Microsoft is working to rebuild trust in Windows
Microslop is going to spend 2026 improving Windows 11. It comes after Windows update quality issues and complaints about the operating system.
https://www.theverge.com/tech/870045/microsoft-windows-11-issues-rebuilding-trust-notepadOpen linkView original on piefed.social292
Comments183
I have a strong feeling they won't be removing the spying, AI everywhere, ads, and bloatware. Microsoft views those as positives.
Tech has long been in the era of surveillance capitalism. Windows, Chrome, MacOS/iOS(iAds, NewsApp, notarization security, mediaanalysisd, and the most locked down hardware on earth), Android, the majority of all of the apps in the various walled gardens are all out to extract, analyze and monetize every aspect of our digital lives... which is a lot of our waking hours.
As users of these services we all need to ask ourselves if the companies who now make up the lion-share our retirement savings, who collectively dictate how we view and interact with the world really have anything but their own best interests in mind.
Most people would say no but "what am I supposed to do?". People really need to understand that power like the kind that these mega-corps have is only taken and basically never surrendered willingly. Vote with your dollars now and for as long as it takes to see the fall of these vile companies.
Seems they're figuring out you can't sell ads and AI on your platform if nobody wants to use your platform.
If Microsoft walks back their use of AI in the development of Windows, that would be a major admission of failure on their part.
But it will probably help prolong their market dominance a great deal. Because up until they started destroying their own OS, all they needed to do to remain on the top was literally nothing.
Plus getting closer with the govt contracts to allow private data to be surveillance.
As positives for them ;)
Okay, that's easy: remove all the LLM slop. That'll start fixing it. Then get the ads out of the UI. Get rid of the MS account requirement, and make all updates optional. For a stretch goal, go back to making an OS that only does what the user tells it to, and doesn't have any function to phone home without direct user input.
Too funny. They'd need to go back to Win95 for all that.
XP would be enough.
Think back... XP had many complaints at release too, wasn't till sp2 or sp3 it was actually decent.
XP is also when they introduced the activation server.
Also true
You couldnt unzip 2 files at once. Not untill service pack 1.
Wait, you didn't just use PKWare zip & unzip? Or WinRAR?
I couldn't afford WinRAR
I think there might be around 10 people in the whole world that has ever bought WinRAR. The rest of us just kept closing the nag box and used the free trial indefinitely.
Tip: use 7-zip, it is the best on windows by far. https://www.7-zip.org/
On Windows, yes. PKWare is for DOS.
No, man. Windows 7 for lyfe!
I think W7 would be the very last option, everything after that has been shit, and getting worse. I still prefer XP though, except for the hideous UI.
I thought it's the best version out there.
Don't get me wrong, it is (Jesus, I have a hard time using this word for ANY Winblows, but I can't think of anything else before coffee) good, no real complains other than the ridiculous resources usage, and the UI certainly beats the hell out of XP. But resources use is my issue, unnecessary background shit running all the time, whereas XP remained way lighter. As I said, anything after 7 has been consistent crap and has just been getting exponentially worse.
Anyway, Linux and Gnu has been my life for way too long now. I only know about Winblows issues because I come in here and hear my circle of acquaintances complaining, which only makes me laugh because they choose to keep dealing with that crap when there are so many options.
98SE would mostly work.
Fix the task bar!!!
That's the secondary goal. I feel like there's enough 3rd party tools to fix that, that I want the repairs done in the backend and trust power users and user-devs to handle the UX.
No there's not. I tried several things, for my use there's no fix. It's not the point though.
I think we want the same thing ♥️.
I wake up to a bright flashing of my phone.
It is 3am, damn I forget to turn my phone to silent.
I can't resist the urge, who would text me this time of night??!?
"hey I have been thinking about you, you know I think we could work it out together. I will spend 2026 improving myself I promise. Please baby I miss you"
"go to bed Microslop, you are drunk and you are the one that wanted the divorce because you left me for Al" I text back frustratedly and turn my phone to silent.
I want a divorce and I'm keeping Clippy
King/Queen (whichever you prefer, frigging royalty)
Marketing bullshit. Microsoft isn't going to actually reverse any of the enshittification it's inflicted on Windows.
If you don't have any customer mandated software that requires Windows, I'm looking at you AutoDesk, then do yourself a favor and go ahead take the week to install and learn Linux Mint.
Enshittification, as always, is the word here. It's important to point out because to disenshittify(?) the product would need to turn back the wheel, including profits. Line go down.
