Microsoft says 2026 will focus on fixing Windows 11’s biggest problems

Microsoft says it will prioritize fixing Windows 11 throughout 2026.
The company acknowledges consistent user complaints about reliability, performance, and overall experience.

Microsoft says it has been listening to user feedback and plans to start fixing Windows 11 to make it a better operating system.

That promise comes at a critical moment. Windows 11 has now surpassed 1 billion active devices, a milestone Microsoft recently confirmed, putting enormous pressure on the company to address long-standing issues rather than continue experimenting at users’ expense.

It has been a complicated year for Windows 11. Frequent bugs in cumulative updates, an aggressive push to inject AI into every corner of the OS, persistent bloatware and ads, and controversial hardware and account requirements have steadily eroded user trust.

You don’t have to look far for examples. The January 2026 Security Update was intended to be routine, but shortly after its release, users began reporting shutdown and boot failures, as well as crashes affecting OneDrive and Dropbox, which forced the company to push two emergency updates. Beyond the officially acknowledged issues, the community also reported black screens as well as frame drops on devices using NVIDIA GPUs, and other unresolved stability problems.

Against that backdrop, Microsoft now says 2026 could be a turning point for Windows 11. In a statement to The Verge, the company confirmed it has heard the criticism and plans to make meaningful changes throughout the year.

This year, you will see us focus on addressing pain points we hear consistently from customers: improving system performance, reliability, and the overall experience of Windows, said Pavan Davuluri, president of Windows and devices.

Microsoft has not detailed exactly what those changes will include, but the report suggests improvements to the broken dark mode experience and long-neglected parts of the operating system that still rely on legacy components. Performance and reliability are also expected to be a major focus, particularly after months of bugs lingering unpatched.

The timing is not accidental. The statement coincides with the rollout of a new Windows 11 preview build in the Dev Channel, where Microsoft has already signaled upcoming behind-the-scenes platform changes.

With more than a billion users now depending on Windows 11 daily, Microsoft no longer has the luxury of half measures. Listening is no longer enough. In 2026, the company must demonstrate it can deliver a stable, polished operating system that prioritizes users over experimentation.

Do you think that Microsoft will deliver meaningful changes to Windows 11? Let me know in the comments.