integration, removing the bloat? How about giving customers real control, like being able to turn off updates. That would be meaningful.
Yeah, they're not going to stop shoveling AI and "give us all your data" initiatives. And while I have no outright proof, I have to think the data-suck and honestly too-fast addition of AI features is leading to a lot of the instability issues we've been hearing about. I've found that if I keep networking completely turned off I get much better performance on local-only tasks. Even without opening an email client or a web browser but leaving the network adapter turned on I see CPU and RAM usage climb fairly
Re: (Score:2)
The thing is, MS has determined, rightly or wrongly, that doing all those things would not be good for their bottom line. What may, or may not, be meaningful to MS's customers is irrelevant.
Re: (Score:2)
> I don't believe Microsoft understands fully what would be "meaningful" to their customers. How about removing the Microsoft account requirement, removing the telemetry, removing the ads, removing the AI, removing the cloud integration, removing the bloat? How about giving customers real control, like being able to turn off updates. That would be meaningful.
Is any of that meaningful to their customers, though? Yes, it's very meaningful to you, and me, and a large fraction of the denizens here. Most people barely realize that their user account should or even could be different from their Microsoft account. Heck, your MS account is more distinct from your Windows user account than you Google account is distinct from your Android user account, or Apple vs iOS accounts. Very few people make any attempt to block the telemetry being collected by literally every o
Start by not turning everything into Chrome (Score:2)
Microsoft has progressively been making everything an instance of Chrome. They've seemingly altogether given up the notion of native platform rendering. The win32 api for native ui elements hasn't been touched in two decades. There have been a few failed attempts to move on from it like Siverlight, WinForms, UWP, LightSwitch, etc, but they never bothered to revisit their native UI library. So now everything is a Chrome instance.
My preference would be for them to focus on fast, native rendering again, may
Would you settle for more CoPilot instead? (Score:2)
All we have are AI people now.
Re: (Score:2)
They also don't use any talent for Teams. Today I was in a meeting and Teams just became unresponsive when a screen was shared. I had to quit and restart it and missed a bunch of stuff while I was waiting for it to be "setting things up for" me. What's there to set up, assholes? Just let me get back into the meeting.
I cant see it worse than any other Windows (Score:2)
It's all crap. My experience with MS is that they make half finished solutions just good enough that all their users wont take the efford to change to something else. And as the barrier is very high due to integrations in various administrative systems and lot of engineers and IT people, who dont know anything else, they can keep delivering poor quality. Same thing spilled over into the cloud where all the MS dominated IT department choose Azure, they can keep push unfinished products there as well, claimin
Re: (Score:1)
Windows 2000 was good for its time. I would love a version of Windows 2000 with an up-to-date security model.
Re: (Score:2)
It's by no means the worst. Windows 8 was worse by a mile. 11 still looks and feels like 10, if one ignores the enshittification of Notepad and Paint, as well as the removal of WordPad
Too late... (Score:2)
Sorry, too late. The trust was killed by MS a long time ago and I don't think they can get it back. I've pretty much weaned myself off of MS products at home; the last remaining one is Onenote which I use via the web interface and even there I'm slowly pulling the information off and deleting notebooks.
I only use Windows when forced to at work, and even then, I do my best to live in the WSL world. I've got some time left before I retire, but I'm really looking forward to retirement and ending the MS world.
Windows 11 is inherently user hostile (Score:2)
Because it's being used to gather data to train AI that will eventually replace you in the workforce and the wages that you're earning.
There is no way whatsoever to make something like that not user hostile. Ignoring how much of your CPU cycles it's going to devour or all the bugs it's going to introduce or all the privacy concerns having every single thing you do on your computer monitored and logged into a database, you're also giving up all of your data and all the work you do to train your replaceme
Re: (Score:2)
I think you missed one important thing. The billionaires have shown they aren't smart enough to know that if the replace everyone with AI, there will be no one earning any money. No, money, can't buy anything the billionaires are pushing. No money, can't pay bills, so no internet, no use of AI, no buying anything. It's mutually assured destruction.
Re: (Score:2)
"In the very near future we are going to have to contend with at least 2000 million people who are going to be rendered completely useless.."
