But if I just judge windows vs linux, on even ground, W11 is painful. I've main'd linux on my laptop for ~ 25 years. There was a time when it was a jank experience that I put up with for better devex, but that ended in the late 00's. From that point forward, unless you were trying to get bleeding edge hardware to work, linux has been hands down better.
It's enough that I've considered giving up online play all together just to have a nicer computing experience.
Are shareholders and investors stupid enough to think that AI hated by users is still desirable?
I treat the windows one as a console essentially, not even logged into my password manager or email or anything. It is only for games. Basically an Xbox, with all sorts of normal annoying UX, but it doesn’t matter for all of the ~2 minutes until I can launch a game
Separate linux drive for everything else.
"Can you edit the Word document so the format is in line with these requirements?"
"No, but I can help you draft an implementation consistent with the requirements."
"Can you add this section to the 35 individual copies of this document in this OneDrive folder?"
"No, but I can help you draft [something]."
This is NOT the AI revolution anyone was waiting for.
I honestly don't mind this, as long as it's not being forced. And I believe this feature exists only within their npu PCs.
Interesting, I can't recall a single voice "Oh I'm so happy they changed their corporate strategy" but many of "I'll believe it when I see it".
RAM consumption on startup is 50% (of 16Gi).
I asked claude to help me remove bloat and was horrified by all the different background services and "enhanced" and "advanced" features that are always ON.
I don't think it's fair to say "no AI in any app", however. That should depend on the value delivered in the app.
But I do wish there was some honest restraint on all these weird OS services that no one wants/uses.
The real question is this: While the floppy disk became the standard "Save" icon, what will eventually become the standard "AI functionality" icon?
That says everything about the current product priorities that you need to know.
Especially when you consider that the old laptop has inferior hardware to my newer one with twice the RAM.
I just hate using windows at this point.
Microsoft starts removing Copilot buttons from Windows 11 apps
A fortune 500 company I worked for renamed internal projects many times when the original failed. But they continued dumping money into those black holes. One dollar eating project was renamed 3 times and was on its way for a 4th rename when I left. That project was started between 2005 and 2010. I was not involved with it, but everyone knew it would fail.
So M/S renaming copilot ? I expect a few more renames as time goes on :)
I'm tired of being a victim.
I have a spare laptop with Pop OS on it now and I'm really enjoying it. Kind of forget I'm on it sometimes. I'm considering putting it as my OS for my main powerful laptop that I play most of my games on.
But we don't play any online multiplayer games, so YMMV on that one.
Having to enable TPM or device integrity or whatever it is on my own computer just to run my own games is just too much power to hand to some garbage corporation that shits on its users. Rubbed me so far the wrong that way that I gave it up. The fact that Win 11 is no longer just an easy and hands-off solution that "just works" but is bloated with dark patterns and "AI" bullshit certainly helped cement the decision.
The only thing generated was boatloads of incredulity and some laughs.
I do have a Windows Server 2025 and Win11 VM running for a couple testing issues, but that's about it. That said, there seems to be a few integration issues on Wayland where the RDP client or the VM UI both will not intercept hotkeys like alt-tab, which makes it kind of painful to use the VM effectively.
Even with the rough edges in Cosmic, I'll still take it over the jank they keep addding to Windows.
To say nothing of the truly excellent battery life Macs these days get.
That's the only reason to avoid Linux on a laptop these days, IMO.
All the major Wall Street players are doing it too; Nestle with removing real chocolate in their chocolate candy, McDonald's now costing the same as a sit down with lower quality product, car industry rejecting affordable vehicles for production. [1] [2]
The only end users Microsoft concern themselves with are the _Share Holders_. They reject the developers, maintainers, and consumers as their focal user groups. This is how you get shit-ware and people leaving your platform.
My major goal this year is to get our solutions running on Linux so we can fully ditch the trash fire that Windows IoT / Embedded has become. It originally was fully customizable now it is bloated with Copilot, XBox gaming, and working to force the creation of @Microsoft.com accounts versus local ones.
I support local restaurants, businesses, and breweries. While Wall Street companies are last in line to receive my income, if at all. I will not spend a penny personally financially supporting large players like McDonald's, Microsoft, Pepsi, Coca-Cola, Molson Coors, AB InBev ...
Everything these companies say is just PR to try and win back those they lost and those that are walking away. Only trust an origination's actions because their messages are meaningless and without value.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedman_doctrine
[1] https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c79x7q325p3o
[2] https://daxstreet.com/news/243275/affordable-cars-disappear-...