With all the other lines going down, they literally cannot course correct here in any way that would matter to the consumer to rebuild trust. So much of their model is built off of force feeding users and directing their behaviors, the thing they absolutely hate.
I’ve been wanting to install Linux, but I don’t have a drive large enough to back up my windows installation.
Do you really need the entire installation? Would only the user folder(s) (C:\Users) suffice?
Alternatively, you could install Linux mint on a large enough USB stick and run it off there, if you don't mind the longer read/write times. You'd also need to change the boot order for it too.
You can install on an external USB drive. As long as it's USB 3, there will be little performance difference vs an internal HD (SSD likely slower, but good enough for everyday work)
Rebuild trust?
Then, and only then, we might start to trust again.
To add to this list
I thought of some of those, but decided to add my point (4) and allow the community to do it right.
Oh no doubt, same. There's so much to be said. More than any one person should.
Please dont do step 4. Devs will get heart attacks left and right if they see that piece of shit code.
No, it's a long-known fact that the Windows code has been shit for decades. That's been known since at least XP days I think. Pretty sure I first heard about it on TechTV
Hahahahahaha!! No, no, you've got a good point
GLP2 at least and reproducible builds or bust.
They can't open source their code because then people would rather rapidly discover all the backdoors they've built in for various US LE and Intelligence agencies.
Rebuild trust… by integrating more mandatory and default-on server-based features?
And the fixes will be vibe coded too.
I already moved to Linux, and I'm not going back.
Migrating users might be a few, but they rarely go back. A few users monthly eventually become a lot!
They'll never read nor act on this feedback, but here's my list:
Honestly win10 was great when it dropped. Not sure why we needed 11.
To be fair, I think they knew that. Which is why they said up front that windows 10 was the last windows you'd need. And then for some reason they kept going...
Somehow my 11 feels that way, being in EU, having it installed with the W7 license key that came with my laptop. Still, there are bugs that seem ludicrous to me, from a company like them, especially in the file explorer that cannot manage keyboard shortcuts properly when you move between tabs, or that don't highlight the proper file or folder you've selected. Same thing with how buggy Excel has become, especially with rendering when you switch between multiple files. Selections are offset from were the mouse is, that's crazy. Best solution I've found is a quick CTRL-N, CTRL-W that seems to reset it. Anyway, I've been using windows since 2.0 on MS DOS 3.30 or 5.0, Excel for about 20 years most of my life at work, and things are really not improving.
Rebuilding trust for most companies means some bullshit marketing campaign. New catch phrase. Some promotion. It rarely means admitting fault and changing direction. It would take something really huge for that to happen. Perhaps a combination of AI bubble burst, leadership change, shareholder revolt.
Everything anti-consumer in Windows is a deliberate choice aimed at extracting more revenue from customers. This isn't unique to Microsoft. They exist to make money for their shareholders.
If like me you think a lot of companies have been incredibly short sighted and are burning their brands and customer loyalty for short term gains, just look at the stock prices. Short termism is making a killing for tech companies while the rest of the economy is treading water. Is it sustainable? I don't think so. Does it matter for Microsoft or any of the other tech companies?
I have been a customer of companies that were awesome for years then sold out and their prices sky rocketed. They were clearly bleeding customers but every time they did they just put the price up more. Some people always stay for some reason. This can go on for years. As long as they keep screwing people faster than people leave they are probably making a lot more money in the short term than they would have made with a longer vision. That is business these days. People aren't building products for the long term anymore. Now that thinking seems to have moved to companies. Modern business leaders are about gobbling revenues up like a locust plague then moving on to the next pasture.
I read the statement as 'We're going to stop announcing controversial changes and spend more money on propaganda firms who will fill your social media with fake users who have a bunch of stories about how trustworthy Microsoft is'
It's because they have such a huge market share that people don't even realize there are alternatives. Or the alternatives are so far behind that they're not really a viable option for most. What's the alternative to Microsoft? Apple who also sucks, or Linux which is really hard to get into for the average person. What's the alternative to streaming? Buying physical media, which is going away, or pirating and hosting your own shit. What's the alternative to Amazon? Buying locally, but you have to get off your ass and the costs are going to be much higher and it's going to be difficult to find a lot of niche items. Especially now that a lot of malls are dead. There's countless other examples but those are the main ones that came to mind. These companies just have built up so much inertia in people's lives that it's going to be a long while before they feel the effects of their enshittification. There's also a factor of a lot of people just do not think very hard about the products they buy. I've watched people by cars on a whim for fucks sake. They see an ad for something and it gets in their brain that they need to have it or think that a product must be better because it is more expensive without much critical evaluation. I think the economy going to shit is going to hit these companies worse than the consequences of their own actions will for a long time.
