• Cloud Rebuild installs a fresh version of Windows straight from... the cloud
• It'll even work on PCs where Windows is damaged or files are missing
• Now available in preview, it's being tested ahead of general availability

Microsoft has introduced a new Windows 11 recovery feature that installs a full version of Windows directly from cloud servers, without users having to rely on separate installation media.

The new tool is designed to work even when PCs have become corrupted, giving users a completely fresh install.

Although existing PC resetting tools can already download Windows from the cloud, recovery can fail if local Windows files are damaged or missing, making this a much more comprehensive tool.

Cloud Rebuild

With Cloud Rebuild designed to work even when Windows won't boot at all, it includes everything from the latest compatible Windows image to device-specific drivers, meaning users can skip the faff of downloading drivers from PC manufacturers.

As for the user experience, it eliminates the need for users to configure bootable USB installers and handle complex ISO files.

The upgrade is currently available as a Windows 11 Insider preview, but Microsoft has plans to extend its reach after testing. "Remote initiation from an enterprise endpoint management solution, such as Microsoft Intune, will be available in a later release," the company added in a support page.

Being a preview product, Microsoft also noted that some features, UX and command-line options may change before it hits general availability.

While the two OSs operate differently, with Apple controlling hardware and software and creating a different driver landscape altogether, Microsoft's Cloud Rebuild does bring Windows closer to a recovery model and user experience that macOS users have enjoyed since the company launched Internet Recovery in 2011.

Microsoft hasn't provided any further timeline information for Cloud Rebuild's full release as yet.

• Microsoft's new Windows 11 recovery method is available for Windows Insiders
• Cloud Rebuild allows users to reinstall Windows 11 and necessary drivers via the cloud, without a USB drive
• The feature should begin rolling out to users on stable Windows 11 builds

Microsoft is continually making adjustments to its Windows 11 operating system through patches that address user pain points, and, fortunately, its latest move is certainly welcome.

As reported by Windows Central, Microsoft has implemented a new recovery method for Windows 11, known as Cloud Rebuild, which is available to Windows Insider users. Cloud Rebuild allows users to reinstall the operating system and drivers from the cloud without the need for a USB drive.

It's a major step in the right direction for users who need to reset their PCs, whether due to data corruption, malware, or simply wanting to start anew, especially since not all users have immediate access to another device to download a Windows image or a USB drive to install it on.

Unlike the Windows Recovery Environment's 'Reset this PC' option, Cloud Rebuild doesn't allow you to keep personal files, but Microsoft says Cloud Rebuild reinstalls Windows with the appropriate drivers and "without depending on the integrity of the installed operating system".

Notably, Cloud Rebuild can still work when users can't boot into Windows 11, making life easier in a dire situation where the operating system is dysfunctional.

Perhaps the biggest advantage of Cloud Rebuild is for the acquisition of drivers, saving users plenty of time from manual downloads. This comes in handy for Windows 11 handheld gaming PCs, where reinstalling drivers can be slightly complicated, especially without the necessary peripherals being on hand for quick and easy navigation.

Cloud Rebuild isn't available to all Windows users yet, but the gradual rollout phase shouldn't be too far off. Fortunately, it's not a feature that most users urgently require (at least, I hope), so the wait for its arrival in stable Windows 11 updates shouldn't be frustrating.

In 2026, buying a new laptop, whether that's the best Windows laptop or the best MacBook, is still a fairly involved process that requires balancing an ever-expanding array of features and specs with your everyday requirements.

With the proliferation of AI, as both a new set of features and a branding exercise (think Microsoft's Copilot+ PC, for example), the list is only getting longer.

However, one universally essential feature everyone needs is above-average battery life.

A common mistake when assessing your options might be to simply rely on the manufacturer's “up to X hours” claim or watt-hour rating. Both of these are useful signals, but they don't tell the full story.

While a bigger battery can definitely help, going on pure numbers alone does not guarantee better battery life. Two laptops with similar battery sizes can actually last very different lengths of time.

A more useful frame of comparison is looking at how efficiently a laptop uses its available battery capacity, including whether its CPU and GPU are tuned to maximise battery life over raw power.

In recent years, Apple has been an expert in this domain, eking out longer and longer video playback and everyday usage times by optimising its M-series of chips specifically to use as little power as possible.

Why battery capacity still matters

Of course, we're not saying that battery capacity doesn't matter – a larger battery should offer longer times between charges in most cases, in the same way that a car with a bigger fuel tank can travel further between stops.

The rub is that laptops are rarely equal, and while a bigger machine might have more space for a larger battery, it almost certainly pairs that with a bigger display, a faster CPU and GPU, more cooling demand, and so on.

Every component of a laptop needs power, and these can eat into any advantage gained from having a purely larger battery capacity.

Physics applies its own limits, too. A bigger battery is naturally thicker and heavier, often defeating the point of modern ultraportables like the MacBook Neo that prioritise being thin and light.

There's also a practical ceiling: many laptop batteries sit below the 100Wh limit used for regular air travel, so manufacturers cannot simply scale capacity forever.

Checking the watt-hour rating and manufacturer claims of "all-day usage" is still worthwhile, but these tell you more about how much energy your laptop's battery can store, not what it looks like in practical day-to-day use.

The display is the biggest everyday drain

Any consideration of battery life has to start with the display, which can often be the easiest thing to overlook, despite being the feature you use the most.

The main factor at play is brightness. To state the obvious, a laptop used at 100% brightness – especially when working outside or under bright lights – is going to drain its battery a lot faster than on a lower setting.

On top of that, resolution, panel type, and refresh rate (especially for newer variable displays that go up to 120Hz or 144Hz) can all dramatically increase energy usage.

3K and 4K displays look absolutely fantastic, especially for creative work or watching films, but they will kill your battery life fast. OLED displays are in a similar category, offering incredibly deep blacks due to local pixel-dimming while consuming lots of power to show bright webpages and documents.

Refresh rates have become more of a factor in battery usage in recent years, too. A fixed 120Hz or 144Hz panel can naturally make scrolling and animations feel smoother, but it also refreshes the screen more often, requiring more power.

Taken together, you should at least consider the type of display and its impact on battery life when choosing a new laptop – a top-end 120Hz OLED panel sounds awesome right up until you try to work all day away from a plug.

Efficient chips change what “all-day” means

As the success of Apple's M-series chips shows, the chip inside your laptop plays a huge part. Gone are the days when processors were simply about speed; the better question is how much computation you can get for your battery draw.

Apple Silicon, found in both Macs and iPhones, is designed specifically for Apple’s hardware and software, so macOS and iOS can make very efficient use of the available power, especially during everyday tasks.

In recent times, Windows laptops have also made big strides.

Intel’s Core Ultra chips, AMD’s Ryzen AI processors, and Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X chips, utilising Arm-based designs, are all part of the same wider shift towards prioritizing performance per watt.

Modern chips optimize for extended battery life in several clever ways. For example, low-power cores can handle lighter jobs, integrated graphics can take care of basic visual tasks, and dedicated media engines can play video more efficiently than if the main processor has to do all the work itself.

Taken together, these innovations mean that newer laptops with similarly sized batteries can dramatically outlast older generations.

Windows, macOS, and apps all affect the final number

Hardware only gets you so far. A laptop can have an efficient chip, sensible display, and decent battery capacity, but the operating system and apps still decide how often those components are being pushed.

Apple has the clearest advantage thanks to its end-to-end hardware and software designs. macOS only has to run on a handful of Mac laptops and desktops, all of which are built around Apple Silicon chips, displays, and power management – everything is tightly controlled.

On the other hand, Windows has to work with a near-infinite combination of hardware and software from thousands of OEMs around the world. It must run across Intel, AMD, and Arm-based laptops, with different screens, drivers, utilities, and manufacturer settings.

This situation doesn't stop Windows laptops from having great battery life – as our extensive testing of the best laptops has found – but it is a real barrier, and there is a wider variation between makes and models.

Beyond the OS, apps matter just as much: having tens or hundreds of Chrome tabs open is very likely to nuke your battery life. Arm-based laptops also face the potential issue of running apps through compatibility layers, increasing the power demands and reducing battery life.

GPUs, AI features, and heavy workloads are the hidden traps

How you actually use your laptop makes a big difference and the rise of AI workloads – alongside traditional heavy hitters like 3D rendering, compiling code, and video editing – are surefire ways to go from 100% to 30% in no time.

Dedicated graphics are a big part of this. A powerful GPU can be brilliant if you need it, but it is also one of the most power-hungry components in a laptop.

Lots of modern machines now use hybrid graphics, switching between integrated graphics for lighter tasks and a dedicated GPU when more performance is needed.

New laptop chips increasingly include Neural Processing Units (NPUs), which are designed to handle certain AI tasks more efficiently than a CPU or GPU. That can help when software is built to use them properly, but heavier local AI workloads can still drain the battery quickly, especially if they lean on the CPU or GPU.”

Read manufacturer claims and lab tests carefully

Manufacturers understandably want to present their laptops in the best light and so make some... optimistic claims about real-world battery performance. None of these claims are untrue per se, but they do rely on lab conditions.

Video playback is a good example. Looping a film at controlled brightness with few background tasks can produce a very different result from a normal workday full of browser tabs, emails, calls, and everything else.

Brightness, volume, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, keyboard backlighting, refresh rate, and background apps can all shift the result. Even the browser you use or the number of tabs you keep open has an effect.

Treat such claims as a baseline – an ideal, if you will – and go from there. For a clearer picture, reviewers like ours at TechRadar actually put laptops through their paces and have tests that simulate messy real-world usage.

If a hypothetical laptop maker says its laptop can deliver "all-day battery life", but a review finds that the device lasts for just a few hours under heavy usage, that's grounds for being a bit cautious.

What laptop buyers should actually look for

So what should you actually look for when buying your next laptop?

Firstly, capacity is still worth checking, if only to get a sense of how big your laptop's battery is and roughly what you can expect as a baseline.

But there are lots of specs to check alongside raw watt-hours. Display type, resolution, refresh rate, chip generation, graphics hardware, and software support can all be just as important once you start using the laptop properly.

A good review is likely more useful than a manufacturer’s headline claim. Look for tests that reflect the way you actually work, which can often be in sub-optimal conditions. A laptop with slightly lower quoted battery life may still be the better choice if it performs well in ordinary day-to-day use.

Analysing your own habits can also be useful. If you are a heavy Chrome user that likes to keep 200 tabs open at once (because you never know when you might need that recipe from two years ago!), adjust accordingly.

Similarly, if you edit video, play games, or use demanding creative tools, you should expect shorter runtimes and pay closer attention to charging speed.

Battery life is more than one number and results from dozens of design and hardware choices working together, and the best laptop for you is the one that uses its battery well for the things you actually do.

Windows 11 is being fixed, you heard it here first.

Of course, we're all very much aware that Microsoft is busy addressing a plethora of issues with Windows 11, and has been for some time now. In fact, the campaign to right the wrongs of the OS began late in March 2026, and so Microsoft has now had three full months to get its act together with the initial work towards making Windows 11 better.

So, what's been done to that laudable end throughout April, May and June? And how has Microsoft fared in general during this first quarter of the effort to mend the operating system? This will be my first quarterly report on how fixing Windows 11 is going, and hopefully, I'll have plenty of good things to say about the initiative as it rolls onwards throughout 2026.

I'll pick out my highlights of the top changes made to Windows 11 so far – those moves that are really going to make an impact – and then provide my evaluation of how Microsoft is progressing overall. Then finally, I'll talk about what else the company might do, and what's notably missing thus far.

Key changes and features to fix Windows 11

There's been a lot of work done in this first quarter of Microsoft's campaign, with some huge moves for the Windows 11 interface that spring immediately to mind.

For starters, Microsoft has delivered what many Windows 11 users have been asking for since the OS first arrived – the ability to move the taskbar to the top or side of the screen (just as you can in Windows 10). As well as taskbar repositioning, we'll also get the ability to make it more compact, too.

Microsoft is revamping the Start menu to allow for a much greater level of customization – which is a theme with the interface changes in this fixing campaign – and that includes turning it into a compact, streamlined box with not a 'recommendation' (read: advert) in sight, if you want. This is one of the absolute highlights for me, and it comes alongside a lot of smoothing over of interface wrinkles, including modernizing legacy parts of the UI that look jarringly old.

The widgets board is also being made a calmer place, with no MSN feed (which comes with ads) by default, and Windows 11 search results are being tuned so you no longer have to suffer websites being surfaced in them, removing that clutter and unnecessary promotion (those results were opened in Bing, of course).

Windows updates have been heavily worked on, including something I must admit that I never thought I'd see Windows 11 Home users get the choice to do – namely to delay an update indefinitely. More updates are going to be bundled together, too, meaning you won't have to reboot to install them quite so often. On top of that, Microsoft is putting mechanisms in place to ensure that installation failures don't happen so often with updates.

Performance in Windows 11 has been another major focus for Microsoft in these early days, and that includes boosting the responsiveness of File Explorer with various optimizations and 'foundational' tuning to speed up this critical part of the Windows 11 interface (which drives the folders on your desktop). This includes a faster overall launch speed for File Explorer, as you might hope.

Away from File Explorer, another key performance enhancement is a 'Low Latency Profile' trick to give the CPU a brief boost when launching apps or Windows 11's menus, to make sure they run in a much snappier manner. Additionally, Microsoft is honing the contemporary framework employed by Windows 11's interface (WinUI 3) to be more performant, and the sum total of all this fine-tuning is that it should make a big difference to the overall feel of how Windows 11 runs in general, eliminating the sluggishness experienced in certain scenarios.

Other notable introductions include a 'turbo mode' for a much quicker installation of Windows 11, and a new 'Driver Quality Initiative' to usher in improvements with OS drivers (including ensuring that they don't excessively drain laptop battery life). A new point-in-time restore feature also gives you an extra recovery option to roll back your PC to a previous state when things go wrong, and that could be very useful should disaster strike.

Microsoft's progress with fixing Windows 11

As you can see, there's been a lot going on in terms of revamping, honing, and new features. Granted, a good deal of this is still happening only in testing, but of course it takes time to bring through this work, and it's best not to rush vital changes to the innards of Windows 11.

What's also good to see is that Microsoft is engaging with the broader Windows community online, taking on feedback, and acting on it too (in some cases). The company really does appear to be listening, and sessions where it actively solicits the opinions of testers on certain aspects of the desktop OS are a commendable move.

Beyond this, Microsoft has set up a system of panels whereby certain testers are brought in to contribute to studies designed to improve various facets of Windows 11.

Overall, I'm pleased with the scope of the work Microsoft has taken on here, and I'm impressed with the changes, as well as the new attitude towards feedback. All in all, what Microsoft has done in this first quarter of fixing Windows 11 is to resolve a lot of the most pressing issues with Windows 11 (or at least kicked off those resolutions).

Not all of them, mind, and I'll come onto that next.

What else should Microsoft be doing?

On the subject of what I think is missing from the drive to fix Windows 11, my biggest issue here is that there's not been much talk of how Microsoft is tackling bugs.

Yes, we've heard about working towards a more reliable Windows 11, an OS with better stability – the mentioned driver quality program is part of that, of course – but what about the actual core quality assurance processes?

The fact is that there are still too many bugs creeping through with each monthly update for Windows 11, and while some may be niche in their impact, they're happening too regularly, and some glitches are very odd in nature.

Just in the last couple of weeks we've seen the Recycle Bin weirding out, leading to accusations of 'well Microsoft, this is what happens when you get AI to code', and a strange bug with a Windows component eating up storage space in a mystifying manner (the fix is coming in the July update, and is in preview now, in case you were curious).

These kinds of oddities shouldn't be happening in the first place, though, and what I want to see from Microsoft is some concrete information on how it's revamping QA and bug fixing to be a more organized, thorough, and successful set of processes. This is absolutely key to fixing Windows 11 in my book, so get to it, Microsoft.

As far as crowd-pleasing features that are not yet on the boil, I'd like to see more ditching of 'recommendations' (those pesky ads that pop up here and there), the option to install Windows 11 with a local account should you wish, and the ability to switch off all telemetry with the Home version of the OS (well, save for the barest of details that need to be sent back to Microsoft's servers for security reasons).

And while you're at it, Microsoft, have a word with the marketing team responsible for Windows, and get them to tread a bit more carefully around AI. Overall, though, I can't complain, and as I recently discussed, I'm a lot more optimistic about the future of Windows 11 given what's happened so far in 2026.

Keep it up, Microsoft – but let's not forget about the bugs and QA stuff.

It seems that Microsoft explored the idea of building Windows fully around AI in the past, based on a leaked video from a couple of years ago.

Windows Central highlighted a video (see below) that's a few minutes long and was leaked via the BetaWiki Discord server, with our sister site's Zac Bowden noting that sources have provided assurances that the clip is real. It shows an AI-focused version of Windows built around Copilot and apparently codenamed Aion.

The concept shown is a lightweight web-based OS, meaning it's built on web apps rather than native Windows apps. In other words, it won't run standard Windows (Win32) software, with the idea being to stream those apps to the desktop if they're required (meaning they're run from the cloud, or more specifically, Windows 365, Microsoft's cloud PC offering).

It's kind of like Microsoft's take on ChromeOS, then, leveraging the cloud, except that it's built around the Edge browser and Copilot.

Copilot runs the show, and is the central player in the Start menu, and the idea is that AI provides contextual suggestions here, recalling previous interactions to try and anticipate what the user might need.

In the video, Microsoft explains that Aion aims to break down the "traditional app-centric" approach to grouping on the taskbar, instead using 'Spaces' that act as groups into which apps, websites or files that pertain to the same goals are deposited.

Analysis: AI-on or AI-off? It seems most lean towards the latter

The themed approach of Spaces sounds rather like the idea of Sets that Microsoft toyed with in Windows 10 the best part of a decade ago now, only to abandon the concept. Except this time around it's grouped content that's organized and curated by AI.

The Aion concept hasn't been well received by the computing public as you might guess. One commenter on the video simply states: "This company has completely lost the plot."

Another observes that it's "like ChromeOS for people who don't know how to use a computer at all."

And yet another notes: "How did they manage to even make simple web apps look slow and laggy? One of the strong points of ChromeOS is that it is very fast even on old, slow machines."

In fact, there are a few people who aren't impressed with how clunky and sluggish the operating system appears to be in the video. In fairness to Microsoft, though, it's just a concept illustration and early working code (although the evident lack of smoothness isn't a good look, it must be said). Bowden explains that the video was recorded at some point in 2024, and that it's "unclear if this was just a Hackathon project or something more."

The ideas explored within Aion could well be a hint of where Microsoft is headed with next-gen Windows, though. Which may be worrying for some, of course, but you might as well get used to these ideas.

While Microsoft has promised to trim back AI excesses in Windows 11, that's more about streamlining submenus here and there, and removing Copilot features from certain apps, than it is some kind of wholesale change of philosophy regarding AI. Windows 11 is getting AI agents, and indeed they are the next big thing for the OS, if Microsoft has anything to do with it (and, strangely enough, it does).

Indeed, with Project Solara, Microsoft plans to bring AI agents to all manner of devices in the world, beyond mere PCs and phones. Bowden theorizes that maybe Aion evolved into Solara.

Whatever the case, Aion is still a thing, believe it or not: Microsoft revealed a new family of local AI models running with the same name at Build 2026. These are a "new generation of small language models that are smaller, faster, and more efficient than our previous Windows OS SLMs", as Microsoft explains here. Apparently, Aion lives on in some form, then, even if it's a very different idea to the notion of a full-on Copilot-based operating system.

• Microsoft posted an ad promoting Copilot on social media
• It said that Copilot is the "button you can press to fix everything"
• This has elicited quite the outpouring of rage from some folks, and it's not a wise promo given the prevailing climate around AI and Windows 11

Microsoft is catching some flak once again over the topic of AI in Windows 11, following what might be regarded as an overzealous piece of marketing.

Windows Latest noticed that Microsoft's marketing department posted an image across its social media (Facebook, Instagram, and X) which promoted the dedicated Copilot button and the AI assistant it summons.

The text featured in the pic was: "Them: There's no button you can press to fix everything," followed by a reply as if in a conversation that read: "Me: Wanna bet?"

Predictably this has stirred up some controversy, with responses to Microsoft's little ad that range from accusing Copilot of being "AI slop" (or "Microslop") through to comments along the lines of "no one wants this" and similar negativity.

Undermining the fix Windows 11 effort

This is a particularly poorly timed piece of PR, given that, as Windows Latest observes, Microsoft is finally bringing in the ability to change the Copilot key back to function as Right Control. This is the key that the Copilot button replaced on 'AI PCs' (laptops), but as some people have said, Right Control is crucial to their workflow (and has accessibility ramifications for one-handed keyboard use).

With that change coming to Windows 11 later this year — an effective softening of Microsoft's initial stance that you should have the Copilot key and like it — this marketing snippet feels even more badly judged.

What's worse here for me is the exaggeration of the usefulness of the Copilot key. The AI can "fix everything" can it? It's a frankly ridiculous statement to make, and yes, I know that's not exactly uncommon in advertising, but you've got to bear in mind your target audience here and the context.

