AI skeptics may also be cheered to hear that the company is pumping the brakes on Copilot, which has made its way into everything from the keyboard to the humble notepad.exe over the last few years (even as the standalone Copilot app’s appearance and capabilities have changed pretty dramatically from iteration to iteration). Davuluri said Microsoft would be “more intentional” about where Copilot appears and how it works and specifically promised to “[reduce] unnecessary Copilot entry points, starting with apps like Snipping Tool, Photos, Widgets, and Notepad.”
Davuluri also said Microsoft would begin testing less-disruptive Windows updates that would give users more opportunities to (temporarily) skip them; a “faster and more dependable File Explorer,” “quieter defaults” for the Widgets pane, and better descriptions for the various Windows Insider Program channels and improved mechanisms for sending feedback to Microsoft.
Beyond these specific short-term changes, Davuluri also listed a broader laundry list of goals, including more reliable operation for Bluetooth and USB peripherals, faster and more accurate search, reduced memory usage, and improving responsiveness and performance for bedrock Windows components like the Start menu, taskbar, and File Explorer.
These are all nice-sounding promises, though the specifics will matter a lot—being “more intentional” about Copilot, for example, still leaves room for Microsoft to intentionally force it into each and every one of Windows’ built-in apps. And one major annoyance, the mandatory Microsoft Account sign-in requirement, isn’t mentioned anywhere in this post. But Microsoft at least seems to be moving in the right direction.
Windows 10 has remained enduringly popular despite its October 2025 end-of-support date, and one year of additional free-ish security updates has given people who want to keep Windows 10 a way to do so without exposing themselves to security holes. But we’re already nearly halfway through that year, which means a Windows 11 upgrade is probably in your future one way or another. Hopefully, Microsoft’s repeatedly professed commitment to quality means the OS will be more welcoming by the time October rolls around.
Source: arstechnica.com