For me there's nothing MS could do at this point that would bring me back. And as I said in that thread, it's too late for them - people are moving elsewhere, maybe not in big numbers but exodus is in progress. MS harassed their users/clients too hard and for too long; now it's time to "enjoy" fruits of their deranged actions and decisions.
Pop_os! with the system76 power daemon makes a world of difference on my tiny AMD powered Lenovo ideapad.
And right after that they added a brand new feature called tolipoc that will revolutionize the way you analyze your logs or modify your 17 year old cmd file!
Want to create a file with the current date and time? No need to google for it, tolipoc will do it for you!
Instead, all the little individual teams got their hands on these capabilities and they figured out where to shove it. At “best” there would have been the head of Windows or Office or whatever saying to all their reports “go do AI!”
No nags, just a simple, "We are offering you this feature, use it or don't, it's your computer".
This is indeed a step forward. With QuickBooks, there is currently no way to disable their extremely intrusive AI. I may just vibe-code a browser extension to block it. Fight fire with fire.
These sudden additions also correlated with the first CVE [1] in Notepad since its inception, so maybe their attention isn't where it should be.
I for one very much mind this and many other inclusions including the metastatic takeover off Office. OneDrive also was forced upon and severely worsened functioning software, despite not being "AI", so there is precedent at least.
[0] https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/enhance-your-wri...
[1] https://infosecwriteups.com/the-dumb-editor-that-got-too-sma...
Rasism was fixed by not using black- and whitelists on firewalls. Separate endeavour.
So those who were skeptic were right - one can not trust Microslop. Its AI addiction is too strong already. It sold its soul to AI. There is no way back for Microslop anymore. All Win11 users will have to support AI. AI up all the things! \o/
oh man, do I have some really bad news for you:
It's not perfect, but I anyway had the computer for other reasons and may need it for the other reasons again after which I would need to re-setup anything. Bazite default/w. SteamOS UI install + a minor number of setting changes (1) and a login to steam and it's ready to go again. Can't complain. Just which the SteamOS UI version would also do the same background download+apply of updates the main versions or distros like Fedora Silverblue do.
While not quite yet console experience, for many games it really is not "that" far away. (For some other games very much very far away, don't expect any competitive PvP games or games with real world money related online economy working. To some degree it's not even about anti-cheat not working on Linux. It's about many such games struggling making it work on Windows and having no room to bother with another platform, and dishonest managers potentially using "all Linux fault" as an excuse when the anti-cheating strategy failed on Windows where most of their players where... (happened before))
--
(1): Mainly SteamOS UI is made for Handhelds and as such has some bad defaults for more powerful desktops (which likely will change soon). I'm only couch gaming on it, hence close to everything else just stays with default settings. Sure it's not fancy customized Linux or most maximal privacy preserving Linux. But it's in the "good enough" area of settings, privacy and similar, which Windows in many aspects isn't anymore. No fighting windows forcing things down your throat, weather it's Copilot, the nasty way it tries to deceive you into using it's online drive, etc.
---
Oh and as minor tip: You can majorly micro optimize kernels, schedulers, drivers etc. If you don't need to, then don't bother. That is where unexpected perf. regressions, issues after updates etc. come in. Like you still find reports about Bazzite being slower then windows due to them having don that in the past and having run into an unexpected perf. regression on some hardware without realizing. I mean it is fun to tinker. But I'm in the "please mostly just work" age by now.
It's Clippy. All over again.
Some of us (including very much me) simply do not want Copilot/AI anything and playing whackamole with settings is annoying but we'll do it anyway and it leaves a bad taste.
Since it's the software equivalent of been in a filing cabinet in the basement behind a door that has a sign saying "Beware the Leopard".
In reality it's a moot point, I disable AI features and Windows is a gloried steamos box for me at this point, I do my actual computing booted into Linux and have for decades.
Been dual booting for >20 years now. It's nice that some games work on Linux pretty well these days, and of course I had fun messing with Wine manually to get some stuff to work decades ago. But it really doesn't bother me too much to reboot when switching between gaming and literally anything else.
The only thing I would make sure to do is to have a separate home partition / volume so if you had to blow the underlying OS away after a botched upgrade, it's easily doable.
