Making Every Windows 11 PC an AI PC
blogs.windows.com
blogs.windows.com
Yeah, I know this sounds stupid, but I mean, the majority of games are there now.
The signal is all that's needed, I work in AAA games and we shifted heaven and earth to make Stadia work. Which means somewhere in Ubisoft there is a fully functioning version of Watch Dogs Legion and The Division that run natively on Linux.
And the answer was the same when I asked why we didn't release it: we don't see a market, and we don't want to maintain another channel of support.
Right now it's not costing them any meaningful sales, so why would they put the investment in?
> a fully functioning version of Watch Dogs Legion and The Division that run natively on Linux.
I don't really care how many games have actually enabled it, I know it exists.
You can avoid titles with DRM, of course, but then you'll inconvenience your friends who do use Windows, or be unable to join them.
Personally I've switched back to using Linux as my main OS for my home gaming machine after 15 years. I've kept a tiny partition for Windows 11 for the odd multi-player game (BF 6) but I'm not logged in anything but game launchers on that OS.
Who is this useful for? What is the strategy behind this?
Edit: To give an actual contrarian view, this could be useful for people who are completely computer illiterate, but need to use a computer for work/school etc and have no desire to learn the basics of using a desktop OS.
basically gen zalpha.
Middle manager careers
>What is the strategy behind this?
We must do something, this is something, so we do it.
This cycle, gig work and part-time hours are exploiting the health care gap to ensure that people are paid just barely enough money to show up to work the next day, but not enough money or hours so that they can afford to voluntarily quit being exploited. Universal healthcare and basic income at a national level would crater involuntary employment numbers and likely cause a banking crash when consumers default en masse on their credit debt balances.
“Chattel slavery is dead, but industrial slavery remains.” (1886)
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User: hey, why is the game running so slow?
AI Assistant: starts checking things.
Telemetry, apps: GTA 6 was launched 1 hour ago, then stopped 4 minutes ago. Likely the source of the performance complaints.
Telemetry, frames: FPS was at 60 when the game started, started dropping after 30 minutes of gameplay, deteriorated sharply. Reached the low of 18 FPS with unstable frame timings 12 minutes ago and remained there. Confirms GTA 6 as the source of the performance complaints.
Game settings: "medium" preset, locked to 60 FPS, lines up with recommendations for this system.
Expected performance of this game on this hardware with those settings: should stay at 60, with dips down to 50 in heavy areas. Does not match the observed performance.
Telemetry, resource utilization: normal until 30 minutes into gameplay, then increasingly GPU bound, causing poor performance.
Telemetry, power: the laptop was at 100% of charge and plugged in throughout. Temps were at 40C when the game was launched, then started ramping up, fan reached its RPM limit at 20 minutes, temperature kept climbing. Progressively more throttling was applied to GPU and CPU. 80C on GPU die (thermal limit) was hit 34 minutes in. GPU performance was choked by the thermal throttling.
Local temperature: no dedicated air intake sensor to query the air temperature from. 19C outside according to the weather report, but the laptop is plugged in, so it's probably not outside. Inside would be warmer. No smart thermostat to query the air temperature from. Anything else to get the air temperature from? Paired smartphone: is in proximity, was not used or moved for the past hour, reports that its core temperature is 24C. That's the room temperature.
Cooling system analysis: cross-referencing power draw logs to estimated room temperature to internal temperature. Not enough heat is being rejected by the cooling system. It underperforms the factory specification by at least 60%.
Past performance data: this laptop was used 7 times in the past 10 days. Seems like the cooling system was underperforming every time.
AI Assistant: your computer was overheating while you were playing GTA 6, which caused the performance issues. Check the air exhaust - the port at the left side of the laptop, with hot air coming out of it. Is there anything blocking it?
User: uh, no? The laptop was on the table the entire time. There's nothing to the left of it.
AI Assistant: it's likely that the laptop's cooling system needs cleaning. Should I check the prices at the nearest repair shop?
User: hey, why is the game running so slow?
AI Assistant: It's because of me. I'm in the process of creating a detailed psychological profile based on what you play and how you play it.
This is a push for a new way to interact with computers. Using natural language, at every part of the interface, to give the computer instruction. Allowing those instructions to be dialog.
Also, on the topic of keyboard vs voice, I think differently when my thoughts are expressed through typing and speech. A computer that can follow my babble around (which would also need eye tracking or some brain connection to fully understand the context of each thought) is radically different than using a mouse or keyboard commands to select focus.
If anything, this marketing copy appears to be a push towards a first preview of the future. What you can actually do with it is rudimentary, but the paradigm of _how_ you interact is a major behavior change that is required first before full capability can be unlocked. We are probably close than people believe to a full holodeck experience of interacting in a fully 3d rendered environment, and having it manifest change realtime. At some point the interface of the shell fades away completely, or at least optionally.
Run it with a very restrictive firewall, and be sure to take snapshots regularly so that you could revert unwanted changes that slip through.
