The 14th of October 2025 is the day when Microsoft declares Windows 10 dead. The company expects regular home users to have migrated to Windows 11 by then.
Many users, myself included, are reluctant to switch over. The many horrifying news articles, often speaking of bugs so severe that only a restore from a backup will help, are not exactly inspiring confidence in Microsoft’s operating system.
Others will point to Microsoft’s statement that Windows 10 was supposed to be the last Windows version (according to Microsoft).
Personally, I simply cannot get used to the dumbed-down user interface of Windows 11. I need the backwards-compatibility of Windows Explorer, especially in regards to the Windows taskbar.
Windows 11’s new interface has been rewritten and redesigned, disregarding 30 years of backwards compatibility. I have no doubts that “you are just backwards” or “this is the future, old man” will be the comments. Unfortunately, these comments do not address the underlying issue.
The new user interface is not only breaking backwards-compatibility, it is also slow and impractical for power users, missing some basic quality-of-life features like being able to reposition the taskbar to another side of the screen.
Again, the Microsoft sycophants will crawl out of the woodwork and proclaim that all of these issues can be addressed with enough registry tweaking or third-party tools – missing the point once again.
I do not want to use a third-party shell to be able to use a program that I’ve been using for 25 years. I do not want to use a third-party hack (that breaks regularly after Windows updates) to restore functionality that never should have been cut to begin with.
Yes, ExplorerPatcher is a great tool. I’ve given it an extensive go in a virtual machine to see whether or not it makes Windows 11 bearable. It does, because it effectively turns Windows 11’s shell back into Windows 10’s shell. The more pressing questions are: Why do I need to use a tool to begin with and how long until Microsoft renders some of the tweaks to the start menu and taskbar (that I consider vital) completely unusable.
Personally, I do not foresee myself upgrading to Windows 11 anytime soon. No matter how great the under-the-hood changes of Windows 11 are, the user interface makes it a complete no-go for me.
I had hopes that Microsoft would address these long-standing issues over the years. And to be fair, some of them have been addressed – at least a teeny tiny bit. But power-users with the need to use some legacy software are trapped on Windows 10.
And what did Microsoft achieve, I ask you. A worse version of the same user interface we have had for the last 30 years. A taskbar that now needs to load for a while before even appearing. A start menu that is impractical to use. A new file manager that… well, at least Windows Explorer has tabs now. Good on you, Microsoft, you did something good. But you screwed up the context-menu, so you still won’t get a pat on the back from me.
This will become a thorn in Microsoft’s side over time. If you melt away many of the conveniences and third-party applications that anchored people into your ecosystem, while simultaneously antagonizing your old userbase with advertisements, dumbing down the operating system, an overall bad performance when it comes to the quality of updates and unwanted user metrics/AI integration, there is a real risk that people will just stay on outdated systems.
For me personally, switching to Linux is not an option. I came from Linux after wrestling with the open-source desktop for close to a decade. I have had nothing but issues with Wayland during my brief tests every few months, and last time I checked, two or three additional layers of audio subsystem abstraction have been added. I do not have the strength to migrate back and fight the same battles I’ve had in the early 2000s.
I also prefer my software to be written by people that are at least accountable – not by an organization that hires a shaman or a group that gets Trump Derangement Syndrome and purges people they deem “politically evil”.
Why can’t we just have the same desktop we had for 30 years? I cannot comprehend how that is too much of an ask.
