Stuck in a Moment You Can’t Get Out Of (Premium)

Microsoft is updating Windows 11 version 22H2 with a second “Moment” update this month, so it’s time to take stock again. And I’ve come to a conclusion that I think may surprise some of you.

So let’s start with that.

One of the big pain points for Windows enthusiasts is that Microsoft seems to have basically abandoned the consumer market. There have certainly been big pushes in the past, with the mid-2000s perhaps being the apex, though the release of the consumer-centric Windows Phone 7 Series in 2011 should not be forgotten either. But since then, it feels like Microsoft’s consumer ambitions have been muted at best.

However, I’m making the case that Windows 11 is in fact Microsoft’s latest big push for consumers. That the evidence is everywhere is frankly kind of embarrassing as I’m not sure I really saw this reality until I was going over the materials for this second Moment update. Which is not at all how Microsoft describes it.

We’ll get to that. For now, consider the following.

Windows 11 was rushed to market in October 2021 after just three months of public testing, and none of the feedback that Insiders or others provided for that release made it into the initial version. That’s not the way you develop software for businesses, educational institutions, or governments, or what Microsoft calls commercial customers. Instead, that’s the type of thing you do to consumers. It’s a software development strategy that was first popularized by Netscape, RIP, the idea being to ship quickly and fix problems later.

With Windows 11, Microsoft promised to step back from the cliff of releasing two feature updates, which you will remember are really version upgrades, every year. This move was ostensibly cheered by Microsoft’s commercial customers, but let’s get real here: none of these entities were upgrading Windows twice per year. They were lucky to upgrade twice per decade. More to the point, this change came with a caveat: Microsoft would only release one feature update per year, yes, but it reserved the right to release new features at any time between those feature updates. And that change would never be cheered by Microsoft’s commercial customers. Who did and will continue to ignore such things because there is no reason to go through the pain and expense of upgrading something that already works just fine, thank you very much.

No, this desire to keep Windows 11 fresh, and to do so without the interruption and the potential problems caused by full feature updates, is, in fact, very consumer-friendly and is quite familiar to these users. This is, after all, exactly how mobile platforms are updated. And while few users are as enthralled by Windows as they are by Android or the iPhone, these updates serve as a kind of “proof of life,” a reminder that Microsoft is busy working behind the scenes to make Windows better all the time.

But the single best evidence that Windows 11 focuses on consumers, and I mean almost literally only on consumers, can be seen in the fact that there is no Long-Term Servicing Channel (LTSC) version of Windows 11 for commercial customers, as there is for Windows 10. That’s rather incredible given that Windows 11 has been in the market for about 18 months already. What this means in pragmatic terms is that any organization that upgrades to Windows 11 will have to upgrade to a new version every two (Pro) or three (Enterprise, Education) years. With LTSC, there is a new release every 2 to 3 years, but customers can skip them for up to five years. So the support lifecycle is much longer.

This explains, I think, why commercial customers have completely ignored Windows 11 to date. I’m not sure where this comes from, but there seems to be some understanding that Microsoft will release an LTSC version of Windows 11 in “a few years.” Which I guess could map to the expiration of Windows 10 support in October 2025. The question, of course, is why Microsoft is waiting. Is this some kind of weird game of chicken it’s playing with its commercial customers?

I can’t say, but for now, Windows 11 is following the same path as Windows Phone 7 in that it’s aimed exclusively at consumers, not commercial customers, from the outset. The difference, obviously, is that Microsoft’s commercial customers have a perfectly viable alternative—for now—in Windows 10, whereas Windows Phone was left to sink or swim on its own. (And its slow embrace of the commercial market was just one of many small things that doomed that platform.)

And consider this. After three years of feature updates and Moments that add their own features, Windows 11 will finally be in a mature enough state that commercial customers shouldn’t have any major reservations about upgrading. (Well, beyond the usual desire to upgrade as infrequently as possible.) And in the interim, consumers can enjoy a regular stream of improvements and new features.

Well, that’s the theory. Whether some majority of Windows 11 users “enjoy” these updates is debatable, but I’m mostly OK with it. What I’m not OK with is Microsoft silently updating the stable version of Windows 11 without telling anyone or, God help us, testing those updates first. The classic example, for now, is the silent change to the Search button on the Taskbar, which became an oblong “pill” in November or December and lost its mouse-over context menu. Because that’s what happens when you don’t test things ahead of time. But it’s happening again to those who subscribe to Microsoft 365 Personal or Family: check your Start menu for a superfluous new Microsoft Defender app install you neither asked for nor OKed. Yep. Sorry.

Microsoft will fix the Search button issue with this new Moment update, by the way: users will be able to choose between an icon, a Search box, or no Search item at all on the Taskbar now. And this feature will be configurable with policy for commercial customers.

Laurent has already covered what’s included in Moment 2, and I will be adding and updating content in the Windows 11 Field Guide as needed to cover the changes. But before moving on, I would like to address another lack of transparency on Microsoft’s part. It’s odd to me that we have no real idea when these things will arrive. Nor do we know what they’re even called publicly; Moment, is, after all, an internal name.

Panos Panay refers to Moment 2 as “an update,” “a major update,” “the next update to Windows 11, one of the most significant since its release,” and a set of “new experiences.” That’s vague, but so is the timing. Moment 1 arrived in November or December, depending on variables that weren’t just vague but were in fact never fully communicated. And Moment 2 “will start to become available today, via Windows Update and new apps available via Microsoft Store updates.” But “full availability of the new features” won’t occur until Microsoft ships the March 2023 monthly security update on Patch Tuesday, starting March 8. Odd that new features would arrive via a security update: separating new features from security updates seems like the right thing to do, but I suspect this commingling is key to Microsoft’s goal of getting the new features to as many users as possible. Regardless, that lack of clarity has been a constant in today’s Windows organizations, so I can’t pretend to be surprised.

I know what you’re thinking: Moment 3? There will probably be one, I guess. When it happens and what it will include are, of course, open questions. As is whether Microsoft will continue to silently add new features to Windows 11 in the interim without communicating or testing them. I hope not, but we should be realistic here. With meaningful engagement in the Windows Insider Program no doubt at an all-time low given all the tester-hostile changes to the program, it’s likely that Microsoft believes the only way to fully test new features at scale is to just release some of them to the public and see what happens.

And you know who won’t like that? Right. Commercial customers. There’s a fight coming unless Microsoft changes its ways or at least excludes them from this behavior.

But that’s a worry for another day. We have another moment to deal with right now.