I still have one dual boot machine, but they are on separate drives. So far no issues with that setup.
I used to do the same in the past, before IOMMU existed.
[1] Take a hint. Maybe someday Qualcomm silicon won't be trash. Often you see companies change their name for no good reason but Qualcomm is never going to be able to sell laptops until they change their name to something else or at the very least change their branding so nobody draws a line between the terrible past and a possible future. They should ask Copilot for a better name.
[2] Personally I think "Plus" is a bad smell in branding, right up there with "One". Sure, Purina One is a premium product but all XBOX ONE does is prove that nobody gets a game console bought by their mom anymore because how could you explain to your mom that an XBOX ONE > XBOX 360?
Great GPU, btw!
But the OnePlus One was a pretty good phone...
Sometimes there are reasonable concerns, sometimes people just dont like to change, that's it.
If Windows has 1.4 bilion users, then 100 of them complaining on HN will make you think that a lot of people hate windows, but in reality... :D
Right now I seriously consider moving to Linux. Thing is, main issue before were either unfamiliar UI or bad performance. Windows 10/11 has fair share of these too with aggressive push for control panel replacements. But that's honestly minor obstacle. There are lots of pluses on functional front too like windows Terminal, winget, wsl.
Actual problem is Microsoft simply stopped understanding word "No". Always pushing some links that open Edge for no reason. Enabling click bait news I spend a while to get rid of. Randomly switching default save location to one drive. Full screen ads for O365 & One Drive every few updates.
I simply need OS to get out of my way and stay there.
Hint: Blackrock, Vanguard.
I can’t leave it behind professionally, so I’ll be riding along for this train wreck, but I will have some peace at home at least.
Unfortunately... it's not compatible with many things I need. I then sold my computer and switched to Mac as a happy medium and it works well enough but I miss many things from Kubuntu.
The start menu is also going downhill - it is slower than ever before. why - because it is connected to some strange online functions that are almost impossible to be completely disabled. Even in my quite cleared windows install finding a program to launch takes around 5 seconds for something that should be instant.
Their appstore is a failure (thank god, we don't need another walled garden)
Their mobile tablet strategy failed gazzilion years ago and yet they still try to move the control panel to their modern settings menu while severely limiting it's functionality.
They try to push online accounts for no good reason.
There seems to be something in this corporation that just prevent the top people to understand that some things - they got them right 2-3 decades ago, so just don't fuck them up.
Windows still lags on interrupts - and we have such cute situations where task manager shows in details sub 10% CPU usage, but performance tab shows 90%. Why - usually the answer is some form of I/O hiccup.
I've working in spaces where I've run infrastructure ops including end user for huge orgs. Think >100k people, mostly in the US. What I am now, other than a pilot of a few thousand Copilot for O365, all of this crap is turned off. Nobody understands wtf this is, the terms are difficult to find, and both IT and end users struggle to figure out where one thing starts and the other ends.
We are growing non-windows platforms significantly. New task based workflows like call centers and shared devices are web on linux/chrome first these days - you have to justify Windows. Why? The arbitrary rate of change and re-engineering is way too high (ie. $$). Some populations can pick their own devices, and MacOS grows 25% year over year in those programs.
This time around the Linux desktop is even getting marketshare, which is insane. 6%?! Firefox has less marketshare, and people bring it up in antitrust suits.
I think the secret is that they don't care about these users. Western markets have been bifurcating into, on one side, captured luxury markets where everything is grossly overpriced, low-quality, surveilled, censored, resold, walled-off and milked for every penny from a stupid, wealthy satisfied-enough clientele, and on the other side, people who don't matter and can do whatever who cares.
Getting 80% margin out of 20% of the market is better than getting 10% margin out of 80% of the market.
Such a lazy argument.
Listen, the "users hate change" argument is weak for the current Windows drama. There has always been an N+2 as an option and so this is way worse...
There's an old, reliable pattern:
XP was good, Vista (N+1) sucked, so everyone jumped to 7 (N+2).
7 was good, 8 (N+1) had the bad UI, so everyone jumped to 10 (N+2).
People skip the bad one and wait for the fixed one. That's the de facto N+2 path.
The reason the Windows 10 -> 11 complaint is so loud is that Microsoft added a massive blocker in terms of hardware, shitty unfixable UI problems and they're shoving additional services down our throats (online accounts, AI, Teams).
It's not that 11 is just bad like Vista; it's that Microsoft made it physically impossible for a huge, happy Windows 10 user base to upgrade. Now those users are stuck waiting for N+2 and hoping it's fixed.
Some are being forced to either buy a whole new PC to get to 11, or pay Microsoft an ESU security tax to keep using their old one.
This isn't just whining about a UI change; it's a forced mass-migration with a financial penalty. That's why people are genuinely waiting for the next version, the true N+2 successor to 10. They're just following the cycle, but this time, the N+1 skip is non-optional.
