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Microsoft has experienced a pretty rough 2025 with Windows 11, as you probably noticed. The operating system has witnessed more than its fair share of bugs, and embarrassingly some of those glitches have involved fundamental pieces of Windows 11 ending up broken somehow – plus there have been some downright baffling episodes (I’ll talk more about those shortly).
On top of that, there’s been a hotbed of controversy surrounding Microsoft’s renewed drive to get more AI in Windows 11, with quite the rebellion underway against this goal, at least in some quarters.
1. Fix overall sluggishness in Windows 11
It’s no secret that Windows 11 is sluggish in some respects. This is something you’ll unfortunately encounter in everyday use of the OS, when working with basic parts of the Windows 11 interface – like File Explorer (the folders on your desktop that contain your files).
Microsoft has admitted itself that Windows 11 suffers from slow performance levels and kicked off an initiative to collect more data and feedback on these issues back in July 2025. Since then, we have seen some improvements ushered in, thankfully, such as a fix for some of the poor performance associated with File Explorer (albeit this hasn’t been implemented in the most satisfactory way, but it does work).
There’s still plenty of work to do, though, and File Explorer remains laggy in some ways, particularly the right-click (context-sensitive) menu which can be unresponsive and slow to actually appear after the click action is taken. What’s particularly galling is that File Explorer in Windows 10 runs a lot more slickly. The last-gen version of a desktop OS being quicker than the current-gen incarnation just isn’t acceptable.
You need your cutting-edge platform to feel nippy across the board, and Windows 11 simply doesn’t. Microsoft needs to fully resolve these performance woes, particularly with File Explorer – which, after all, represents the fundamental ‘windows’ you use all the time with your files – and slow search functionality.
2. Fix gaming on Windows 11
Windows 11 held considerable promise for gamers when it first launched, and the OS has provided some cool stuff to be fair, such as Auto HDR which is a definite boon. However, DirectStorage is still yet to deliver its full potential on Windows 11, remaining limited to a niche set of PC games (and being problematic with some, like Monster Hunter Wilds) – and other benefits remain thin on the ground.
More problematic than a lack of steps forward, though, are the steps backward for gamers in the form of various nasty glitches. Particularly since Windows 11’s 24H2 update, there seems to have been a rash of gaming bugs that are making life miserable for those trying to enjoy the latest fast-paced shooter or strategy epic on their PC. If games aren’t outright crashing, they are suffering performance hiccups of one kind or another.
Microsoft needs to do better than this in the future, and to be fair to the company, it realizes this, recently announcing its intention to fix gaming in Windows 11. This means smoothing over bugs and performance hiccups, applying tweaks and optimizations under the hood, and bringing in some new goodies too.
It’s good to hear such positive noises, true, but what we need in 2026 is to see those words transformed into action – and frankly there’s some doubt on the timeline in terms of how long it might take to introduce new features, given what we’ve seen with DirectStorage, as mentioned. There are also concerns about whether it’s even too late for Microsoft to save the day against a major threat now on the horizon – namely SteamOS and Valve’s new Steam Machine.
If Valve can pull off a compelling living room PC, Microsoft could be in trouble, and may start to lose serious market share to Linux (SteamOS is a Linux distro). Especially if Windows 11 continues to be flaky from time to time – too often frankly – on the gaming front. And this could be the beginning of a bigger migration to Linux, perhaps, or that’s the danger.
All of this brings me neatly onto the next point on my wish-list…
3. A new QA strategy is vital
It’s not just gaming bugs and interface glitches which are all too commonly introduced by Windows 11’s monthly updates – we’re also seeing all sorts of bizarreness of late.
Examples? Let’s see, from the catalogue of oddities for 2025, how about the bug that caused Windows 11 to display half the interface in one language, and the remainder in another.
Not odd enough for you? How about the invisible password login button (that Microsoft advised you try to locate by flailing about with the mouse cursor to find the outline of the button)? Or dark mode being bugged by white flashes when opening folders, a jarring experience when working in the low-light conditions in which you’ll use this mode.
How do these bugs even happen? How can something as simple as opening a folder in dark mode go so wrong? Indeed, another pearl of an example here is the problem whereby Task Manager stayed open when the app was closed, and if you opened it multiple times, every instance remained, draining the resources of the PC.
Also: why do the same bugs keep coming back, over and over and over again?
The answer is clear. Microsoft’s Quality Assurance for Windows 11 isn’t good enough. There’s been a lot of talk about how the company changed the QA department years back, and it’s never been the same since, but all that speculation aside, it’s obvious that Microsoft must do better.
The software giant needs to rethink and improve its whole QA and testing process in 2026, as the continued bad press around the stream of bugs – and baffling missteps – is really damaging the reputation of Windows 11.
4. Stop talking about AI, start listening to Windows 11 users
I’ve written a lot about this towards the tail end of this year, but Microsoft needs to chill on its big push for AI features. I’m not saying it can’t attempt to innovate, or weave more AI into Windows 11, but when doing so, Microsoft must tread very carefully – which, frankly, it isn’t.
Windows 11 users are telling Microsoft to ‘stop shoving AI down their throats’ – a common sentiment I’ve seen expressed repeatedly on the likes of Reddit and other social platforms – and Microsoft keeps on relentlessly banging its PR drum for AI. Then it wonders why people are getting annoyed.
This all comes back to the previous three points in many ways, as what people are saying they really want is for Microsoft to fix the fundamentals of Windows 11 before driving forward with more AI features in numbers. Fix poor interface performance, fix the bugs, fix the niggles with gaming – all the stuff I’ve just been talking about is more important than AI. For consumers, anyway.
The more Microsoft goes on about AI, the more people are going to rebel. So, get your house in order around the above three points I’ve just made, Microsoft, and tell people you’re doing that – make some promises, detail how it’ll be done. And tone down the trumpeting of AI.
Wishful thinking? Well, yes, probably, as shareholders and investors are impressed by AI shininess, and maybe business organizations, too. But still, can we have more of a balance here, Microsoft? Don’t forget the consumers entirely, they still represent a large chunk of Windows 11 users.
5. Get rid of the annoying adverts
Windows 11 has too many thinly veiled adverts, recommendations, suggestions, prompts, nudges, reminders, prods, and so forth. Far too many. More than Windows 10, and the last-gen OS is no slouch for irritating promotional activity itself.
This is a paid-for operating system, remember, not a freebie.
Now, I don’t expect Microsoft to just go and strip them all out, or give us a system-wide kill switch to turn off all the ads (that’s a joyous dream, of course, but not remotely realistic). That’s not going to happen, and clearly there are metrics, telemetry and other data on users which illustrates that these work. (I guess – otherwise why would Microsoft keep on with them? Particularly the banging on about its own services).
I’d just like to see less of this promotional clutter. Granted, we have witnessed some measure of relenting lately, namely the new Start menu, where you can turn off the recommendations panel – but I’d like to see more. Strip the promos back a fair bit and get rid of the more outright adverts (like the ones for Game Pass, or notifications urging folks to buy Avowed), bringing everything back to a more tolerable level.
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