Sr. Content Developer at Microsoft, working remotely in PA, TechBash conference organizer, former Microsoft MVP, Husband, Dad and Geek.
152280 stories
·
33 followers

Microsoft says it’s rebuilding Windows 11 around what users actually want: performance, reliability, quality and craft

1 Share

Microsoft has reaffirmed its commitment to Windows 11 quality and confirmed that the operating system will now be built around consumer feedback, particularly from Windows Insiders. The company assembled a group of product experts and engineers who are passionate and take pride in building Windows 11.

In a recent meetup with Windows Insiders in Seattle, Microsoft’s leadership confirmed that it has been analyzing feedback from testers over the past couple of months.

This also suggests that the recent Windows 11 development changes have nothing to do with MacBook Neo. Conspiracy theorists believed that Microsoft was bringing back Windows 11 from the back burner because Apple is competing with Windows PCs in the mid-range market, but that was not the case.

In fact, Microsoft has been digging into critical feedback since early 2026, and it’s been paying more attention in the last couple of months.

“Over the last couple of months, our team and I have been going through and analyzing feedback from the Windows Insiders, and what came through for us was really a community and a voice that really cares about Windows,” says Pavan Davuluri, who heads the Windows group at Microsoft.

One of the most requested features is the movable taskbar, and Microsoft has confirmed the feature is coming soon. In fact, we recently spotted it in a preview build, and it works really well.

Passionate people are rebuilding Windows 11

Pavan says that when people at Microsoft are passionate about a product, they can deliver amazing things, and the same process now applies to Windows.

At the Windows Insider meetup in Seattle, Microsoft said all future changes are “really directly influenced by the feedback we hear from our users”, and it considers every idea or feedback as a gift, which is taken seriously, very, very seriously.

The Windows boss also added that everyone should be excited about what’s ahead for the operating system in 2026, and shared the following message:

I also want you to know this is the start. I’m really excited for what’s ahead. This year you’re going to see us really double down on it. Navjot and I have this frame of customer love equals performance; is it fast? Reliability: is easy to use, does it do all the things I think of from a quality perspective? And then craft, how do I feel? Does it make me happy? Do I feel connected to the product?

Our goal as we go forward is to be more open as we build Windows, make sure you feel like you are included in the entire lifecycle of our product making process, and then make sure this is a vibrant community and we are just grateful for a chance to get some time with you all.” – Microsoft.

Windows 11 could actually end up becoming one of the most stable operating systems

I’ve been saying it for a while, and I’m going to repeat again: This is not a PR bluff, as internal builds already contain many of the promised changes.

Windows Latest has learned that Microsoft has major plans for Windows 11, and it’s going to be noticeable. In fact, the company is going after every legacy interface, including the ‘Installing Windows 11’ screen, and there are plans to improve multitasking as well, starting with greater customization for Virtual Desktop.

Microsoft also plans to let you resize the taskbar and even the Start menu, similar to Windows 10. The other features include a faster File Explorer, a cleaner Notifications Center, fewer reboots when installing Windows updates, the ability to pause updates for as long as you want, fewer upsells during OOBE, and more.

We’ve spotted eighteen major improvements coming to Windows, and the list keeps growing. What do you want Microsoft to change in Windows 11? Let me know in the comments below, and we’ll pass the feedback to the leadership!

The post Microsoft says it’s rebuilding Windows 11 around what users actually want: performance, reliability, quality and craft appeared first on Windows Latest

Read the whole story
alvinashcraft
13 seconds ago
reply
Pennsylvania, USA
Share this story
Delete

The Biggest Unlocks of GPT Images 2

1 Share
From: AIDailyBrief
Duration: 21:22
Views: 480

OpenAI's GPT Image 2 topped the LM Arena leaderboard by a record 242 points, but the real story is how it fits the agentic stack. This episode digs into the image-to-code workflows driving most of the excitement and where reasoning over images still falls short. In the headlines: SpaceX's new deal with Cursor, an unauthorized group's access to Claude Mythos, and a big upgrade to Google's Deep Research.

The AI Daily Brief helps you understand the most important news and discussions in AI.
Subscribe to the podcast version of The AI Daily Brief wherever you listen: https://pod.link/1680633614
Get it ad free at http://patreon.com/aidailybrief
Learn more about the show https://aidailybrief.ai/

Read the whole story
alvinashcraft
1 minute ago
reply
Pennsylvania, USA
Share this story
Delete

#722 – AI Tooling with Matt Liberty and Luke Beno

1 Share

Welcome back Matt Liberty (Joulescope) and Luke Beno (Werewolf.us)





Download audio: https://traffic.libsyn.com/theamphour/TheAmpHour-722-AITooling.mp3
Read the whole story
alvinashcraft
1 minute ago
reply
Pennsylvania, USA
Share this story
Delete

How We Beat the Y2K Bug

1 Share
The Y2K bug turned out to be a non-event on January 1, 2000. How did that happen? Carl and Richard bring together a number of stories from folks who were there, fixing the software and updating systems, so effectively that, ultimately, nothing much happened when the clocks rolled over. It was common practice with early software to only store two digits worth of year - back then, storage space was at a premium. For years, there had been warnings about fixing these problems, but by 1999, it was essential. These are the stories of how some folks did those fixes so effectively that when Jan 1 2000, came around, nothing bad happened.



