Give credit where it’s due: Microsoft acknowledged some of its biggest problems last week, hat in hand. But it’s time to jump headfirst into this new atmosphere of openness and encourage Microsoft to take even more action.
Yes, maybe Microsoft has enough on its plate for right now with its commitment to solve Windows’ problems. But there’s even more to do. Here are six quick suggestions that come to mind, without much contemplation.
Did I miss anything? Tell me, sure — but reach out to Microsoft yourself!
Bring back local accounts
You’re just not escaping this one, Microsoft. Anonymity and privacy matter more than ever, and the last thing some users want is to have to associate themselves with a Microsoft account. PCs are personal, and there’s really no reason that Microsoft needs to know everything about you.
Foundry
Whenever I set up a new PC, I always set it up as a unique, individual device. If I need anything from another PC, I can quickly grab it from there or the cloud. Apps can be set up via WinGet or simply downloaded and installed. I’m aware that Microsoft wants to make my life efficient and sync to its services, but that’s not always how it feels. In any event, testing a PC is complicated by data syncing back and forth. I often like to have a machine that I control, and Microsoft’s accounts complicate that.
OneDrive and Windows Backup need to chill
The worst aspect of tying a PC to an account continues to be OneDrive. I can’t tell you how many times OneDrive tries to grab everything off my PC’s desktop, backing up hundreds of gigabytes into the OneDrive cloud — which, of course, Microsoft wants you to pay for, eventually. I’ve complained before that Microsoft is behind the times in only offering a measly terabyte of cloud storage. Don’t you think that it’s time to change?
Let’s not get distracted, though. Users should be able to pause, halt, or otherwise remove OneDrive — and those preferences should persist after you reboot the PC. I love the ability to store my data in the cloud, from PC to PC. But OneDrive has no chill. While we’re at it, could we get some deduplication or storage analysis tools to help clean everything up?
Mark Hachman / IDG
For that matter, my out-of-the-box experience is consistently marred by fighting off OneDrive’s cousin, Windows Backup, which wants to restore other apps and data transferred from a previous machine via the OneDrive Cloud. I can see what Microsoft is doing here. For an average user, migrating from one PC to another does require data to shift from one PC to another, and a tool to do that makes sense. But…
Make Windows 11 Pro mean something
More than half the PCs that come across my desk include Windows 11 Home. Some include Windows 11 Pro, but I rarely ever notice. Why? Nothing about a Windows 11 Pro operating system signals that it’s a Windows 11 Pro operating system. And it could!
Windows 11 Pro could be the home for local accounts. It could be a lightweight, thinner OS that’s focused on utility, with better controls for managing the operating systems. A “Pro” PC shouldn’t have to be for an IT department, but an enthusiast with greater freedom to tinker and tweak. A Windows 11 Pro PC already builds in Windows Sandbox, a solidly professional feature. But follow my thinking here: Sandbox…isolation. So far, the Sandbox has been used to protect the PC from malware and dodgy sites on the internet.
Mark Hachman / IDG
But, Microsoft, you’ve been talking about this concept of agentic AI. Why not code in support for agents in a “Pro” version, and offer the protection of a sandbox, to boot? Think about it.
Slim down the right-click menu
I mean, come on. How many screens does a right-click menu actually need? Surely you can edit those down into something manageable, just like coding a Taskbar that can be put at the top of the screen.
Seriously, it’s like Pitfall or Adventure or some other Atari 2600 game where you move from screen to screen to screen. At some point you almost expect some pixel dragon to swoop in and swallow your cursor.
Mark Hachman / IDG
UI coherence
Maybe this one is a bridge too far. Windows always starts out at the surface looking crisp, bright, and clean. But then you grab your rope and your 10-foot pole and start descending, down into the Control Panel, into file properties menus, deep into networking utilities from the last century. Your torch starts flickering…what lurks in the dark? Gah! Windows 8’s UI??
Eventually, Microsoft is going to have to establish a functional and aesthetic coherence across all of Windows, not just the parts that ordinary users see. The WinUI3 framework, described in Microsoft’s plans to make Windows faster, appear to offer one hint at how Microsoft could do it. I hate to suggest (gulp) automating it via AI, but something needs to be done.
Thiago Trevisan / IDG
The ads have got to go
Let’s assume that Microsoft is indeed going to reduce the amount of Copilot Copilot Copilot that we see within Windows. That still leaves ads.
I’ll be honest: I’ve said before that it benefits users and Microsoft alike to notify users about what’s new. Letting users know of a new feature is a good way to let them explore and try it out, and then both sides can decide whether it’s of value going forward.
Apps have a built-in feature-discovery method: a changelog or list of new features that opens when the app launches, and then can be reviewed or quickly dismissed. I understand that, say, the Settings menu or something like Windows Search might lack that easy discoverability. But what we need to agree on is some mechanism through which these additional changes are conveyed to the user.
Microsoft
The Tips app was one way of doing it. Again, I’d suggest a pop-up — but one that can also be easily dismissed and turned off permanently. If a user doesn’t want to be bothered by new features, they shouldn’t have to be — especially in a Pro configuration.
These aren’t deep thoughts by any means. But if Microsoft is taking aim at the most problematic features of Windows, let’s not forget about these!
