Energized ⭐

In a "pain points" status update, Windows lead Pavan Davuluri said he was "energized" by the improvements to Windows 11. I know how he feels: As a decades-long Windows watcher and documenter, I've felt beaten down by the enshittification in Windows 11 in recent years, and it's nice to see Microsoft give this capable platform the love it needs. But as I pointed out at the start of this effort, there's still a big gap between what's being done and what needs to be done. And for all the interaction with the community we've seen this year, Davuluri and his team still aren't being as transparent as I'd like.

This isn't going to devolve into a screed of any kind: A step forward is a step forward, and while we can debate intent or motivation, if the result is a win for those who use Windows, no one will cheer louder than me. And this is a win. The Windows team has methodically moved to implement the changes Davuluri promised back in March, and some of those changes have already made their way into stable. Some but not all, and not the biggest and most important changes. Which is where my comments about transparency come in.

Last night, after Microsoft released five new pre-release Windows 11 builds through the Windows Insider Program, Davuluri published an end of the month wrap-up post to provide a status update about the work his team's been doing this year. There's nothing particularly notable about it, but re-reading it again this morning, I'm struck by the same feeling of déjà vu I get each week on Windows Weekly when I recap whatever builds the Windows Insider Program (WIP), or in stable, the Windows team released since the last show. Which is to say, these past few months have seen a reasonably predictable progression of new features and fixes through WIP and then into the preview and general releases in stable.

Compare and contrast this predictability with the situation last year and beyond when new features would appear randomly in some WIP channel or even in stable and not work their way logically through the system. That is, in an ideal world of 2025, a new feature would appear first in Canary, then hit Dev, Beta, and Release Preview in turn, receiving whatever testing and feedback at each stage before landing in a Week D preview update and then being made available to everyone in stable on the next Patch Tuesday. That wasn't rare last year and beyond, it never happened.

2026 has been different. Not perfect, mind you, there are still a few exceptions, and Experimental (Future Platforms), which we can view as the new Canary, is still often the last channel to get new features, not the first. But better. Much better.

Objectively, WIP is more predictable than it's been in many years. But that doesn't mean it's predictable full stop. And it's still not clear when most of the many new features Davuluri's Windows team is working on through WIP will actually land in stable. And that is very much like the old WIP, the old Windows...