AI in Windows 11 has triggered a lot of bad feeling in the user base since last year, and indeed Microsoft's blinkered focus on pushing AI was one of the reasons that people were up in arms about fixing the OS rather than adding Copilot trimmings. Or in other words, the big fix Windows 11 campaign — which is the focus of this entire year for Microsoft — was partly the result of all the anti-AI feeling.

So, erm, let's market around the Copilot key being this amazing solve-all feature, shall we? Sounds like a great plan, everyone. Full steam ahead! Let's talk about how great it would be to add more AI into Notepad while we're at it, yeah? (Apologies, I remapped my Copilot key to be a 'Sarcasm' key and it appears to be jammed down right now).

Microsoft also says the Copilot key is a button with "main character energy" in this advert, the problem being that if AI in Windows 11 was a movie, it's been a box office turkey for the software giant so far. Microsoft's hope is that AI agents in Windows 11 will turn things around, but it remains to be seen how that'll pan out.

Meantime, while Microsoft is trying to generate positivity and good vibes around Windows 11 with all its (very commendable) work to fix the OS, it'd be better for the software engineers and designers in the thick of it not to have those efforts undermined by the marketing crew wheeling out unintentional ragebait like this Copilot button nonsense.

Now, I'm not saying that Microsoft's PR team can never mention AI, of course, but this particular snippet on social media is a perfect example of how not to do it in the current Windows 11 climate.

• Some Windows 11 users have found their drive space has been mysteriously dwindling
• In some reported cases, this is down to a database file for a Windows component that grows massively due to an apparent bug
• The optional update for June fixes this, albeit that patch is still in testing

If you use Windows 11 and have been wondering why your drive space seems to have been mysteriously dwindling of late, the culprit could be a background process called Capability Access Manager.

Capability Access Manager (CAM) is a rather obscure Windows component which, as the name suggests, manages the apps on your PC in terms of permissions to access the camera, mic and so forth.

CAM keeps a database that logs app requests and this is stored as a file called CapabilityAccessManager.db-wal – and it's that file which is growing hugely on the drives of some unlucky Windows 11 users.

Neowin reports that Microsoft just implemented the fix for this aggravating issue in the latest update for Windows 11. This is patch KB5095093 which is the optional update for June (so it's still in preview, or testing, at this point).

In the changelog for this release, Microsoft tells us: "This update improves disk space usage for the CapabilityAccessManager.db-wal file."

So, with any luck, this will be an end to the gremlin, and those who install the June preview will find this database file has been changed so it doesn't spiral out of control and eat their storage like some kind of log-based black hole.

Analysis: a baffling case of bloat

This is a nasty little problem, especially for those who've got a modest main drive for Windows 11, such as a 256GB SSD (or maybe even smaller). With reports of the database file expanding to a size of 60GB to 100GB, or even larger (200GB according to this Redditor), you can see how problematic this could be when you're already short on space with your SSD.

Microsoft doesn't explicitly say that this is a bug, but surely it must have been? Albeit a situational one that only occurred on certain systems by all accounts (Dell PCs are mentioned in a few reports, I should note). It's clear, however, that there are a lot of reports of CAM woes on Reddit and Microsoft's own help site, with some folks left scratching their heads as to what on earth was going on – and why their drive space was disappearing into some apparent void.

Unfortunately, these problems have been around for some time, with those reports going back to March 2026, and some dating from almost a year ago. As one Redditor explained in a post some 10 months ago: "Turns out it's the 'CapabilityAccessManager.db-wal' file which ate up 25GB. Looked through some forums and seems like it's a notorious culprit for system bloat. That file is supposed to slowly build up then be emptied each month, but mine bugged and never emptied itself."

There are workarounds to delete the CAM database file and effectively empty it out, but they're somewhat fiddly, and the log will rebuild itself if buggy conditions still abound on your PC. As one Redditor observed: "I spent hours trying to delete that file. Like in a horror movie, it just wouldn't die, even when I thought I had killed it. Your procedure [workaround] worked perfectly. Thanks!"

So, the whole thing has been a bit of a headache really, and while it's good to see an apparent cure now, it's taken Microsoft long enough. And frankly, I'm not impressed with the communication on this issue from the software giant.

To be clear, the fix right now is to download and install the June optional update for Windows 11, but bear in mind that as noted, it's a preview, so there's no guarantee it'll work as it should. The resolution will be provided with the full July update, mind, in tested form, and that's just around the corner – so you might just want to wait for that. Assuming your drive isn't chock-full and causing you a whole load of grief, anyway.

• An ex-Microsoft software engineer has created a lightweight alternative to Notepad
• TinyRetroPad turns back the clock to avoid the bloat Microsoft has introduced to the text editor
• The engineer observes that the app has no bloat or telemetry, and that it's "just pure old school Windows done right"

Ever long for the days when Notepad was a lean, mean, text editing machine? If so, a software engineer who used to work at Microsoft has just released something you may well be interested in.

The Register noticed that Dave Plummer — who was likely one of admittedly many catalysts that sparked Microsoft's fix Windows 11 campaign — has created TinyRetroPad. (It's a fork of Dave's Tiny Editor or DTE by Matt Power, which, in turn, was built on the foundation of Plummer's HelloAssembly — the world's "smallest possible complete Windows application" no less).

TinyRetroPad is a fully functional text editor in the style of the original Notepad, completely streamlined and with all the bloat removed, so it's, well, tiny as the name suggests, weighing in at 2.5KB.

Plummer explains that he isn't keen on Notepad as it is, and so he "rebuilt it from scratch", with: "No bloat. No telemetry. No nonsense. Just pure old school Windows done right."

Analysis: note to Microsoft – debloat Notepad

In case you weren't aware, Notepad has been accused of being a bloated application for quite some time now, as Microsoft has expanded its features to cover all kinds of bases beyond what you'd expect from what's supposed to be a basic text editor.

Of course, the problem is that WordPad — which used to be the app that covered the middle-ground between Notepad and Microsoft's fully-fledged Word — was ditched back in 2024. Since then, Microsoft has drafted more and more features into Notepad in what's essentially covering for the removal of WordPad.

The trouble is that this is very much at odds with Notepad's core philosophy of being a lightweight text editor, and Windows 11 users now fear it's being bloated and will eventually end up less and less responsive, and therefore less useful as a quick-and-easy editor that puts a premium on convenience.

What all this means is that some people have abandoned Notepad and searched out third-party alternatives for Windows 11. Of course, TinyRetroPad represents another of these offerings, albeit about as pure and compact an alternative as you'll find.

How is this app so very small? Essentially, the program can be extremely compact because it taps components already installed in Windows.

As Plummer explains: "TinyRetroPad is basically a wrapper around the RICHEDIT50W control from the WinAPI."

So, Plummer notes, if you want Notepad to be "exactly like you might remember" from the Windows XP era, this is what TinyRetroPad does. I think the ex-Microsoft engineer may have a few takers on his hands.

• Windows 11's File Explorer is receiving major improvements via the latest preview update
• File Explorer should perform much faster, including mounting disk images
• The update is currently in the rollout process

Microsoft is still hard at work fixing pain points within Windows 11 for its users. While this case isn't focused on gaming improvements, it addresses an issue that should improve one of the operating system's fundamental aspects.

As reported by Windows Latest, Microsoft is rolling out File Explorer improvements with its latest preview update, KB5095093. The update includes much better speed and performance of the File Explorer and increased responsiveness when mounting disk images.

This is a long-awaited update for Windows 11 users, as File Explorer hasn't always been the most responsive or fastest, especially compared to macOS or SteamOS, both of which feature fairly responsive file managers.

It's also worth noting that PC hardware, specifically SSD speeds and storage space, can have an impact on loading times. Still, the onus has been on Microsoft to fix its Windows 11 File Explorer, which has been noticeably slow even with a high-speed SSD — so this update is very much necessary.

Perhaps the most important improvement being rolled out is better performance for mounting disk images, which was arguably the worst aspect of Windows 11's File Explorer. This would often result in a five-minute wait for the disk image to fully open, and that's frustrating, especially for users with high-speed hardware.

Windows Latest also highlights that the 'Properties' tab on a file will be seeing a visual overhaul, with a more modern look using WinUI 3, as opposed to the Windows 95-era UI.

It's great to see Microsoft address these issues, seemingly as a wider attempt to improve Windows 11's functionality and appearance due to consistent user complaints. For sure, there's still more to be desired in the game performance aspect, but Microsoft should get praise where it's due.

My only concern is a potential update that could undo all of the hard work, since Windows 11 updates are notorious for breaking functionality, whether that's via File Explorer or as far as GPU stability — which have previously impacted Nvidia GPU users.

• Windows 10 is getting extended support through to October 2027
• That's an extra year on the original deadline, although Microsoft didn't formally announce the extension
• It gives those who were worrying about what to do next with their Windows 10 PC (especially if it wasn't compatible with Windows 11) some welcome room to breathe

Microsoft has given consumers another year of extended support for Windows 10 without any formal announcement of this move.

Windows Latest spotted that Microsoft changed its info on Windows 10's Extended Security Updates (ESU) scheme to indicate that support now runs through to next October.

The section about the deadline now reads: "Windows 10 support has ended. You can enroll in ESU any time until the program ends on October 12, 2027. If you're already enrolled, your coverage will automatically continue through that date — no action needed."

So, as noted, this means that if you're signed up for the ESU, you will continue to get updates not for another four months — as the original deadline for support ending was October 2026 — but for 16 months. It's still possible to sign up for the ESU program if you haven't yet done so, too.

Microsoft confirmed to Windows Latest that this isn't a mistake in the text, and the ESU does indeed now run for another year.

Analysis: a commendable move from Microsoft – but a jaded reaction

I still run Windows 10 on my main PC (Windows 11 is on my secondary PC), and I was about to fire up the upgrade most likely next month, or perhaps August — but soon, anyway. This gives me, and no doubt plenty of others, some extra breathing room. A lot of it, actually, which is very welcome.

I may still upgrade to Windows 11 this year, but given my procrastinatory ways, I might well wait until next year now. Especially seeing as Microsoft is busy fixing Windows 11 in all sorts of ways currently, so it kind of makes sense to wait until all that work is done anyway.

Clearly enough, this is a positive move for consumers, and I'm pleased to see it. I've argued before that a year of extended support wasn't enough — considering the hardware requirements rule out many PCs from upgrading to Windows 11 — and that Microsoft should give consumers a second year. (Especially given all the e-waste issues raised around Windows 10's end of the line in the past).

With that second year now confirmed, I'm rather surprised that Microsoft doesn't appear to have announced this anywhere, and just made the change to its website info quietly in the background.

Perhaps the idea is to keep it on the down-low, so as not to put off any imminent upgraders? At any rate, much of the reaction to this decision is pretty muted. One of the most upvoted comments on this Reddit thread is: "So are they finally admitting that Windows 11 isn't good enough almost 5 years later?"

You don't have to look far to find other jaded commentary like: "The moment the support expires I'll go with Linux."

Also, some folks have taken the line that it's not a surprise to see Microsoft extend support, and indeed that it always does this. And yes, that's true for businesses, where the company may support an outgoing Windows version for multiple years. But this isn't the case for consumers; remember Windows 10 is the first time Microsoft has ever offered extended support outside of the business world.

As a reminder, the support is free (as long as you're willing to sync your PC settings to OneDrive, which isn't that big a deal, at least not in my opinion), or you can pay $30. If you've already signed up, there's no extra charge for the second year, as you might hope.

As observed by a Redditor above, it's almost five years since Windows 11 was launched — and the OS was formally announced half a decade ago this week, in fact. I just wrote about that at length, and how I'm more optimistic about the future of Windows 11 at this point than I've ever been. Still, as mentioned, I won't be rushing to upgrade just yet on my primary computer, but I'll put the trigger on that update eventually.

Can you believe that it's now half a decade since Windows 11 was revealed? The operating system was first announced by Microsoft at a press event on June 24 back in 2021 (although the OS was leaked just before that, in typical fashion).

Five years ago today we were told that Windows 11 was inbound as a free upgrade for all Windows 10 users — but there was no stampede to adopt it, that's for sure (and the hardware requirements certainly didn't help the cause).

It wasn't until July 2025 that Windows 11 overtook Windows 10 as the dominant version of Microsoft's desktop OS according to Statcounter's figures, but it now holds a comfortable majority of over 70% of that market. As it should do, considering Windows 10 ran out of support last October (and only has a few months of extended support left).

However, putting aside the sluggish pace of adoption and the various problems that have plagued Windows 11 through the years (all the bugs and some notably missing features in the main), I think there's now cause for optimism for the future of Microsoft's operating system.

So, let me share my thoughts and reflect on what has been a half-decade of Windows 11, and tell you why I'm way more positive about the OS than I was last year — and why I think that Microsoft is finally on track (with, of course, some inevitable caveats).

The great fix-athon

Most of my hopefulness about where Windows 11 is heading comes, of course, from the big campaign Microsoft kicked off in March 2026 to fix Windows 11. Since that announcement — which I would say is the biggest statement to have been made since the OS was first announced in 2021 — Microsoft has very much proven that it intends to tackle all sorts of shortcomings and pain points with the OS.

Taskbar repositioning? We've got it. A much greater level of Start menu customization? Check. Spam removed from Windows search? Yep. More control over Windows updates? Certainly, and in fact way more control than I'd have ever believed might happen, including the ability to put off an update indefinitely, should you wish, on Windows 11 Home.

In fact, Microsoft has hit many wish-list features that I never expected would come to Windows 11, and the extent of the crowd-pleasing measures so far is heartening. These are features that are actually being delivered already, too, they're not just promises.

Furthermore, Microsoft appears to be listening to feedback and requests more closely, and generally engaging more with the community online. There's even a new initiative consisting of a research panel where Microsoft will consult testers directly on how to change aspects of Windows 11.

This genuinely feels like a fresh direction for Microsoft, and a serious commitment to change Windows 11 for the better based on what the users themselves actually want.

A more thoughtful, cautious approach

The other key driver for optimism with Windows 11 is the way in which Microsoft is taking more care over how the operating system is developed and coded.

Not so long ago, matters were less organized and more chaotic. Cast your mind back to the introduction of Qualcomm's Snapdragon X (Arm-based) chips in Copilot+ PCs back in 2024, alongside which Microsoft brought in a new underlying platform for Windows 11 (complete with the tinkering required to support that Arm silicon). While nothing was ever officially admitted, this is a move that I believe could have at least contributed to the mess that was the 24H2 update, which was laden with a ton of (sometimes very annoying) bugs.

Whatever the case in terms of how those glitches came to be, things have changed a lot since then. Microsoft is now being a lot more cautious with its Arm and x86 strategy — Windows 11 is split into two development paths, with the 26H1 update for Arm devices, and the 26H2 update for traditional x86 PCs — and the company has switched to use a fresh approach for these annual updates.

Instead of big annual updates — the last of which was the problematic 24H2 — Microsoft is now deploying small 'enablement packages', essentially very minor bumps to a new version of Windows 11. The actual features, the meat of Windows 11 changes, are pushed out in monthly updates as and when they're ready — in sometimes quite tightly controlled, carefully paced rollouts. This more gradual drip-feed of features is a more reliable method of deployment compared to dropping a lot of stuff all at once.

In short, Microsoft has learned its lesson from the nightmarish 24H2 release, which suffered from far too many bugs, to take on a fresh new way of operating. True, there will still need to be big updates at times, when the underlying codebase of Windows 11 has to be changed (quite possibly with 27H2). But it looks like Microsoft wants to mainly stick to compact, easily applied annual updates in the main, with features pushed out elsewhere in general.

Optimism abounds — with a notable catch

Between the ardent push to fix Windows 11 and the better thought-out deployment of features and updates, Microsoft has come a long way, but as I mentioned before, there are caveats here.

It's worth mentioning that while the new system of continual feature deployments, rather than weighty annual feature drops, is commendable (in my opinion), the controlled rollouts of these various features have come in for some criticism. Mainly because they are so cautious in some cases that something like the Start menu revamp (the one from last year, I should clarify, not the current work) took ages for some Windows 11 users to get, and those folks found that rather frustrating.

Part of that caution is likely down to Microsoft's paranoia around bugs, and sadly, the truth is that there are still too many bugs in Windows 11, and some of them are disappointingly weird. And by disappointing, I mean odd things that just shouldn't be happening.

I only need glance back to last weekend for one such example where there was a glitch with the Recycle Bin whereby the delete confirmation dialog (when junking a file from the bin) showed the internal file name instead of the proper name. While this only applied to the dialog box — so it was hardly an important or dangerous glitch — it was confusing some people, and more to the point, this sort of thing shouldn't be happening in the release version of an operating system.

This kind of bizarre slip-up also leads to folks blaming AI for being involved in Windows 11 coding. And while there is absolutely no evidence for that, it's the very nature of the strange bug that means people will easily jump to these conclusions when Microsoft has previously admitted AI is used to quite an extent in programming its software.

Whatever's at fault, Microsoft still needs to have better processes in place to catch these kinds of glitches, and other more critical bugs which have turned up in Windows 11 this year.

One thing I've called for in the past is a commitment from Microsoft to confirm that it's addressing its quality assurance processes, and improving bug squashing, and this is a notably missing part of the fix Windows 11 campaign. A vital part, in fact, I'd argue, for better stability going forward which is one of the big overarching goals (alongside better performance, and those crowd-pleasing feature additions).

Still, all in all, I've got to underline that right now, I'm as optimistic about Windows 11 as I've ever been. If Microsoft can tackle the bug blot on the OS landscape, and keep on listening to users — and its new research panel of testers from the community — Windows 11 could be in great shape come next year.

• Microsoft has confirmed that 26H2 will be a minor update
• It'll be a "small enablement package" like Windows 11 25H2
• This means less likelihood of bugs, with major features being rolled out separately in monthly updates – a sensible approach, although that said, 27H2 could be different

Microsoft has confirmed that Windows 11's next annual update will be another minor affair, all in the cause of avoiding a repeat of the chaos around the 24H2 update.

Windows 11 24H2 was the last version of the OS to land bristling with major changes, as 25H2 was a small incremental update – and now it's confirmed that this will be the case for 26H2 as well.

Windows Latest reports that Microsoft confirmed that Windows 11 26H2 is a "small enablement package" just like 25H2 before it.

In reality, this means that the upgrade is essentially a lightweight download with no meaningful feature additions – so isn't that disappointing?

In a word, no, because it's just indicative of how Microsoft has switched to a more sensible way of working in terms of yearly updates for Windows 11.

Analysis: a more stable way of working

Instead of unloading a whole raft of new features in the annual update, Microsoft is now deploying those features in stages throughout the year. And that strategy of drip-feeding important new features in different monthly updates – with the usual controlled rollouts, the pace of which varies depending on how cautious Microsoft is feeling about any given piece of functionality – is a better way of working overall.

Not only does it mean that we don't have to wait until the latter half of every year to receive major new changes for Windows 11, but we don't have a massive download and complicated installation to deal with when the H2 update arrives, too. On top of that, there's more chance of things going awry when a big annual update lands, as we saw with the 24H2 update, which suffered a whole load of annoying bugs – and I think Microsoft learned its lesson from this.

So, what's the point of the annual update now? Well, 26H2 provides another marker for support, extending your ability to get updates. Those still on Windows 11 24H2 should note that support runs out for this version in October 2026 – which is when 26H2 should roll out (or just before, perhaps in September) – so those on 24H2 will need to upgrade to 26H2.

That said, the other possibility with installing a newer version of Windows 11 that's an enablement package is that while it doesn't pack any new features as such, stepping up to the latest release such as 26H2 may trigger a feature rollout for your PC that you wouldn't have got otherwise. There's no guarantee you'll get anything, mind, but it could work out that way.

All in all, I'd rather Microsoft worked this way for the noted reasons around the increased stability of piecemeal feature deployment, rather than them arriving in one big lump with the inherent danger of a bunch of gremlins therein.

Microsoft can follow this path because the foundations of the underlying codebase remain the same – which has been the case since 24H2 – although at some point, it'll need to take Windows 11 forward onto a new codebase, which is when we'll see a bigger update.

And we've already had signs that this will happen with next year's update, and that 27H2 could represent a big change for Windows 11, one that unifies the Arm and AMD/Intel (x86) architectures (with the former currently split off into its own branch of the OS, on the 26H1 update instead of 26H2).

Hopefully going forward, Microsoft will still stick broadly to the new philosophy it appears to have embraced, in terms of fewer big updates and multiple enablement packages in-between.

• A new Windows 11 bug has hit the Recycle Bin
• You may see the wrong file name displayed
• Microsoft says it's working on a fix

The latest frustrating bug to hit Windows 11 affects the trusty Recycle Bin, and it has apparently been delivered by the latest Patch Tuesday (update (KB5094126) — though Microsoft says it's aware of the issue and is working on a fix.

As Neowin reports, the bug means that when you try and delete a file from the Recycle Bin, the confirmation dialog shows the internal file name rather than the actual file name. It's not particularly serious, but it is confusing.

The proper name is shown in the Recycle Bin itself, and the proper name is used if you decide to restore the file rather than deleting it. The alternative internal name is only used on the confirmation dialog screen.

