Microsoft really wants you to update to Windows 11 already, and it seemingly thinks that bragging about all the incredible ways it’s stuffing AI into every nook and cranny of its latest operating system will encourage the pesky holdovers still clutching to Windows 10 to finally let go.
Actually, saying Microsoft is merely “stuffing” AI into its product might be underselling the scope of its vision. Navjot Virk, corporate vice president of Windows experiences, told The Verge in a recent interview that Microsoft’s goal was to transform Windows into a “canvas for AI” — and, as if that wasn’t enough, an “agentic OS.”
No longer is it sufficient to just do stuff on your desktop. Now, there will be a bunch of AI agents you can access straight from the taskbar, perhaps the most precious area of UI real estate, that can do stuff for you, like researching in the background and accessing files and folders.
“You can hover on the taskbar icon at any time to see what the agent is doing,” Virk explained to The Verge.
Actual Windows users, however, don’t sound nearly as enthusiastic about the AI features as Microsoft execs do.
“Great, how do I disable literally all of it?” wrote one user on the r/technology subreddit.
Another had an answer: “Start with a web search for ‘which version of Linux should I run?'”
The r/Windows11 subreddit wasn’t a refuge of optimistic sentiment, either. “Hard pass,” wrote one user. “No thanks,” demurred another, while another seethed: “F**K OFF MICROSOFT!!!!” Someone even wrote a handy little summary of all the things that Microsoft is adding that Windows users don’t want.
Evidently, Microsoft hasn’t given its customers a lot to be thrilled about, and it’s been pretty in-your-face about its design overhauls. The icon to access the company’s Copilot AI assistant, for example, is now placed dead center on the taskbar. The Windows File Explorer will also be integrated with Copilot, allowing you to use features like right clicking documents and asking for a summary of them, per The Verge.
Another major design philosophy change is that Microsoft also wants you to literally talk to your AI-laden computer with various voice controls, allowing the PC to “act on your behalf,” according to Yusuf Mehdi, executive vice president and consumer chief marketing officer at Microsoft.
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