[p_ing]

Windows used to require a reboot to change an IP address.

Windows used to BSOD when the graphics stack crashed.

Used to come without a built-in firewall exposing all sorts of vulnerabilities to the public Internet.

Used to not isolate critical kernel components to 3rd party software.

(And Windows has always had a hodge-poge of UI designs dating back to NT4/Win95 which contained Win3.x design elements)

The list can go on about how it most certainly, objectively, was not "better".

[ronsor]

The Windows kernel has certainly improved—BSODs are now rare—but the userspace has only gotten worse. The end result is a decline in usability and dozens of new ways for your OS to enter a permanently unusable state without a BSOD.

[p_ing]

There are gains and losses in UX, I agree. I avoid the ads stuff via Pro (though not completely the telemetry, that said it's for games and a separate Enterprise device for Windows-only PoSh). I think the big spot for 'Recent' on the start menu, which I disable recent, is a waste of space.

But I don't use the start menu in the way of Windows' past; it's always Win+type what I want.

We did gain with things like tabbed Explorer or a right-click menu not infested by COM extensions taking ages to load.

I'm not aware of any of these 'dozens of new ways' to make Windows unusable in the way I use it, then again Windows doesn't really force any one happy path, there are often five different ways to do one thing.

[dangus]

That’s just your opinion, man.

Like, what do you mean by “permanently unusable state?”

This is all just vague nonsense.

Windows bad because Microsoft, or something.

I’m gonna guess you’ll come back and say something dated or exaggerated like “OneDrive nags you all the time” (nope, it can be fully uninstalled in windows 11 just like any app).

[ronsor]

> That’s just your opinion, man. > Like, what do you mean by “permanently unusable state?”

I mean ways for the OS to lock up in ways that require a reboot. This is an objective criteria.

[dangus]

Sounds like you don’t know what the word “permanent” means. If you can reboot and everything works again that doesn’t sound all that permanent.

I use all three major OSes regularly and none of them lock up in ways that require a reboot with any level of regularity, never mind entering a “permanently unusable state.”

In my experience I find that at present in 2025, rebooting Apple systems seems to fix occasional little wonky problems [1], my Linux laptop needs reboots or hard restarts for occasional sleep issues, and my Windows 11 desktop’s most frequent problem tends to be graphics driver crashes while playing games (and that’s partially my fault for choosing AMD instead of Nvidia). That is the kind of problem that used to cause full system lock-ups but Windows 11 actually manages that failure relatively gracefully.

But the point is that the only operating system I interact with that never has any issues on the OS level are my Linux servers, but that’s really an entirely different use case with much less complexity and risk than a desktop workstation. And even then it’s common practice to manage Linux servers as cattle rather than pets and just destroy/replace them when there’s an issue.

[1] Out of all the desktop operating systems, I think Apple has the highest quantity of hastily added features that ship with rarely-fixed minor bugs, while the Windows team doesn’t even attempt to add features at anything close to Apple’s pace. macOS has this struggle to keep feature parity with iOS and the iPhone which itself has a economic mandate to iterate quickly. For example, since iOS 26 I’ve been having random issues with Guided Access and the screenshot tool on iOS that only resolve when I restart the phone. I’ve also needed to cycle Bluetooth since iOS 26 on occasion to get my AirPods to connect successfully.

[wink]

The task bar not being movable is a huge (and also completely silly) example of stuff going worse.

I have some things that simply don't work anymore that kinda didn't bother me with easy workarounds on Win 10.

I would have to physically alter my desk setup for certain things with this new anti-feature. Not even sure how this could be argued as a win. (FWIW, I have 3 monitors and the bar used to be on the right one on top - so if I have a laptop half in front of it (no space next to the monitorr) I could do everything. open programs, look at the damn clock, etc.pp - now it's at the bottom and because of this annoying constraint called gravity I can't affix my laptop to be out of the way on top of the screen)

[p_ing]

I would disagree with feature additions; Windows brings new features often every month as detailed in their patch Tuesday relnotes. Some aren't enabled right away, they do staged rollouts now, but they're much faster than Apple's (generally) once-per-year feature update release.

[dustbunny]

Try telling these reasons to your aging father who no longer understands how to print a file the government sent him because windows has changed windows explorer so much that he doesn't even understand that it's part of the OS anymore.

The disaster that is the ever shifting UX of windows is having serious harm on our senior citizens.

I've fielded several issues like this from many different seniors I know.

We've left these people behind and it's a shame that is having serious consequences.

Yes, things are better under the hood. But the surface, the UX, is a mark of shame on our entire industry.

[jpalawaga]

This is a strange take. Should we never ever change UI because grandpa can’t learn the updates?

[dustbunny]

This is reductive black and white thinking that simply refuses to deal with the real problem that I clearly illustrated.

Microsoft windows is a critical tool that society continues to build dependence on. The poorly executed redesigns of key windows features has consequences unlike the vast majority of software systems.

With Microsofts great power, comes great responsibility.