A Windows 11 Enshittification Checklist (Premium)

Many years ago, someone asked me how I could defend a company like Microsoft, which at that time lorded over personal computing in a uniquely homogeneous way. That was the wrong question: I don’t defend, support, or God help us all, cheerlead for Microsoft, and never have. I support, defend, and cheerlead for its customers, its users. These are real people who sometimes lose track of the nature of the relationship they have with a company that can’t seem to stop abusing them. We pay this company for services. Leaving aside any legal arguments one might make, it’s reasonable to expect to get what we want or were promised from this transaction. Just as it’s reasonable to cut ties and look elsewhere if Microsoft can’t or won’t deliver.

In some ways, this isn’t a new problem, as Windows has never been without its controversies. There have been dark years of doubt and uncertainty, of Microsoft putting its corporate interests ahead of the needs of its customers. But it’s fair to say that this type of behavior, which we now call enshittification, has escalated dramatically in recent years. And that Windows 11, in particular, has victimized its users with a steadily growing list of affronts, big and small, changes to the product that ignore the explicit choices and configurations we make, changes to behaviors that run contrary to decency and common sense, and changes to functionality that undermines the reasons we use Windows in the first place. We’re always had an uneasy relationship with Windows. But now it’s getting more aggressive.

The seeds for this enshittification were planted years ago, but it’s not necessary to document the perfect storm of events that brought us to where we are today. That may be interesting on some level, but it’s just a distraction. My concern, as always, is fixing the problems. And my recent foray into Windows 11 Enterprise is just an attempt to see whether some combination of workarounds, utilities, and other changes can turn the Windows 11 that Microsoft foists on its customers into the Windows 11 that those customers want and deserve.

But it’s also just one of many such attempts. It’s absolutely not the answer. But it may be an answer for some, or it may not. You can’t find out until you try. (Full disclosure: I feel like some version of making Windows 11 work as it does in its DMA-compliant configuration in the EEA is perhaps the closest we can get to the answer. I also believe we’ll get there.)

With all that in mind, let’s look at this logically and pragmatically. The list of ways in which Windows 11 is enshittified has grown steadily since its introduction nearly four years ago. There have been a few steps forward—small changes or reversals that are a net positive—but the overall trend is negative. That is, the list of problems is longer today than it was four years ago. We’re losing this fight.

The list of problems is likewise somewhat subjective. Some will feel very strongly that the forced telemetry in Windows 11 is unacceptable and that it’s their right to disable that entirely, for example, while others will be more accepting or even happy that their data can, in some small way, help to improve the quality of Windows. We all need to evaluate what’s important to us and then act in our own best interests. Which of these issues are the most problematic? And what, if anything, can we do to fix or work around them? Most of us will find a middle-ground between blindly accepting whatever Microsoft does to us and switching to Linux.

To my eyes, the biggest issues with Windows 11 are:

Forced telemetry

Problem areas: Lack of choice, privacy (probably more perception than reality)

Severity level: Minor

Fixes and workarounds: Mainstream users are advised to disable optional telemetry, while more technical users can use the various workarounds that are a Google search away.

My take: Personally, this doesn’t bother me all that much. I disable optional telemetry, but that’s about it.

Preinstalled crapware

Problem areas: Product quality

Severity level: Minor

Fixes and workarounds: In-box crapware is not difficult or time-consuming to uninstall. But you can avoid this entirely by using Tiny11, the super-clean install method I document in Overcome Windows Setup Annoyances, and other more extreme measures.

My take: I don’t like that Microsoft bundles crapware with Windows 11, but it’s easy to ignore or remove.

Constant, unpredictable feature updates

Problem areas: Product quality, product consistency and predictability, product stability, user interruption and annoyance

Severity level: Medium

Fixes and workarounds: Nothing reasonable. You can make sure that the “Get the latest updates as soon as they’re available” option in Windows Update is disabled, and make other Windows Update configuration changes. But pausing updates isn’t wise given the security concerns. More radically, you go back to Windows 10, which receives fewer feature updates but doesn’t solve all the problems.

My take: There are several layers to this, each with its own set of issues. But the biggest to me is the inconsistency, where different computers on the same Windows 11 version will have different features and/or configurations. This isn’t just unprofessional, it’s a support nightmare. I don’t “like” that Microsoft updates Windows 11 so often, especially given that it promised not to do this. But it’s fair to say that Microsoft has improved its updating technologies to the point where this isn’t as disruptive as it used to be. And I never thought I’d be able to say that.

