Windows seems to be deteriorating over time.
Windows seems to be deteriorating over time.
I believe Microsoft is gradually complicating Windows, turning it into a chaotic mess. Recent updates seem to support this trend. Here are some issues I find bothersome:
1) During installation, setting up a pin feels forced—especially without a number pad. It adds unnecessary friction when signing in. Ideally, there should be an option to skip pins entirely and avoid presenting multiple setup choices.
2) It appears background processes are interfering with games and apps like Candy Crush, replacing them with worse alternatives. This seems consistent day after day.
3) The pin feature keeps appearing on login screens, even when disabled, confusing users who prefer a password instead.
4) I think Microsoft is prioritizing flashy features over simplicity. A streamlined OS with just a start menu, browser, and trash bin would be more useful.
5) There should be an option to disable telemetry tracking and completely remove all installed software without relying on third-party tools.
In short, I’d prefer a less cluttered experience—no forced pins, fewer background interruptions, and full control over what runs on my system. What do you think? Should Microsoft focus on simplicity or continue expanding its features?
Here’s a rephrased version of your text:
The facts clearly indicate that Microsoft’s software quality has noticeably dropped since Satya Nadella assumed leadership in 2014. He dismissed thousands of testing staff members and shifted the beta testing of Windows OS to its license holders. See related articles for more details:
- Business Insider reports a massive layoff at Microsoft in 2014.
- CNBC covered the announcement of over 700 employees being laid off.
- GeekWire discusses further reductions in staff.
- CNBC also mentions Microsoft’s recent restructuring efforts.
Consequently, Windows 10 has lost much of its stability and dependability compared to Windows 7 (and possibly Windows 8). This decline in development and release standards has also impacted security. According to security reports:
- The number of vulnerabilities found per Windows OS annually has risen.
- In 2016, the count stood at 95, with a significant drop to 31 by 2014.
- Security experts note that Windows 10 is far less secure than its predecessors.
For example, the CVD details show:
- 1999–2009: 95 vulnerabilities per year
- 2010–2012: 28 vulnerabilities per year
- 2013–2014: 17 vulnerabilities per year
- 2015–2016: 31 vulnerabilities per year
Microsoft’s approach to software updates has shifted, with many critics pointing out that the company now prioritizes bloatware and unnecessary features over genuine security improvements. This strategy seems aimed at enhancing the appearance of newer OS versions while neglecting core functionality.
Security concerns are further underscored by the sheer volume of vulnerabilities discovered annually:
- In 2016, there were 95 reported issues per year.
- By 2017, this number had dropped to 15.
Many users now favor older systems like Windows 7 or 8 for better security and reliability. If you’re concerned about your OS’s safety, switching to a more secure version might be the best choice.
I choose Windows 10 because it's the latest operating system and offers features like DirectX 12 that I appreciate. I prefer avoiding the start menu, Cortana, and other forced Microsoft tools. My main reason for staying on Windows is that it's the platform I've used since my first computer experience. Most applications are designed specifically for Windows. I'm gradually moving my work environment to Linux, but I need to find suitable replacements for the programs I currently rely on.
Not a bug. Even if you upgraded, Windows will bug you after a couple restarts/logins to setup a pin. Microsoft is correct that PIN are safer than password. As if your PIN is discovered, your password is still hidden. So if someone discovers your PIN, that is nice, they can access your PC, but they can't access your MS linked account. This means, that they can't change your MS account password. And this means, that if that PC is, say, a laptop, and you had "Find my PC" enabled on it (default it is), you can tract its last location (based on GPS if you have one, or IP address). And you can remotely lock the computer as well. If your password was discovered, than they can access the MS account, change the password, disable tracking, and now you can't find your PC, and can't remotely format it either (supported devices only, such a Windows 10 Mobile phone). Not to mention access to saved credit cards info (if any) for Store purchases. Someone can take your account and do many purchases just to annoy you, and get a nice bill. So they forces non-Enterprise user who uses a MS Account to setup a PIN. PINs are also easier to remember so that you don't need to write it down (another security issue that is commonly done by people). You can also change your password, while keeping the same PIN. I don't know what you mean, if I were to be honest. I don't have random games being installed (beside after Windows 10 is first installed). What service are you disabling, and what registry modifications are you doing? Well for you its crap... but for others it is very welcomed addition, additions that some would easily argue that should have been there since ages because the company was moving like molasses. You mean accessing Settings > Privacy and turning off everything? And, no you can't disable telemetry data collecting