Daydreaming about the Ideal Windows OS

Microsoft Windows 10, released in 2015 was originally supposed to be the final, continually updated Windows Operating System. Until Windows 11 came around and threw the notion of perpetuity out the window. The reception of Windows 11 was mixed, because of the heightened barriers to entry, bloated software and instability of the system. A few new good features were introduced, and design wise, it looked alright. Personally not my cup of tea, but any design is better over none.

Let’s address the positive additions first.
They added sudo mode, and window snapping. There are also tabs in the file explorer and the notepad, and dark mode is respected by more built-in programs than before. That’s genuinely decent, and these changes are welcome. (Though sudo still doesn’t solve all permission deficits)

However Microsoft’s product was certainly not micro. The start menu is a web-app. The Installation also requires an internet connection, and logging into a Microsoft account unless you do gymnastics that the average user will likely not try. Updates fail more often in my experience, and the update from 10 to 11 was anything but smooth. The right-click menu still takes noticeably longer to pop than it did in Windows 10.

All this, with the addition of Microsoft’s office programs… most notoriously Microsoft Teams, which throws roughly hundred exceptions in the first few seconds of opening the page, if it even lets you log in. I haven’t heard of anybody who likes this program. During the pandemic in primary school, had I had permissions from the administration, I could have set up a meeting in 896, the year of the founding of the principality of Hungary. In university, logging in is a problem in itself. I think the firm certainly earned itself the Microslop label. Something just didn’t go as planned.

That being said, I do not think people’s problems are with the Windows Kernel. For the most part, the backend of Windows is pretty solid, barring the update fiasco.
What sucks is the user-facing side, the desktop experience. Mainly, how hand-holding the system is.

Exhibit a) Microsoft Store
The Microsoft Store, while a bit too corporately named for my liking, could be a neat solution for the rather dubious state that software management finds itself on WIndows. Its command-line sister, Winget, is also neat in theory. Not all programs are bundled with equally thought out (un)installation methods. Some leave stray files behind, others do not even come with uninstallers. Package managers have proven their worth in the Linux world as well. However, the devil lies in the details.

My most defining experience with the Microslop Store was when I was trying to play Minecraft with my friends. They were on consoles, therefore we played the Bedrock Edition of the game, which is only on the Microsoft Store on PC. I wanted to start the game, and the Microsoft store popped up. Installing the game… What? After it did this, I booted up the game to find that the world I played with my friends with was gone. This would not be the only occurrence, that the Microsoft Store, without prompt would just erase a program.

I have another example of a problem I have with the Microsoft Store, which is also Minecraft related, because I pretty much only ever used it for Minecraft Bedrock Edition. Everything is encrypted. I reinstalled my operating system, and naively I thought I’d be able to just copy my old world from the backup I’ve made. Microslop encrypted my Minecraft world. That’s a tally of two worlds lost due to poor software design.

This broadly exemplifies my problems with Windows. It locks down so much, and makes you not the owner of your PC, but a guest, who is sometimes denied what they want, which sucks because it still has a very solid backend.

So I’ve come up with a concept of an “Eternal Windows”. This is a bit of indulgence in pointless daydreaming which won’t come true, because it doesn’t improve economical margins.

It is clear that Microslop isn’t interested in continuing the development of the desktop Windows Operating System anymore, so the “suggestion” is to reduce work, and modularize the system.

Imagine a Windows Operating System, in which all diagnostics are optional, which does not require a Microslop Account for use, which doesn’t force Microsoft Edge as the browser (And not just in the European Union). The main Operating System would only come with security updates and patches. Software such as Recall, or whatever AI Microslop wants to shove down our throats could be through an optional channel, maybe in a package manager. (Windows does already have an optional Features toggle!) Imagine that something as basic as the file explorer could be replaced for an alternative that actually has functional search. Imagine having real themes again! What if the desktop environment itself would be changeable? Imagine the Windows Backend stripped down of all bloat, running on an old laptop, with i3 as the window manager.

Since we are already in the realm of impossible, I may as well mention. Linux is open source. Its intricacies are no secret to anyone. Microsoft could very well replace WSL with a solution which runs the code natively, instead of through layers upon layers.

Users who do not want exposure to this modularity, and just stick to the Microsoft environment they know, don’t have to be abandoned either. Simply include a checkbox or button at installation, which would set up the system to work as closely as it can like the familiar experience. I'm sure some enterprising systems designers could iron it out.

Windows could be cool again. I would really love to rock a Windows 95 looking computer, with the backend of modern Windows. If such a thing were possible in an official and supported manner, I think I would actually pay for that.

And I ask, what is the real block to these? It's certainly not a lack of talent or money. If anyone could make this happen, it is only Microsoft. The company possesses wealth one cannot even fathom. Money and manpower should be non-issues.

Either way, daydreaming was fun. As I’m writing this, my Windows 11 machine is in an update-failure-retry loop. Have a nice day, and wish me good luck.