Microsoft has a popularity downside, and the corporate is aware of it.
After months of buggy updates, efficiency complaints, and rising consumer anger, the corporate is now shifting focus towards one thing many purchasers have been asking for: making Home windows 11 work higher.
In response to The Verge, Microsoft is getting ready a serious inner effort to enhance Home windows 11’s core expertise. Sources conversant in the corporate’s plans say Home windows engineers are actually being redirected to a course of known as “swarming,” by which groups focus urgently on fixing efficiency and reliability issues relatively than pushing extra add-ons.
Microsoft seems to be treating the scenario significantly, as Home windows 11’s regular stream of glitches has examined the persistence of even loyal customers.
Microsoft admits customers are sad
Microsoft executives say the complaints are now not ignorable. Pavan Davuluri, president of Home windows and units, informed The Verge that consumer suggestions has been loud and constant.
“The suggestions we’re receiving from our neighborhood of passionate clients and Home windows Insiders has been clear. We have to enhance Home windows in methods which can be significant for folks,” Davuluri mentioned in a press release to The Verge. “This 12 months you will notice us concentrate on addressing ache factors we hear persistently from clients: bettering system efficiency, reliability, and the general expertise of Home windows.”
The corporate says this renewed focus will run all through 2026, with engineers prioritizing long-standing points as a substitute of including new options.
Bugs, damaged updates, and on a regular basis annoyances
The push comes after a troublesome stretch for Home windows 11. January 2026 alone introduced a number of high-profile issues, together with shutdown failures, cloud app crashes, and emergency out-of-band updates.
Separate reporting from Home windows Newest confirms that Microsoft’s Jan. replace, Home windows 11 KB5074109, brought about severe boot failures on some industrial PCs. Microsoft later acknowledged that affected programs confirmed a Black Display of Dying with an “UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME” error.
“Current investigations have decided this problem can happen on units that failed to put in the December 2025 safety replace and had been left in an improper state after rolling again the replace,” Microsoft defined in a help doc. The corporate says it has now deployed a repair to stop extra programs from being affected, although machines already unable as well nonetheless require guide restoration.
Past bugs, many customers have additionally complained that Home windows 11 feels more and more intrusive, with persistent nudges to make use of Edge, Bing, OneDrive, and Microsoft accounts.
Efficiency and reliability below stress
Apart from the replace failures, efficiency stays a sore spot. File Explorer slowdowns, inconsistent system conduct, and updates that repair one problem whereas creating one other have worn down customers.
Home windows 11’s bigger system footprint has additionally raised questions on effectivity, with some benchmarks displaying it lagging behind older variations of Home windows.
Microsoft has beforehand promised efficiency enhancements, together with higher BitLocker and gaming efficiency, however the repeated points have made many customers skeptical.
For a lot of, the push into AI has felt like a distraction from these basic stability points. Whereas Microsoft is busy including AI coloring books to Paint and “Copilot” buttons to Notepad, the OS’s primary plumbing has felt uncared for.
The corporate is now going through a steep climb to win again its most loyal followers. As Davuluri famous in his assertion to The Verge: “Belief is earned over time and we’re dedicated to constructing it again with the Home windows neighborhood.”
Microsoft can also be rolling out Home windows 11 preview updates with new AI options and cellphone integration as a part of its broader roadmap.