Microsoft says it's working on a fix for the issue, though we don't have a timeframe for when it'll be delivered. It's just one of several issues that have been introduced with this bug, including problems with OneDrive access.

Is AI to blame?

Microsoft confirms Recycle Bin glitch affecting all supported Windows versions — yes, even the trash needs debugging from r/technology

As you might imagine, users on Reddit have taken a rather dim view of the latest mishap from Microsoft. Many are suggesting that this is the result of code written by AI, though we don't have any confirmation of that.

Last year Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said that as much as 30% of the company's code was written by, and that number is probably higher now. As for how reliable and functional that code is, however, he didn't say.

"This update broke me, I'm so fed up with Win 11 and all the issues that at this very moment I’m installing Linux on my desktop," commented one user. "Bye Microslop!" The Reddit thread also includes reports of numerous other issues.

Bugs accompanying Windows 11 updates are pretty much par for the course at this stage, and Microsoft is often trying to deal with multiple reported issues at once — though it has also been making progress with some substantial upgrades in recent months.

• Windows 11's Xbox mode uses less RAM than the standard desktop, but doesn't improve game performance
• That's the conclusion based on a battery of tests by a popular YouTube channel
• Gaming performance on Valve's SteamOS is still better, while Microsoft is trying to catch up

Microsoft's push to improve gaming on Windows 11 is still an ongoing process, particularly with its Xbox mode that provides a console-style user interface — but is seemingly not doing much to boost game performance.

As highlighted by Notebookcheck, Windows 11's Xbox mode does result in decreased RAM usage compared to the standard desktop, but crucially it doesn't improve actual game performance — or that's the conclusion of recent testing by Linus Tech Tips (LTT).

When testing the likes of Forza Horizon 5 at 1080p with max graphics settings and no upscaling across two PCs with the same specifications, there was no difference in frame rates between the standard desktop and Xbox mode. The same was true at 1440p resolution, and with other games such as Cyberpunk 2077 and Doom: The Dark Ages, where LTT found either the same frame rates or a negligible difference.

It's important to note that both PCs in LTT's tests show memory usage at lower levels when using the Xbox mode compared to the standard desktop, but this made no impact on performance.

I should point out that this is just one set of benchmarks, and results will, of course, likely vary depending on the exact tests and system configurations involved. However, LTT's testing here is a strong enough indication of a disappointing overall performance for Windows 11's Xbox mode as it stands.

It's no secret that Valve's SteamOS offers better game performance than Windows 11, with more optimal RAM usage, and it doesn't feature any of the unwanted bloatware that Windows 11 is loaded with. While SteamOS does have its own desktop mode, it's a Linux distro that is built for gaming at heart.

Something is amiss with Xbox mode, it seems, and Microsoft is struggling with optimization here. On top of that, the Xbox mode rollout isn't fully complete, acting as another pain point for Windows 11 users looking for an easy console-like gaming experience.

Frankly, the longer it takes for all users to gain access to Xbox mode, and for performance improvements to be realized, the harder it'll be for Microsoft to catch up with Valve.

While Windows remains by far the dominant OS for PC gamers, if anti-cheat support on Linux improves, that'll spell big trouble for Microsoft with more users likely migrating to SteamOS.

• Microsoft is changing the way that Windows 11 updates are delivered
• The likes of .NET, driver or firmware updates will be bundled together with the monthly update
• This change is now in testing, alongside a lot of work to make Windows 11's default apps better

Windows 11 is getting some more very useful changes, including an improved process for updates and a raft of tweaks for the default apps in the OS.

Microsoft has just released a new preview in the Experimental channel (build 26300.8687) which packs the changes for Windows Update (which were announced as incoming a while back in April).

Microsoft tells us: "We are rolling out a new unified update experience to reduce the number of reboots you see per month. We are starting by coordinating driver, .NET, and firmware updates to align with the monthly quality update, reducing the update experience to a single monthly restart."

Elsewhere, Thurrott.com points out that Microsoft has a whole lot of work underway for the various core Windows 11 apps, and that the company is now documenting these changes under separate release notes for apps in its Learn portal.

Calculator is getting tweaked so it has readable text when using high contrast themes and more accurate square-root results (with rare errors fixed).

Windows 11's Camera app now supports more video resolution options, and a full range of zoom levels (plus the zoom slider now works with more cameras, including the latest models). Microsoft has also ensured that the front-facing cameras on more devices are supported.

The Clock has the ability to run more countdowns (up to three simultaneously) and a new 15-minute snooze on alarms, among a whole load of minor changes.

Microsoft Paint now offers functionality to adjust how transparent the eraser is, and the AI image panel has been tidied up with a cleaner layout. The toolbar loads faster, too, and a bunch of stability tweaks have been applied, reducing the likelihood of crashes.

The Photos app also has some useful changes so it'll now display very tiny images (such as pixel art) with an appropriate level of zoom so they look sharp rather than a blurry mess, as well as tweaks for the interface and again stability (resolving a crash that happened during text recognition).

With improvements to Media Player (custom captions, bug fixes and better overall reliability) and Sound Recorder, Microsoft is clearly busy with these default apps.

Analysis: a better way of working with updates

Bear in mind that all of these changes are in testing right now, but the various bits of tweaking and new features for Windows 11's core apps shouldn't take long to come through.

The move to consolidate the deployment of Windows 11's updates will take longer, as it's only in the Experimental channel (early testing) right now, and it's just rolling out gradually there. However, it's great to see this inbound, because it's going to represent a major convenience for the average Windows 11 user.

Instead of having to bother with separate updates for firmware, or the .NET framework, or device drivers, Windows Update will bundle them all together with the monthly cumulative update that Microsoft releases. The upshot is that you'll only have to reboot once to apply all those upgrades, and while installation will take longer, simplifying how updates work in this way is definitely worth the trade-off.

This is one of many improvements Microsoft has in the works for Windows 11 updates, and the key piece of functionality that's already in the pipeline is the ability to delay a monthly update indefinitely. Update installation failures have long been a blemish on Microsoft's reputation, too, and moves are afoot to cure these blues.

• Microsoft has made a notable move with the Windows App SDK
• It's allowing some AI powers to run on non-Copilot+ PCs without an NPU, using an Nvidia GPU instead
• This is an experimental move for now, but it suggests a wider drive to bring more AI capabilities to all Windows 11 PCs, not just Copilot+ models

Microsoft is planning to bring AI features to a wider set of Windows 11 PCs, allowing devices with suitably beefy GPUs to avail themselves of local AI functionality that's currently restricted to Copilot+ PCs with a fast NPU.

Windows Latest spotted that Microsoft has a new feature in testing — marked as experimental — for the Windows App SDK, which allows developers to run local language models (AI features) on non-Copilot+ PCs by using a GPU.

Microsoft stated: "The Language Model APIs now run on non-Copilot+ PCs equipped with a supported GPU, bringing local language model capabilities to a broader range of Windows 11 devices. Supported hardware includes Nvidia GeForce RTX 30 series and newer with 6+ GB vRAM."

What does this mean in practice? If you're thinking that all Windows 11 PCs are going to get the full range of exclusive Copilot+ AI features — like Recall for example — that isn't the case.

What this is about is allowing software developers to let their apps tap into certain AI features on any Windows 11 PC with a qualifying GPU.

As Windows Latest points out, the move will mean that non-Copilot+ PCs can access Microsoft's Phi Silica small language model and use it locally (on the device, as opposed to reaching out to the cloud) not with an NPU, but with an appropriate Nvidia graphics card (with 6GB of video RAM) instead.

This will allow for basic AI abilities such as rewriting or summarizing text to be carried out within apps where the developer codes for this, outside of the Copilot+ PCs where this would normally be restricted to.

Analysis: an agentic future

The theory is that this is just the initial step, and Microsoft is going to push for the wider deployment of other AI features to non-Copilot PCs.

It also addresses a frustration that was aired in the very early days of Copilot+ PCs, when I remember a bunch of people questioning why Microsoft limited these AI features to devices with NPUs, when a decent GPU was easily capable of accelerating these on-device AI workloads.

This was an arbitrary restriction, of course, but now the questioning shifts to a different line: exactly how many AI powers will Microsoft allow to be pushed onto non-Copilot+ PCs.

Of course, it's notable of late that Microsoft isn't talking about Copilot+ PCs anymore — the brand didn't even get a mention at the company's recent Build conference. AI was very much still a hot topic, of course, and Microsoft appears to be shifting its angle from pushing a specific hardware brand to more widely promoting AI agents, which are to be the next big thing (AI-wise) in Windows 11.

If you thought Microsoft was cutting back on AI in Windows 11, then, this is another sign that the company is going very much in the other direction, and driving to get more AI features onto a wider array of PCs.

When Microsoft initially talked about cutting back on AI bloat — when the fix Windows 11 campaign was first announced — what it really meant was reducing some of the AI-related clutter in certain menus for the OS along with core apps. A trimming of excesses, basically, and away from that, AI remains a key focus for Microsoft, of course — with this latest move underlining that fact.

• Chaotic Eclipse drops seventh Windows zero‑day, “RoguePlanet,” hours after Patch Tuesday
• Race‑condition exploit grants SYSTEM privileges; PoC confirmed viable by ThreatLocker
• Researcher continues public disclosures amid feud with Microsoft, following BlueHammer, RedSun, UnDefend, YellowKey, GreenPlasma, and MiniPlasma

Chaotic Eclipse, the mysterious security researcher with a Microsoft grudge, disclosed another zero-day vulnerability in a fully patched Windows 11 device, just hours after Microsoft released its recent record June Patch Tuesday cumulative update.

This is the seventh zero-day exploit Chaotic Eclipse has disclosed in a matter of months. Called “RoguePlanet”, this bug is described as a “race condition vulnerability” that grants attackers SYSTEM privileges on fully patched Windows 10 and Windows 11 devices.

The researcher published a Proof-of-Concept (PoC) exploit earlier this week in a self-hosted Git, after saying that both GitHub and GitLab repositories hosting earlier work got removed by Microsoft.

Performing as described

"The exploit is a race condition, so it's a hit or miss. I have managed to get a 100% success rate on some machines while it struggled to work on others," they explained.

Security researchers ThreatLocker confirmed to the publication that the flaw works, and even recorded a video to demonstrate how it works.

"Our initial analysis confirms that the RoguePlanet exploit is viable and performs as described. Organizations using application allowlisting can prevent the exploit from executing, providing an effective layer of protection against this attack," Danny Jenkins, CEO of ThreatLocker, told BleepingComputer.

In early April 2026, Chaotic Eclipse disclosed finding BlueHammer, a Windows Defender privilege escalation vulnerability. At the time, they said they were leaking it because they were unsatisfied with how Microsoft handled vulnerability disclosures.

"They mopped the floor with me and pulled every childish game they could. It was soo bad at some point I was wondering if I was dealing with a massive corporation or someone who is just having fun seeing me suffer but it seems to be a collective decision,” they later elaborated.

In the meantime, six more flaws were disclosed: RedSun, UnDefend, YellowKey, GreenPlasma, and MiniPlasma - with Microsoft releasing this month’s Patch Tuesday cumulative update, fixing two of the flaws: GreenPlasma and YellowKey.

• The Windows 11 June update is now here
• It packs three key features, one of which speeds up the loading of core Windows 11 menus and apps
• There's also a nifty shared audio feature, and a boost for search

Windows 11's latest update is here, and the June patch brings with it a few key changes, and some useful complementary tweaks.

I've picked out the top three features as announced by Microsoft in what's officially called the KB5094126 patch (where does it get these catchy names from?) for Windows 11 24H2 and 25H2. I'll also round up the minor changes in a closing section, so that you can see everything that's new with the June update.

But I'll get to the main addition straight away, as it's a big one that makes Windows 11 feel a lot more responsive.

1. Low Latency Profile sounds dull, but should speed up Windows 11 substantially

The June update represents the beginning of the rollout of Low Latency Profile (LLP), a feature which I, and many others, have been keenly awaiting the arrival of, because it considerably speeds up the general operation of some core Windows 11 features (or at least it should do).

Windows Latest spotted that this is rolling out with the latest Windows 11 update, as part of a tweak to 'general performance', with Microsoft telling us: "This update accelerates app launch and core shell experiences such as Start menu, Search, and Action Center."

LLP means that the operating system calls on the processor to boost its speed — putting the accelerator flat to the floor, effectively, for a brief time (one to three seconds) — when you're opening an app or a Windows 11 menu. In short, whatever app or menu is being loaded appears a good deal more quickly. (Wondering why Microsoft didn't do this in the first place with Windows 11? I've discussed that in the past, along with criticism leveled at this technique for being a 'fudge').

The catch is that, as noted, this is a controlled rollout, meaning it's coming to Windows 11 PCs gradually. So, if you run out and install the June update now you probably won't get LLP right away, and you may have to wait a little while. How long? I refer you to the common saying about a piece of string, because the progression of this rollout will depend on what Microsoft finds as it monitors the PCs which get the feature.

The trouble is there'll be no announcement of LLP arriving on your system, so the only way you'll know it's there is that you'll suddenly notice apps and menus loading a lot more quickly (well, hopefully).

As Windows Latest points out, you can confirm the presence of LLP by installing a utility to monitor your PC's hardware, such as HWMonitor, which displays the CPU's speed (frequency) in real time. If the feature is active on your PC, you'll notice a big spike (to max speed, or very close) when opening any software or menu that triggers LLP. (Try the Start menu or Action Center and see).

(A final note: Windows Latest details how to force-enable LLP if you've installed the June update, but don't yet have it. However, I wouldn't do that, because it involves some fiddling around with a Windows configuration utility. More to the point, Microsoft is deploying this feature gradually, with careful monitoring, for a reason, so queue-jumping the rollout in this way may not be the best idea.)

2. Shared audio experience

This is a relatively simple idea, but a great addition to Windows 11 nonetheless. The new shared audio feature allows you to do just that — have the audio from your PC piped to two different outputs.

So, for example, if you're traveling with someone on the train and want to watch a movie on your laptop together, you can have the sound sent to your headphones and your friend's earbuds too.

3. Windows 11 search improvement

This one's an even more basic tweak, but still a useful one. As of the June update, when using the search function in Windows 11, the operating system will start showing you possible results with as few as two characters having been typed. This means you might see the query you're wanting more quickly, saving you a bit of time.

Bigger changes are coming to Windows 11 search, too, including the ability to handle long compound file names better (which is now in testing), and hopefully we'll eventually get the most important move of all — the ability to get rid of web results in search.

Other changes with Windows 11's June update

This latest update also brings in improvements on the accessibility front, with Magnifier now able to provide "clearer and more consistent announcements" when it's working with a screen-reading tool (such as announcing when it's zooming in or out).

There's also a new Multi-App Camera feature which means that multiple applications can access your webcam at the same time. And finally, a small tweak for the installation process: on setup, Windows 11 now allows you to choose a custom name for the user folder.

• June 2026 Patch Tuesday release fixes nearly 200 Windows vulnerabilities, Microsoft’s largest release to date
• It includes Chaotic Eclipse’s GreenPlasma (CVE‑2026‑45586) and YellowKey (CVE‑2026‑45585), disclosed without coordination
• AI‑driven bug discovery fueling record‑high patch volumes, expected to continue growing

The June 2026 Patch Tuesday cumulative update for Microsoft’s Windows operating system has been released - and is, by far, the biggest one the company has ever released.

The update addresses almost 200 security vulnerabilities across Windows systems, as well as supported software, dozens of which are labeled as “critical”, meaning they could cause serious damage to the users.

Among the flaws are two vulnerabilities disclosed by Chaotic Eclipse, a mysterious researcher who conflicted with Microsoft recently over how vulnerabilities were reported, and researchers credited/compensated.

Using AI to spot security issues

By fixing almost 200 flaws, Microsoft essentially broke its own record - partly due to the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI).

The first major issue is GreenPlasma, an elevation-of-privilege vulnerability in the Windows Collaborative Translation Framework (CTF). This bug, tracked as CVE-2026-45586, and given a severity score of 7.8/10 (high), allows a local attacker to gain higher privileges on Windows systems.

The second is YellowKey, a Windows BitLocker Security Feature Bypass vulnerability tracked as CVE-2026-45585, and given a severity score of 6.8/10 (medium). The proof of concept (PoC) for this vulnerability has been made public, NVD said, which is in violation of coordinated vulnerability best practices.

As a result, Microsoft said it was considering legal action against Chaotic Eclipse if they had been found to be breaking the law. In its follow-up advisory to Patch Tuesday, the company did not credit any researchers for these two flaws, only saying that it “recognizes the efforts of those in the security community who help us protect customers through coordinated vulnerability disclosure.”

Via Krebs on Security

• Windows 11 search could give you the option to turn off web results
• Microsoft is already giving those results a lesser priority, but might go even further, and also remove results pointing to its store
• All this is based on changes seen in a meet-up with Windows 11 testers, but it remains a rumor for now

In what will hopefully be one of the most refreshing changes yet to be visited upon Windows 11, Microsoft is rumored to be working on letting users ditch web results (and therefore Bing) from the search function in the OS.

Windows Latest reports that it was present at a private meeting of Windows 11 testers where Microsoft revealed that the ability to turn off web results in search was inbound.

The website provides photographic evidence of the feature in an internal build not yet released as a preview, showing a toggle to turn off web searches, and another element of search suggestions can be switched off too, namely search results for the Microsoft Store.

We're told that these new options are going to be rolling out to Windows 11 testers in a matter of weeks, so we shouldn't have long to wait before we get concrete evidence of these changes.

Analysis: spam begone

If you've ever run a search in Windows 11 (or 10), you'll doubtless be familiar with web results popping up and getting in the way of what you actually want to see (namely local files being surfaced, or maybe Windows settings).

Just a few weeks ago, we heard that Microsoft is deprioritizing those web results in Windows search, meaning that as things stand with the current plan, these will still be present, but will appear further down the list than local files and other generally more relevant content.

At the time, I noted that Microsoft should give users the choice to switch off web results entirely, but remarked that this seemed unlikely. So, I'm very pleased to see that Microsoft has (reportedly) defied my expectations and is actually moving forward with this option – and the choice to ditch Microsoft Store recommendations to boot (even if these toggles should have always been in place when it boils down to it).

This is effectively giving users the choice to get rid of a lot of the 'spam' in Windows 11 search, cutting it back to just local results with nothing web-based being returned for any given query. It's a great move, and indeed I'd argue it's a key one in terms of getting rid of unwelcome promotional activity in Windows 11 (either pushing Microsoft Store apps, or web results which, naturally enough, open in Bing inside Edge, driving traffic to those Microsoft properties).

Before I get carried away here, it's worth remembering that for now, this remains a rumor – albeit a solid one given that Windows Latest shared a photo of the meeting and new Settings options. Even if all this is genuine, though, there's always the possibility that Microsoft could reverse course on the idea – but I doubt it, especially given that the company is very much in the mood to make crowd-pleasing changes to Windows 11 these days.

Keep those fingers crossed.

• Windows 11 is getting changes for the right-click menu
• A Microsoft exec says the context menu will be more streamlined by default
• It'll also load faster and be "configurable to what you use most", we're told

Windows 11 is getting another major change for the interface — and apparently we're going to be able to customize the right-click menu to our liking.

Windows Latest noticed that Microsoft's Marcus Ash, who is VP of Design and Research for Windows + Devices, responded to a complaint on X pointing out that the right-click menu — which offers context-sensitive options relevant to the file you're clicking — is way too long and unwieldy in general.

Ash said that Microsoft is "working on making context menus faster, simpler by default, configurable to what you use most. More will be shared on our approach soon."

These would be very welcome changes, streamlining and cutting back on the number of entries on the menu by default, and making it appear more swiftly, but it's the comment about configuration that's attracted the most attention.

Analysis: taming the context menu

The reference to 'configurable' is presumably about giving the user control over what's present in the context menu, although Ash doesn't go into any explanation of how that might work.

Indeed, my slight concern here is that Ash doesn't explicitly say the user will have actual control, leaving a little room for doubt that maybe the menu might configure itself somehow to the apps or functions you use the most. I don't think that's the case in all honesty, but it's a slight grey area I'd like clarified.

Also, how much control will the user have, exactly? Presumably there would still be default choices that would stay firmly planted in the context menu regardless of any customization.

At any rate, as the Microsoft exec indicates, more clarification will be coming "soon" and I look forward to that.

Microsoft continues to surprise me — no, 'shock' might be a better word — with just how far it's going with the changes to improve Windows 11 this year. This latest move effectively comes out of the blue, and it's been a request that's high on the wish list of many Windows 11 users when it comes to the central pieces of the operating system's interface.

Notably the campaign to fix Windows 11 also involves revamping the Start menu to allow for a much greater level of customization — way beyond what I expected — and removing some of the rusty old legacy elements of the OS.

Yes, granted, all this should have been in the works a long time ago in my opinion (and in the view of others), but I'm still glad Microsoft appears to be serious about making Windows 11 better. All this even gives me hope that the company could even tackle some of the biggest long-standing grievances I have with the OS.

• Windows 11 search is getting two useful additions
• Microsoft is fixing search so that it works better to locate files with long compound names
• The search function will also start to pop up possible results after just two two characters have been typed

Windows 11 Search is getting more improvements designed to make finding the files you need easier — and one of those upgrades is arriving this month.