Download audio: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/71580154/dotnetrocks_1999_how_we_beat_the_y2k_bug.mp3
Read the whole story
alvinashcraft
1 minute ago
reply
Pennsylvania, USA
Share this story
Delete

SE Radio 717: Eric Tschetter on Decoupling Observability

1 Share

In this episode, host Amey Ambade sits with Eric Tschetter, co-founder of Apache Druid and Chief Architect at Imply, to dissect the critical move toward Decoupling Observability. To begin, they define three pillars—logs, metrics, and traces—and consider why the rise of microservices has made traditional, tightly coupled stacks a major source of pain. Such coupled systems can lead to issues such as vendor lock-in, prohibitive scaling costs, and operational complexity.

Drawing parallels to the Business Intelligence world's separation, Tschetter presents an architectural solution with four distinct layers: Ingest/Route, Data Storage, Query/Compute, and Visualization. This framework aims to provide flexibility to combat the limitations of monolithic observability tools. The conversation moves into the practical challenges and significant benefits of this decoupled model, focusing heavily on data portability and the role of technologies such as OpenTelemetry in standardizing schemas so that data can flow freely between multiple back-ends. A significant portion of the discussion is dedicated to the Query/Compute layer, specifically how Apache Druid addresses the unique demands of real-time analytics on observability data, including indexing strategies and unifying results across hot and cold storage. They also delve into operational survival, covering critical topics like smart sampling to preserve high-value signals, best practices for buffering and backpressure, and the governance models required for multiple teams to safely access the same data lake.

The episode concludes with an honest look at the complexity trade-offs and a roadmap for organizations considering a migration from a coupled vendor stack.





Download audio: https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/seradio/717-eric-tschetter-decoupling-observability.mp3?dest-id=23379
Read the whole story
alvinashcraft
1 minute ago
reply
Pennsylvania, USA
Share this story
Delete

WW 980: Running Outta Tolkiens - Hands-On With 2 Snapdragon X2 Laptops!

1 Share

AI is democratizing the making of things, from bespoke/custom apps to websites, designs of all kinds, and everything else you might imagine. It's a new world, and it's time to create. Plus, Helium is a new Chromium-based web browser that's completely open source, lightweight, secure, and private. There's a native version for Windows 11 on Arm, too. Also, Firefox 150 arrives with over 270 security fixes!

Windows 11

  • Reports of a Recall security vulnerability are, once again, bogus, Microsoft says
  • New builds on all channels, still on the old system
  • Xbox Mode is now available in all channels
  • Release Preview shows us the May Patch Tuesday updates: Xbox Mode, File Explorer improvements, Haptic improvements, Drop Tray renaming, Agents on the Taskbar
  • Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x - Snapdragon X2 Elite, 14-inch display impressions
  • Lenovo IdeaPad 5x - Snapdragon X2 Plus, 15.3-inch display impressions

Microsoft 365, Surface, more

  • OneDrive now supports Markdown natively
  • New Surface PCs with Intel chips coming soon
  • Microsoft is making changes to its Rewards program

AI

  • GitHub Copilot moves to token-based billing in a sign of the true cost of AI
  • Claude Design democratizes visual design on the heels of Claude Opus 4.7
  • OpenAI Codex moves into productivity
  • OpenAI releases ChatGPT Images 2.0
  • Chrome AI Mode gets a big update
  • Mozilla announces Thunderbolt, sovereign AI for businesses
  • Google brings vibe coding to Android apps with Android CLI

Xbox and gaming

  • Microsoft drops Xbox Game Pass prices (!), but also drops Call of Duty from Day One
  • Plus, Xbox teases a Game Pass Discord perk
  • More Game Pass titles for April: Kiln, Vampire Crawlers, more
  • Xbox April Update is here with that Quick Resume feature we all want
  • There's an ID@Xbox event on April 23 to highlight indie games
  • Xbox is selling Forza Horizon 6 limited edition controller and headsets
  • Starfield is coming to the Nintendo Switch 2
  • A Call of Duty movie will finally arrive in 2028
  • Try out the Modern Warfare remake on Game Pass, it's a reminder of COD's gritty past
  • PS5 Digital is down to its $399 launch price temporarily

Tips and picks

  • Tip of the week: Just make it
  • App pick of the week: Helium
  • RunAs Radio this week: The Life and Death of Microsoft Deployment Toolkit with Michael Niehaus
  • Brown liquor pick of the week: Ned Australian Whisky

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell

Download or subscribe to Windows Weekly at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly

Check out Paul's blog at thurrott.com

The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.

Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts!
Support what you love and get ad-free audio and video feeds, a members-only Discord, and exclusive content. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit

Sponsors:





Download audio: https://pdst.fm/e/pscrb.fm/rss/p/mgln.ai/e/294/cdn.twit.tv/megaphone/ww_980/ARML4958485712.mp3
Read the whole story
alvinashcraft
1 minute ago
reply
Pennsylvania, USA
Share this story
Delete
Next Page of Stories