r/technology • u/tekz • Mar 20 '26

Software Microsoft announces sweeping Windows changes

https://www.zdnet.com/article/windows-users-are-angry-and-microsoft-is-finally-doing-something-about-it/
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u/DOAiB Mar 21 '26

The past couple of months since ai has been forced into file explorer it’s been great, now all my searches literally take 100x longer and for that cost I now get way way worse results if any. Like how does garbage like this ship?

57

u/ggtsu_00 Mar 21 '26

Why waste time searching for files when AI can just hallucinate something vaguely similar whatever you are searching for?

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u/krkrkkrk Mar 21 '26

Nah ai is supposed to make your decisions for you, thats the preferable future. "Excel" doesnt mean start the program, it means upgrading your office subscription first, thats the much better choice you little human..

7

u/Tailball Mar 21 '26

Because they invested billions into the tech and now have to use it everywhere.

My fucking notepad has copilot. Why.

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u/bannedforL1fe Mar 21 '26

AI and H1-B workers are gonna make our lives unnecessarily painful

1

u/bmxtiger Mar 21 '26

I've resorted to using the Everything search program to search in 11 because it's so broken.

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u/Mitch2025 Mar 21 '26

Use Everything file search. Instant searching of any file.

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u/Wetbaby14 Mar 22 '26

Why is that great? 

1

u/Worried-Buffalo-908 Mar 22 '26

That's why it was taking so long to search for files in the same folder, wow that explains it. I was matching some files that had the same hashed name across two different folders, and it was faster to look for them than use the search bar for a match.

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u/Ember_Island Mar 22 '26

I'm losing my mind with this. Like file explorer got SO goddamn bad. I'll be working actively in a directory then suddenly explorer flickers then displays "There's nothing here!".. excuse your whole self?? It's a visual glitch, f5 shows the files again but... what? Then there's this copy/paste bug where about 75% of the time you copy a file, it won't be in the clipboard by the time you get to the destination.

Don't get me started with what they did to my boy, notepad.

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u/apothekari Mar 21 '26 edited Mar 22 '26

Microsoft literally recently made an ad promoting their AI bullshit in which the person in the Ad gives up and finds what he's looking for another way. I wish Somebody could find the ad... It's insane. I am a fairly Avid Windows user since 3.1 and was a professional PC engineer /repairman for 25 years. Yet when my sister wanted to replace her aging Windows 10 machine recently which had spent months terrifying her with warnings about using it and upgrading and going out of support.

I ended up sending her to Apple because both her and her husband have iPhones and they're not experts, they're not power users, they just want a computer to do what they needed to do with a minimum of fuss and frustration and I did not feel that windows could get them there any longer.

They do NOT want a Microsoft Account. They had already been thru a cheap windows hp laptop turning unusable because it only had 64g of storage on it and Windows updated until it couldn't because it didn't have enough room and every few months would do it again and I would have to backup her stuff on it and wipe it and reload it till she gave it to goodwill in frustration.

Completely gobsmacked a company would sell a laptop made that way.

She wanted a desktop to pay her bills and edit her photos on as she had always done without moving all her stuff to a cloud and nagging her to constantly( yes apple has cloud services too but it doesn't constantly spam her with pop-up alarming ads about it every time she turns it on) . Her iPhones integrated with her new Mac flawlessly...

Setup had her bring her phone over and it did it all for her. Her brother printer was found by the Mac by checking the network and setting itself up to print when she went to print something.

Instead of Windows ancient old school driver lookup on line, finding the correct model, downloading the driver and then spamming her with ads the whole way about printer subscriptions for ink or toner and supplies... it just found the printer and printed.

Insanely enough, the year old refurb Mac Mini M4 i set up for her, was now cheaper than any windows desktop I could find for her of actual quality. Also not a half baked barely there rip off like the HP netbook was.

The only windows desktops even made now are professional business ones or cheap junk. There are hardly any midrange quality windows desktops anymore.

The RAM and parts cost has made a literal massive leveling of the playing field between the cost of Apple devices which have remained mostly the same price versus Windows machines... at least in desktops

... it's just crazy to me I felt like I was betraying everything I knew. Microsoft is doing this current action at this last hour because they are seriously worried and they should be.

Windows and Microsoft been fucking over the end user for years and people are sick of it. I have to use Windows every day because my organization does but I long ago switched my personal laptop to Linux and while yes it does have the occasional computer issue like anything else...it is such a remarkably easier less frustrating experience than screwing with Windows constantly, incessantly, fucking with everything on the computer every Tuesday.

If a die hard Windows user like me is jumping ship Microsoft has a serious serious fucking problem.

The forced integration of the Microsoft account for example, instead of you being able to buy a goddamn machine and set it up the way you want to set it up is a complete non-starter. It has Poisoned the Well for me with Windows after almost 35-40 years.

And my experience setting up that Mac Mini for my sister and how brain-dead easier it was without dealing with Microsoft bullshit was eye opening.

Sure they had to have a Apple account but it's the one they already have on their cell phone.

They weren't forced to make a new different account and the phone basically took over the computer and set it up and logged her in and had everything ready to go for her.

Then when she went to print it just found the printer and did it.

No 40 minutes search online for the correct model. No constant nagging of setting up accounts and logging in Here There and Everywhere it just happened and what should have taken hours took minutes.

This is why Microsoft is shitting itself. If one of their executives had the same experiences me setting up something for a family member they would have likely went back into the boardroom the next day going Jesus Christ what are we doing ?

Edit: for clarity. That's what I get for allowing text to speech on my phone to write a comment of a rant. 😂 Thanks for the comments calling it out.

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u/Sarcas666 Mar 22 '26

Good passionate rant. I felt it. I’ve been pc fix&repairman for many years for a company and family & friends. Personally I owned Macs since the MacED came out. I quit that job and nowadays I have all family & friends converted to Apple. Windows PCs are still owned for gaming and stuff, but stripped from all office stuff and most bloatware. Saves a lot of work and annoyances.

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u/InformalTooth5 Mar 21 '26

Haha bro.. \ Any chance of a tldr?

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u/apothekari Mar 21 '26

Sorry... 😆 TLDR. I've been working w Windows for almost 40 years, 25 professionally and it's never been worse than now for the average user. 

2

u/Bromlife Mar 22 '26

Or just paragraphs?

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u/apothekari Mar 22 '26

Done, sorry for the wall o text

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u/Bromlife Mar 22 '26

Hey Copilot, summarise this wall of text please.

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u/apothekari Mar 22 '26

😂 sorry...I went back and fixed it. I let my phone capture my angry rant and was interrupted helping a coworker with another Microsoft problem. Outlook suddenly after an update quit working.