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News "Microsoft Steps Back from "AI Everywhere" in Windows 11 to Focus on Core Features"

mikeymikec

mikeymikec

Lifer
www.techpowerup.com

Microsoft Steps Back from "AI Everywhere" in Windows 11 to Focus on Core Features

If you're tired of seeing Microsoft's AI features like Copilot, agentic workloads, and Recall forced into their products, you're not alone. Microsoft has finally confirmed that it will be stepping back from its "AI everywhere" strategy. According to an exclusive report by Windows Central, the...
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I wonder if this is a case of "we need to engage in damage limitation" or a genuine acknowledgement that they screwed up.
 
SamMaster said:
Why not both?
Click to expand...

Damage limitation is a PR exercise to make a problem seem like less than it is. One can either apologise for one's actions (and make good on that promise) or one can act like one's actions were less bad than the complainants believe.

Personally I think that MS will spin Win11 as an "unpopular" version of Windows and hope that people perceive it as an aberration, then slightly tone down AI stuff and call it Win12. As far as I'm concerned, the rot started when MS got rid of their QA department.
 
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It is kind of weird. I built a new desktop last June (just dodged the big price increases) with a 9800x3D. Besides the copilot button in Edge (easily turned off), there is no copilot bloat anywhere that I found. Is the key just not buying a "copilot PC"? Same with my work laptop which is an older dell model without an NPU. /shrug

Honestly copilot is fine as a standalone app. Just the same as any other standalone "AI" app. Pretty useful for helping my son with math homework. OK to integrate into some other apps, nice to get some suggestions in email or vscode. No idea what I would need it for in my base OS.
 
quikah said:
It is kind of weird. I built a new desktop last June (just dodged the big price increases) with a 9800x3D. Besides the copilot button in Edge (easily turned off), there is no copilot bloat anywhere that I found. Is the key just not buying a "copilot PC"? Same with my work laptop which is an older dell model without an NPU. /shrug

Honestly copilot is fine as a standalone app. Just the same as any other standalone "AI" app. Pretty useful for helping my son with math homework. OK to integrate into some other apps, nice to get some suggestions in email or vscode. No idea what I would need it for in my base OS.
Click to expand...

I typically see a Copilot icon on every taskbar of every Win11 (Home?) install I encounter. I often see two Copilot icons on many Win11 installs: Microsoft 365 Copilot and just Copilot!

Then there's Copilot in Notepad and Paint on the default settings, and probably more that I can't think of right now.
 
I have Win 11 home (25H2), no copilot icon on taskbars, only search icon (which I hide, since it is pretty useless to have the icon on the task bar). Don't have Office installed. /shrug
 
I've just done two installs of 24H2 (english international edition, official ISO), one Home, one Pro. They both have Copilot icons on the taskbar by default. I wonder if it varies by locale.
 
mikeymikec said:
I've just done two installs of 24H2 (english international edition, official ISO), one Home, one Pro. They both have Copilot icons on the taskbar by default. I wonder if it varies by locale.
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Maybe EU-stuff. I heard that if you choose an EU country when you install, the CoPilot button wont be there.
 
As I see it there are three major problems with Windows 11:
  1. Instability (mainly due to poorly tested updates rolled out aggressively)
  2. AI-focus (almost no one cares about this)
  3. Mandatory account
And as a personal pet peeve they do not allow moving the taskbar where it belongs. Alas.
I'm not sure they'll actually do anything to fix 1/3 and 2 already did enough damage. They're probably not going to step back on what they already have bloated with AI.
 
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gdansk said:
As I see it there are three major problems with Windows 11:
  1. Instability (mainly due to poorly tested updates rolled out aggressively)
  2. AI-focus (almost no one cares about this)
  3. Mandatory account
And as a personal pet peeve they do not allow moving the taskbar where it belongs. Alas.
I'm not sure they'll actually do anything to fix 1/3 and 2 already did enough damage. They're probably not going to step back on what they already have bloated with AI.
Click to expand...
my 2 biggest pet peves are not being able to resize the taskbar (small icons) and that the desktop interface(right clicking and start menu) is laggier than any prior windows. I recall reading the start menu is now a react app on top of the UI.
 
Microsoft is also finally ending printer driver support for older printers that depend on v3 and v4 printer drivers:


Ironically, there are currently manufacturers selling printers that use v4 printer drivers, so it will be interesting to see how that works out.
 
mikeymikec said:
Damage limitation is a PR exercise to make a problem seem like less than it is. One can either apologise for one's actions (and make good on that promise) or one can act like one's actions were less bad than the complainants believe.

Personally I think that MS will spin Win11 as an "unpopular" version of Windows and hope that people perceive it as an aberration, then slightly tone down AI stuff and call it Win12. As far as I'm concerned, the rot started when MS got rid of their QA department.
Click to expand...
This has been MS’ MO since 25 years ago. Whenever they try changing things up, the product sucks and then they roll back a good deal of those changed and focus on the core stuff in the next release, which is better received. Rinse and repeat.

For example, Windows ME was unstable as heck, only to be replaced by the much better Windows Xp. Windows Vista was bloated, only to be replaced by the more refined Windows 7. Windows 8 introduced Metro because mobile-influenced UIs were trendy, which sucked, only to be replaced by Windows 10. This brings us to Windows 11 with Copilot crammed down our throats. Windows 12 will likely be a refocusing on the core features. Honestly, what happened to “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”? Microsoft is honestly lucky as hell there’s no real alternative because it means they can ship half-baked OSes and corporate America would still adopt it.
 
Steltek said:
Microsoft is also finally ending printer driver support for older printers that depend on v3 and v4 printer drivers:


Ironically, there are currently manufacturers selling printers that use v4 printer drivers, so it will be interesting to see how that works out.
Click to expand...

HP will love them for it because they've already gutted their driver support.
 
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