For the life of me I don't understand why having a separate area for your personal files isn't the default on every OS. Just pick a reasonable size for the OS part (20-30G?) and give the rest to /home
But it's so good to see the Windows side catching up to Macs now. So tempted to try out Omarchy on the XPS.
If people had set their family members up with Firefox and Ublock Origin, then the Manifest v2 deprecation wouldn’t have resulted in seniors getting hit with certain scams. Specifically over the period between deprecation and the next visit from tech savvy family members.
Unforgivable btw
Edit - Linux bit’s important too b/c of MS nagscreens that could try to upsell
I could be wrong, but as far as I know there's not one "Fix Windows 11" tool maintained to do all this for you.
"You have to toggle AI features off in Notepad, and they changed the name to Advanced Features now," is just another heaving brick on the pile.
https://github.com/microsoft/edit
It's very simple and here's hoping they don't bloat this one out, too.
Except the youngest of the demography who don't have this expectation, and live in AI hype era since they're kids.
Can you cite any person, before, during or after, who gave a valid, coherent argument as to why the old name should annoy anyone? (Or are you willing to attempt one yourself?)
Note: the two arguments I am familiar with boil down to "it could be understood as describing a bad historical event, and ipso facto must not be uttered", and "if I am annoyed by something then that is inherently valid and you lack standing to question me, on account of my identity characteristics". I don't accept either of these as valid, for hopefully obvious reasons.
(And in fact, I can't recall actually ever seeing the second argument deployed honestly. I can only recall seeing people not of the relevant identity characteristics presuming that they were defending people who would feel that way.)
This description doesn't really do it justice. ~75% of top 100 games work well out of the box/with minimal tinkering according to https://www.protondb.com/dashboard (it varies a bit based on the rating scale)
Many work perfectly and many work even better than they do on Windows. Valve's work really changed the game over the past few years.
Also, are we supposed to ban the word master from all of it's dozens of normal English use-cases? I never got a clear answer on why git branch names were so much more harmful than someone mastering a skill or making a master record.
i actually had to spin up a windows vm last week to fix some dumb excel workbook vba nonsense a coworker was having issues with.
i laughed so hard at the amount of "debloat" powershell tools out there for windows that are basically a non-negotiable now to have a normal operating system experience. just surfing around the web and seeing people say "yeah install OS then run _ tool" like that is a normal "this is fine" thing was so entertaining.
i destroyed that VM when i was done. then took a shower
Win XP replaced the classic file search with one that had an animated dog in it.
The dog search was completely, utterly useless. You would not find anything with it. It was so bad I still vividly remember my bafflement about it.
kinda crazy to me how terrible the entire windows experience is as a whole, i really think people have just lost sight of how computing should be.
there's just too many cats outta the bag here that microsoft is going to cling to for dear life, they can back pedal all they want in blogs promising different, but we can already see here they're not willing to let go of the stuff they've woven into things that people hate.
im gonna be blunt, windows kinda sux. this is already not a promising outlook for windows enjoyers. and it's only been what, like 2-3 weeks since they were putting out this nonsense
> "You will see us be more intentional about how and where Copilot integrates across Windows, focusing on experiences that are genuinely useful and well‑crafted. As part of this, we are reducing unnecessary Copilot entry points, starting with apps like Snipping Tool, Photos, Widgets and Notepad."
let me guess: copilot stuff remains on by default. lol, lmao even
The functionality is present on my new Lenovo laptop, various generations of HP elite/pro books/desks, old asus mobo and newer cheap gigabyte mobo, 7th gen intel nuc.
Apparently you can get a mobo with switchable BIOS config (or was it just a switchable SSD?) so the OS didn't even know that there's a second OS around. If there's no connection of the other OS then MS can't break it [as easily]!
IMO it must be malicious, because otherwise it would be caught with remedial testing. I can't believe MS don't include dual boot setups in their testing.
No argument from me... I switched my personal devices off Windows several years ago... I still use a Mac laptop, and that may even be my last Apple device.
I really wish that MS would have spent far more time making Win11 consistent instead of introducing so many new features throughout... Win7 was the last version of Windows that even resembled consistent. That doesn't even go into a lot of the bloat and stuff that doesn't necessarily belong in an OS imo. Completing the UI transition should be the second priority only after long standing bugs and usability issues. The AI enshitification is horrible. I'm not even against an option for AI tooling... give me a selection dialog/wizard ONCE on account login/creation... then leave me alone.
There are some amazing tools like that (and Everything[2], which replaces Windows' inferior search) that really change how one interacts with Windows.