Windows Latest reports that there are two changes that Microsoft is working on for the search function in Windows 11, and one is actually already available in the current preview (optional) update for the OS. This means it'll start rolling out in the June update, arriving in a week, but you may have to wait a while for the rollout to hit your PC thereafter.

The first change is the ability for Windows 11 to start showing you possible search results when you've typed in as few as two characters.

A bigger change, called 'search by substring', is coming later and is now in testing in Windows 11's preview builds. It's quite simple to understand: when there are files with long single names that consist of multiple words run together – such as "CookingRecipesJune2026" – if you simply type "Recipes" in the search box, Windows 11 will flag up the correct file.

Currently – and rather annoyingly – typing "Recipes" or "June" by itself is unlikely to locate the correct file. You'll probably need to also include the start of the file name, ("CookingRecipes"), in order for Windows 11 to successfully locate it.

Analysis: search gets stronger

That compound naming pitfall is one of my biggest bugbears with Windows 11 search, so it's great to see that Microsoft is resolving it, if only in testing for now. That said, it's one of those fixes that should have been in place a long time ago, but this is true for quite a number of the updates Microsoft is applying across Windows 11 in the campaign to improve the desktop OS for 2026. Better late than never, as they say…

My other major pain point with Windows 11 (and Windows 10) search is that it pulls in web results alongside local files or settings, and Microsoft has made a move on that front, too. A couple of weeks back, again in testing, we heard the news that these web results would be less prioritized in searches, which is a laudable positive step forward – though frankly I'd like the option to banish them entirely, which probably won't happen.

The tweak to start presenting search results with as few as two characters typed could be a useful timesaver, too. Of course, with only a couple of characters for Windows 11 to go off, the odds of hitting the correct result first time are slimmer.

Nonetheless, I'm happy that Microsoft is working on improving Windows 11 search, and the change with compound file names is especially welcome.

Microsoft Build is the company's annual developer conference, running every year since 2011. This year, it has a clear organizing theme: AI agents. Scheduled for June 2 and 3 at Fort Mason Center in San Francisco, it's the first time Build has left Seattle since 2016.

Microsoft has kept in-person attendance to around 2,500 developers, with Satya Nadella delivering an opening keynote framed around "creating new opportunities for developers across our platforms in this era of AI." With a smaller attendance capacity and tight event schedule, Microsoft is hoping to make this the defining event for its AI-native products.

Last year, Microsoft Build produced more than 50 announcements across GitHub Copilot, Azure AI Foundry, and the Model Context Protocol (MCP), establishing autonomous coding agents and multi-agent orchestration as the central developer story. A year on, much of that tooling has graduated from preview to production. Build 2026 is expected to show where it goes next.

• Register for Microsoft Build here

AI-native programming at Build 2026: What to expect

Microsoft has organized the Build 2026 session catalog across seven tracks, with Agents & Apps, GitHub, and developer productivity at the top of the agenda. Developer tooling announcements are expected to reflect the company's central framing for the event: 'agents.'

GitHub Copilot's autonomous coding agent, first announced at Build 2025, has had a year in real-world deployments. The agent can pick up a GitHub Issue, spin up an isolated environment through GitHub Actions, work through the task, and open a pull request for human review. Build 2026 is expected to show the next generation of that capability, including multi-agent coding workflows and deeper integration between GitHub and Azure services.

On the platform side, Azure AI Foundry is likely to receive significant additions. Microsoft Agent Framework 1.0 reached general availability in April 2026, giving .NET and Python developers a production-ready SDK for multi-agent orchestration. Sessions at Build are expected to show how that framework connects to Foundry's agent runtime, managed memory, and observability tooling at scale.

Microsoft has also been pushing AI capabilities to the device layer. Windows AI PCs carrying Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite, Intel Core Ultra, and AMD Ryzen AI processors have been on the market for two years. The developer tooling is finally matching the hardware. Build sessions are expected to cover Windows Copilot Runtime APIs that target on-device NPUs, enabling a hybrid architecture where simpler inference tasks run locally and complex ones go to the cloud.

What ties these announcements together is a shared direction. You describe what you want, agents handle the execution, and the developer's role shifts toward directing and reviewing rather than writing every line. Whether that model holds up in production across complex workloads is a central question Build 2026 is expected to start answering.

What is intent-first programming?

The phrase "intent-first programming" describes a model where you express what you want a system to do, rather than writing the instructions for how to do it. Where traditional development requires authoring explicit syntax and logic, intent-first tools accept natural language descriptions and translate them into working code. That translation layer is now embedded in GitHub Copilot Agent Mode, the Copilot Studio Agentic Workflow Builder (which reached general availability on May 20, 2026), and GitHub Spark.

For you as a developer, this changes the nature of the work in specific ways. You spend less time writing boilerplate and more time reviewing, redirecting, and validating what the agent produces. Writing a precise prompt that accurately conveys scope and constraints becomes at least as important as syntax proficiency, while interpreting and auditing generated code still requires solid technical understanding.

The risks that come with this model are real and worth naming. AI-generated code can carry security vulnerabilities, performance inefficiencies, and subtle logic errors that pass visual inspection. Cybersecurity researchers have documented these problems across multiple vibe coding and AI-assisted development platforms. Intent-first programming accelerates the path from idea to running code, but it doesn't remove the need for a technically informed person in the loop.

What’s the difference between code-first and intent-first?

Everything we know of Microsoft's plans for AI at Build

Microsoft has been laying this groundwork in public across 2025 and early 2026. The tools arriving at Build 2026 aren't appearing from scratch; they've been maturing through preview cycles, with Build serving as the venue where Microsoft maps out how they fit together as a production stack.

Enterprise demand has also moved in this direction. A PwC study cited by Microsoft found that eight in ten enterprises now use some form of agent-based AI. Appetite for tooling that handles entire workflows, not just isolated code suggestions, has grown accordingly.

Agent Mode on GitHub Copilot

GitHub Copilot Agent Mode is now generally available and built directly into Visual Studio Code. In agent mode, you describe a task in natural language. Copilot then plans the approach, edits files across your codebase, runs terminal commands with your explicit approval, and iterates until the result matches your specification. The system supports third-party agents from providers including Anthropic and OpenAI alongside Copilot's own built-in agents.

The asynchronous coding agent adds another layer on top.

You assign a GitHub Issue to the agent. It spins up an isolated environment through GitHub Actions, works through the task in the background, and files a pull request for you to review when it's done. This capability is available on Pro, Pro+, Business, and Enterprise Copilot plans.

Build 2026 is expected to show what's next for these agents, including multi-agent coding workflows inside VS Code.

GitHub Spark , NLP, and semantic code search

GitHub Spark is a natural language app builder that lets you describe an application in plain English and receive working code with a live preview. Currently available to Pro+ and Enterprise subscribers, it's Microsoft's most direct response to dedicated vibe coding platforms. Build 2026 is a likely venue for updates on Spark's broader availability and expanded capabilities.

Semantic code search, also introduced in 2026, works on a different principle. Rather than matching keywords, it uses embeddings that understand code intent: searching for a "login bug" can surface authentication middleware and session handling logic even if those files never use the word "login." Together, Spark and semantic search point toward a development environment that understands what you mean, not just what you type.

Azure AI Foundry and Microsoft Agent Framework

Azure AI Foundry, which replaced Azure AI Studio in November 2024, has expanded steadily into a unified platform for building AI applications. The February 2026 update introduced multi-agent orchestration, MCP support, hosted agents, and sovereign local deployment options. Developers can now define agents in YAML, run two CLI commands, and have Foundry provision compute, register endpoints, and return a production-ready URL.

Microsoft Agent Framework 1.0 reaching general availability in April 2026 gave .NET and Python developers a commercial-grade SDK that converges two former research projects, AutoGen and Semantic Kernel, into a single runtime. Build 2026 is expected to detail how teams can use Agent Framework to connect Foundry agents, Microsoft 365 Copilot, and external tools through standardized A2A and MCP interfaces, moving multi-agent systems from experimental territory into enterprise operations.

Windows Copilot Runtime for on-device inference

Windows Copilot Runtime provides APIs that route AI inference to the NPU in AI-capable Windows machines. Build sessions are expected to cover new capabilities within the Windows App SDK, including Vision, Language, and Speech models that run entirely offline. For you as a Windows developer, this matters because it changes what's architecturally feasible without cloud connectivity.

Microsoft is also expected to announce an "AI Foundry for Windows" SDK that bundles ONNX Runtime, DirectML, and the Copilot Runtime into a single NuGet package. That would simplify on-device AI integration considerably, removing the need to wire together separate components.

The Windows Agent Arena developer sandbox, first announced at Ignite 2025, is also expected to get its first public workshop at Build.

What you should be thinking about as a developer

The shift toward intent-first tooling doesn't mean you can step back from understanding the code. If anything, your judgment becomes more consequential, because you're now the final check on a system that can produce hundreds of lines of plausible-looking code in seconds. Knowing when generated code is correct, when it's fragile, and when it introduces risk still requires technical depth.

Prompt quality matters more than most developers currently expect. Agents interpret ambiguous instructions literally or fill gaps with assumptions. Those assumptions may not match your production environment. Writing specifications that are clear about scope, constraints, and edge cases is a skill worth developing deliberately before agent-based workflows become the default on your team.

More than anything, though, the security review is a necessary step we'd urge you not to skip. Research from cybersecurity firms has documented critical vulnerabilities in AI-generated code across multiple platforms, from authentication bypass flaws to exposed environment variables. Build 2026 has a dedicated Responsible AI track and the compliance and safety tooling arriving through Foundry and GitHub suggests Microsoft is aware that this remains an open problem.

For now, treating generated code with the same scrutiny you'd apply to a pull request from a junior developer is a reasonable baseline until these tools mature further.

• Register for Microsoft Build here

• Microsoft's new Windows 11 Start menu design is now in testing
• It allows for a surprising level of customization, including making the menu more compact
• On top of this, Microsoft has revealed it's working to modernize some legacy parts of the interface that are jarring when they appear

Windows 11's revamped Start menu that offers a full range of customization options is now officially in testing – and there's another change to improve the interface of the OS in terms of eradicating old bits of legacy UI.

Windows Latest flagged the blog post from Microsoft about freshly released preview builds in the Beta and Experimental channels, and the latter packs the Start menu redesign for 2026.

A big change here is that you can now turn off any section you want, not just the Recommended panel (which has been renamed to Recent, incidentally). So, if you want to ditch that Recent panel, or the Pinned section, or the list of All apps, you can do as you wish. You can hide your name and profile picture in the Start menu, too.

The other major change is that you can now choose between the standard (larger) Start menu and a more compact version. Previously, the small layout was applied automatically for certain devices with smaller screen sizes, but you couldn't actively select it — and some folks wanted to do that.

Now they can, and with the ability to switch off any section of the Start menu that you find superfluous, for the first time in Windows 11's history you have full control over the customization of this key piece of the desktop interface.

Analysis: Microsoft's gone surprisingly far here

Arguably this should have been done a long time ago, but nonetheless, it's great to see Microsoft finally implementing a complete range of customization options for Windows 11's Start menu. This means you can now turn off everything you don't want and make the menu highly compact and streamlined (addressing some of the bad feeling directed towards the last Start menu overhaul before this one, in terms of the menu being too hefty).

Indeed, you can turn off everything now and be left with a blank Start menu — which isn't very useful, of course, but this is how far Microsoft has gone here, as Windows Latest makes clear.

It's also worth noting that the new Recent panel isn't just a renaming of the Recommended section, and it appears to drop Microsoft's recommendations (promotional nonsense in some cases), highlighting recently used files rather than pushing ad-like suggestions. That's great to see, although this is based on limited testing thus far – and remember, all this work is still in preview. Things could change by the time the revamped Start menu reaches all Windows 11 PCs.

All this is part of the promised work in the fix Windows 11 campaign, of course, and Windows Latest spotted a bonus extra here. Namely that Microsoft's March Rogers, who is Partner Director of Design, confirmed on X that some rusty old parts of the Windows 11 interface are getting the operating system's new modern design.

These are legacy dialog boxes such as file copying (which has already been done), and the common file dialog (for when you're browsing folders in Windows 11, say when you're opening a file within an app) is apparently in line for a visual refresh.

I recently wrote about legacy parts of the interface badly needing to be addressed by Microsoft as part of my wish-list of vital things to fix in Windows 11, so I'm pleased to see this work going ahead (and the tweak to the Recommended panel in the Start menu, too). Now if only Microsoft would address my other key points, namely adverts more broadly, and also Windows 11's telemetry and installation with a local account — we could really be in business.

Microsoft Build has been running annually since 2011, and in that time it has grown into the most consequential event in the Microsoft developer calendar.

Across 15 editions, it has served as the venue where the company signals what it wants developers to build on next, sometimes through finished products and sometimes through early previews that arrive months before the software ships.

Build 2026 runs on June 2 and 3 at Fort Mason Center in San Francisco, the first edition outside Seattle with a tighter capacity limit of 2,500 attendees.

What makes Build worth paying attention to is the company's track record of using it to surface genuinely significant products, not just announcements made for the sake of filling a keynote slot. Not everything that debuts at Build lands well, and a few have disappeared entirely.

But if you want to understand what Microsoft is betting on, Build is consistently where the company shows its hand.

• Register for Microsoft Build here

Microsoft Build: Announcements, product launches, and early previews for developers

Build sits apart from Microsoft's other major events in terms of both audience and purpose. Ignite is aimed at IT administrators and enterprise buyers, Surface hardware launches are consumer-facing, but Build targets software developers using Microsoft’s ecosystem, whether they write Windows apps, run workloads on Azure, or build with GitHub and Microsoft's AI platform.

This distinction also shapes what gets announced and how. Sessions tend to focus on APIs, SDKs, preview capabilities, and platform architecture. Microsoft is speaking directly to the people who will decide whether to build with a new technology or ignore it, which means announcements need to be practical enough to evaluate on technical merits.

The timing of Build also matters commercially. Google I/O and Apple's WWDC both take place around the same period each year, and Microsoft is competing for the same pool of developers who will decide which platforms to prioritize. The gap between an exciting Build announcement and an actual shipment date can shift that calculation in Microsoft's favor, but it can also sometimes have the opposite effect.

Build has also become increasingly open to third-party voices over the years. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman joined the Build 2025 keynote virtually while GitHub leadership has featured heavily in recent editions. That mix of Microsoft's own engineers and partner voices has made the event more useful as a signal of where the broader ecosystem is heading, not just where the corporation itself wants to go.

How the company uses Build has also changed noticeably since the early days. The first few conferences were dominated by Windows coverage, with Microsoft trying to rally developers around Windows 8 and the Windows Store. By the late 2010s, Azure and cloud services had largely taken over. This year, AI is the thread connecting nearly every session and product announcement on the agenda.

10 products launched at Microsoft Build (2011–2026)

Microsoft uses Build to introduce products at varying stages of readiness. Some arrive as rough developer previews with significant work still ahead; others land in preview and reach general availability within weeks. Either way, the goal is the same. To get the product in front of the developers to generate early interest before it reaches the general public.

The ten products below span the full timeline of Build announcements, from the inaugural event in 2011 to the most recent edition in 2025. Some have become fixtures of modern software development. Others serve as useful reminders that even Microsoft's highest-profile bets don't always pay off.

Windows 8 developer preview (Build 2011)

The first Build conference ran from September 13 to 16, 2011, at the Anaheim Convention Center in California. Windows 8 was effectively the entire reason the event existed. Microsoft released a developer preview of the operating system and handed every attendee a Samsung tablet preloaded with it so they could interact with the tile-based Metro interface first-hand.

Windows 8 launched to the general public in October 2012 to mixed user reception. The removal of the Start button, the push toward a touch-first design even on desktop, and the lack of app volume on Windows Store caused more strife than Microsoft had projected. Microsoft released Windows 8.1 in 2013 to address the most pressing complaints before launching Windows 10 in 2015 as a full course correction, restoring familiar design conventions while preserving the underlying technical work from the Windows 8 generation.

Cortana (Build 2014)

Microsoft first demonstrated Cortana at Build 2014 in San Francisco, introducing it as the company's answer to Apple's Siri and Google Now. Named after the AI character from the Halo series, Cortana launched on Windows Phone 8.1 shortly after and came to Windows 10 desktops in 2015, where it was integrated directly into the taskbar search bar.

For a few years, Cortana spread across Microsoft's product line, appearing on Xbox One, Microsoft Band, Android, and iOS. But it never achieved meaningful market penetration, in part because it was tied to a mobile platform that was already failing. But it was also in part because Amazon's Alexa had established the smart speaker market before Cortana could enter the fray.

By 2019, Microsoft had started pulling Cortana out of the Windows search bar. The standalone Windows app shut down in August 2023, with all remaining integrations discontinued by June 2024. Microsoft Copilot now occupies the space Cortana was originally meant to fill on Windows desktops.

HoloLens (Build 2015)

Microsoft gave developers their first hands-on time with HoloLens at Build 2015. The headset had been revealed a few months earlier as a holographic computing platform and hundreds of units were made available on the conference floor for attendees to try. Demos included one where developers used holographic panels projected onto walls to interact with a robot, and the show floor response was strong enough to give HoloLens a genuinely well-received debut.

A developer edition of HoloLens shipped in 2016 at $3,000; HoloLens 2 followed in 2019 with improved hand tracking and a wider field of view. However, Microsoft steadily narrowed its ambitions for the product, pivoting toward enterprise use cases in surgery, manufacturing, and training. Consumer development never materialized. In early 2023, reports confirmed Microsoft was winding down HoloLens hardware development entirely, with no third-generation device in the plans.

Azure Functions (Build 2016)

Azure Functions entered public preview at Build 2016 as Microsoft's entry into the serverless computing space. It let developers run event-driven code without provisioning or managing underlying infrastructure, paying only for the compute time actually consumed. Microsoft positioned it directly against AWS Lambda and Google Cloud Functions, framing it as part of a broader push to make Azure the default cloud for Microsoft developers.

The service reached general availability by the end of 2016, with continuous updates since. Azure Functions now integrates with Azure AI Foundry, letting developers build and trigger serverless AI agents, a use case that didn't exist when the product launched. The current stable runtime is version 4.x, with earlier versions progressively retired. Of everything Microsoft announced at Build 2016, Azure Functions has arguably had the longest shelf life.

Windows Subsystem for Linux (Build 2016)

WSL was announced at Build 2016 as a way to run Linux command-line tools natively on Windows, without a virtual machine or dual-boot setup. It was a direct response to developer frustration with Windows as a working environment compared to macOS and Linux, representing a shift in the company’s relationship with open-source software.

WSL 2, which replaced the original compatibility layer with a full Linux kernel running inside a Hyper-V virtual machine, was announced at Build 2019. Microsoft separated WSL from the Windows codebase in 2021 to let it ship updates independently. At Build 2025, WSL became open source, formally closing a GitHub issue that had been open since the project's very first day in 2016: "Will this be open source?"

Windows Terminal (Build 2019)

Windows Terminal was announced at Build 2019 as a modern, open-source replacement for the Windows Console. It supported multiple tabs, GPU-accelerated text rendering, and all major command-line environments (including PowerShell, Command Prompt, and WSL) in a single window. For developers who spent significant time at the command line, it was a long-overdue improvement to an area that had received very little attention for years.

The first stable release shipped at Build 2020, exactly one year after the announcement. Windows Terminal is now the default terminal in Windows 11, with regular updates through the Microsoft Store. The most recent stable release, v1.24, arrived in April 2026. A tool that started as a developer quality-of-life fix has since become a standard part of the Windows environment.

GitHub Copilot (Build 2022)

GitHub Copilot's general availability was announced at Build 2022, after nearly a year as a technical preview. Built with OpenAI and trained on public code repositories, it was the first mainstream AI coding assistant to reach general availability, offering context-aware code completion, function generation from comments, and full code block suggestions directly inside developers' existing editors.

The product picked up over 400,000 subscribers in its first month of release, according to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella during a subsequent earnings call. By early 2024, it had grown to 1.3 million paid subscribers.

Early research suggested developers using the tool completed tasks up to 55% faster than those working without it. GitHub Copilot has since expanded from code completion into chat, code review, and pull request summaries, with a fully autonomous agent mode introduced at Build 2025 that works in the background without a developer actively typing.

Windows Copilot (Build 2023)

Build 2023 was the conference where AI moved from a background theme to the central organizing principle of every product Microsoft discussed. Windows Copilot was announced as a sidebar assistant built into Windows 11, putting a Bing AI-powered chatbot into the operating system itself, accessible from the taskbar on any compatible device. At the same event, Microsoft announced that Bing would become the default search engine for ChatGPT, signaling just how deeply the Microsoft-OpenAI partnership had become embedded in Microsoft's product strategy.

Windows Copilot has since evolved significantly. The original branding was retired in late 2023 as Microsoft unified its various assistant products under the Microsoft Copilot name. The assistant is now available across Windows, Microsoft Edge, and Microsoft 365, with capabilities well beyond what the Build 2023 preview showed.

