Top Windows 11 issues users face

Let’s begin with the age-old Windows problem that’s been there since I’d say Windows 8, and that’s bloatware.

There’s a reason why projects like tiny 11 and nano1 and atom 11 — okay I made that last one up — but there’s a reason why these alternative debloated Windows 11 versions are so popular. It’s because Microsoft puts so much bloat by default that it’s getting a bit ridiculous.

Here’s what the start menu looks like on Windows 11 after a clean install, and look I’m not saying that you shouldn’t include basic stuff like Edge, Outlook, Photos, the calculator app, you know things that I’m sure nobody would get upset by if they were pre-installed. But then you go on to add stuff like Tik Tok, Clipchamp, Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp and other apps that depending on the type of user that you are you may not find very useful.

So there’s two possible things happening here. Either A Microsoft has a deal with all these companies to include these apps by default to increase their user account, or B Microsoft is assuming — an important word there, assuming — that its users will want to get these apps anyway, so they just pre-install them.

I think it would be much better if we had something like a ninite type menu during the installation process where you could select which apps you want to install. That way those companies would still have exposure, but also if the user doesn’t want a particular app then they can just not select it. Simple.

Dark mode is so nice isn’t it? It’s like a cozy fireplace. It’s comfortable. It’s great — until you open up a menu in Windows 11 and get flashbanged. Jeez.

Whether you’re copying files, changing your fonts, editing folder options, using the Run menu, checking out your disc properties or changing something within the old school control panel — which yeah we’ll talk about that later — all those menus will be super bright even if you have dark mode enabled.

And why is that? Well it’s because all of them are legacy menus from earlier versions of Windows. While we’re at it I get that one of the strengths of Windows is backwards compatibility, like being able to play a 20-year-old PC game and such, but that shouldn’t be the case for any of its menus. Like do we really still need a phone dialer in modern Windows or the mobility center from Windows Vista? There’s also the screen saver menu.

The problem is that Microsoft could have either removed all these menus or modernized them to support dark mode, which they didn’t do either of one and just left them as they were. So now as dark mode users are just left with this inconsistent theme that let’s be honest is annoying, even though it’s a small issue all things considered.

But maybe I should be careful what I wish for because when Microsoft did redesign certain menus in Windows 11 it didn’t go well at all, and of course I’m talking about the right click menu.

What the crap is this? Okay in fairness the latest iteration of this menu is I would say at the very least tolerable, but man when Windows 11 was just new, just came out, it was very very bad. You had to hover over the top icons to know what each and one of them did and even today I find myself more often than not pressing the show more options menu to get to the actions I want to do.

Also surprisingly this menu follows the dark theme even though it’s also pretty old, but really you had this opportunity to improve your UI and you didn’t do it. Ridiculous.

Okay enough of all these menu rants, let’s talk about AI. Because Microsoft is investing so much money into AI that you think that Windows 12 will be probably all AI generated.

Okay jokes aside, obviously not long ago they invested $10 billion into open AI and it was only a matter of time until this stuff made it into Windows. And yeah say hello to Windows co-pilot.

Hi co-pilot do you think I should switch to Linux considering how much bloatware is in Windows 11? Interesting.

All right so co-pilot can be removed, hidden, destroyed and you name it. But why am I putting it on this list? Well the problem is that co-pilot is actually legitimately good and honestly like having a Chat GPT style AI with you at all times just sitting there in the corner is actually very useful.

My only issue is that using it is so painfully slow that I don’t want to use it at all. Each answer takes so long to generate and you just end up sitting there just waiting, and at that point you’re thinking you know what I’ll just Google whatever I needed to get.

So I don’t know what Microsoft needs to do in order to make AI faster or rather co-pilot faster. Maybe their latest chip partnership with Intel is a sign that custom AI chips will be the new thing for all PCs, but even if that’s the case it kind of leaves out a lot of older PCs in the dust.

I just wish that maybe they could somehow optimize co-pilot on a deeper level to make it run faster without having a special chip in your PC.

But speaking of special or rather something that’s not special at all, that’s the fact that just like Windows 10 Windows 11 sucks at user privacy.

Let’s open up O and O shut up 10 and surprise surprise there’s a huge list of details that Windows 11 does on telemetry that’s just out of this world. Some things make sense, you know like Windows error reporting, right, it helps developers fix issues and bugs and things like that, but biometrical features inventory collector, what is Microsoft playing Skyrim with my data?

I’m sure many of you will agree that maybe this is a bit too much, but I think the worst thing about it is that yes by using O and O you can get rid of a lot of this stuff, but in order to fully disable Windows 11 telemetry you need to be using a local account instead of a Microsoft one.

However that also means that you won’t be able to use apps like Microsoft Office, Xbox game pass and many other Microsoft services because they do require that account, which I know many people don’t like, but if you do then yeah you’re kind of stuck.

Did you know that every minute hundreds of perfectly usable PCs get thrown into the landfill all across the globe? No this is serious. E-waste is a huge problem and while Microsoft wanted to be pioneers in security by forcing users to have a special TPM 2.0 security chip, which most modern computers do have, they left a ton of PCs with CPUs as new as Ryzen 1000 series out in the dust by having this harsh requirement.