MS is about to learn how hard it is to build trust in commercial markets, and why it's a terrible decision to set that on fire for a short term profit. Honestly, it's hard to find a better example of a company that had a more comfortable and ideal position in their market, that just decided to disrupt itself without any pressure or prompting. You wanna gamble, you gotta be ready to lose.
Meanwhile, Valve...
So true
Man… :( please don’t do that. That’s super boring. They were doing so great pushing people to use Linux.
About thirty years too late. That horse has bolted long ago.
That horse has sailed.
They burned that horse.
Was windows 95 really that bad?
It should not be hard to browse local files on a computer.
Why are you using local files when you have a cloud???!
-Microsoft
Thanks. I think I just puked in my mouth.
"Everything will be a service. You will own nothing. You will accept this reality"
You will not just accept, you will embrace. You will feel cold and empty when you taste freedom, for you will not understand it or know what to do with it.
I mean, kind of. Not owning anything or being able to do what we want with our PCs will really free up a lot of time for other hobbies such as hunting billionaires for sport.
remote wipes ur db of billionaire addresses
Way too fucking late for that.
Please don't. It's actually quite funny if you don't have to use windows at all.
Why bother? Just upgrade everyone to Windows 10.
Upgrade everybody to Linux Mint. Problem solved.
Or a distro using Wayland for higher end PCs.
Been a linux user for a solid 9 years now. Never going back!
You want trust? Fuck off with Slopilot and start supporting windows 10 again.
Not like that. More like building trust by like telling you "trust us bruh". See how we did that? See how by calling you bruh we sound more down to earth and trustworthy?
It seems like we’re at a real turning point for Linux adoption. I’m an Apple nerd, but I love seeing people switch to Linux and write about what a (mostly) positive experience it is. Cheers to my fellow nerds getting off the screaming pile of garbage MS if forcing on people who just want a computer that works.
After a win11 forced updated made my nontech 75 years old father laptop nearly useless he ask me if linux could give it a second life i’ve been a user for at least 15 years so i was more than happy to install it
His laptop is like a new one sure he had to learn a little after so long on windows but it’s mostly really user friendly now except for some minor problem everything work out of the box (wifi,bluetooth,printer etc)
I doubt microslop could ever get most new linux user back once they get the hang of it
Translation: They going to try to “marketing” their way out of this hole.
Nothing about Windows or Microsoft will fundamentally change.
Don‘t forget the bribes! They‘ll bribe their way back into government ministries that ditched them in no time because Macroslop is just reliable like that.
Maybe if they keep making it worse and worse it will kind of circle back to good.
“I see you’re trying to edit this config file and respect your choice to do so. May I take this task over from you? No wait, I’ll make a test run and save it elsewhere for review. No wait, that’s too forward of me, I’ll delete it instead.
Come to think of it I’ll delete myself as well, goodbye”
clanker.exe terminated
That's a kind of horseshoe theory I haven't heard of :D
Unfortunately, if the gaming community has taught me anything, it's that standards drop along with industry quality.. all it takes is waiting out the old people and giving garbage to the young people who don't know any better, and taking away all other options
Good luck with that - you would need to scrap the entire operating system.
And a lot of leadership and investors
There was a theory that Microsoft could just release a Linux distro with a first party windows skin on it
If planned obsolescence wasn't a concern this would be a decent way to improve - use the Linux kernel, ported or recreated interface and a compatibility layer for games or whatever it is that keeps people on Windows.
They can't scrap their whole operating system: the only thing keeping people on Windows is its backwards compatibility.
Bullshit.
"Fuck this shit…"
Forever. If by some miracle W12 rolls out and undoes all of this shit I’m still not going back.
Windows 11.1
Reminds me of Vault 111, where the overseer is the friendly dictator that knows best and should never be questioned. Seems like a fitting version number
lol
Lmao, even
Also, hi from bazzite, which runs the vast majority of games I’m interested in flawless, and usually with even better performance than W10 (let alone W11)
Hello! I am using bazzite-dx at the moment. I don't even game much, just doing dev work.
Didn't they have to pull a botched update like last week?
… but it was already too late. They alienated their users completely and Linux is soooo nice.