Copilot+ PCs (Build 2024)

The day before Build 2024 opened, Microsoft announced Copilot+ PCs: a new hardware category defined by the presence of a dedicated neural processing unit capable of at least 40 TOPS (trillion operations per second) of on-device AI performance. The Surface Pro and Surface Laptop were the first devices to carry the designation. Microsoft framed it as the beginning of a new era of AI-capable personal computing, distinct from standard Windows devices specifically because of the on-device AI tasks the NPU enables.

The category has since expanded to include devices from Qualcomm, AMD, and Intel, with dozens of Copilot+ PC models from multiple manufacturers now on the market. AI features specific to the category include real-time captioning and on-device image generation. Recall — a searchable record of everything you have done on your PC — drew significant criticism over privacy concerns at launch and was delayed before returning under more restrictive settings.

GitHub Copilot for autonomous coding (Build 2025)

At Build 2025, Microsoft announced that GitHub Copilot was making the shift from coding assistant to autonomous agent. The new agent mode lets Copilot perform complete coding tasks independently: creating files, running tests, fixing bugs, and pushing changes to a draft pull request, all without the developer actively engaged.

At the same time, GitHub CEO Thomas Dohmke emphasized that every action is logged transparently so developers can review the work after the fact and existing security rules such as branch protection remain fully in force.

Satya Nadella compared the move to other inflection points in Microsoft's history, including the transition to 64-bit Windows and the company's pivot to the cloud. Whether that framing proves accurate depends on how quickly agent-mode coding becomes standard practice, but the announcement does represent the most substantial extension of GitHub Copilot's scope since the product launched in 2022.

What to expect from Microsoft Build 2026?

Build 2026 runs on June 2 and 3 at Fort Mason Center in San Francisco, marking the first time the conference has left Seattle since 2016. In-person tickets cost $1,099 and capacity is capped at roughly 2,500 developers, making it a more compact event than recent editions.

Keynotes and select sessions stream for free by clicking here. On-demand sessions will be available afterward for anyone unable to attend or watch live.

Satya Nadella is confirmed for the opening keynote, which Microsoft has described as being about "creating new opportunity for developers across our platforms in this era of AI."

The session catalog published in April points toward four main themes: developer tools and frameworks, cloud platform and data, model training, and agents and apps. Given the trajectory set at Build 2025, further announcements around GitHub Copilot's autonomous capabilities and Azure AI Foundry integration seem likely.

Beyond agents, Build 2026 is expected to address Windows AI tooling, MCP (Model Context Protocol) integration across Microsoft's developer platform, and updates to the Copilot+ PC category.

What gets announced will probably surprise even close watchers, which is, historically, exactly the point of the event.

• Register for Microsoft Build here

Microsoft Build 2026 takes place on June 2 and 3 at Fort Mason Center in San Francisco, returning to the city for the first time since 2016. CEO Satya Nadella will open the event with a keynote address, and Microsoft has billed the conference as a two-day, hands-on gathering for AI developers, technical leaders, and enterprise teams, promising "no fluff." In-person tickets are priced at $1,099, with the keynote and select sessions streaming live for free.

With speculation around Windows 12 running hot despite zero official confirmation from Microsoft, Build is worth watching closely this year. The company rarely announces a new consumer OS at a developer conference, but it often uses them to lay the foundation, surfacing platform directions, new developer APIs, and architectural hints that end up defining what comes next. For developers and IT teams planning their roadmaps, spotting those signals early is often the point of attending.

• Register for Microsoft Build here

Windows 12: What we know so far

Microsoft has not officially announced Windows 12. The most recent public statement on the subject came at CES, when Microsoft EVP Yusuf Mehdi published a blog post describing 2025 as "the year of the Windows 11 PC refresh" — a clear signal that a new major OS was not on the immediate agenda.

That hasn't stopped a surge of viral speculation from filling the gap. In early March 2026, PCWorld published an article saying that Windows 12, codenamed "Hudson Valley Next," was on track to ship later this year, built on a modular CorePC architecture and requiring an NPU with at least 40 TOPS of performance for full functionality. The piece spread rapidly, but PCWorld's own executive editor has since added an editor’s note stating that a lot of these claims were unfounded. It was a translated syndication from German partner PC-Welt, published without secondary verification.

Windows Central's Zac Bowden, went further and debunked the report based on his own sources. There are no plans to ship Windows 12 in 2026, Bowden wrote, and the "Hudson Valley" codename dates to 2023, where it was tied to Windows 11 planning rather than a new OS. CorePC, likewise, was an internal 2023 project that was never shipped. As for Windows 12, Bowden's assessment is that 2027 would be the earliest realistic announcement window.

The rumor that Windows 12 would require a monthly subscription has also been thoroughly dismissed. Multiple news reports have called the claims "AI hallucinations," tracing them to AI-generated content that was scraped and republished across multiple sites as if it were original reporting. A more plausible scenario, if any subscription element ever materialises, is that it would apply to premium AI tiers rather than locking the basic Windows desktop behind a subscription paywall.

So what is Microsoft actually doing with Windows in 2026? According to Windows Central's reporting on an internal initiative codenamed Windows K2, the company assembled a concerted quality programme in late 2025, targeting the biggest complaints about Windows 11: performance, reliability, and AI feature bloat. Windows K2 is not a new OS release — it's an ongoing effort running through 2026 and into 2027, covering a rebuilt Start menu, faster File Explorer, and a pullback from unsolicited AI integrations across the shell.

None of this rules out Windows 12 as a longer-term product. The Copilot+ PC hardware tier, Microsoft's investment in on-device AI, and the natural pressure of Windows 11's support lifecycle ending in October 2027 all point toward some kind of platform evolution ahead. But for now any specific 2026 launch claims have been broadly debunked, though that does not do anything to make Build 2026 any less significant for the future of the Windows ecosystem.

Why is Build 2026 important for Windows 12?

Build is where Microsoft has historically laid the groundwork for major platform shifts, giving the developer community an early look before any public announcement. The 2011 inaugural conference introduced the Windows 8 Developer Preview, Build 2013 unveiled Windows 8.1, and Build 2015 gave developers an early look at the Universal Windows Platform months before Windows 10 reached the public in July.

The pattern has held since. Whenever there’s a major platform shift in the works, Build is where the technical community gets its first substantive look, along with the first opportunity to ask the engineers behind it how their tooling needs to change.

Build's focus has shifted somewhat in recent years, moving toward Azure, AI tooling, and Microsoft 365. But even within that shift, Windows-specific news has landed consistently, often with more long-term significance than it first appeared. Build 2023 introduced Copilot for Windows 11; Build 2025 renamed the Windows Copilot Runtime to Windows AI Foundry and added MCP (Model Context Protocol) support at the OS level. Each of those moves now reads as groundwork for whatever the next major Windows platform looks like.

There’s more. In March, Windows corporate vice president Pavan Davuluri published a detailed commitment to improving Windows quality on the Windows Insider blog, covering WinUI 3 performance, taskbar customization, and reduced Copilot clutter. Then, at Microsoft's Q3 FY2026 earnings call on April 29, Nadella said the company is doing "foundational work to win back fans" across Windows, Xbox, Bing, and Edge, with native applications and AI-optimized PCs at the center of that effort.

Will Build 2026 feature Windows 12? What we expect to see

There is no official indication of a Windows 12 announcement at Build 2026. Microsoft has positioned this event explicitly for AI developers, technical leaders, and enterprise developers, and the company has scaled back in-person attendance compared to recent years. A consumer OS reveal would be atypical for a conference this narrowly scoped.

Yet what the conference will almost certainly cover is the current state of Windows platform development, and based on what Microsoft has already shipped and announced in the weeks approaching Build, that story is substantial. Here is what we expect developers to hear about, cobbled together from Build 2026’s Session Catalog, official announcements, and recent release trajectories at Microsoft.

Native Windows development with WinUI 3

This may be the most significant ongoing Windows platform story for app developers, and it predates Build by several months. In March, Rudy Huyn, Partner Architect at Microsoft, confirmed he is forming a dedicated team to build 100% native Windows apps using WinUI 3, ending the company's reliance on WebView2 wrappers for first-party applications. That same month, Davuluri confirmed the Start menu itself is being rebuilt in WinUI to reduce latency.

A string of tooling releases followed quickly. Microsoft shipped WinUI 3 Gallery 2.9, a new Windows App Development CLI (v0.3), and a set of new WinUI templates that let you scaffold, run, and package native Windows apps from the command line without opening Visual Studio.

Most notably for AI-assisted development workflows, Microsoft also released a WinUI agent plugin for both GitHub Copilot and Claude Code, with eight built-in development skills covering UI design, code review, testing, packaging, and WPF migration. Software engineer Beth Pan published benchmarks showing a 25% performance improvement for WinUI 3's portion of File Explorer, with 41% fewer memory allocations and 45% fewer function calls.

The upcoming "Build and ship faster with a developer-optimized experience on Windows" session at Build 2026 covers this territory directly, alongside WSL and PowerToys improvements. Expect Microsoft to use Build to pull these threads together into a coherent pitch for native Windows development, especially as the industry pushback against resource-heavy Electron and web-wrapper apps continues to grow.

On-device AI and the NPU developer baseline

Build 2025 introduced Windows AI Foundry as the platform layer for local model deployment. Build 2026 looks set to deepen that story with three confirmed on-device AI sessions: a breakout covering Windows APIs for local model execution, a table talk aimed at desktop developers integrating local inference, and a demo session for Microsoft's Foundry Local tool on Windows hardware.

This area connects most directly to whatever comes after Windows 11. If the next major Windows version does set a higher NPU baseline, developers will need to understand:

• Which AI capabilities are available on-device versus cloud-routed

• How Windows AI Foundry abstracts that difference

• How to structure applications that degrade gracefully on hardware without a dedicated accelerator.

Build is the right venue for that developer guidance, regardless of whether a new OS announcement accompanies it.

A security model for agentic AI

Agent development is central to Build 2026 across every platform, and Windows is no exception. The "Claws on Windows: Designing Safe, Bounded Agent Actions" table talk addresses one of the more pressing questions in Windows development right now. How do you give an AI agent useful system access without creating a security liability? The session looks at real claw design failures and how developers can architect safer, scope-limited alternatives.

"AI & Agent-Augmented coding you can trust on Windows" examines how agents discover, reason about, and execute tasks within Windows' enforced boundaries, covering packaged app permissions, execution constraints, and lifecycle management. For developers building agentic applications targeting Windows, these sessions represent the kind of security architecture guidance that has been largely absent from the available documentation.

The security track extends further with "The Windows Security Features That Matter Most for Developers," a lightning talk covering post-quantum resilience and the platform-level foundations developers should be building on as agentic workflows become more common. Analysts following the longer-term Windows roadmap have consistently flagged tighter default security as a pillar of any next-generation OS; this session is likely to preview some of that direction.

Cross-platform developer experience and WSL

At Build 2025, Microsoft open-sourced most of WSL. The confirmed "What's new in Windows Subsystem for Linux" session at Build 2026 will show where that effort has gone since. According to Microsoft's April 2026 Windows quality roadmap, WSL is receiving many performance upgrades this year: faster file access between Linux and Windows environments, better network throughput and localhost reliability in WSL2, simplified onboarding, and stronger enterprise policy controls for managed deployments.

For the significant portion of the developer community that runs Linux toolchains on Windows hardware, these improvements speak directly to daily workflow friction. The "Elevate your developer productivity with Windows Terminal" lightning talk sits alongside this, covering improvements designed to reduce context switching for developers working across Windows and Unix environments.

Windows 365 enterprise AI deployment

The "Build, deploy, and scale agents with Windows 365" lab runs multiple times across both conference days, covering how Windows 365 provides preconfigured, governed computing environments for AI agent deployment. A digital version of the same lab is available for online attendees.

For enterprise developers and IT architects, this is worth watching closely. Windows 365 is the likely delivery mechanism for governance-sensitive Windows AI features, and the architecture on display here, covering how agents are provisioned, constrained, and monitored in managed environments, reflects how Microsoft is thinking about enterprise-scale Windows deployment more broadly.

How to attend Microsoft Build 2026?

Build 2026 is a tighter event than recent editions, running just two days with a smaller in-person attendance cap and a deliberate focus on technical depth.

For developers building on Windows or integrating AI into desktop and enterprise applications, the combination of confirmed tooling announcements, exec-level platform commitments, and a strong Windows session track makes this year's conference worth close attention.

In-person tickets are priced at $1,099, with registrations open by clicking here.

Microsoft is offering visa support for international attendees whose registrations are accepted and will refund tickets if visa applications are unsuccessful.

If you can't make it to San Francisco, the keynote and a selection of sessions stream live for free at the same address, with on-demand recordings available after the event.

• Microsoft has added new docking options to Copilot on Windows, reverting to the original sidebar design
• This comes amid promises that Microsoft would scale back AI visibility and bloatware to improve Windows
• The new Copilot docking options are still in a rollout phase for Windows users

Windows 11 users have berated Microsoft over its excessive use of AI and bloatware, which it has promised to scale back on as part of the project Windows K2, but a new move suggests the company might not be as commited to removing AI features as some hoped.

As reported by Windows Latest, Copilot has returned to its original sidebar design, which forces applications aside when docking the AI assistant. This essentially works almost exactly like Windows 11's snap layouts, which allow users to have applications side by side, but with Copilot's new docking options on the left or right sides of the desktop.

Applications are also automatically resized to make space for the Copilot window, effectively prioritizing the AI assistant.

Copilot has undergone several design changes, originally working as a sidebar (very similar to the current design), then as a standalone application, but now, it works as an Edge-based wrapper using more RAM, according to Windows Latest.

Fortunately, this new version of Copilot is still in its rollout phase for Windows users, so the 'quick view' option that acts as a floating window will be the main way to use the AI assistant for now.

These docking options are also arguably better than just quick view alone, as it gives users more options to customize Copilot's placement. However, the return to an old design seems counterintuitive to Microsoft's attempt to wind down AI visibility and bloat on the operating system.

Copilot isn't exactly simple to remove either: while the Copilot app can be uninstalled, it's still integrated within Windows on a wider level, and requires full removal via blocking in Group Policy or Windows Registry editing.

Not all PC users are tech-savvy, and rather than making it much easier for those users to completely remove Copilot, Microsoft is adding more features instead. Hopefully, these docking options serve as a nothingburger in the long term, but it's hard to trust Microsoft to push for AI reduction on Windows.

Microsoft's big drive to fix Windows 11 is going very well thus far. To give the company credit where it's definitely due, as was promised, Microsoft has moved quickly to get some important changes into testing swiftly.

That includes a major overhaul for Windows Update, for example, as well as making Windows 11 more performant in general, vital customization changes for the likes of the Start menu and taskbar, work on fixing device drivers in various ways, and listening carefully to user feedback. Indeed, on the latter point, Microsoft has engaged with the Windows 11 community to a remarkable level, I'd say.

Much more is happening besides this, and it all adds up to very good news for Windows 11 users. Yet while Microsoft is on a commendable roll with improving Windows 11 in 2026 – at least thus far – I can't help but wonder about what we aren't seeing.

There are some huge changes that many people would absolutely love to happen – myself included – and I'm going to outline my personal top five in a wish-list here. These are features that, frankly, I can't believe Microsoft will ever implement – but there's no doubt they'd be massive crowd pleasers. And you never know, with the mood Microsoft has been in of late, maybe – just maybe – something on this list could sneak in. We can live in hope…

1. Ditch the adverts – all of them

Okay, so Microsoft wouldn't call them adverts – they are referred to as suggestions, recommendations, or nudges, and so on – but Windows 11 has plenty of these promotional asides which clutter the interface and generally annoy most (although admittedly not all) users.

It's true that Microsoft has promised it will calm down this activity, and we've already seen some evidence of that. But what I'd like to see in Windows 11 is a switch in Settings that when flicked removes all of these thinly veiled ads or recommendations in one form or another.

Or at least a bank of sliders that correspond to the different types of suggestions and ads throughout Windows 11 that you can enable or disable as you wish, so you can still turn everything off (but maybe keep a couple of bits that you don't mind).

If Microsoft gave us control to remove any mention of OneDrive, Bing, Edge, Game Pass and so on throughout Windows 11, I'd be seriously happy, or indeed delirious (not to mention amazed). And while I'm on this subject, I'm happy to see Windows 11 search is finally stopping the practice of promoting web search results (and Bing by extension), but I'd love to see an option to drop these web results entirely (and that could actually happen, with any luck).

2. Bring back local accounts for Windows 11 installs

In the good old days, you could install your copy of Windows with a local account. With Windows 11, though, Microsoft dropped that ability and made it so that you must install the OS with a Microsoft account. Not everyone wants to do this, though, and there should be a choice.

However, it isn't just that Microsoft has stripped away the local account option in Windows 11 setup, the company has actively worked to thwart the possible workarounds to fudge your way past having a mandatory Microsoft account.

Given such crackdowns, it seems very unlikely that Microsoft will reverse course on this issue, even though it's one of the loudest pieces of feedback in some quarters that people want to just use a local account with no fuss in setting up the OS.

3. A lean, clean installation routine

Also on the topic of Windows 11 installation, what I'd be really keen to see is Microsoft offering a bank of options pertaining to what default apps and services are included with the operating system.

Giving users a choice – and the ability to pare down apps to the bare minimum if needed – would really be a step forward in terms of eliminating bloat right out of the gate with the desktop OS.

This is the reason why some people hunt out alternative custom Windows 11 installations such as Tiny11, and while I certainly don't expect Microsoft to go as far as offering 'Windows 11 Lite' – of course that wouldn't happen – it'd be great to get some meaningful granular control over default app installations, and the ability to cut back on a lot of this software.

4. Turn off the telemetry

With those who refuse to go anywhere near Windows 11, one of the most common complaints I see is that the reason they want to avoid installing the OS is because it's 'Microsoft spyware' or similar comments along those lines.

While that's an exaggeration, it stems from an actual grievance in that you can't actually avoid having some telemetry tied to your copy of Windows 11. In other words, the OS is always sending a baseline set of data about your PC back to Microsoft's servers (if you're a consumer on Windows 11 Home, anyway).

Granted, this is not part of an effort to spy on your local activity on your Windows 11 machine, and rather it's more about crash reports and related diagnostics. But still, there are clearly trust issues around what Microsoft is doing, and privacy activists rightly point out that we, as individuals sat at our Windows 11 computers, really don't know where this data goes or exactly what it's used for (or might be used for in the future).

Given that, there should be a basic option to turn off all telemetry in Windows 11. You can't do that with a consumer installation of the OS on Windows 11 Home – not without messing around in the Registry, a process that can end up going badly awry, especially for relative tech novices. Although note that consumers can turn off much of the telemetry (as in avoiding sending Microsoft the full works), just not all of it.

Really, Microsoft should give every Windows 11 user an option in Settings to easily switch off all this activity save for the bare minimum of vital telemetry to ensure the security of the system.

5. Finish them!

The final item on my wish-list is for Microsoft to get on with finishing some of the still incomplete long-running projects in Windows 11 that have been underway since back in the mists of operating system time.

I'm mainly thinking of two things here. Firstly, that Microsoft needs to finally finish dark mode, so it fully applies to all parts of the Windows 11 interface, and we don't get any more jarring white panels popping up to offend our eyes in the semi-darkness of the evening. Oh, and also incorporate the Light Switch feature from PowerToys into Windows 11, please Microsoft. This allows for automatic time-based switching between light and dark modes, and why it isn't a default part of the OS (as it is on Macs) is beyond me.

Secondly, the work to migrate the legacy parts of the Control Panel to the modern Settings app has been so painfully slow, it'd be good to see Microsoft pick up the pace with these transitions. Again, when they appear, these throwback pieces of interface feel unprofessional and jarring, and while I appreciate there's a lot of legacy stuff which is complicated to deal with here, this migration of features has been going on for so long at this point, it's a bit embarrassing.

Of course, completing the Control Panel transition is a wish too far, and doubtless not high on the priority list right now, so I'll give you a pass on that Microsoft, if you fulfil everything else on my list here. Deal?

• Windows 11 has suffered some odd interface problems of late
• They include the taskbar freezing, issues with File Explorer or Task View, or even the whole desktop being blank
• The fix for this interface flakiness is rolling out now to those who've installed the latest May update for Windows 11

If you've been experiencing weird sluggishness with some parts of the interface on the Windows 11 desktop of late — or elements seemingly MIA — the good news is that a fix is inbound.

Windows Latest reports that Microsoft is on the case when it comes to fixing the problems that can affect the taskbar, Task View, File Explorer, and the desktop itself.

Seemingly some users are finding that the taskbar freezes or takes ages to appear (and the right-click menu can take a long time to pop up, too). Windows Latest further notes that the Task View can also become unresponsive, and that unpinning items from Quick Access in File Explorer fails to work in some cases.

In the worst scenario described, these interface problems can mean you face a completely blank desktop after booting into Windows 11 (which is always worrying).

All of these are known issues, and Microsoft has labelled them as 'general reliability' problems with Windows 11.

The good news is that according to Windows Latest, Microsoft has confirmed that the May update for Windows 11 (which arrived last week) fixes these problems – but the cure isn't going to show up immediately.

