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 c...