This is where the "elites" plan to reduce the world population comes into play.
Just like it said on the Georgia Guidestones:
"Maintain humanity under 500,000,000 in perpetual balance with nature. "
So who gets to be in that 500,000,00????
the "Elites" will be choosing.
Re: (Score:2)
Midwits don't understand that billionaires don't care about making money. They sell things to you so they can build spaceships and buy expensive yachts.
If all production is automated, they no longer need the money so they no longer need to sell things to you.
What billionaires really don't understand is that most of them have no useful skills in a post-neoliberal world and their wealth is more likely to end up in the hands of their security staff, who have a very particular set of skills.
Re: (Score:2)
> Midwits don't understand that billionaires don't care about making money
This is obviously false, because they can have more money than they can spend in their lifetime and still want to keep making more.
The rest of your comment is no consolation because they will shit everything up for the rest of us on the way there.
Hope they continue vibe coding Windows (Score:2)
So more people moves to better operating systems.
Linux Desktop (Score:2)
Maybe they can swarm and suggest some Linux distros to move to.
BSD alternative (Score:2)
FreeBSD with Lumina. Including the PBI installer if available. (Same as the discontinued PC-BSD distro)
mumble mutter manacle myth-mumps (Score:2)
'Microsoft wants you to know that it knows that Windows 11, now used by a billion users, has been testing your patience and announced that its engineers are being redirected to urgently address the operating system's performance and reliability problems through an internal process the company calls "swarming."'
"Brooks's law is an observation about software project management that "Adding manpower to a late software project makes it later." (See [1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org])
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brooks's_law.
Re: (Score:2)
Let me add Crunchy's corollary, "Adding manpower to fix a poor product will inevitably make it worse."
Re: (Score:2)
So they are increasing AI usage from 30% to 60% to try and fix the mess AI created.
Low hanging fruit (Score:5, Insightful)
They can regain trust by removing the following:
1. Telemetry.
2. Advertising.
3. "AI".
4. Mandatory Microsoft account.
5. Arbitrary restrictions on supported hardware (TPM, CPU age).
Easy really - no need to add anything.
Re: (Score:2)
6. Restore old utilities the way they were, such as Notepad, WordPad and Paint ( without the AI)
7. Give people the option of using past Windows user interfaces, even if they don't make it the default. For instance, let one make Windows 11 or 12 look like Windows 7, if that's the look & feel one enjoys
8. If they have to include a News app, give people the option of entering the websites of the news sources they trust, not the ones MS wants us to read
Re: (Score:2)
Are there not scripts to remove/disable this shit?
Re: (Score:2)
Probably, but Microsoft will re-enable it all with the next update.
Re: (Score:1)
> Are there not scripts to remove/disable this shit?
So we should all do the job MS refuses to do after paying them for support which they can then deny because you've made changes they didn't authorize? I'll stick with a good Linux distro instead.
Re: (Score:2)
There are ways around these things, but some of them are beyond many users, and users shouldn't have to go around their OS vendor to do things. The purpose of the OS is to serve the user, not the other way around.
Re: (Score:2)
A big problem that will remain is that Microsoft is subject to USA laws eg the [1]Cloud Act [wikipedia.org] and others that let the USA government grab your data and remotely disable services and software. The USA could never be completely trusted (think: Edward Snowden) but Trump has thrown this into sharp focus. There is a move [2]within the EU to move away from American technology [ecfr.eu]. Microsoft cannot fix this problem.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CLOUD_Act
[2] https://ecfr.eu/publication/get-over-your-x-a-european-plan-to-escape-american-technology/
I trust (Score:3, Funny)
I trust them not to restore my trust.
Drastic leadership changes needed (Score:2)
Microsoft doesnt have a Windows 11 problem. What they have is a management and a leadership problem.
Every opportunity of the last 30 gears has been destroyed and squandered by Microsoft. XBox being the latest victim.