That's because it's on a gradual rollout, so you may have to be a little patient here before these glitches are remedied (well, hopefully).

Microsoft notes: "This [May] update brings underlying changes to help improve explorer.exe reliability, including at sign‑in, when interacting with taskbar menus and Task View, when unpinning items from File Explorer's Quick Access, and more."

Analysis: stamping out sluggishness

It's good to see this fix rolling out for Windows 11 25H2 PCs, and note that it's also in testing — the Release Preview channel, the final stage of preview builds — for version 26H1 (for Arm-based Snapdragon machines).

What's also worth noting is that Windows Latest observed "visibly better performance" overall with the May update applied to Windows 11, and it's not alone — I've seen a fair few comments to this effect on Reddit. (I haven't taken the plunge with the May update on my Windows 11 laptop yet, but I'm about to.)

Of course, what Microsoft needs to work on with its initiative to right all the wrongs with Windows 11 is to ensure that this kind of flakiness doesn't creep in to begin with. This is the reason why some people can be nervous about installing a new monthly update for Windows 11 — just in case they find something weird occurs afterwards, like the desktop being blank when they reboot. (And much worse than that can happen, like the dreaded boot failure — we witnessed one of those bugs pop up back at the start of the year.)

Microsoft needs to rebuild the reputation of Windows 11 in terms of its reliability and overall stability, and that work has started — but eliminating random and weird interface behavior such as this will be a necessary step to take toward that end.

• Bitdefender reports rising abuse of the legacy MSHTA utility to deliver infostealers and loader malware
• Campaigns range from simple commodity threats like LummaStealer to advanced persistence tools such as PurpleFox
• Defenders are urged to restrict outdated scripting utilities and deploy layered security controls to detect malicious script activity

Cybercriminals are increasingly using a legitimate legacy Windows tool to deploy infostealers and loader malware, researchers are saying.

A new Bitdefender report has claimed that since the start of 2026, there’s been an uptick in activity related to a Windows utility called Microsoft HTML Application Host (MSHTA), a legitimate utility that runs special HTML-based application files known as HTAs.

While normal web pages get opened in a browser, HTA files interact directly with the Windows operating system and can execute scripts with elevated privileges.

Simple and complex threats

MSHTA is an old tool that was originally designed for lightweight desktop and administrative tasks but is, as many other legacy tools, being abused to run malicious scripts, download malware, or bypass security controls.

“Since the start of the year, we have observed an increase in MSHTA-related activity,” Bitdefender said. “Given that legitimate use of this utility is gradually fading, this trend likely reflects a rise in malicious activity rather than renewed administrative adoption.”

The activity the researchers analyzed spans multiple malware categories, they further explained, saying that they’ve seen both simple and more complex campaigns. At the “simpler” end, MSHTA is heavily used to deliver commodity infostealers such as Amatera, or LummaStealer. It is also used for loaders such as CountLoader or Emmenthal.

When it comes to more advanced, persistent threats, Bitdefender saw crooks deploying ClipBanker and PurpleFox.

“This range of abuse highlights why MSHTA continues to matter to defenders: it’s not a single malware family or intrusion model,” they explained. “It remains useful across the spectrum from opportunistic malware delivery to long-lived compromise.”

To defend against MSHTA-based attacks, organizations should ensure both user awareness and layered security controls, it was said. Users should avoid downloading untrusted files or running suspicious commands, while organizations should deploy security tools capable of detecting malicious scripts, or command-line abuse.

The company also recommends restricting utilities like mshta.exe and wscript.exe where possible and replacing outdated scripting tools with modern alternatives to reduce the attack surface.

• Microsoft is applying an important fix to Windows 11 search
• The taskbar search box will no longer surface web results as a priority in some cases
• This was baffling behavior at times — and part of promoting Bing and Edge — so it's good to see the practice ending

If you've ever muttered under your breath with annoyance at Windows 11's baffling search results, here's some good news — Microsoft is fixing it so the operating system doesn't surface web results as a priority.

It's a frustration that anyone who uses Windows 11 and has ever used the search box on the taskbar is surely familiar with. You want to find a file on your drive, or a system setting for something, so you type that query in — and the first result you see is for something on the web that's totally irrelevant.

However, as Windows Latest points out, Microsoft has realized that this behavior — and often pushing Bing, or its other services, through these web results — isn't acceptable, and gets in the way of the usability of Windows 11's search functionality.

In a recently released Windows 11 preview build in the Experimental channel for testers, Microsoft said it is changing the taskbar search box to ensure results are more relevant, and that: "Files and apps more reliably appear ahead of web suggestions when your content is a stronger match."

Microsoft further notes that we can "expect to see additional relevance improvements" for search in the future.

That doesn't mean web results are going to be completely ditched from Windows 11 search, mind you, and that's a prospect which seems unlikely.

Analysis: why has this taken so long?

So, files and apps (or settings) now take priority when you're hunting for something via the Windows 11 search box, over anything that Microsoft might flag up on the web.

Windows Latest highlights how a search for a Windows 11 app used to turn up a movie from the web as the first result, and notes that now, even when deliberately searching for terms which also apply to famous film titles, this is no longer happening.

Of course, there's a theme here that runs through many of the changes Microsoft is applying to Windows 11, namely that these should have been in place from the very start with the OS.

Who on earth wants to be searching for files only to have meaningless web results clutter up the place? Microsoft, that's who, for the clicks the firm is hoping to get as an excuse to pop up Bing (and Edge). For me, this is the equivalent of 'spam' infiltrating search results.

At any rate, better late than never as they say, and I'm still very glad to see this happening — although all these kinds of adjustments remind us why this is a campaign about Microsoft fixing Windows 11 rather than improving the operating system. And that it was Microsoft's fault that it was broken in the first place, of course, and has remained that way for so long until an AI rebellion finally made the company sit up and take notice.

• Microsoft says it will phase out SMS authentication and recovery due to rising fraud risks
• The company is shifting toward passwordless methods like passkeys and verified email for account security
• Researchers have warned of browser‑based flaws in passkey workflows, but SMS remains widely criticized as unsafe for 2FA

Windows 11 will soon no longer be able to authenticate or recover your Microsoft account via SMS after the company revealed it is phasing out the feature.

In a new advisory published on the Microsoft website, the company said it will start phasing out SMS because “SMS-based authentication is now a leading source of fraud.”

It did not give a specific timeline when the phase-out might complete, but instead stressed that the “future of authentication is passwordless, secure, and user-friendly.”

Are passkeys really that superior to passwords?

“By moving to passwordless accounts, passkeys, and verified email, we're helping you stay ahead of evolving threats while making account access simpler and more seamless,” the advisory reads.

Passkeys work differently than passwords and OTP secrets. Instead of typing something you can forget or steal, a passkey uses a pair of cryptographic keys: one stored on device and one stored by the service.

When a user logs in, the device proves it has the right key using things like a fingerprint, a facial scan, or device PIN. The actual secret key never leaves the device, making passkeys more secure against phishing and data leaks.

They have been touted as a more superior solution that will, after decades, finally “kill” the password.

However, not everyone agrees - in 2025, SquareX researchers presented new findings which claim the very browsers relied upon to manage passkey workflows can be exploited in ways that bypass their protections.

“Passkeys are a highly trusted form of authentication, so when users see a biometric prompt, they take that as a signal for security,” SquareX researcher Shourya Pratap Singh said at the time. “What they don’t know is that attackers can easily fake passkey registrations and authentication by intercepting the passkey workflow in the browser. This puts pretty much every enterprise and consumer application, including critical banking and data storage apps, at risk.”

In any case, phasing out SMS for any form of authentication is worthy of praise. For years now, security researchers have warned that SMS should not be used for 2FA or any other form of authentication, since SIM-swapping has made it quite easy to take over people’s accounts and wreak havoc.

Via Windows Latest

• Microsoft has been working on improving Windows 11 drivers a good deal this month
• The latest move is to block poor-quality drivers that have a negative impact on laptop battery life
• That comes on top of other work including ensuring that graphics drivers aren't overwritten with older versions by Windows Update

Microsoft is busy fixing Windows 11, as I'm sure you're aware by now, and we've just heard about another move to bolster the quality of drivers for the OS – one that'll help prolong laptop battery life.

Windows Latest reports that Microsoft has revealed it has a new 'Driver Quality Initiative' (DQI) in a blog post which details what this is all about. In a nutshell, Microsoft is engaged in a "comprehensive, ecosystem-wide effort designed to fundamentally raise the bar on driver quality, reliability and security across Windows".

That includes "deprecating outdated or low-quality drivers" and ensuring that verification of third-party drivers and quality standards are generally higher.

Microsoft states: "We are expanding how driver quality is measured beyond crashes to include stability, functionality, performance, and power and thermal impact, giving partners clearer signals to improve the real customer experience."

In other words, driver testing will go beyond merely ensuring that they don't crash the system, to encompass them running smoothly and performing well – and then there's the bit about "power and thermal impact" which is the good news for laptop owners.

This means making sure that drivers don't go awry in terms of power drain, which is obviously a key element to help with the battery life of any given Windows 11 laptop.

As Windows Latest observes, there has historically been a problem with notebooks running out of juice, and being overheated, by bad drivers. This can occur when a laptop is idling on the desk, or in standby tucked away in a bag, but the result is the same – you come to use the notebook and find the battery is almost run out.

Analysis: driving forward

So, Microsoft is now putting Windows 11 drivers under more scrutiny, not just making sure that they don't cause stability issues (crashes). Any driver that provokes undue battery drain (or the other issues touched on above) will no longer make the cut for the OS.

Of course, as with a lot of the changes which are now being applied to Windows 11, you may be left wondering: why wasn't this the case in the first place? Clearly, it should have been, but at least Microsoft is making amends now.

This isn't the only way in which the software giant is improving drivers in Windows 11. Last week, as flagged by Windows Latest, we heard about Microsoft admitting that Windows 11 can overwrite your GPU driver with an older version (in some circumstances), so Windows Update is being changed to ensure this can no longer happen.

Another driver-related move revealed earlier this month was Cloud-Initiated Driver Recovery (CIDR), a feature that allows Microsoft to roll back a bad driver to a previously working version on a Windows 11 PC via the cloud (should a dodgy driver get through).

All in all, it's clear that device drivers are something Microsoft has been rethinking a good deal lately, and, pushing aside the fact that this work should have been done before now, that's great to see. With any luck, come the end of the year, dodgy drivers will be a much rarer event for Windows 11 users – and recovery from any incidents will be more easily facilitated, too.

Another useful feature that Microsoft is working on for Windows Update is the ability to stamp out those dreaded update installation failures, too. They've been around and making themselves felt as a recurring annoyance ever since Windows 10 arrived.

• Microsoft is bringing in more options for remapping the Copilot key
• You'll be able to redefine it to invoke the context menu, or use it as Right Ctrl
• This used to be the Right Ctrl key before Microsoft jettisoned it to make room for the dedicated AI key on Windows 11 laptops

Microsoft is going to provide more options for remapping the Copilot key, the dedicated key introduced to summon Windows 11's AI assistant on laptops (and some standalone keyboards, too).

Windows Central noticed that Microsoft has confirmed this move in a support document, which states: "Customers who rely on the Right Ctrl key or Context menu key for keyboard shortcuts or assistive technologies (such as screen readers) experienced some challenges to their workflows when using these devices.

"A Windows 11 update will ship later this year that will add a setting option to let you remap the Copilot key to act as the Context menu key or Right Ctrl key."

So, you'll be able to use the Copilot key as a Control key on the right side of the keyboard, which is what that key would have been before Copilot was around. Either that, or you can switch it to bring up the context menu (the right-click menu that facilitates context-sensitive actions).

Microsoft previously introduced the ability to redefine the Copilot key to invoke Windows search or open certain apps (although no third-party applications support this, making it of limited use thus far).

Analysis: a necessary fix

It's good to get some better options, then, including that context menu key (which was actually rumored to be a change in the works over a year ago). Returning the key to the Right Ctrl is an important move because, as Microsoft observes, not having it can be an accessibility issue.

It's instrumental for certain workflows, such as being able to use shortcuts with one hand, pressing Ctrl plus the arrow keys, for example, or other combos using Ctrl with other keys on the right side of the keyboard. Without a Ctrl key on the right, those actions become a two-handed operation using the left and right sides of the keyboard.

It'd be nice if Microsoft gave us a wider range of options to remap the key to anything we wanted, though that can be achieved by installing PowerToys and using the Keyboard Manager. We've got the full details on how to do that here, though I'd still rather have some of the key parts of PowerToys – including this one – incorporated into Windows 11 as options, as I recently discussed.

Overall, this move is a welcome one, and another part of Microsoft's big plan to fix Windows 11 – although some folks are still pretty jaded about the company having implemented the Copilot key in the first place.

As this Redditor observed: "Oh, yes: steal the Right Ctrl and now return it as an improvement."

And someone else on Reddit noted: "Looks like their telemetry told them people avoided pressing that key like a plague."

• High-priority new functionality to allow the repositioning of Windows 11's taskbar is now in testing
• Changes to resize and customize the Start menu are coming to testing soon
• These look to be well-thought-out and nicely implemented features, but the top item on my wishlist for Windows 11 probably won't ever be addressed

Windows 11 is finally getting some of the most-wanted features for its interface, namely the ability to move the position of the taskbar (and make it smaller), along with the option to resize and further adjust the Start menu.

Microsoft's blog post on 'Making Taskbar and Start more personal' explains that the taskbar changes are rolling out now in the Experimental channel for Windows 11 preview builds, with the Start menu overhaul arriving soon, over the "coming weeks".

Users will be able to move the taskbar to the top, or either side, of the desktop, which has been one of the most-wanted features for Windows 11 since it arrived. (Windows 10 has this functionality, and people were dismayed to see it get left by the wayside in the successor OS).

Microsoft is also letting folks choose the icon alignment (centered, or not) for any taskbar position. The likes of coders, or those with ultra-widescreen monitors who would prefer to have the taskbar located at the side of the screen, will be very pleased to see this feature is now inbound.

A further addition is the ability to manually choose a small taskbar (with smaller buttons), which has previously been a mode that's selected automatically (for small displays).

Another major moan of late has been the fact that the Start menu has gotten too large – in some cases, spanning much of the desktop and effectively becoming a Start screen (as seen in Windows 8, if you recall).

To avoid this, Microsoft is going to give users control of the size of the Start menu in Windows 11, with small and large settings. Another change is clear and simple toggles to turn off any section you don't want to see – whether that's Pinned, Recommended or All (the full list of apps).

You can turn off the Recommended panel now, but that also switches off jump lists and recent files in File Explorer, so Microsoft is decoupling that, meaning you can keep those latter bits in place while ditching recommendations.

All of this is useful, and the upshot is that if you want a compact Start menu which only displays your pinned apps and nothing else — a bare launcher for all your favorite applications — then you can have just that (as was previously rumored).

As noted, the Start menu changes haven't arrived in testing yet, but they'll be rolling out soon enough.

Analysis: a challenge to prove me wrong, Microsoft

It's good to see this happening, as Microsoft has promised, previously stating that the taskbar change was a top priority. I'm also pleased to see a thoughtful implementation of the Start menu changes, too, giving folks plenty of options to streamline this part of the interface considerably.

Yes, this should have been the case from the get-go, but I can't keep banging that particular drum — at least Microsoft has realized its previous mistake in burying its head in the sand regarding complaints about the Windows 11 interface.

With Microsoft now listening more intently to feedback from the Windows 11 userbase, and directly enlisting the help of testers to fix various facets of the desktop OS, I'm feeling more hope for the future of the operating system than I have since, well — since it was first launched.

So, what do I personally hope Microsoft fixes next? I'd love to see Microsoft bring back the option to install the desktop OS with a local account, and not force a Microsoft account to be used when setting up Windows 11 (or make people fudge their way around this). The good news is that we've seen a hint that this change may be in the works, but it hasn't been officially announced yet.

That would be a crowd-pleasing move for many, and even though I use a Microsoft account myself – and I'm not looking to change that — I want to see this implemented as a broader sign that Microsoft is going to stop forcing people into certain behaviors in Windows 11.

If this move were to happen, my real hope is that it could lead to Windows 11 being freer of the various promotional bits and pieces that you see for Microsoft's services (whether that's OneDrive, Edge, Bing, or indeed games like Avowed). Again, that's something Microsoft has hinted at already, but what would please me no end would be the introduction of a system-wide switch to kill all such promos and veiled adverts in Windows 11. (Or a bank of options where you can leave certain recommendations on, if you wish, but where it's possible to turn everything off, and I mean the lot).

Despite all the good work that Microsoft is doing at the moment, and my renewed faith in Windows 11, to a point, I can't for a moment believe that such a thing would ever happen.

If it did, though, it would truly be a sign that this is a completely different Microsoft behind the wheel of the OS.

So, come on, Microsoft – prove me wrong. You're listening to feedback – and surely you must have noticed the complaints that you shouldn't get any ads or promos in an operating system that you paid for? Act on this front, and you'll win my faith back completely, and likely the trust of a whole lot of people out there.

• Microsoft has started a new research panel
• It's aiming to get feedback on the Windows 11 interface from testers
• The program will consist of a number of studies going forward, focusing on different areas of the user experience

Microsoft is making further efforts to get feedback from Windows 11 users on how to improve the operating system, with a new program aimed at Windows testers.

Yes, this is part of the campaign to fix Windows 11 (pretty much everything Microsoft does these days is). As Windows Latest reports, invitations are being sent out for a new 'Windows Insider Panel' whereby testers are being asked to put themselves forward to offer feedback on the Windows 11 interface.

Those invited (via email) need to fill in a survey which gives Microsoft a good idea of the way in which they use Windows 11 (productivity, creative apps, gaming and so forth).

The Windows and Devices UX (user experience) research panel is going to run various studies going forward, and if you're a good fit for whatever Microsoft is looking at in the way of changing Windows 11 in any particular study, they might bring you in to provide your opinions.

In the email sent out, Microsoft observes that this is a chance to: "Join and help shape the future of Windows."

Analysis: a new hope

As if we hadn't received enough in the way of signals that Microsoft really is taking its revamping of Windows 11 very seriously, this is another clear sign. Indeed, the company has already run a meeting with Windows Insiders (testers) in Seattle, noting back at the time that it is "really directly influenced" by what it's hearing from Windows 11 users.

This new research panel is set to be an ongoing project and series of studies to improve the user interface of Windows 11, which is an exciting development. I suppose you could argue that it smacks of Microsoft getting a bit desperate and clutching at straws for ideas on how to make things better, but I'm inclined to give the software giant the benefit of the doubt here.

Indeed, I'm genuinely impressed at the lengths Microsoft is going to with this whole 'fix Windows 11' initiative, and while I was initially skeptical about all the big promises the company has made, it has, so far, followed through with them in a commendably thorough fashion.

Of course, there's still a long way to go on the path of improving Windows 11 in terms of not just its interface, but performance levels. However, if Microsoft can keep up this level of commitment, I'll remain optimistic – and that's been a very difficult feeling to muster with Windows 11 in the past.

• Microsoft is working to make WinUI 3 speedier
• This is the contemporary framework for the user interface of the OS
• With WinUI 3 being employed more widely across Windows 11, and tweaked for better performance, it's another key way in which the OS could be made faster

We've learned more about Microsoft's efforts to make Windows 11 faster, discovering another front that the company is working on to ensure the operating system becomes more performant in terms of core interface elements.

Windows Central reports that the big drive for better performance — which is part of the broader campaign to fix Windows 11 — doesn't just involve transitioning elements of the Windows 11 interface to use WinUI 3, but actually speeding up WinUI itself.

For the uninitiated, WinUI refers to the contemporary framework for the user interface (UI) of Windows. It's used by Microsoft for many of the core apps and elements of Windows 11, and can also be used by third-party software developers to make their own apps fit with the look and feel of the OS.

So, Microsoft is employing WinUI 3 in more places within Windows 11, but is also making it perform better, as software engineer Beth Pan makes clear in a post on GitHub, stating that: "Our mission is to make WinUI 3 the best native UI platform for Windows experiences and apps, and performance is at the heart of that effort."

Pan adds: "Making this a reality means delivering performance improvements at multiple levels, including within WinUI itself."

The software engineer further notes: "We've been zeroing in on launch time, using File Explorer and Notepad as our primary benchmarks, with an emphasis on improvements that broadly benefit most apps."

Pan then breaks down some of the performance boosts that have been achieved so far with File Explorer, including 41% and 63% fewer allocations and transient allocations, respectively, as well as 45% fewer function calls — and a 25% reduction in the time spent in WinUI code.

Analysis: a long-term commitment for fundamentals and quality, we're told

What does that mean in reality? Well, these changes are still very much in early development, and we don't know what the mentioned improvements actually add up to in terms of making File Explorer launch faster. There's no "it'll be x seconds quicker" here (of course, launch times will naturally vary on different configurations of hardware, anyway).

However, the gist is clear — there's a good deal of optimization work going on with core elements of Windows 11 along these lines, and it's bound to help with performance. Especially given that this work isn't happening in isolation.

