5 Things I Wish Windows Would Do Better

I've never kept my frustrations with Windows to myself. Whether it's Windows 10 or Windows 11, some things never change – namely the things that aren't important enough to Microsoft. Over the years, Microsoft has devoted significant resources to making Windows easier to use while leveraging as much user data as possible.

Even though we hate many aspects of it, we continue to use it every day. Since we can't escape this so easily, we've developed a kind of love-hate relationship with Windows. I could talk all day about my problems with Windows, but I'll narrow it down to five things that I wish Microsoft would actually try to fix on the world's most used operating system.

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5 Handling Bluetooth devices

I basically gave up

I had a dream – the dream of enjoying my Sony WH-1000XM4 on my Windows PC. I didn't ask for much, did I? Hoping to experience the same noise cancellation and sound quality that I enjoyed on my Android phone, I decided to use my headphones on my Windows 10 PC. Little did I know that Windows hates Bluetooth and would do everything in its power to make the experience terrible.

While the lag I experienced while gaming was bad, even the microphone quality was atrocious, so much so that my friends on the other end roasted me to no end. I even tried using them on my Windows 11 system but I couldn't do anything about it. I had to finally give up on my dream and buy a 2.4GHz gaming headset, which interestingly comes with its own problems.

Anyway, it's high time Microsoft fixes Bluetooth connectivity on Windows because currently, wireless gaming is simply impossible if your headset doesn't have a 2.4GHz mode. However, we shouldn't all resign ourselves to the fact that Bluetooth is bad on Windows. I've read countless reports on Reddit from others who have had similar issues with other Bluetooth headsets on their Windows PCs. Someone at Microsoft should get to the bottom of this as quickly as possible.

4 Change default apps

Sure, why don't I do it? everyone File extension?

Setting the default app for a specific file type isn't commonplace, but it should still be easy enough that I don't need to go into detail here. Windows 10 used to handle this quite well, allowing you to select a default app, such as VLC Media Player for a “.mp4” file, and then automatically setting it as the default for all other video file extensions (.mkv). .mov, .avi).

However, Windows 11 takes a different approach. They want you to set the default application for each individual file type separately. This lengthy process rarely makes sense and should be switched to the old method. This is just one of the many unpleasant changes that Windows 11 brought to the PC experience, prompting many users to switch from Windows 11 to Windows 10.

3 Control advertising and bloatware

Windows 11 is basically freemium with a lot of advertising

Microsoft gave Windows 10 users free upgrades to Windows 11, and while that was great, it meant the company had to make money elsewhere. What resulted was thinly veiled advertising and, more recently, features no one asked for. The advertising situation on Windows 11 is comically bad at the moment, with intrusive advertisements now visible even on the login screen and start menu.

Windows 10 users even reported full-page ads urging users to switch to Windows 11. Microsoft has slowly but surely made ads one of the biggest highlights of Windows and along with the new Copilot features, bloatware in Edge and a mandatory Microsoft account It has done a lot of damage to the operating system's image. You can disable many of these things, but Microsoft is making it more and more difficult with every new update.

Users should not put up with this with software like Windows. After all, it's not free software or a poorly made app that you can have fun with for a few days before throwing it away. It is a mainstay of the lives of over a billion users worldwide, and Microsoft should rethink its strategy for the future of Windows 11 as we move towards 2025 and Windows 10 reaches its end of life.

2 Push stable Windows updates

I've resigned myself to a world without updates

Windows Update is a strange beast to talk about. I know it's important to keep updates enabled to protect your PC, but the other things I have to endure eventually become too much for me. For example, Windows takes a long time to install updates, and there is no easy way to avoid mandatory driver updates. Often a new update leads to errors in the system that I have to spend hours repairing. I'm not the only one who says that either.

I've disabled Windows Update on my older Windows 10 PC for years, come what may, and I'm prepared for the worst. Nothing bad has happened during this time and I am confident that nothing bad will happen. However, on my Windows 11 PC I am much more cautious and am reluctant to accept updates. In the worst case scenario, updates still creep in and every now and then something breaks.

The new Checkpoint updates are intended to reduce the size of each update, but that still doesn't solve the worst of Windows Update's problems. This is one of the biggest areas that Microsoft should work on to make updates work for the user and not against them.

1 Find what the user is looking for

I'll do it myself

Windows Search has gone from somewhat annoying to completely unusable. It almost always doesn't show any results that even come close to what I'm looking for. Since Windows Search is worse than Windows' useless problem solvers, it's no wonder everyone curses Windows Search with all their might. You would also agree if you've ever searched for a Windows setting or folder only to see Bing results at the top and what you wanted was nowhere to be seen.

It's not even a hard problem to fix – that's what confuses me the most. On the macOS side, Spotlight Search does a great job of finding exactly what the user needs. So why has Microsoft neglected Windows Search for so long? Have they decided to ignore it since no one uses it anymore? Who knows, maybe they're too busy working on 10 more places to cram with ads or 5 more Copilot features to add in the next update, which might even bring a BSOD.

Will we ever stop hating Windows?

It seems like every time Microsoft releases a new version of Windows, a wave of hate erupts from fans of the previous version. That's what happened with Windows 10, and it's certainly the case with Windows 11 too. We may feel that Windows 11 deserves it more than its predecessors, but there could also be some recency bias at play here.

However, Microsoft isn't doing itself any favors by bombarding users with ads, bloatware, and incessant updates. Plus, they seem callous when it comes to fixing things like Windows Search, Settings Management, poor customization options, and more. Despite Windows 10's larger market share, Windows 11 will soon be the only option for countless PC users as Windows 10 is phased out next year. Microsoft should get its act together before that happens.