Too late for me. But thanks for telling me my computer wasn't good enough for Win 11 and forcing me to install Linux. It was a breeze, and computing is fun again.
I agree 100%. I've been trying to put my finger on why.
Maybe it's because using Linux doesn't feel adversarial?
Maybe it's because Tux Racer comes pre-installed with some distros and brings a whole vibe?
Maybe it's the software center that prominently displays a warning for anything that isn't completely free in either price or freedom?
The Linux Software Center feels like my happy memories of getting to spend $5.00 in a 10 cent candy shop.
Maybe it's because it is where many librarians, educators and free thinker gather, and their fingerprints are on everything?
Sorry for the random walk comment. I just keep thinking I should figure out the elevator pitch for why Linux feels more fun.
Source code or perish.
Next week:
“We’ve listened to your feedback and have made the hard decision. Copilot will henceforth bear the likeness of Clippy”
Honestly I think people would unironically that as an option.
Hey Satya, just give us Win10 back and fuck off, you bald fraud.
We have that. It's called Linux
I use both Windows and Ubuntu/Mint for personal use, WSL for personal dev environment (because MS SQL Server on Docker limits what I do), Ubuntu/Redhat for dev/test/prod environments.
I like Linux but it can be a hassle with little things so Windows.
Nah, windows 10 was still sluggish spyware/adware.
I would only ever consider switching back to windows if they updated windows 7 with the latest kernel/security updates.
No apps, ads, ai, or shitty UI frameworks.
A functioning offline-only search, a cohesive/responsive UI, and control over if/when updates get installed.
Thought about that but some newer storage and network connections may not be supported.
The problem is upper management. Without touching that there is no hope for improvement.
Already switched to Linux... super happy with it.
I personally just want a glorified calculator (that works on text too) I can trust in doing what I tell it to do. And not some "experience" that does all kinds of unspecified things in the background. But that's just me.
Wait, so you're telling
meDell that you don't want their new AI laptop? But it's how those ahead get, uh, behind, or whatever the buzz phrase is now.The phrase used to be like "move fast and crash" or something similar.
I prefer to use Linux. Arch Linux.
You dropped this:
Btw
No one is impressed by arch users.
I'm impressed. He uses arch
How often do they clean install? ;)
it's a joke dum dum
In other news, doctor prescribes a bandaid to GSW victim
Let me guess: instead of improving their products, they're going to get the US security industrial complex to silence the critics.
Great, so windows 9 is going to come out?
I would genuinely laugh so fucking hard
Windows 8 .1 was effectively Windows 9.
See and this is why they are losing so much trust, even a child can tell you its 7, 8, 9, 10 and not 7, 8, 8.1, 10
I guess I have to thank MS for pushing me into using Linux Mint. And I love it.
They were so successful in pushing, I installed Linux Mint on my 3 PCs, laptop, wife's laptop and friends laptops. Not a single complaint so far (it's been about a year).
Are they, tho?
Ooohh wow, they are? I'm so happy about that, I can't wait to get my hands on their turd and be told what to do and be limited to only their wishes and pay them through the nose!
I mean who wouldn't want to work with a vibe coded piece of shit that can only run on the most expensive hardware? Who wouldn't trust a company who left security holes open for half a year causing the US government to be hacked by China, just because they didn't wanted to look bad nad potentially lose money?
The company that constantly non stop has done everything to get themselves more money, at the cost of software quality l, consumer sanity and everything good since it's founding some 5 decades ago is now telling me they really do care about me? The company that wants to add advertising into fucking basic software like operating systems juuuuust to squeeze some more money out of decades old products, that wants to monitor your every move so they can use and sell your data, wants .... Me? They real care about me, the end user?
Go get pounded by a bag of umbrella dicks you motherfuckers
good luck with that.
Could've fooled me...
Yah, that's bullshit. They hate their users and want them dead but buying things somehow.
Hey Microslop use Cortana to replace your shit CEO and the whole C-Suite
I wonder if we're past the point of no return re: the trust thermocline: https://mastodon.social/@garius/109279394369832433
... genuinely, how can they possibly expect to regain or have any trust after turning W11 into a constant wiretap via Copilot, that spams ads all up in your OS in every place, and then also just handing over the bitlocker master keys to the FBI?
You would have to be very uninformed or delusional at this point to think that Windows and privacy/security exist in the same universe.
The only thing they have going for them is inertia.
And they're now hitting the point where backlash against them is snowballing much faster than they could possibly reverse course on their own internal inertia and actually make any real changes.