Remember that Microsoft also has projects on the boil to improve File Explorer performance in various ways, and one of those is 'Low Latency Profile'. This is a recently revealed CPU trick that could be instrumental in making a whole lot of apps and Windows 11 interface elements operate a good deal more responsively.

Another heartening theme evident here is one of greater collaboration within Microsoft. Pan observes in the post: "The approach here is we do what we can from [the] framework side, and [obviously] other teams in Windows also investigated and [have] been doing work to improve overall launch perf, we connect/collaborate frequently to make sure the improvements will be end-to-end. It's a long-term commitment for fundamentals and quality."

This all sounds very positive for the future, and as someone else commenting on the GitHub post, claiming to be an ex-Microsoft employee, observes, "This was by far the most frustrating thing working with you guys, every team seemed to do their own thing. I hope you guys really push to fix that."

Thus far, the scope of the Windows 11 revamp is laudably wide, so let's hope the reality lives up to the promising early work we're seeing and that Microsoft is indeed pulling together to work more effectively between its different Windows groups.

• Windows 11's update for May has just arrived
• It packs a new Xbox mode that'll be welcomed by gamers
• There are also new features for haptic touchpads, useful changes for voice typing, and updates to the Windows 11 interface in general

Windows 11's May update has arrived, and it's quite a busy one, bringing in several changes for those who install the patch. There's some good stuff here, and I'm going to round up the highlights in this article.

Read on to find out what patch KB5089549 — which is for Windows 11 versions 24H2 and 25H2 — packs, and if you're currently trying to decide whether or not it's worth making a beeline for it. Although I'd always advise a little caution with jumping straight to download an update, as it's worth waiting a day or two to see if there are any nasty bugs crawling around in the works.

Note that these changes may have already been grabbed by some folks who installed the optional update for Windows 11, which was made available at the end of April (as it was a preview version of this May patch).

1. Xbox mode — a big one for gamers

One of the major changes with the Windows 11 update for May is the deployment of Xbox mode. This is without doubt a keenly-awaited feature for many Windows 11 gamers — especially those with handhelds like the Asus ROG Xbox Ally X.

Xbox mode is a full-screen experience (in fact, it was previously called that, or the 'FSE' for short) with a simplified interface that's controller-friendly, and it also reins in Windows 11's resource usage to help games run more performantly. When you're planning a gaming session, this is the mode you can switch to on handhelds, laptops, or desktop PCs.

Note that this feature is in a controlled rollout, meaning that you may not see it immediately – or indeed that it could take some time to arrive (and we've discussed that elsewhere today).

2. Haptic goodness

The May update brings in haptic feedback for compatible input devices which will happen during certain actions — Microsoft mentions snapping or resizing windows, or aligning objects in PowerPoint. It should be a feature that seriously elevates the experience for laptops with haptic touchpads, as you'll get a nice physical 'snap' when those objects are aligned, for example.

Note that this also pertains to compatible stylus hardware which includes the Surface Slim Pen 2, Asus Pen 3.0, and MSI Pen 2. Microsoft adds that some mice, like the Logitech MX Master 4, should play nice with this feature in time (but not yet — only when the hardware gets an update).

3. Voice typing gets better

Voice typing is one of those Windows 11 features that flies under the radar, but it's something I still use from time to time (and in the past, I've found it invaluable and used it a lot to help with fending off Repetitive Strain Injury symptoms).

So, it's good to see that you can now rename files using voice typing, and on top of that, the May patch "improves the persistence of Fluid Dictation setting in voice typing". In other words, the fluid dictation feature, which gets rid of filler words ('you know' or 'like') and corrects grammar and punctuation errors automatically, will now remember the settings you use with it (instead of randomly resetting them).

On top of that, using voice typing when you've pulled up Windows 11's touch keyboard has been improved as there's no full-screen overlay anymore, and the voice typing animations appear directly on the keyboard's dictation key. That's a much neater way of working and a useful tweak.

4. Interface refinements – for File Explorer in particular

While not about a single feature as such, there's a good deal of work that has gone into honing Windows 11's interface and fixing problems with it, and this amounts to part of what makes the May update worth downloading.

This work includes, but isn't limited to, improvements for File Explorer, such as ensuring that your view (and sort) preferences are maintained more consistently (whereas, as you may have noticed, opening certain folders sees the view layout reset to something else, which is very annoying). Speaking of very annoying, this new update also (finally) puts an end to the 'flashbang bug' where distracting white flashes appeared on the screen in certain circumstances (such as when opening 'This PC').

There's also a performance tweak to ensure File Explorer's processes are properly put to bed when you close it, so as not to prove an unnecessary drain on system resources.

Away from File Explorer, Microsoft has made Windows Hello facial recognition more reliable, which is going to be useful for those who use it for their laptop logins. They've also improved the general reliability of loading the system tray (at the far right of the taskbar). Certain 'unexpected' errors when installing apps from the Microsoft Store have also been cured.

As this year progresses, we will no doubt see a lot more interface refinements and performance improvements, which will all be part of the big effort to fix Windows 11 in 2026.

• Microsoft's Xbox mode is still not showing up for some Windows 11 users
• The console-like UI arrived via the April 30 and the latest May update
• Currently, it's only available in select markets

Microsoft began rolling out Xbox mode to Windows 11 users on April 30 via an optional update, but it's still not showing up for some users for a few reasons.

As reported by Windows Latest, Microsoft has cautioned Windows 11 users that the Xbox mode may not appear for all users yet, even after the latest May 2026 update (KB5089549), because the feature is currently locked to select markets.

This was briefly noted in the original blog post, where the rollout was announced, but it also explains why users like myself still don't have access to the console-like UI via the latest update, which includes the April 30 optional update features.

Windows Latest also highlights that Microsoft is using a Controlled Feature Rollout (CFR), meaning the code for the Xbox mode is indeed on users' PCs, but remains inactive, requiring Microsoft to enable the feature via a server-side switch.

Essentially, Microsoft is doing this to keep tabs on issues like bugs or crashes, before enabling the feature for more PC users — and given the track record of Windows 11's bugs and frustrating issues, it's a good move but it will require extra patience from users.

However, some might be in luck and can find the mode via Settings > Gaming > Xbox mode (or it may be labelled 'Full Screen Experience') and then check the 'Enable Xbox mode' box. You'll finally have the option to easily switch between Xbox mode and the standard Windows 11 desktop.

For gamers using TVs or avoiding a mouse and keyboard, the Xbox mode is ideal as it provides the same navigation experience that's available on the Asus ROG Xbox Ally X handheld, while also serving as Microsoft's way of competing with Valve's SteamOS game mode.

Once the rollout is complete, Microsoft will need to provide consistent updates to match up to SteamOS for gaming, or face a hard time winning fans over, considering Valve's frequent update activity.

• Microsoft is bringing in a new feature to boost the CPU briefly, in order to make Windows 11 apps and menus more responsive
• Critics have fired flak at Microsoft for 'cheating' and this being a general fudge of a fix
• A Microsoft exec has made it clear that this isn't some kind of cheat, and that other major operating systems do the same thing

Microsoft is going to boost Windows 11 performance by using a trick that briefly speeds up the CPU when opening apps or menus, and an executive has defended this concept after it came under some fire from online commenters.

Windows Latest spotted that Scott Hanselman, a VP, member of technical staff at Microsoft, and a key part of the team tasked with fixing Windows 11 this year, took to X in order to fight back at critics who've called Microsoft lazy for this particular idea, which goes under the label of 'Low Latency Profile'.

There's a general feeling among some that Microsoft is taking shortcuts and fudging a fix for performance here.

To recap on what the Low Latency Profile actually does, it boosts the processor speed for around one to three seconds or so, giving a brief bit of extra pep for when opening an app, or the likes of the Start menu, to ensure this happens a good deal more snappily. And based on early testing, it does indeed do the job in terms of making Windows 11 feel more responsive in these scenarios.

The accusations leveled are that Microsoft is 'cheating' by calling on the CPU in this way, but Hanselman points out that this is nothing new for modern operating systems.

Hanselman responded to one thread (among others) on X, which began: "What a disgrace MicroSlop boosting the processor performance right on time and briefly just to make apps open faster. No other company would dare to do the same." (Note that this is translated from Spanish.)

Hanselman replied that: "All modern operating systems do this, including macOS and Linux. It's not 'cheating'; this is how modern systems make apps feel fast: they temporarily boost the CPU speed and prioritize interactive tasks to reduce latency."

Elsewhere, Hanselman further observes: "Apple does this and y'all love it."

Another complainant talks about mobiles, saying "imagine your smartphone boosting max CPU every time you touch something to be responsive", and Hanselman reminds them: "Your smartphone already does this. Constantly. Every touch wakes cores, boosts clocks, renders a frame, then drops back to idle milliseconds later. You've discovered dynamic frequency scaling. Welcome to modern computer science. Come on in! The water changes temperature often."

Analysis: feelings running hot

It's clear that Hanselman feels compelled to put some folks in their place here, and fair enough, these are valid points he's making, and there is a general vibe towards shooting down whatever Microsoft's trying to do, which is unfair.

However, I think the Microsoft executive needs to be somewhat mindful of where much of this flak is coming from – namely, many years of Windows 11, where people have felt they haven't been listened to, with Microsoft botching a number of fixes for the OS.

I've written many times about how faith and trust in Microsoft have been eroded over the past couple of years (well, going back way before that, really, but this has been especially true in recent times). And this kind of reaction is a symptom of that.

But yes, granted, it can't feel good to have many of the ideas that you have for fixing Windows 11 being shot down in a general atmosphere of 'let's see Microsoft mess this one up'.

On a broader level, some critics aren't directly criticizing Low Latency Profile, but rather they're saying that it's more of a band-aid that doesn't address bigger issues with the likes of core Windows 11 apps (notably the web-based efforts) running sluggishly. Or indeed issues around general resource mismanagement in Windows 11 – although overarching performance improvements are something that's on Microsoft's fix list, of course.

In short, there is a lot of fixing to be done with Windows 11, and Microsoft has to start somewhere. From where I'm sitting, the general attitude so far from Microsoft has been impressive, though, in terms of implementing some important fixes quickly and engaging with the community.

I feel the critics do need to give Microsoft more time and a chance, but at the same time, I realize how some frustrations run pretty deep with Windows 11 – and Windows 10 before it, for that matter – and Microsoft only has itself to blame for that.

One key question for me, though, is simple: why didn't Microsoft include this CPU trick in Windows 11 in the first place? Or at least start developing it as a performance fix at an earlier date, given that all other contemporary desktop platforms make good use of similar features.

The answer is likely bound up in solving power-efficiency and battery life issues – and that remains a concern about this feature now. Sources inside Microsoft have already said that any battery longevity impact will be minimal, mind, and it's likely that with the huge battery life levels we're seeing with some modern laptops, this gives Windows 11 more room to breathe anyway.

Interestingly, another observation Hanselman makes is that Low Latency Profile is going to work particularly well with Windows 11 laptops that have Arm-based (Snapdragon) chips, which are better suited to shifting power states swiftly than AMD and Intel CPUs.

Microsoft's PowerToys is arguably one of the best additions you can make to Windows 11 (or 10). It adds a bunch of powerful little tools to the operating system, and unlike third-party utilities, these are actually made by Microsoft, so there's that extra guarantee that they're going to 'play nice' with Windows 11. (Well, hopefully). Plus, you certainly won't need to be worried that you're installing software that could be up to no good in the background, like crypto-jacking or other nastiness.

I adopted PowerToys as my tech new year's resolution for 2026, and I continue to be impressed with the functionality delivered by some of the tools — which aren't just for power-users, despite the name of this suite (although admittedly some of them are firmly aimed at that category of Windows 11 user).

One of the strengths of PowerToys is that you can pick and choose which toys you want to have active — enabling them, or turning them off, at the flick of a slider — and Microsoft just added a couple of nifty new options with the latest version of the open-source suite, which was released recently.

I updated to PowerToys v0.99 this week, keen to try a new utility called Power Display (which it should be noted is still officially in preview, so it's a beta technically). This provides easy to access controls for your monitor, or indeed multiple monitors, in Windows.

It means that you can adjust the brightness level of your monitor directly from the system tray in the taskbar, as well as tweaking the contrast or color temperature in the same way, and the volume if your display has built-in speakers. You can also change the input source with Power Display, and a few other bits and pieces.

There's additional functionality in terms of custom profiles you can apply with a mouse click, too, which could be put in place across multiple displays. Power Display is integrated with Light Switch, too, another PowerToys utility that allows for changing between light and dark modes automatically on a time schedule.

As a result, you can tie different monitor profiles in Power Display to when Windows 11 is automatically switched into light or dark mode — which is very cool.

I like the overall ease of use here, with simple sliders to operate right there on the Windows 11 desktop, instead of having to mess around with my monitor's on-screen display (a clunky button-navigated affair that's best avoided, and that's the case for many monitors). The Light Switch integration is a thoughtful touch, too.

What's important to note here is that as Microsoft explains, Power Display "uses DDC/CI to talk to your external monitors", meaning that it communicates directly with the hardware, making an adjustment just as if you were applying it on the monitor itself.

That's great because there's no fudging here — it's not, for instance, simply applying a dark filter to dim the screen when you turn the brightness down, rather than actually adjusting the monitor settings.

The catch, however, is that Power Display needs that DDC/CI functionality, so the monitor must support it to have full functionality.

Notably, integrated displays on laptops won't have DDC/CI, and so all you'll get is a simple brightness slider here, and no other trimmings.

Some desktop monitors, meanwhile, may require you to dive into the settings and enable DDC/CI, but once you've done so, you'll be good to go with Power Display. (In the newest version 0.99.1 of PowerToys, Microsoft has provided more troubleshooting advice for situations where a monitor proves problematic with Power Display — remember, this is still a tool that's in preview, so it remains a work in progress).

Window of opportunity for Microsoft

For me, Power Display is another great addition to the PowerToys library, and I don't even have multiple displays (where I'm sure it'll prove of even more benefit).

A further new tool with v0.99, Grab and Move, is a more simplistic seeming add-on, but it also looks highly useful. This provides the ability to quickly resize or drag a window by clicking anywhere on it and holding down the Alt key, removing some of the fiddlier window management you might encounter at times in Windows 11.

Some people have been clamoring for both of these features to be introduced to Windows 11, and I can see why. So, while it's great to get them in PowerToys, it would be even better to have these features built into Windows 11 itself, bringing them to everyone on the desktop OS. (Given that not that many folks can be bothered to download PowerToys, or even know what it is — and some think it's just a suite of tools for power-users and Windows enthusiasts, which, as already noted, is true for some of the utilities, but far from all of them).

What with Microsoft's ongoing effort to fix Windows 11 and all its problems, as well as honing the operating system in many ways, I think an obvious move is to bring in some of these PowerToys — certainly the two new tools I've discussed here. In fact, it seems like a no-brainer to introduce some of the more popular and streamlined add-ons from PowerToys.

Granted, there may be those who shout about 'more system bloat', but many of these tools are very lightweight for the functionality they add, and they could be options that you must enable (turned off by default).

Power Display, in particular, has led to plenty of people voicing opinions along the lines of this view expressed on Reddit: "Still absolutely wild that this isn't just built into Windows, though."

I wholeheartedly agree that it's wild, but with Microsoft's new focus on making sweeping changes, and aiming to please the crowd in its big revamp of Windows 11, it's possible that the company may be listening to this feedback — and could act on it.

Stranger things have happened — like getting full control over being able to delay Windows updates indefinitely, which is something I never thought would be witnessed in Windows 11 Home.

• Windows 11 updates are being improved to stop installation failures
• An update that would previously have fallen over will now receive extra attention in the form of automatic attempts to recover
• This means the update process will take longer, but will hopefully be successful in the end where it would have failed in the past

Microsoft has been doing a lot of work to Windows 11 updates lately, and there's another move afoot that should hopefully cut down on annoying installation failures.

Windows Latest reports that if you notice a monthly update is taking a long time to apply, and the installation process (shown by a spinning circle with a percentage progress indicator) seems to be going on for a long time, you don't have to worry unduly that Windows 11 might have crashed.

In fact, this could be a good sign, as Microsoft explains in a recent post on Windows Update improvements: "We are ensuring devices stay secure by default through automatic recovery for update failures – taking additional steps in the background to help the update complete successfully without user intervention.

"This means your device will automatically attempt to recover from installation failures in real time – causing some updates to take longer to complete, but ensuring they have a higher success rate."

What this means is that before Microsoft made this change, an update that went down this path would simply have failed. With the new way of working, Windows 11 notices the point of failure, and then goes back to try and fix whatever the problem is.

This is why you could be waiting a fair old while, but hopefully for a positive result in the end — a successful update, rather than being dumped back to the desktop with a 'failed to install' message pinned to the latest patch in Windows Update.

Analysis: putting a stop to the stop codes

This is another useful move for Windows 11 updates, and it'll hopefully mean an end to what has been one of the most long-running bugbears for Windows 11 updates, and it's something that's been a persistent thorn in the side of Windows 10 users, too.

We've regularly seen a rash of installation failures with certain updates ever since Windows 10 first arrived back in 2015. This has been a problem that just keeps popping up, where there are many reports of an update falling over (often with a weird and meaningless 'stop code' error), and with any luck, going forward we won't see this nearly as much.

It's important to note that Microsoft also says it has "made steady progress in reducing the download and overall time it takes to apply a Windows update" and is working on getting this time down ever further over the course of 2026. So, while some updates may take longer, this is only under the circumstances in which they would otherwise have completely failed. (As an aside, it's also worth remembering that currently, you may experience a lengthy update, with multiple reboots, for a specific reason pertaining to the Secure Boot feature).

Microsoft's other important changes for Windows 11 updates recently include providing a facility I've personally wanted for a long time, namely the option to delay a patch indefinitely (or for as long as it takes until a bug you're concerned about is fully fixed). The controls for when updates are installed have also been refined, and unexpected sudden reboots for upgrades should be a thing of the past before long. On top of that, you can now skip applying updates in the Windows 11 setup process, should you wish.

To be fair to Microsoft, it's solving pretty much all the major issues around Windows 11 updates.

• Windows 11 is getting a new 'Low Latency Profile' feature
• It gives the CPU a brief boost to help apps and menus load faster
• It's just rumored, and still in early testing, but we're told that we shouldn't worry about it having a detrimental impact on laptop battery life

Windows 11 is getting a feature designed to speed up performance when the system tackles spikes of demanding activity — like the workload created when opening an app — by putting the accelerator to the floor with the CPU briefly.

Windows Central reports that this is apparently part of the so-called Windows K2 project, otherwise known as 'The big drive for this year to fix everything that's wrong with Windows 11'.

There's a good deal of focus on shoring up performance with K2, and according to leaker Zac Bowden, the new processor-boosting trick is already in testing with the Windows Insider Program. Indeed, Windows Latest has already enabled it (using a configuration utility) and tried out the functionality.

Sources inside Microsoft told Bowden the feature is known as the 'Low Latency Profile' and it kicks in, boosting up the frequency of the CPU briefly – from between one to three seconds – while performing bigger operations. That includes firing up an app, or opening parts of the Windows 11 interface, for example the likes of the Start menu or right-click context menus.

The result is up to 40% quicker launch times for Microsoft's apps such as Edge and Outlook, and menus are up to 70% faster to load, we're told. Third-party (non-Microsoft) apps running in Windows 11 should get the benefit of this low-latency functionality, too.

Based on Windows Latest's testing, it seems that the feature does indeed provide an impressive boost to loading speeds.

Low Latency Profile will work seamlessly in the background, coming to life automatically when needed. It isn't yet clear if there will be a switch to enable or disable it, but that isn't the case currently.

Analysis: laptop worries and general skepticism

Windows 11 seemingly feels a lot more responsive with the new Low Latency Profile in place, and based on those claimed percentages for speed-ups — albeit they are best-case scenarios — I'd imagine it would do. Menus opening at not far off twice the speed is the kind of performance tweak Windows 11 could really do with, and it should make the overall experience of using the OS a good deal more pleasant.

Presumably File Explorer will get the benefit of this — as technically it's an 'app' for Windows 11, or a process that powers your desktop folders — but it isn't mentioned (by Bowden, or Windows Latest), so that isn't clear. Mind you, Microsoft is already doing a whole lot of work to speed up File Explorer anyway.

An obvious worry is the effect of these brief CPU boosts on battery longevity in the case of Windows 11 laptops, but Bowden notes that the sources who leaked the details say that any impact on battery life is 'minimal'.

This is still in early testing, Bowden reminds us, and so the concept could change considerably before it comes to fruition. In any case, it clearly illustrates that Microsoft is thinking in some depth about how Windows 11 can be made a good deal more performant in ways that will be meaningfully felt in everyday usage.

One thing I would caution is that if folks are concerned about the impact on thermals that this feature may have on an older laptop with, say, an ailing cooling system, it seems like a sensible idea to include that switch to turn off Low Latency Profile.

Skeptics also remain on the subject of how good this feature might actually turn out to be. As one Redditor observed: "'I'll only believe when I see the results, but I really hope it is true, I miss the old Microsoft."

We all hope it's true, let's face it — and it's looking promising based on the early testing conducted by Windows Latest. (Although granted, we need to take that with some seasoning, as it was a limited use of the feature in a very early state, inside a virtual machine).

