Details, Details (Premium)

We all have our specific complaints about Windows. But many of my complaints are tied to a simple fact many can relate to: Microsoft will announce some feature, and deliver on it to some degree, but completely fail in the details. And then it will move on to the next thing and never clean up its mess.

There are many examples of this–one might view Microsoft’s inability to obsolete and remove Control Panel as a classic–but I came across a more typical example in updating the Windows 11 Field Guide recently. And this kind of problem is all over Windows. It’s all about not being detail-oriented.

We’re in Mexico City as I write this, and for this trip, I did something I don’t usually do and created a to-do list–actually, a few different to-do lists–of tasks I wanted to complete while we were here. Some of the items on this list concern the book: I wanted to figure out a strategy for screenshots in an era in which Microsoft arbitrarily changes the UI too frequently, as if on whim, for example.

I got that one done, as it turns out. But there are other items on that part of the list. Some are big picture things–figuring out how to handle 24H2 and Copilot+ PC functionality–and some are specific. And among the latter, I wanted to use my Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra to update the Phone Link chapter because Phone Link provides users of some flagship Samsung phones (and, oddly, some other phones) with some unique capabilities (which I assume are tied to the phone maker bundling Link to Windows capabilities on the device).

And the Phone Link chapter needs to be updated anyway: This app has evolved over time, and now there’s a new Mobile Devices interface in Windows 11 Settings, and I was thinking about reorganizing the chapter anyway to better cover the differences between linking an iPhone, Android phone, and Samsung flagship on-boarding and capabilities. And I ran into some typical blockers, something I’ve been thinking about writing up separately. Long story short, I set out to do something that feels finite and doable, and then I get bogged down when things don’t work.

Part of the complexity of writing this book is that I need to test things in different ways: It’s not enough to accomplish some task successfully once, I have to repeat it. And Windows 11 makes this difficult. I’ve written in the past about how it’s often not possible to say, “if you do this, this will happen.” Now it’s like a flowchart. You may see this. Or … you may see this.

Adding to the complexity, I use multiple accounts and account types, looking for differences. And with something like Phone Link, I’ve linked various phones to various Microsoft accounts (MSA), and I’ve paired various phones to various PCs. Sometimes I need to tear it all down and start from scratch. Sometimes … I can’t.

Today’s Phone Link involves multiple pieces. There’s the Phone Link app, of course. The Link to Windows mobile app for iPhone and Android (which is sometimes an integrated component, as on my Samsung). The Mobile devices interface in Settings (at Bluetooth & devices > Mobile devices, which used to be called Phone or Phone Link). And then your Microsoft account (MSA), which is mostly managed on the web.

I know that Microsoft associates devices, mostly Windows PCs, with your Microsoft account. And that this association triggers Microsoft Store app install limits, is tied to Find my device functionality, backup/sync, and so on. But the linking of your Microsoft account and mobile devices is less clear. That Devices page on the MSA website links to an Android & iOS device management page, where I see no devices linked across multiple MSAs, despite how often I link them.

Here’s the thing: This used to work. I documented it in the Windows 10 Field Guide. But that’s gone. Or is not working. Or something.

And so I turned to Windows 11.

The new Mobile devices interface in Settings has global options for allowing the PC to access your mobile devices (i.e. those phones–and, apparently, certain Samsung tablets–that are linked to your MSA) and for enabling Phone Link.

There is also a “Manage devices” button that opens a “Manage mobile devices” window where you can see the devices link to your MSA and add a new device. This being Windows, this isn’t the only place you can do this: For example, most people will probably add a device–linking it to their MSA–using Phone Link. Whatever.

Your linked devices are shown in the My devices list. And there is an Enabled/Disabled switch there that … I don’t know what the point of that is, honestly. It seems like most people will have one linked device, their phone, and that they would want that enabled. But OK.

What’s missing here is a “Remove” option. And that sent me down a rabbit hole.

Here’s what I found out: When Microsoft changed the name of this interface to Mobile devices, it also lost the “Remove” option. So it’s no longer possible to remove–unlink–a mobile device from your MSA. There is no way, in Windows 11 or on the MSA website, to remove a linked mobile device.

Now, you can remove (unlink) a mobile device from your MSA, but only if you have that device with you: You unlink it in the Link to Windows mobile app. If you reset, sell, or trade-in your phone, that capability disappears. That phone will remain in the My devices list in Manage mobile devices. You can “disable” it. But you cannot remove (unlink) it. (That’s what you see above: The Pixel 6a is in Pennsylvania, and I’m in Mexico.)

Come on. That can’t be right. But it is.

And here I reach an interesting blocker. I complained above about the fuzziness of some descriptions, going from “do this, and you will see this” to a flowchart-like set of maybes. But this is something else entirely. It’s something that used to work … that is now gone. And there is no logical reason for it. This feature has clearly just been forgotten. And the B-team working on the phone integration features in Windows may literally have no idea it’s missing. No one seems to be acknowledging it publicly, at least.

I spent more time on this than I care to admit. It’s prevented me from updating and finishing the new version of that chapter. And I keep thinking I must be missing something.

But then I remember: There’s no one piloting this ship. And this typ of thing is how Windows 11 lets us down again and again. It would be funny if it weren’t so sad.