As Windows Turns 40, Microsoft Faces an AI Backlash

Microsoft's push to transform Windows into an 'agentic OS' that allows AI agents to control PCs is drawing user backlash similar to the Windows 8 controversy, as the company marks the operating system's 40th anniversary this week, writes Tom Warren, a reporter at The Verge who has been covering Microsoft for nearly two decades. Windows chief Pavan Davuluri announced the agentic OS plans in a post on X last week and faced immediate criticism in hundreds of replies before they were locked days later.

'It's evolving into a product that's driving people to Mac and Linux,' one person wrote, while another asked for a return to Windows 7's 'clean UI, clean icon, a unified control panel, no bloat apps, no ads, just a pure performant OS.' Davuluri later responded to software engineer Gergely Orosz, saying 'we care deeply about developers' and acknowledging Microsoft has 'work to do on the experience, both on the everyday usability, from inconsistent dialogs to power user experiences.'

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella told the Dwarkesh Podcast that the company's business 'which today is an end user tools business, will become, essentially an infrastructure business in support of agents doing work.' The Recall feature already spooked users when it was initially turned on by default before Microsoft reworked it to be opt-in. Navjot Virk, corporate vice president of Windows experiences, told The Verge that 'every user can use [AI agents] when they're ready. It's their choice, they decide.'

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