In contrast Windows 7 was released 2 years after Vista, 10 was released 3 years after 8. In both cases the "good" versions (xp and 7) were still well within their supported lifecycle.
So you can't just skip 11 like you could do with Vista or 8. And that is really the crux of the issue.
Now there’s no choice.
Similarly how odd it would be to be in a closed office talking to a computer… at least until we got to startrek levels of AI.
Finally, in my experience, I cannot talk and perform complex thinking at the same time.
I can type and mouse around and stay on a flow state, where I can hold a conceptual model of something in my head and write code for it. But as soon as I begin talking that flow state begins to decay. The longer I talk the harder it is to get back into that state.
I’m happy to ask my phone questions in other circumstances, but I don’t feel it’s something I need on my computer.
Happy for history to prove me wrong!
> There’s never been a better time to upgrade to a Windows 11 PC
Bob, Clippy, Cortana and now CoPilot.
It’s wild how unreliable and complex windows has become, how can it be that Dropbox from 10 years ago was better than MS baked in cloud “backup”.
On the other hand, even though SharePoint is hot garbage the browser based Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and Outlook are getting better all the time and increasingly can work from the browser so maybe it will be a non issue and Debian or something becomes and option.
My organization doesn't have Copilot access, but there is no way to remove the empty Copilot menu from the Outlook app. You can customize the rest of the toolbar, but Copilot gets special screen real estate even if it isn't usable.
Its called Windows 10 LTSC + cleanup script + any old office ... I am still using Office 2007 + pdf plugin. Thing uses no resources, still works perfectly.
Do you really have a reason to upgrade? Probably not... So unless Microsoft start forcing people with DX13 or whatever, there is no reason to give up on Windows 10.
> the browser based Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and Outlook are getting better all the time
Again, why? Same privacy issues anyway and AI will get pushed in those also, you can bet on it.
Just find a old version of Office, and use that. Or LibreOffice or whatever. Word, Excel etc are things that really did not change in the last 20 years beyond a ton of corporate fluff and spyware/"cloud".
> It’s wild how unreliable and complex windows has become
Because Microsoft wants to keep all the users locked into their eco system. So the more used you are to their products, the harder it is for the average person to jump ship (for any product, not just windows).
Browser apps because I’m forced into that ecosystem with work, I’ve actually taken quite a liking to onlyoffice otherwise.
The thought of people yammering to their computers in an office environment is deeply disturbing.
Imagine listening to someone trying to format a word document by dictating commands to their AI.
It at least claims to have a lot of the bloatware disabled... but IMO it's only a matter of time until they "accidentally" enable some of this.
> IMO it's only a matter of time until they "accidentally" enable some of this.
Findings summarized:
They added a chat window with a half-rate model and access to OneDrive and sharepoint. Obviously useful integrations like setting up meetings based on a thread or creating tasks are not present.
I don’t care about email summaries or drafts. I talk with developers and our emails are precise.
Github copilot: The shared naming is confusing. There’s not even a shared UI language between the two. I use it because I don’t have Claude code at work. They’ve added some little things like pulling errors from the terminal but it’s mostly just a chat window. Meh.
Also if I edit the file outside the editor (maybe stash some changes with git) before approving edits things get broken and the LLM will start adding in old changes and it becomes part of the context and it’s kind of a mess.
Copilot (browser): -separate ‘work’ and ‘web’ mode for some reason. As far as I can tell it can see my web page in ‘web’ mode but I lose my OneDrive and sharepoint junk. Minimal utility. ChatGPT is better.
Outlook/teams: It’s totally inconsistent and missing integrations. Long email thread? Let’s use Copilot to avoid having to draft a meeting invite with everyone on the thread! There’s a context menu option to do this!
Oh, ok. They removed that in the past week.
Oh ok. It has no context of what I have open. I have to describe the email I’m currently in to their sidebar. This is already not worth my time.
Hmm. It made zero attempt to schedule a time where everyone is available.
This goes on, and I wanted to try because scheduling with our big wigs is a pain. No dice.
Post meeting. We’ve got takeaways. Convert these to MS Todo tasks? No dice! No integration. Want to find teams messages or schedule from teams? Also no.
Excel: neat for making formulas. But sometimes I want to do LLM classification or structured response on a tabular level. That’s the next thing. Also includes a useless chat window.
Powerpoint: also useless. Strangely, I can’t use another powerpoint as a reference for a powerpoint. I want to create clipart. Make a theme. They have ‘make a slide with copilot’ that I actually like, if I could use what it generates as a theme and apply it for all slides.
Generating a slide deck based on a bunch of input is actually pretty cool - but the generic ‘synergy business’ lingo and clip art it uses is so cringe.
And if you go to office.com, it says "Welcome to the Microsoft 365 Copilot app", which doesn't even make any sense - the page I landed at is clearly a web page, NOT an app.
I can't even picture the kind of people who would come up with these dumb names, and the kind of people who actually approve it.