no matter what you do. Barnacules videos are FILLED with miss leading facts and errors. I hope you know this. For example, he shows O&O shutup, which "turns off telemetry", but really it sets a value in the registry to 0 related to telemetry, but as stated in Microsoft documentation, it just sets it to Basic. It also aims to block random Microsoft servers via the HOST file when setup, but really, telemetry data transfer does not follow the HOST file (else it would be too easy to reroute traffic by a malware software to the malware maker own servers, if he/she sees any potential value in the data). I feel like that Microsoft has YEARS of catching up to do in Windows, and now they are rushing too quickly to do this, and the end result is that some of the updates, like April update just released which many system configurations has issues. Sadly, Microsoft really needs to catch up for Windows to stay relevant. For instance: more and more developer are/were switching to Linux and Mac (Mac because of the Unix back-end only, and iPhone/iPad app development). This is because Windows is no longer as advance as the others for OS for development. It lacks tools. You can't SSH on Windows (nor have something equivalent), you have a lot restrictions and security policy that prevents many things from being setup easily as they didn't consider system running its OS to do certain things. It doesn't help that Microsoft being so slow to move in the past many years, missed not only the Internet revolution but also mobile phone market. The end result is that servers runs Linux, not Windows. Linux is now the back-bone of the internet, not Windows powered servers. IoT devices runs Linux. Raspberry Pi and such runs Linux, not Windows. Yes, NOW you have Windows 10 for IoT, which is a free Windows which has the core, APIs, drivers and frameworks to run UWP apps which you can send to it and run. But you have nothing near a full Windows experience, you can't multi-task, you can't run stuff independently, you have no desktop or start menu of any kind. Windows development was so slow, that ChromeOS is taking part of the PC market, the only thing left for Microsoft. Microsoft managed to slow ChromOS growth, and they try to make an answer out of it with Windows 10 on ARM. But Microsoft issue is the same as Intel's. You have this big powerful product, but difficult to run on low-end/slow hardware like ARM CPUs, which Microsoft try to do, in order to make affordable system to complete against ChromeOS. In Intel case, they have this powerful x86 architecture but it is very power hungry as it was designed for desktop system, not laptops, and they can't make a low powered consuming chip... well they can.. but performance is weaker than ARM for the same power consumption... lets not forget costs too, another problem. Intel chips cost too much. Intel may eventually be able to make something, like Microsoft with Windows, but it there is no clear path. For ChomeOS, the OS is ultra basic, slim, and can focus on features that consumers really cares about and consider as core experience, so it is easy for them to go up, especially when all the R&D was already done by others, and experimentation where already done by others. They see what works and not, and just implement the best solution. Also, being a new OS on the block, security issues isn't a big concern, so that is something they can deal with later when it becomes an issue. Currently, Microsoft plans for Windows is to bring back dev support on it, they are also trying to make Windows into components that can put included or removed (don't expect a setup where you add remove components from checkboxes any time soon or ever, this is more for OEMs). This also include CShell, replacing Shell32 of Windows.The idea is to make Windows fit to more and new form factors better. Microsoft is working with Qualcomm, to try and make Windows 10 on ARM CPUs a thing. They kinda doing a software lunch where you have devices for it by OEMs, but limited productions, and near impossible to find anything on the OEM website about it, because it isn't really ready. ARM CPUs are too slow and don't have many needed technologies to run an OS like Windows smoothly on them. The Snapdragon 810 runs Windows 10 like a potato PC, 835 runs better, but x86 programs really kills it (too much). 845, we will see... it is obviously getting better with every Snapdragon generation as more and more CPU technologies are added, but even if they manage, it definitely needs a high-end chip to start with. Maybe in a few years, mid range chip would be fine, but not soon. Microsoft definitely aims, so far, for a Windows 10 powered phone/tablet convertible device. The company trying to keep Windows relevant... this is also why they implement many integration with your current smartphone. Soon you'l be able to read and send SMS, and view conversations from your phone on your PC, as well as access its content. Microsoft is also not putting all its eggs in one basket in the case Windows does eventually disappears. Microsoft Launcher on Android, a launcher that has past 15 millions downloads and raving reviews, and partnering with Samsung, shows that a Microsoft powered Android phone, might be on the table for the company. An Android phone with all Microsoft services. Imagine the latest and greatest Samsung Galaxy S/Note phone with Microsoft Launcher, and Microsoft apps and Cortana, instead of Samsung stuff and Bixby. Samsung is very happy with partnership with Microsoft. Both are going against Google.
