File Explorer as a Case Study

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