Forced Microsoft account sign-ins

Problem areas: Lack of choice, privacy

Severity level: Minor

Fixes and workarounds: You can easily bypass the Microsoft account sign-in requirement in Windows 10 Home and Pro using various workarounds documented in Overcome Windows Setup Annoyances. Or you can simply create a local account after the fact and then use that instead of a Microsoft account.

My take: Not an issue. Mainstream Windows 11 users should sign in with a Microsoft account. Those technical enough to not want to do so can figure out how to workaround it.

Forced Microsoft Edge usage (Widgets, Search, Copilot, etc.)

Problem areas: Ignores user choice and configuration, privacy

Severity level: Major

Fixes and workarounds: We have to turn to third-party utilities that Microsoft constantly subverts to attempt to bypass this behavior. Unless we live in the EEA, of course: In that case, you can easily bypass these behaviors or even uninstall Microsoft Edge entirely. Ideally, we all get that functionality.

My take: Microsoft Edge is a cancer inside of Windows 11 and one of the biggest issues with this operating system. This is a big part of the problem, but it’s also only part of the problem…

Bad Edge behaviors when you choose to use it, bad behaviors when you do not

Problem areas: Harassment, ignores user choice and configuration, privacy

Severity level: Major

Fixes and workarounds: See above if you don’t want to use Edge. If you do want to use Edge, for some reason, you’re on your own: There are no viable workarounds to this browser harassing you to change the default new tab page, use Bing as your search engine, and so on. You can install anti-tracking extensions, but they won’t prevent Microsoft from tracking you.

My take: Edge is a cancer that must be stopped.

Arbitrary hardware requirements

Problem areas: Lack of choice

Severity level: Minor

Fixes and workarounds: You can easily work around Windows 11’s arbitrary hardware requirements using Rufus as documented in Overcome Windows Setup Annoyances, or the other workarounds I document in Upgrade to Windows 11 Version 23H2 on Unsupported Hardware.

My take: My issue with the arbitrary Windows 11 hardware requirements has little to do with using this OS on older hardware that’s best avoided anyway. It’s that it creates a precedent for future Windows versions to be equally arbitrary and artificially end support for perfectly viable PCs.

OneDrive harasses you to use folder backup and then silently enables it if you keep saying no

Problem areas: Harassment, ignores user choice and configuration, malware-like behaviors

Severity level: Major

Fixes and workarounds: There is no reasonable workaround to this behavior. Other than just giving in, you can minimize the impact somewhat by no longer using the default Documents, Pictures, Music, and Videos folders in OneDrive, as I documented in Following My Own OneDrive Advice (Premium). Or you can simply stop using OneDrive: I discussed my own transition to Google Drive in One Month of Google Drive Made Me a Convert (Premium).

My take: This is perhaps the single biggest issue I have with Windows 11. This behavior isn’t just a form of harassment, it’s insidious: Windows 11 literally enables OneDrive folder backup after you’ve explicitly said no to its many annoying prompts and have explicitly configured it otherwise. This behavior isn’t just anti-customer and anti-choice, it’s evil. This is how malware behaves.

Related: Microsoft Office apps like Word display warning banners when you don’t save to OneDrive locations by default

Problem areas: Harassment, ignores user choice and configuration

Severity level: Major

Fixes and workarounds: There is no way to disable these banner notifications. So your only choices here are to ignore the harassment, use OneDrive as the default save location as Microsoft demands, or stop using Microsoft Office. I chose to stop using Microsoft Office and have found that LibreOffice Writer is a terrific (and free) replacement for Word; perhaps the other components of that suite will be similarly suitable replacements for Excel, PowerPoint, and the others. If not, there are many other Office alternatives: At least you have choices.

My take: I added this to the list because Microsoft Office and Windows are so innately linked, and because this behavior works in tandem with the issue noted above to harass and harangue paying customers into doing things the way Microsoft prefers, ignoring your explicit configurations of the product. Again, evil.

Beyond these major issues, there are many other annoyances, but most of these are even more subjective, and most can be addressed by utilities like Start11, ExplorerPatcher, and the like. But first things first: For now, I’m more focused on the big problems and how we might fix them.

And that’s why I’m looking at Windows 11 Enterprise now. More on that soon.