I never encountered this, and I've installed with both an offline and online accounts. Granted some of the things they'd like you to do have a non-obvious way of avoiding them. There's an option in Settings to prevent that from happening. And it works, because I have the option to disable that and not a single app has mysteriously found its way into my Start Menu again. Some of those apps also come with the OS preinstalled, so you'll have to actually find them and remove them from the disk if you don't want them back. At least not that easily. I haven't encountered this either. And it has never bugged me about setting up a PIN. Why? Stripping down an OS to its bare essentials, whatever that may be, does nothing for performance unless you're running the OS on hardware worse than a potato. And even then, if you're just stripping things down because you don't think you need them, do you have an idea what most of the background apps and services does and how the applications you run interact with them and the rest of the OS? And there's also the issue that practically all developers assume the default configuration is being used. But if you want this default configuration to be the bare bones one, then you're going to have the issue with application installers mucking more with the OS than they should when you need to enable something. In other words, unless you really know what you're doing, a bare bones configuration is worse for the end user, not better. I mean, we could be going back to the good ol' days of DOS and before PnP was a thing. I'm sure manually setting those IRQs in a CLI will go well with 99.999% of the populace. On one hand, I understand why Microsoft is doing this. On the other hand, I just wish it was more clear what data was being gathered. But it's not so, whatever, set it to Basic and call it a day. Let Microsoft do whatever the hell they want and let the market's reaction dictate how they react. If you don't like it, there are plenty of other choices out there. The only person that's chaining you to Windows is yourself. The number of publicly disclosed vulnerabilities, like those listed in CVE, are not indicative of how secure or not secure an OS is. Otherwise Windows 98SE is vastly more secure than any other Windows OS. But we know that's a laughable assertion and downright false. The other thing is that a publicly disclosed vulnerability means that Microsoft is aware of its existence. And if whoever disclosed it followed the gentleman's protocol of giving some arbitrarily, but long enough, amount of time before disclosing it, then chances are the vulnerability is patched. Therefore, it's reasonable to infer that more publicly disclosed vulnerabilities means that the product is likely to be more secure, because it's a known factor and because it's likely to have been patched (otherwise a major product who hasn't had a patch out for a major vulnerability would've made headlines on all the top tech websites). Even if it's not patched, because it's a known factor and because it's been poked around enough, there are likely mitigations you can take to prevent the exploit from happening, or at the very least, make it harder for an attacker to do their thing. For example, when it was found the NTVDM subsystem had a vulnerability, a workaround was to simply disable 16-bit application support because NTVDM only serviced 16-bit applications. If you prevent the user from running 16-bit applications, you prevent the user from using NTVDM. EDIT: If we're still going to use the number of publicly disclosed vulnerabilities as an indicator of how secure or insecure a product is, then Linux is the worst of them all: https://www.cvedetails.com/top-50-products.php . Three Linux products (the kernel itself, Android, and Debian) are in the top 10. The only Windows product in the top 10 is #8, and its Server 2008. Windows 7 and 8/8.1 both have an update to enable the same telemetry "features" as Windows 10. Also, Windows 7's EOL is in like two years. And from there it's going to stop receiving patch updates. Windows 8.1 is up in 2023, so it's a little longer, but the problem still remains. If you're that paranoid about your privacy, go run Linux. Microsoft hasn't forced you to use anything.
They're a bit too obvious about it. Microsoft seems determined to push Edge, Bing, and all their other options, which can be frustrating. After the latest update, Edge ended up becoming the default browser. I personally prefer Windows 10, but honestly, we had more freedom with our own operating system in older versions. You can disable certain features if you like, but it's still a hassle. If I need Cortana or want to use Edge, I'll install it myself. The same goes for Samsung forcing users to use Bixbi.
This rare occurrence happens only a tiny fraction of the time—about 0.00000001%—and for me it’s essentially negligible. With great capability comes significant accountability, yet many people struggle with handling that duty. A Microsoft developer once discussed this topic, highlighting the Dunning-Kruger phenomenon.
Also the telemetry process creates a loop. You need the developer to improve their work, but you don’t want them to get any clues that could help. User reports a crash → Developer investigates → User demands a fix → Developer sighs.
They’re encouraging you to use Edge on its own operating system. It’s the quickest among the four-core browsers and was the first to add many features—have you tried it? It led the way with standards like HEVC and PlayReady 3.0, making it possible to stream Netflix in 4K before Firefox and Chrome caught up. Edge also outperformed Firefox in HTML5 support and came in just behind Chrome. It offers all the same add-on and cloud sync features as other browsers. Still, no one mandates its use, and switching back to defaults after a major update takes about two seconds—just once a year.