Rebooting Quality in Operating Systems: How Microsoft Can Improve Windows Today

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• Permanent Deferral of Non-Essential Updates
• No Nagging for Microsoft Apps and Services
• Confining Ads to the Windows Store
• An Off Switch for OneDrive
• Full Offline Installations With No Microsoft Account Needed

Windows is becoming very different from the operating system that I first grew to enjoy and use over the past few decades, but despite how I feel it’s strayed from the path of greatness, if I were CEO for a day these are five things I would change to get the world’s most popular operating system back on track.

Permanent Deferral of Non-Essential Updates

Windows updates have been the bane of my existence for years now, and I really think that Windows needs to give users much better control of what updates are installed and when they’re installed. Essentially, I think only absolutely mission-critical updates should happen without being able to defer them. These should be limited to serious security issues, or anything that will put your computer at risk or stop it from functioning properly if the update doesn’t happen somewhere down the line.

For everything else, I should be able to say “no” and have that be my final answer. If I’m not interested in your new features or services, that should be it. Separating crucial updates from truly optional ones is good OS design 101, and the current “death and taxes” approach to updates is something I’d like to see changed.

No Nagging for Microsoft Apps and Services

I get that creating and maintaining an operating system is expensive, and I also understand that value-added services can be a great way to add money to the coffers while also giving customers something truly useful, but the more you nag at me to use One Drive, the Edge Browser, the Windows Store, Microsoft 365, or CoPilot, the less I feel like actually using these services. I’m perfectly fine with being informed about them, but any sort of nagging should be taboo.

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Confining Ads to the Windows Store

Ads in Windows are becoming more aggressive , which is one of the reasons I wrote that my Windows computer doesn’t really feel like it belongs to me anymore . While it is possible to disable Microsoft’s ads and recommendations in Windows 11 , they shouldn’t be there in the first place.

Instead, ads should be confined to the Windows 11 app store, where you’d expect commercial advertising. Letting ads leak beyond the store itself turns Windows into a garish billboard, and to me that’s not acceptable.

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An Off Switch for OneDrive

There are many great cloud storage services and Microsoft’s OneDrive is certainly one of them, but it can be frustrating and annoying to simply turn off OneDrive and never hear from it again. One thing I’d definitely change about the modern Windows experience is to have a simple master off switch that will banish OneDrive forever if you opt to use a different cloud storage provider instead. Microsoft may be largely a cloud services company these days, but that doesn’t mean that every Windows user wants to use those services.

Full Offline Installations With No Microsoft Account Needed

While it is possible to set up Windows 11 without a Microsoft Account , it’s a convoluted and arcane process which you have to know about to even use. It’s not advertised to the average user installing Windows 11 or starting up a new computer they just bought, and it’s clear that Microsoft would much prefer that you register an online account with them, since that’s the hub of their online service empire.

I’d also go as far as saying that most people should link their Microsoft accounts to their Windows installations. It’s useful, it makes it easy to move between systems, and it’s genuinely the best way to use Windows. However, it’s not the right fit for everyone, and it absolutely should be a clear and upfront option to have Windows installed, activated, and run without needing an online account or even an internet connection at any point in the process.

This wishlist could certainly have been longer, but I think if there was some version of Windows that came with these five issues resolved out of the box, without the need for third-party tomfoolery, then I for one would be willing to pay a premium for it.