Sure just stick with Windows 10, right? Yeah but Windows 10 end of life is coming in 2025, which is just a year from now. You’re telling me that PCs with Ryzen 1600 or Intel equivalent are no longer fit to run Windows?

On this very channel we had a laptop from 2008 running Linux and it was still able to do most common PC tasks, but no Microsoft is drawing the line there and that’s it.

I know I’m kind of overreacting considering how easy it is to bypass the TPM requirement during the installation if you know how, but not everyone is a techie and I have a feeling that in 2025 when that Windows 10 end of life date eventually comes a lot of good PCs that are still perfectly usable will end up in a landfill, which will be a bad day for all of us.

A bad day can also be turned into a worse day if you’re looking for a specific file using Windows search and instead you get a bunch of web searches. What?

There have been not one, not two, not three, not four, but five Windows iterations since the start menu file search was first introduced and to this day in 2024 we’re still having issues finding our files on Windows. It’s getting a bit annoying, like seriously annoying.

I’m not going to lie I’ve gone through so many search issues with Windows that I developed a habit to keep my files organized and to know where each one of them is located so I don’t have to use Windows search as much, which is actually a really good habit that I would actually recommend you get as well.

But I still use search for less used files from time to time only to be met by search results that are incorrect.

Next let’s talk about the Windows store, probably one of the most hated digital storefronts since its first introduction with Windows 8 in 2012.

The idea of the Windows store was actually good. Make a storefront where you can download verified apps, thus eliminating users from downloading insecure .exe files off the internet and instead having curated a list of apps. But the execution was far from perfect.

First of all the app selection was so poor that I would compare it to something like the Windows Nokia Lumia phones where no good apps existed on the platform. Not only that the apps that did exist were the inferior versions of their exe installer counterparts.

The store was also riddled with crappy no brand applications that served no other purpose than just to waste your time, seriously.

And finally you couldn’t modify your downloaded apps files like you can with a regular installer. This mostly hurt gamers like me who want to control our files and have the ability to mod our games.

To this day there are still so many games exclusive to the Windows store. There’s a whole list that you can check and it’s kind of ridiculous, and actually it gave me kind of painful flashbacks to those times.

Looking today the store you know it still isn’t perfect and honestly it doesn’t seem like Microsoft is putting too much effort into making it better, thus why I’m putting it on this list.

The start menu in Windows 11 today is a lot lot better than it was at launch, but it still annoys me because for example you cannot get rid of this recommended section if you maybe prefer to have more pinned items.

I don’t need Windows to tell me what items I might want to open or not. I just don’t like it. It’s just guesswork that I don’t need. Even after selecting the more pin setting this section remains there no matter what, and again it’s annoying. It’s a small issue but I argue that it’s still an issue.

There’s also limited visual customization when it comes to things like icon sizes, images and categorizing. Why can’t I have my start menu look like this?

Many of us would be so much happier if we could customize every aspect of the start menu. By the way you can actually do this with third party software so it is possible, but Microsoft chooses not to do it.

I’d also appreciate if Microsoft would either integrate or completely remove the old old school panel from Windows 11. It’s so annoying having two different settings panels that sometimes have exclusive options to each other.

Plus they’re also working on a third settings panel, though in fairness that one will be more suited for developers.

My main issue and frustration is just that certain audio boost sliders and device settings are only available on the legacy control panel, which I don’t like opening especially when it’s also not fully dark themed.

I know there’s probably some devices that rely on the control panel and I mean it’s been a part of Windows since 1985 so it’s probably deeply rooted in the Windows code. Microsoft being a trillion dollar company I think they should be able to port all of the things to the new modern panel.

Now while I don’t like the old control panel that doesn’t mean that I hate some of the things that made Windows as an OS more iconic, and of course I’m talking about the legendary pre-installed Windows games that seemingly are missing in Windows 11.

Why not embrace Windows OS legacy by including stuff like the OG minesweeper, the pinball game from Windows XP, the purple palace game from Vista or even and this may be a stretch but why not even include Halo 1, the game that started an iconic series for Microsoft and its console Xbox.

Going beyond games Microsoft should really implement the clippy theme to co-pilot AI. Yeah clippy was annoying right but I think it would actually fit to have it as an AI that can generate answers for you and images.

You could also remaster old Windows wallpapers or have the Bliss wallpaper photo taken in 2024 and just let it apply it on our desktops. I mean that would be really cool instead of just having these beautiful yet sort of generic photos to choose from.

So the reason why I’m saying that this thing is really annoying in Windows 11 is because they do have the potential to really harness all the things that they had with all the previous versions of Windows and really make Windows 11 more iconic than it really is, because after 40 years of history I mean there’s a lot of things you can pull from and it would be a really nice touch.

Just like how it would be a really nice touch if your PC build wasn’t using every color available on the RGB selection screen. No seriously RGB makes PCs ugly.

Go watch this video next to hear more about my tech hot takes including that one and I’ll see you in another video. Take care.