At Microsoft’s first big Windows event in two years, presenters said “agent,” “agents” or “agentic” 100 times, while “Windows 11” came up just three times.
Add “models,” “Copilot,” “AI” and “hybrid intelligence,” and you get close to 300 mentions, during the October 7 Windows + Surface event.
Funny that words like “Fix,” “bug,” “reliability,” and “stability” didn’t come up at all for a company that promised to fix Windows 11 back in March.
Microsoft needs to make its next Windows event about Windows againMicrosoft deserves credit for doing a live event instead of a pre-recorded keynote like Apple.
But people buy Windows PCs to use Windows, and the next event should start there.
At Microsoft’s first big Windows event in two years, presenters said “agent,” “agents” or “agentic” 100 times, while “Windows 11” came up just three times. Add “models,” “Copilot,” “AI” and “hybrid intelligence,” and you get close to 300 mentions, during the October 7 Windows + Surface event.
Funny that words like “Fix,” “bug,” “reliability,” and “stability” didn’t come up at all for a company that promised to fix Windows 11 back in March.
Sadly, there were some genuinely impressive things announced at the event that I’m eager to test. However, people all over the internet are now bashing Microsoft for making the event about AI.
Microsoft said it would fix Windows, but its big event was all about AI
Microsoft announced the event three weeks in advance, with Satya Nadella, Jensen Huang, and Windows chief Pavan Davuluri confirmed to attend. It was the first major Windows and Surface event since the Copilot+ PC launch in May 2024, and I even expected a recap of Windows improvements that happened throughout the year.
Naturally, people on social media expected Windows news. Some even hoped for Windows 12.
Instead, the roughly 70-minute event went like this:
Word Times said at the event “agent”, “agents”, “agentic” 100 “models” 71 “Copilot” 36 “AI” 31 “hybrid intelligence” 24 “Windows 11” 3 “fix”, “bug”, “reliability”, “stability”, “feedback” 0 “quality” 1, about a coding model Start menu, File Explorer 0
The livestream chat was already questioning who the event was for. “these events are not even for consumers anymore,” one viewer wrote. Another asked, “does anyone actually have any idea what they’re talking about” as Microsoft continued its presentation on agentic capabilities.
“Copilot” came up 36 times, which is ironic, considering Davuluri promised in March to cut “unnecessary Copilot entry points.” Meanwhile, the Start menu and File Explorer weren’t mentioned once. The following video posted on X shows how much “local” means to Microsoft:
“We don’t like AI. We want it gone, we want it as an afterthought.” This is what the backlash is all about. Users don’t necessarily need AI removed from Windows; they want it to stop taking priority over the basics.
That said, some of the announcements were good.
Windows 11’s new Search was the highlight, but where were the fixes?
The best Windows announcement was a new Windows Search, built on WinUI 3, that can change your mic volume with an inline slider, switch to dark mode, take screenshots, arrange windows and even send a text. It’s coming “later this year,” and funnily enough, it still has “Search with Bing” results, but I’m rooting for this to be better.
Even the livestream chat warmed up for a minute. “Ok ok the search thing is actually nice,” one viewer wrote. Another called it “a Spotlight equivalent” that Windows was “really missing.”
Search has been improving all year, from finding files with just two characters to letting you turn off web results in September. WinUI is also getting lighter on RAM, and Windows 11 26H2 reached everyone a week before the event, with a performance boost that cut RAM usage in our testing.
Microsoft could have spent five minutes on all of it. “So, where is the promise of optimized 8GB RAM?” another viewer asked, referring to Microsoft’s plan to optimize Windows 11 for 8GB PCs by the end of 2026, a plan Davuluri himself linked to the rising cost of memory.
Microsoft’s Windows 11 quality promises, almost seven months later
Microsoft’s March 20 post listed dozens of fixes, and the July 31 update said most of them would start reaching Windows 11 PCs “this fall.” So, I went through both posts, and checked the status of those promises.
