For years, Windows has felt less like a trusted tool and more like a construction site that never quite cleared the rubble. Whether it’s the lingering inconsistency of the UI, the intrusion of unwanted ads, the performance hiccups, or that many users now expect to experience issues when Microsoft releases an update for the operating system.
Microsoft’s flagship OS has faced a widening trust gap with its most loyal users. Now, in a strategic pivot aimed at 2026, the tech giant is launching an internal “swarming” initiative to prioritize stability and refinement over flashy new AI features.
Swarming, in this context, refers to engineering teams working on core reliability issues, including performance lags, to address major pain points of Windows users.
This year you will see us focus on addressing pain points we hear consistently from customers: improving system performance, reliability, and the overall experience of Windows.
The quote comes from the president of Windows and devices at Microsoft, and it was published by Tom Warren at The Verge on January 29, 2026.
A bad start of the year for Windows users
If anyone needed a refresher of the challenges that Microsoft is facing, they do not need to look far. When Microsoft released the first update for Windows in 2026, it probably did not expect it to cause a considerable number of issues on user computers: from broken Remote Desktop Connections over a shutdown bug to a severe bug affecting Outlook that needed an out-of-band update for fixing.
While it is bad enough that users and organizations feel issues hitting them left and right at times, it is the image of Windows that seems to be starting to worry Microsoft. Up until now, Microsoft pushed what it thought served it best onto Windows. Ads, AI, limited user control, features that barely anyone asked for. Yes, there was the occasional feature that users liked, but most changes were met with a good portion of skepticism at best.
While Microsoft received criticism, most users did not seem to mind as long as the operating system worked. Most features could be turned off or disabled. Yes, some had the nasty habit of being turned on again at times, which was annoying.
Now it appears that Windows is at a critical junction, one that even Microsoft can’t ignore going forward.
The foundation needs to be stabilized before Microsoft can continue to use Windows as a vehicle for selling subscriptions and other products.
It remains to be seen how dedicated Microsoft will be and whether it manages to make a U-turn regarding stability of its operating system. With Linux gaining essential support for PC games, there is not really much that Windows has to offer that is not also possible on Linux.
1. “There is not really much that Windows has to offer that is not also possible on Linux.”
Except–uniformity.
“There are over 600 active Linux distributions.”
Most LInux distributions are similar enough that if someone asks me/pays me to work on his/her computer, I can figure out the issue, but it’s not always so simple.
With Windows, which, underneath, hasn’t changed much since XP days, it’s much easier and faster to identify and fix an issue. And it’s much easier to research an issue if I need to find a fix.
2. Whether it’s the lingering inconsistency of the UI, the intrusion of unwanted ads, the performance hiccups, or that many users now expect to experience issues when Microsoft releases an update for the operating system.
a) UI squabbles are easily adjusted with high quality 3rd party programs, many of which are open source.
b) Ads are easily squashed with 3rd party programs and a close look at Windows settings.
c) Performance issues are, for the computers I work on, a thing of the past; XP had issues. Lots of performance tweaks to optimize the system. Martin at gHacks offered them all the time.
d) Any user of Windows over the last five years knows to turn off updates and never install updates on Patch Tuesday; and every user knows by now to have a full system image made prior to updating. It goes for LInux, too, because I lost an entire system after a Mint Upgrade failure. I did not have an image backup–Timeshift, very easy.
Well… This sounds all sounds good but lets see if they walk the walk. Being in commercial IT, I spend a HUGE amount of time de-bloating and modifying new laptops and desktops (some that come with 11 home especially) that were never asked for nor wanted, as the article indicates.
Typical de-bloat on a machine that will be added to an internal network with OUR cloud access that is not necessarily microsoft.
* Bypass the mandatory you need to be on internet to continue (yes I know pro and rufus) but sometimes its simply easier use the OOBE bypass
* Accounts to local, workgroup (for now) and domain after pro upgrade if not already there
* Add shutup10, add a “real” virus scanner, not Defender and never ever Avast! lol
* Upgrade to pro, we have the licenses to this and some pc’s come with 11home np
* Once on 11pro, gpedit and all the policy changes
*Goodbye OneDrive and Edge! I use policy management and reg tweaks to make them disappear. A few users do prefer Edge and being a kind and benevolent admin, I CAN be bribed to let them remain!! XD
*Removal of the bloat that gets through, solitaire, xbox, the todo list, take a test, others I can’t think of at the moment
*A big ol’ check to see what Microsoft has decided decided to run at startup – DENY!
*All telemetry that installed utils missed, disabled, checked.
*Speed test, security test
*Remap the now VERY annoying copilot key that was once the right Ctrl button
*Into the Azure portal or whatever the hell its name is now, we do use a corporate “Organization managed” account and I set up the user for their appropriate rights on two or three tenants .
*A few local programs, vpn access software for some, printers, the ever annoying Teams, assigned folders, assigned rights and all that in about an hour and a half. Then off to a well deserved lunch with the bribes!!
If microsoft will make good an let me not have to force my control over its agenda, Great! If not, well, same day, different computer. It will make my life easier if it comes to pass.
“While Microsoft received criticism, most users did not seem to mind as long as the operating system worked.”
Hence, “most users” will accept tracking, AI and new dummy applications “as long as it works”.
I don’t think Microsoft will change anything but will only attempt to make their damned OS work without the fix to fix odyssey which is the only common annoyance to all, techies as newbies.
Business seldom performs u-turns but rather changes the minimum required to return to the inner limit of the red line, the red line being income, factual or in perspective of what their analysts perceive in perspective.
For my case I’ll be totally disengaged with Microsoft once I will have switched from Windows 7 to Linux. Microsoft: never more.
After using Windows 10 and Windows 11 for so many years, I switched to Linux Mint Debian Edition and I even dual boot it with Windows 7
I still need Windows 7 for my external drives are using NTFS while Linux Mint Debian Edition 7 is what I use for web browsing.