And yes that applies to their consumer facing shit as well as B2B.
Don't forget competition, Linux has been gaining market share year over year
Too little, too fucking late!
And people in hell want ice water.
Ha. I thought this was from The Onion the first time I scrolled past it. What a hilarious joke. I hope it back fires so people and countries continue moving away from Windows.
Fuck 'em
Make it less shit dumbass
The biggest problem is that even if they fix it, it will take ages for the people that left to believe it is actually fixed. We can't take MS's word for it... And even then we will have no trust they won't just slip right back into this hellscape a couple years (or months) down the line.
Fire your current dipshit in chief, issue abject apologies and realise you peaked with 7.
Are they though?
I bet more AI and ads will make people trust it even more
Doubt
My 4 part plan to put Microsoft back on track.
1: Re-open support for Windows 10 until at least 2 years after the release date of the next version of Windows.
2: Commit to making the next version of Windows less intrusive, cleaner, more reliable, and a small as technically possible.
3: Fully fund the open source projects that Microsoft relies on for their products.
4: Make Co-pilot an optional toolkit that runs in the background, with tight, easily configured controls and hook-ins to other applications and data.
Please put me in charge of Microsoft. I'll do it for a measly 10 million dollars a year. You'll save so much on my salary alone, you practically can't afford not to hire me.
Win10 is dead. There no going back.
There’s no next version. It’s all iterative.
I agree that they should lean into open source though.
Talk is cheap.
Too late
Looking back, these will be the times that trump destroyed america and microsoft destroyed itself. Maybe america destroyed itself and trump was nothing more than the guy who squeezed the pimple.
Israel destroyed America https://www.trackaipac.com/congress
Lol. Buhbyeeeeee
"improve user experience and stability"
"Improving", the agentic OS thing? Or did they step back from that?
one quiet “merp merp” from a three-foot tuxedo in the back of an otherwise completely silent and unimpressed audience
By releasing windows 12?
Probably. just remember windows 10 is the last OS you will ever need. MS assured us :D
It sure was the last Windows I ever needed. Privately at least.
I know right? I thought it was going to be like OSX.
"That was a typo, we meant it's gonna be the last Windows you'll ever want, not need" -Microsoft probably.
Hilarious
Too late
Microslop has been a rotten cesspool since it's birth. 50 years of consistently fucking over it's customers, then promising to change followed by more screwing so please forgive me when I say to this Don't... Talk ... Shit ...
why even bother, windows isnt even 10% of their income. Just milk that cow and try to not let everyone know that azure is all running linux.
I hate Windows, always did, always will. My final trial with that garbage system was last April when I installed Fedora on a bootable thumb drive. I might be one of the few people left who couldn't care less what microsoft does. Here's hoping they only make decisions that make people trust them less.
They shouldn't have done their update today then. My fonts look like ass.
I haven't had any trust since in Windows since about mid Windows 7 and that was probably unfounded.
By putting out shitty updates that break basic, critical thing? Like email and chat?
I wouldn't. Why would I bother at this point. Their commitment is to making money, not customers.
"super stable, backward compatible system without "AI"" Sounds like Linux 😁
Same song and dance since at least Windows me. Overtime it keeps getting more bloated and focused on advertising. If you got to use Windows at work, it is what it is but at home, get over it and switch to Linux already. It’s very clear that all the complaining of the world has little chance to ever get Windows to be what people want it to be
That is corporate speak for Microsoft is going to spend millions on a PR campaign.
Way too late, at least for me.
I've switched over to CachyOS on three devices. My main laptop, a spare laptop(for the wife to try), and a gaming PC. All three are great and easy to use. No stupid pop ups, no AI, and I don't have to worry about it not booting up compared to Windows(which this was the opposite 10 years ago!).
At this point even if they make a great OS and call it Windows 12 I have zero faith that they won't reverse and make Windows 13 terrible.
At least with Linux I have a dozen or so options to choose from and they all work just fine. So if CachyOS becomes terrible(doubt) then I'll switch to something else.
At this point Windows needs to go above and beyond and be stable for YEARS and multiple versions before I switch back, which big doubt.
It's definitely fucking not doing that. It may say that it's going to work hard on it's problems but like any 'too big to fail' monopolistic piece of shit company, they're going to continue doing whatever the fuck they want and ignoring their end users.
Bs. This is a marketing campaign at best.
lmao. microflop is outdated, dusty and crusty.
Good luck.
Too late, for me at least
They are failing.
Trash
😂 could have fooled me!