To be fair, a good chunk has shipped. You can move the taskbar to the top or sides, skip updates while setting up a new PC, and pause updates for up to 35 days at a time. Driver, .NET and firmware updates now come together with a single monthly restart, and the Copilot button is gone from Snipping Tool and Photos. Notepad’s Copilot button was renamed to “Writing tools”, though it still uses AI.
The more interesting work is still with Insiders. The decluttered context menu, the WinUI 3 Properties dialog and the new Run dialog are all in Experimental builds.
Then there’s the stuff that only exists in blog posts. The March post promised a setup with “fewer pages and reboots,” and it came back as a “focus area” in July, when Microsoft also added more natural voice controls to the list. I couldn’t find either in an Insider build yet. And the Start menu rebuilt on WinUI 3, which is supposed to make Start faster, hasn’t shown up in any build so far, as far as I can tell.
Microsoft even promised full gamepad support for creating a Windows Hello PIN on handhelds like the ROG Xbox Ally X. I haven’t seen that one anywhere either.
Promise Status Move taskbar to top or sides Shipped Hide Recommended in Start, Start sizes Shipped Skip updates during setup Shipped Longer update pauses Shipped (up to 35 days at a time) One restart a month for updates Shipped Turn off web results in Search Shipped Fewer Copilot buttons in apps Mostly shipped Faster File Explorer Partly shipped Quieter Widgets Partly shipped Decluttered right-click menu Insiders only New WinUI 3 Search Insiders only WinUI 3 Properties, Run and AutoPlay Insiders only 8GB RAM optimization Re-announced, not shipped Faster setup, fewer reboots Re-announced, not shipped Start menu rebuilt on WinUI 3 Not seen yet Gamepad PIN on handhelds Not seen yet
In my opinion, this table on a slide would’ve won Microsoft more fans on October 7 than another agent demo.
Hybrid intelligence and agent containers are good ideas for a smaller audience
I liked hybrid intelligence, which runs AI on your PC when it can and in the cloud when it has to. Microsoft Execution Containers are also smart, as they control which files and networks an AI agent can reach.
But most people don’t run OpenClaw or local language models. They want their laptop to boot fast and install updates without breaking anything. Microsoft also brought the Copilot+ PC brand back on stage, days after Nadella called Copilot an OS again.
Even Surface Laptop Ultra, the star of the show, didn’t appear until about 30 minutes in, and most of its pitch was about running AI models locally.
Windows users made it very clear what they wanted
The live chat and X were brutal, to put it lightly! “Has there ever been a less penetrable announcement for general windows users?” one person asked. Another said “100% of it was AI talk,” with “Nothing about performance, quality of life updates, design, debloating etc.”
One livestream viewer looked to be screaming: “LESS AI AND RAM USAGE AND CPU AND GPU USAGE … I DONT WANT MY COMPUTER TO BE AI DATACENTER.” As exaggerated as it was, it did capture the concern that people want their PCs to run well before Microsoft turns them into platforms for AI agents.
Viewers kept asking for Windows 12, and one simply wanted a “normal working operating system that does what I want instead of opening Bing.”
Sure, plenty of people use AI daily, including us. But when PC shipments just crashed 20% as AI eats the world’s RAM, an hour of AI talk was always going to go down badly.
Microsoft needs to make its next Windows event about Windows again
Microsoft deserves credit for doing a live event instead of a pre-recorded keynote like Apple. But Apple’s iPhone launches are packed with creators, and Microsoft and NVIDIA could have brought in AI developers, video editors and 3D artists to show what Surface Laptop Ultra can do.
We don’t have a clue about a next Windows event, but if it does come, Microsoft should share what changed in 26H2, put a date on things that are coming, like how they should’ve said about 8GB optimizations. As one viewer put it, “Okay now do it on a 200 dollar laptop and show me how fast it is.”
And, of course, show how many legacy dialogs WinUI has replaced. Inconsistencies in the Windows UI is still one of the most criticized parts of the OS.
AI can stay. But people buy Windows PCs to use Windows, and the next event should start there.
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