• Microsoft will be doing more to File Explorer to make it faster
• This goes beyond the existing work to help it load more quickly the first time it's used
• It includes 'targeted optimizations' to further speed up launch, and 'foundational engineering to eliminate unnecessary disk reads, reduce hangs, and improve responsiveness across the board'

A Microsoft executive has confirmed that work on speeding up File Explorer won't be limited to just preloading the app when Windows 11 first boots, and in fact there are multiple further performance boosting tweaks planned.

You may recall that when the preloading change went into testing late last year, there was some grumbling about it being rather a fudge of a fix, and complaints that it didn't address all of the issues with the performance of File Explorer (the app that drives your desktop folders).

Windows Latest reports that Tali Roth, who is Microsoft's Head of Product, Windows Shell, explained on X that there's more to come with File Explorer, responding to a post which noted that many felt that the preloading solution was 'inelegant'.

Roth said that Microsoft is "driving targeted optimizations to File Explorer launch by improving load order and optimizing critical paths, along with removing unnecessary work and visual animations."

Roth added: "Beyond launch, we're doing the foundational engineering to eliminate unnecessary disk reads, reduce hangs, and improve responsiveness across the board, many of which will also directly benefit launch performance."

Analysis: foundational changes

If you missed the whole incident around preloading, this move was about tackling the fact that on some Windows 11 PCs, File Explorer can take ages to open the first time you use it (with subsequent folders opening more swiftly). Microsoft's tactic was to shift the main loading process of File Explorer to happen when Windows 11 first boots, so that it's available more snappily the first time it's run.

Of course, that does add to the workload of Windows 11 when it's first firing up the desktop and all the initial processes therein – but Microsoft has successfully made the change without any noticeable additional sluggishness here.

That said, it is still something of a fudge of a performance fix, so it's good to hear that Microsoft is exploring other ways to speed up File Explorer. Especially given that the preloading is only about the first-run experience for File Explorer anyway, and it doesn't do anything to pep up how fast the app responds on subsequent usage.

The aim to bring in general optimizations for File Explorer and reduce drive activity sounds pretty in-depth, with the reference to "foundational engineering" being the key clue here as to how far Microsoft is digging down into the inner workings of Windows 11 to smooth over performance.

Microsoft is very much in a mood for making big promises about Windows 11 this year, of course, and as I keep repeating, it's one thing to say these things and another to actually realize them. To be fair to the company, though, progress is being made speedily enough, and so far, the early results of the 'fix Windows 11 campaign' look impressive.

There's a long way to go yet, though, and as far as File Explorer is concerned, the obvious question is: why were the foundations of this critical part of the Windows 11 interface in a shakier-than-ideal state to begin with, anyway?

• Microsoft has explained why some standard monthly updates require multiple reboots of late
• This is due to extra changes the update packs for Secure Boot certificates
• The rebooting behavior has made some Windows 11 users worry the update is going wrong, but rest assured, everything is working as intended

Microsoft has explained why Windows 11 updates are taking a lot longer recently, and in some cases can require multiple reboots – and thankfully, this isn't anything to worry about.

Windows Latest spotted that Microsoft posted a message to its Windows release health dashboard to note that: "With recent and upcoming Windows updates over the next few months, a limited number of consumer and business devices might experience one additional restart during installation. This one‑time restart occurs after a Secure Boot certificate update is applied as part of the Secure Boot update process."

So, this is due to the Secure Boot certificate changes that Microsoft let us know about earlier in the year, informing us they would be part of the monthly cumulative updates for Windows 11 (and Windows 10, for those on extended support).

While Microsoft indicates that affected Windows 11 users should expect one additional reboot, meaning two in total with the update in question, Windows Latest observes that some people have reported three reboots.

Analysis: multiple reboots can trigger an impending sense of doom

The issue here is that usually a monthly update for Windows 11 needs just a single reboot to be applied. Given that, when your PC restarts for a third time during what should be a simple, relatively limited update, it's only natural to start fearing that something's wrong and that your system has gone off the rails – or maybe into a repeating boot loop.

The dreaded boot loop is one of the most unpleasant problems you can encounter, with the PC stuck rebooting over and over, meaning you have to go into the recovery menu to try potentially tricky solutions to right things and actually get to the Windows 11 desktop again.

At any rate, at least now you know about this behavior – and you might experience it in the May update for Windows 11 potentially, which arrives a week today. These Secure Boot changes had a wider rollout in April, and will be deployed to more folks this month.

If you're wondering why Secure Boot is needing any attention at all, this is because the mentioned certificates were issued in 2011 and expire in June 2026 – so they need to be updated with the new versions from 2023.

Secure Boot is an important feature in that it's designed to stop certain malware – the likes of rootkits – compromising your PC before it even loads the operating system (potentially flying totally under the radar).

Unfortunately, as Windows Latest further points out, there are some Windows 11 users who are having trouble receiving the new certificates due to firmware issues. In reality, then, as this is a necessary tweak for Secure Boot to continue keeping you safe, experiencing multiple reboots with your next update is likely a good sign, as it means the new certificate (should) hopefully be in place.

• Microsoft has toned down the ads and annoyances with Windows 11's widgets panel
• In testing, the new default settings are a lot less in-your-face and distracting
• This is part of a large slab of work to improve Windows 11 in the past month, and Microsoft has further promised another major change is inbound for the taskbar soon

Microsoft has made a useful move to tame ads on the widgets board in Windows 11 (as previously promised), and it has updated us on the overall progress in fixing the OS so far – complete with an assurance that the big taskbar change some folks are desperate for is coming soon.

Windows Latest reports that in a preview build released a few days back in the new Experimental channel – which hosts the earliest test builds, before beta – there's a change to make the widgets board 'quieter', which is Microsoft-speak for less in-your-face with advertisements and promoted news stories.

Microsoft tells us: "We're working to make Widgets feel less distracting and overwhelming by making the experience quiet by default. To do this, we're testing a new set of default settings designed to reduce unexpected alerts and visual interruptions."

These new defaults mean that mousing over the widgets section on the taskbar will no longer cause the panel to pop up. More importantly, when the widgets board is summoned, you will get the "widgets experience on first launch", meaning by default the panel will be just widgets – with no MSN feed.

That MSN (Microsoft Network) feed is where Microsoft makes revenue from the widgets in the interface, pushing news stories and ads, and it's not something many people want to see – at least not by default. If you want to turn it back on, though, that's entirely possible with the new way of working, as you might expect.

Microsoft is also toning down taskbar badging for the widgets panel, which is when little notification dots pop up, say, for breaking news.

Remember that these changes are still only in testing for now, and at an early stage of that process too.

Analysis: 'top improvements' being pushed through

Essentially, Microsoft is smoothing over a bunch of distractions with the widgets panel here and turning off some of the advertising in Windows 11 by default. That's great news for everyone, and it's also a positive sign that, in its big revamp of Windows 11, Microsoft isn't afraid to make changes users really want, even if they could potentially interfere with its revenue stream.

I've recently written about my doubts about Microsoft calming down its upselling activities in Windows 11, so I'm pleased to see action actually being taken to pull back on some of the promotional nonsense that's included by default as part of the operating system.

These widget changes are mentioned in a lengthy blog post that Microsoft wrote about the "top improvements" that have started rolling out in testing, and it's quite a list, from making File Explorer speedier and improving system performance in general, through to a bunch of important changes to Windows Update.

Another key bit of info dropped here is Microsoft saying, "We know there's a lot of excitement for Taskbar customization – and that's coming soon."

So, the ability to move the taskbar away from the bottom of the screen (and other useful customization options) isn't far off, and that's good to hear. It seems that the rumors of this being a top priority for Microsoft were on the money.

All in all, it's good to see that Microsoft wants to stay engaged with Windows 11 users, and that it's keeping us all up to date regularly, and pushing promised changes through with some alacrity – including reining in some ad-related blights on the OS.

Fixing Windows 11 remains a mountainous task, don't get me wrong, but I'm starting to have more faith that Microsoft may actually pull this off.

Microsoft has a tough task ahead to optimize Windows 11, with the reported project 'K2' described as an effort to effectively eliminate the issues of bloatware, excessive AI usage, and provide better gaming performance, and it wants to match the latter with Valve's SteamOS to win users' trust back.

I think that's a move from Microsoft that all of its users can get behind, because Windows 11 certainly needs it. I've had my fair share of complaints about the operating system for a long while, mostly with the frustrating and persistent bugs with each update.

However, since there's an ongoing memory crisis, leaving consumers with very few affordable options on RAM kits, I've discovered that Windows 11 and other factors around applications are only making life worse for its users. It's no wonder that Microsoft is now prioritizing optimization for the OS.

In the meantime, I've found another way to manage memory woes.

Windows 11 and apps are using more RAM than necessary

Using the Windows RAM & Performance Optimizer on GitHub by Priyom Saha, I've been able to decrease the amount of memory consumption at the click of a button.

Similar to many other RAM optimizers you can find available on GitHub, this works via a script, which eliminates unnecessary background applications and Windows 11's persistent bloatware, designed to run in an endless loop every 10 seconds. It's also actively monitoring and trimming RAM usage 'in real-time', which helps recover memory that could be used for more intensive tasks.

While using this tool, I've discovered that Windows 11 and its applications (including non-Microsoft apps) are using more RAM than necessary, and this was evident in drops of up to 6GB in usage. I've tested scenarios where Microsoft Edge (or even Chrome) is running in the background with only a few tabs open, and I would see RAM usage fall from 17GB to 11GB in a matter of minutes.

The drops aren't as significant on idle; however, I still noticed that when running the script, at least 1GB or 2GB of memory is recovered. While that isn't a huge amount for systems with 16GB or more, it's a bigger issue for low-end PCs or handhelds.

I must state that the problem isn't solely on Windows 11 here, as it's quite clear that other applications are in use, but browsers like Edge or Chrome, and entertainment applications like Spotify shouldn't be pulling so much memory, especially when committing to basic background tasks (at least in comparison to gaming or editing).

The combination of both Windows and non-Windows applications (e.g., Chrome), alongside the operating system's bloatware and usual background activity, is seemingly creating an excessive amount of RAM usage. It's exactly why it's pleasing to hear Microsoft address this with project K2 for Windows, and I'm hoping that we can start to see major improvements in the near future.

While we wait, though, there's always Saha's RAM optimizer.

Earlier this week, Microsoft's CEO added to all the promises that've been made about how the company is taking the drive to fix Windows 11 very seriously, although there was an element here which I found less reassuring.

Windows Central picked up on chief executive Satya Nadella's little speech, which came as part of Microsoft's recent earnings call (following its fiscal Q3 results).

Nadella said: "When it comes to our consumer business, we are doing the foundational work required to win back fans and strengthen engagement across Windows, Xbox, Bing, and Edge. In the near term, we are focused on fundamentals, prioritizing quality and serving our core users better."

"With Windows, we recently announced performance improvements for lower memory devices, streamlined the Windows Update experience, and brought back focus to core features and fundamentals that matter most to our customers."

Nadella further referenced Xbox along the same lines, stating that Microsoft is "recommitting to our core fans and players" and citing the changes to Game Pass last week as an example of how the company is "staying responsive to customer feedback" (another major theme with Windows 11 of late).

What's interesting here is that the CEO wouldn't normally be drawn to comment so directly on Windows, especially not from a consumer point of view as seen here. And he's also addressing how Microsoft wants to "serve" those consumers better, and even referring to them as "core users", as if they're more important than corporations. (And it's true that while consumers are more numerous, just about, the business side of Windows makes a lot more money for Microsoft).

It's great to see Nadella comment so frankly on the situation with consumers, and it's telling about the importance of overhauling Windows 11 and making the OS much better. It shows that the CEO – and the company – realizes the gravity of the situation that Windows 11 has found itself in, and that Microsoft really is taking this seriously, which, as already noted, underlines a whole lot of signs in a similar vein of late.

Bing it on

So, that's all good, but I'm about to nitpick somewhat, because there's something that worries me in Nadella's key statements above. Let's rewind back to this sentence, on the "work required to win back fans and strengthen engagement across Windows, Xbox, Bing, and Edge."

Bolstering Windows, yes, that's great, and Xbox, fine and dandy, all good — but Bing and Edge. Wait a minute — where do Bing and Edge come into it?

Yeah, I know. Bing and Edge are important to Microsoft, clearly. But this is messaging from the CEO which is specifically aimed at consumers, and acknowledging these "core users", remember? How much does the average consumer use Bing or Edge?

Not a lot, frankly. Okay, so Edge is the second most-used desktop web browser, but it's a long way behind Chrome, and adoption has remained lackluster going by the market share figures I've seen (just over 10% or so).

And yes, Bing has hit a billion active users for the first time, which Nadella also announced, but how much does the average consumer care about it? Not much, I'd argue, and if you look at search engine market share (on desktop), Bing is on about 10%, which is as far behind Google as Edge lags Chrome. I'm guessing a lot of Bing's billion users are from the business world (and that a good deal of fresh traffic has been driven by Copilot queries).

So, the question is: why bring Bing and Edge into a statement that's firmly targeted at consumers?

True, this is all part of an earnings report, and Nadella evidently has investors in mind here, too, as a result. But this kind of encapsulates one of my concerns about the big Windows 11 revamp: that Microsoft wants to please consumers, yet it constantly has one eye on investors, and the monetary part of the equation.

Of course it's interested in the financial side of the equation, you may well be muttering to yourself under your breath at this point: it's a business, it exists to make money. However, I worry that the mention of Bing and Edge in the same breath as Windows 11 and Xbox in a speech focused on consumers is a somewhat concerning glimpse into the inner workings of Microsoft's collective mind here.

Remember that one of the promises of the 'fix Windows 11 initiative' was to chill out on all the upselling activity in the OS? That was the response of a key Microsoft exec to a jab at Windows 11 and specifically about pushing Edge and Bing in an advert-like way within the operating system's interface.

And yet, here we are, basking in the glow of Nadella's commendable promises to 'win back fans' with Windows 11, which in the same breath has a nod to the shareholders along the lines of 'don't worry, we've not forgotten about Bing and Edge either'.

I've never had much faith that Microsoft is going to relent with the kind of promotional activity that has been a hallmark of parts of the Windows 11 interface (the Start menu, Settings app, and notifications center in particular), and this thorn amongst the rosy consumer-targeted comments from Nadella does little to convince me otherwise.

A dominant desktop force

It's noteworthy that Nadella also took the time to share news of a new high for active Windows devices, which now exceed 1.6 billion globally. This is a clear reminder of the dominance of Windows in the desktop world, in a time where people are increasingly talking about the threat Linux poses. (On the latter score, it's notable that Microsoft is also making promises relating to better gaming performance for Windows 11 versus that seen on SteamOS, too).

I don't want to detract too much from what Nadella said here — it represents a mainly comforting backing up of what Microsoft has already laid out on the table. However, while it's a telling reinforcement of intent, I do find it ironic that Bing and Edge were mentioned alongside Windows and Xbox here, when for consumers, their main desire is to see the latter two forces banished from Windows 11 for good. (Well, that's not entirely fair, but it's certainly true for some folks going by many of the comments you see on the likes of Reddit — although the less noisy majority simply just don't care about either Bing or Edge, one way or another, I suspect).

I really hope that Microsoft can make a key move in improving Windows 11 by reining in all the promos and upselling for Edge, Bing, OneDrive, Microsoft Accounts, and so forth. This would be a huge fan-pleaser, and I'd rank it as close to the importance of fixing QA and testing for Windows 11 (which I've already banged on about recently).

However, I have my cynical hat on here (along with my skeptical shades), and I remain unconvinced that much will change about upselling in Windows 11 at all. And Nadella's comments here haven't helped soothe my fears, let's put it that way. I think Microsoft needs to tread carefully and look at some of the reaction to this online, because while the CEO is talking about 'winning back fans', there are Redditors pouring scorn on the idea that there were fans of the OS in the first place.

As one Reddit poster phrased it: "Windows 11 fans? Are there any? I thought people use Windows because it runs games and most software, not because they're fans."

And another in the same thread observed: "IDK if I've met a Windows fan in the last decade. It's more like 'tolerators.'"

Microsoft is priding itself on listening to feedback now, so I think it must take note, and focus on turning 'tolerators' into users with a good deal more enthusiasm for Windows 11. And here's a clue — the key to swaying those opinions very definitely doesn't involve anything to do with Bing or Edge.

• Microsoft is actively working to improve Windows 11's performance, via project 'K2'
• Project K2 is an effort to reduce bloatware, use of AI, and optimize game performance
• Microsoft is reportedly looking at Valve's SteamOS as the benchmark for gaming

Valve's SteamOS continues to show significant advantages over Windows 11 for gamers, with better memory utilization and improved in-game performance, but Microsoft has a plan to combat that.

As reported by Windows Central, Microsoft is working on a new project labeled Windows 'K2', intent on removing bloatware, reducing AI, and optimizing Windows 11 for gaming, with three focuses of 'performance, craft, and reliability'.

Rather than a dedicated release (or update) for Windows 11, project K2 is Microsoft's effort to maintain high quality across current and future versions of the OS, prioritizing consistency, and ultimately win back the trust of users.

Windows Central explains that Microsoft has clarified that Windows 11's performance has effectively been lacklustre, particularly within applications like File Explorer and games. Valve's SteamOS is also reportedly viewed as the benchmark specifically for gaming, and that's no surprise considering the performance comparisons made over the last year.

SteamOS has provided a seamless and simple experience for both handheld and now, desktop gamers, with a console-like user interface without any bloatware hogging memory or the use of AI. Microsoft has tried to match up to this with the Windows Full Screen Experience (FSE), which does reduce RAM consumption, allocating more for games, but Windows K2's existence makes it clear that FSE has not done enough to compete.

Fortunately, it's not just gaming that Microsoft wants to optimize, but also minimizing memory usage when systems are idle, which, in theory, should improve overall RAM consumption when multitasking or simply using a browser.

Users like myself have had to rely on third-party tools and applications to reduce bloat and ensure Windows 11 isn't using more memory than it needs — and my main hope is that Microsoft can eventually take Windows to a stage where I no longer feel compelled to install an entirely different operating system, out of frustration. I just don't know if it will achieve that, at least with Windows 11.

• There's a hidden Screen Tint feature in a new Windows 11 preview build
• It offers a choice of six preset modes designed to deal with various issues
• You can also set your own color tint, and its strength, giving you plenty of customization options

Windows 11 is apparently set to get a new accessibility feature, one that can tint the display to make it more suitable and easier on the eyes for reading, or even help guard against a migraine developing.

Windows Latest flagged up a post on X from regular leaker PhantomOfEarth, who uncovered the new Screen Tint feature in a recent preview build of Windows 11, where it's present in the accessibility settings for the OS.

It's essentially a supercharged version of the current Night Light feature, offering a range of six preset colors, and the ability to set your own custom color tint. There's also a slider to adjust the strength of the effect, so you can have a deeper, more intense tint should you wish.

The provided presets include a 'calm amber' tint, which is designed to be helpful for long periods of using your Windows 11 PC to defend against eye strain. (This is the closest tint to the existing Night Light feature, it's worth noting). There's also a 'rose tint', which is the color that aims to reduce migraine triggers as mentioned at the outset, and another warm tint, 'soft yellow', is for helping to mitigate any discomfort when reading text.

At the colder side of the color temperature range, there's 'cool blue' to combat glare sensitivity, while 'gentle green' is for relief from photophobia (light sensitivity). Finally, the 'natural grey' tint is for those who dislike the starker contrast levels of the standard black-and-white look of Windows 11.

Analysis: commendably customizable

Remember, this new feature is not even in testing yet, so the usual rule applies — it could be an idea that Microsoft is toying with, but might abandon. Or at least the implementation could end up different to what we see here, which is a feature hidden in the background that's been enabled by poking around under the hood of Windows 11.

As noted by Windows Latest, which experimented with the Screen Tint ability, it doesn't work properly yet. The results can include screen flickering or the colors being wrongly applied, but that's only to be expected considering the feature isn't official yet.

I don't see any reason why Microsoft wouldn't want to roll this out into testing, though, as it's a handy accessibility feature – and this is an area the company has been very keen on developing ever since Windows 11 was first launched. I particularly like the customization available here, including the option to adjust the intensity of the effect, and the fact that you can mix your own tint using a color picker.

I'm not alone in liking the idea, as you might guess, with one Redditor observing that: "Neat — I'll use this for sure. I fly a lot of 12+ hour overseas flights and I'd very much like to have more control over the overall colour palette when the lights go out. I used f.lux for this for a long time but it hasn't been updated in years and it's too temperamental."

This all plays into Microsoft's current drive to give Windows 11 users more choice and control over the OS, and to generally fix everything that's wrong with the desktop operating system. More broadly, it's good to see deeper options to tailor the nature of a display more to your tastes or needs, beyond a simple reading mode, or the blue light reduction facility, that may be provided with your monitor.

Of course, this kind of tech, while clearly useful, should not be a substitute for keeping healthy screen habits — try not to be stuck staring at any display for too long if you can at all avoid it, and practice the 20/20/20 rule.