Drastic changes are needed in the leadership coz the current ones have no idea what they are doing
They're admitting is shit show... (Score:3)
> We need to improve Windows in ways that are meaningful for people
That statement is clear, Windows is not a useful or meaningful, or usable operating system, across the board. Microsoft is admitting this, Microsoft, how bad does a product have to be, for Microsoft to admit it's terrible? If you need any more convincing that you can't utilize Windows as a professional, you're a fraud. Not a confused, but understandable idiot, a fraud, no different from someone who takes money for a job, and disappears. It's over, Windows is not a usable operating system, from Microsoft, not from the Unix and Linux community, from Microsoft.
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah but /. Has had a good old whine every time windows upgrades.
I’m on Win11, And it’s still just windows.
Want to gain trust - just be an OS (Score:2)
Just be an operating system. Focus on being better than that.
Stop mining data.
Stop trying to force people to connect to various services.
Just let users run the software they choose to run and stay out of their way.
Remember XP SP2? (Score:2)
The same sort of sentiment was expressed before Windows XP SP2 was created. When MS actually puts effort where it's needed, and let's engineers develop solid solutions, and not just listen to the marketing department and force unwanted changes on us, they are quite good at making a solid product.
I'm very hopeful this will be a repeat of the XP SP2 experience.
I will admit I'm not willing to bet on it though... but no harm in being optimistic. Cautiously optimistic... or is that just wishful given their
Re: (Score:2)
We've all seen this comic strip before. Microsoft is Lucy. Windows is the football. Consumers (you and me) are Charlie Brown.
Way to deflect (Score:1)
It isn't Windows that has the trust problem. Look in the mirror Steve, er, I mean Satya. It's gonna happen when you turn an operating system into an advertising, distraction, and surveillance platform (that still runs on the same deficient kernel that you ran in the year 2000).
We'll swarm right on it (Score:1)
We didn't realize a billion of our users hate our garbage so much that they've been able to circumvent a lot of our garbage. We'll put our swarms right on fixing all the holes and making it ever more difficult to go around our garbage login requirements and garbage keylogging and our garbage ads everywhere. Trust us that we give 2 shits about the wishes of our "customers".
2 years... (Score:1)
That’s how long it took Davuluri to remember that Windows actually has users
Here's the starting list for you: (Score:2)
1. Allow disabling automatic updates. Indefinitely.
2. Allow disabling AI system-wide
3. Kill all nagware / ads.
4. Remove the Settings app and restore a proper, old-fashioned Control Panel.
5. Restore full support for local-only accounts.
6. Stop forcing hardware updates, such as TPM.
7. Stop constantly resetting system settings on updates.
8. Related to 7, stop resetting default apps / handlers.
9. Decouple from the OS and allow users to fully uninstall Edge.
10. Stop collecting all the bloody analytics.
Re: (Score:2)
11. Start supporting and updating Windows 7 again.
12. Fire Nadella.
Windows 11 doesn't have a trust problem (Score:2)
Windows 11 is the problem.
it's pronounced Fow-koos (Score:2)
Focus,man
Bull (Score:2)
Shit.
What the slave wants (Score:2)
Slave-owner asks, how can slavery bring meaning to your life?
This is the current choice of winner-takes-all capitalism: Doctorow looked at the consumer-side and called it "enshittification".
Too late for me (Score:2)
I finally switched my main PC from Windows 11 to Linux Mint. It wasn't even telemetry or ads - I know how to deal with those. It was everyday functionality that didn't work or was unreliable in Windows: Bluetooth pairing, networked printers, access to other machines on LAN; along with basic desktop usability. It's been a couple of months and I don't miss Windows at all.
I know this is an anecdotal evidence data point, and I may be a more "advanced" user. But I can tell that the amount of Googling to make thi
swarming (Score:2)
> its engineers are being redirected to urgently address the operating system's performance and reliability problems through an internal process the company calls "swarming."
Normally you would use a process called "dogfooding" but it's not dog food that Microsoft works with.
Focus? (Score:3)
They have lost focus a long time ago and they will not get it back even if they crash and burn.
Re: (Score:2)
> They have lost focus a long time ago and they will not get it back even if they crash and burn.
If Too Big To Fail is a thing, then Too Rich To Give A Shit is certainly a thing.