It has been a difficult year for Microsoft Windows, to say the least. This in turn has made the jobs of many users, IT support staff and companies reliant on the world’s most popular operating system more difficult as a consequence.
Following the end of support for Windows 10 in October 2025, Microsoft has struggled with performance issues, bugs and broken features that have persisted through multiple emergency updates, bloatware, aggressive pop-ups and misplaced priorities.
It has reached a point that some users have resorted to more drastic measures to ensure they maximise their workflows, from extensive system changes to remove unwanted features and system-sapping cruft to even switching operating systems entirely, running Windows software in virtual machines instead.
This malcontent has not gone unnoticed by Microsoft itself, with the President of Windows and Devices for Microsoft, Pavan Davuluri, stating to The Verge that 2026 is a year of “addressing pain points” and listening to customer feedback regarding the software experience.
What does this mean? Where have these pain points emerged? Why have they gotten worse with the end of support for the previous iteration of Windows? And will this help to improve productivity and make Windows a system that people choose rather than require?
Has Windows Become Less Reliable Recently?
As the core of the overwhelming majority of business machines, Windows needs to be reliable; if the core of a computer cannot be trusted, no part of it can be, and there is a tangible financial cost that comes with productivity loss.
Whilst every version of Windows has had some notable issues with reliability in the past, often related to problems with hardware drivers and compatibility issues, Windows 11 has faced several issues caused by recent updates.
According to a report by The Verge, Microsoft’s first update of 2026 was a disaster, causing forced shutdowns of some machines, stopping others from shutting down safely, making the login window invisible on others, making Dropbox and OneDrive less responsive and causing dark mode to cause the screen to flash.
Even worse than this, the update stopped some computers from booting entirely, requiring tech support engineers to painstakingly recover and fix the error and leading to not one but two out-of-band updates, according to Windows Central.
All of this has caused a negative perception of Windows, with a perception that Microsoft has lost focus on its core product in favour of features and functionality that the overwhelming majority of users either do not want or have outright rejected.
Why Is Windows Struggling With Performance Issues?
One of the major reasons why hundreds of millions of users hesitated to install Windows 11 was issues with performance, which dovetailed with applications being slow to respond, failing to launch properly or crashing.
Even basic system components such as Notepad and the Start Menu have struggled with slowdown and performance problems, which have compounded the frustrations with reliability.
The reasons for these issues are varied but can be divided into three categories:
- Bloatware: Several applications have had additional features added that have not added value to users but have increased system resource requirements, such as pop-ups, AI integration and advertising. This has been a particular problem for Microsoft Office 365, Notepad and even the default Photos app.
- Incompatibility and Problematic Updates: Whilst the main concern with some of the less-than-stellar updates has been the total disruption they have caused to workflows, some updates have stopped features and even some computers from working entirely.
- Inefficient Design: Many programs and apps are set to launch when the computer does, which can make it slow to launch the apps you need when you need them and often requires support staff to do the legwork in tweaking the system with an eye on productivity.
Will The Windows Experience Be Fixed By Microsoft?
A lot of the problems with the overall experience can be explained through a mix of inefficiency and unreliability. However, the problem at the centre of Windows is a lack of priorities for core system functionality and features that customers actually use.
The company has been very vocal about its future vision of Windows as a so-called “Agentic OS”, where users interact with an AI chatbot that completes tasks on the user’s behalf through Windows apps and services.
Unfortunately, many of Windows’ early integrations of AI were unwelcome at best and caused significant problems for users at worst, with Windows Central reporting the company’s acute awareness of the negative feedback surrounding Recall, Copilot and the plans for agentic features.
In another Windows Central report, Windows is allegedly reevaluating how it integrates AI into Windows 11, focusing on core fixes and features and ending the “AI Everywhere” strategy that had become so widely criticised.
In rather telling statements made to the World Economic Forum and reported by PCGamer, Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, claimed that AI will lose the “social permission” to use the vast amounts of energy and water it does until it “does something useful”.
It appears that the plan for updates will focus on making Windows as a whole more useful for business customers, but the proof remains to be seen.