There are other tricks like putting scripts or shortcuts or executables in a directory referenced by your PATH variable, which can make the Win+R trick better too.
[0] https://www.flowlauncher.com/ [1] https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/powertoys/run [2] https://www.voidtools.com/
Anyway I'm off to listen to the 50th anniversary Dark Side of the Moon remaster. Wait, is "dark" an okay word? I didn't get a master's degree in English
* Parallel ATA on the other hand, yeah, yikes
Do you consider that using the name "master" for a branch tends to endorse or normalize slavery, or (even stochastically) increase the amount of slavery that occurs in the world?
If so, how?
If not, why is it actually a problem to reference the concept (even disregarding the evidence that it was not intended to do so)?
It diminishes the seriousness of the entire anti-racism movement by making it look petty, out of touch and more interested in creating nuisances than solving real problems. The San Francisco school board got fired for doing similar nonsense during COVID, renaming schools and thus showing they weren’t serious people.
I have yet to see a good reason to believe that it isn't actually the case.
What percent of users ever found that useful? I think I’m being generous to guess one in ten thousand.
Absolutely braindead management running Windows development.
https://www.thewindowsclub.com/remove-3d-objects-folder-wino...
Or, you can install and reinstall linux distros and learn the ropes.
You should be fine as long as you use a proper firewall device and access only manually withelisted websites, but it is always better to keep it offline. That said, it can become your next firewall device.
For their default file explorer experience, the prominent fourth option right in the sidebar. Oh my gosh, that is hilarious. Did someone think it made the computer look advanced (or did they want you to buy apps to uh make 3D stuff from them)?
>scrcpy
I also have a pixel 5a whose screen doesn't work, but I think functions otherwise. Would this allow me to interface with it?
Opinion When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.
Usama Jawad Neowin @UsamaJawad96 · Apr 12, 2026 17:26 EDT · Hot!
At the start of the year, Microsoft generated a lot of goodwill among Windows 11 fans when it announced its big plan to fix the operating system in 2026. It highlighted numerous ways to approach and remediate user concerns such as giving them more control over Windows Update and adding back some highly requested features. Another key point in the company's announcement was pulling back on inserting Copilot everywhere, and being more mindful about how AI features are integrated into the OS. Microsoft began rolling out some changes in this regard a couple of days ago, and unfortunately, people are a little underwhelmed.
Microsoft seems to have stripped away mentions of the "Copilot" brand in the Windows Insider version of the Notepad app. The Copilot button in the toolbar is gone, and instead, you'll find a writing icon which will present you AI-powered writing assistance, such as rewrite, summarize, tone modification, format configuration, and more. Additionally, "AI features" in Notepad settings has been renamed to "Advanced features" and it allows users to toggle off AI capabilities within the app.
As is evident from the changes mentioned above, Microsoft is not doing away with AI capabilities completely in Windows 11. At least, not right now. This has led to complaints from Windows 11 users on public forums (such as our comments section here) who feel like they've been hoodwinked by Microsoft into believing that the firm is getting rid of AI integrations in Windows 11 altogether.

To be fair to Microsoft, if you check out our coverage of this topic, you'll notice that Redmond did not claim that it will eradicate AI from Windows 11. In fact, its wording was more around the idea that it would be more "intentional" about how and where the Copilot branding shows up, while also ensuring that AI capabilities are actually useful. It also emphasized its intention to get rid of unnecessary Copilot entry points in Windows 11 apps. Looking at the latest Insider update for Notepad, it can be argued that Microsoft did exactly all that.
The problem once again seem to lie in the huge gap between what users actually want versus how Microsoft responds to customer feedback. Looking at the vocal backlash around "microslop" online, it would seem rather obvious that customers don't want "AI slop" in their desktop OS. But, of course, Microsoft can't get rid of AI features entirely and get left behind in the latest race involving big tech. So, in the company's eyes, a middle ground would be to erase references to the Copilot brand and continue integrating AI capabilities that it deems useful. And, of course, that isn't good enough for me.
At this point, Microsoft is walking a tightrope. It cannot appease everyone since it also has its shareholders and investors to think about, but then there's also a rather large Windows 11 user base which really is fed up of AI experiences being shoved down its throats. Looking ahead, it seems unlikely that Microsoft will be able to "fix" Windows 11 in this regard in 2026, because it seems like simply rebranding Copilot to something generic just isn't good enough for many.