Did Microsoft do something proper in 2025? Wins, fails, and WTF moments

Are you able to title one single, solitary, success Microsoft had in 2025? Assume laborious. It positive ain’t simple.

Within the years that PCWorld has catalogued Microsoft’s wins, failures, and head-scratching “WTF” moments, there’s at all times been a mixture of excessive factors and lows. I went by our record or tales, polled colleagues, even queried Copilot, Google Gemini, and ChatGPT. Microsoft’s strongest victory? It made cash, and numerous it, even when few favored what it was doing.

Boy, doesn’t that sound apropos for 2025?

When you’re a Microsoft hater, seize a fork and dive in, for there’s sufficient steaming schadenfreude for all. For everybody else, higher go trying to find some crumbs of the vacation’s desserts. There’s not a lot right here to have fun.

Xbox Sport Cross value hike: FAIL

Microsoft has made some dangerous choices, however aiming a Halo plasma rifle at its foot after which pulling the set off needed to be one in all its most consequential. That shot was fired Oct. 1, when Microsoft determined to lift the worth of its Sport Cross Final subscription from $19.99/mo to $29.99/mo, with a value enhance to the Sport Cross PC as nicely. And it got here solely months after the “Xboxalypse” noticed Microsoft jack up costs on Xbox consoles and {hardware}, too.

Followers went berserk, with many swearing after which swearing off Sport Cross fully. (It sounds very very similar to what occurred after Microsoft gutted its money-saving Microsoft Rewards in 2023 — which the corporate later backed off of.) Nonetheless, whereas Microsoft has raised its value, Amazon continues to be promoting Sport Cross on the outdated value on the time I used to be penning this, weeks after Microsoft’s value enhance. So at the least there’s a loophole?

Microsoft’s politics comes beneath fireplace: WTF

Politics continues to paint practically each facet of public life, and Microsoft’s fiftieth anniversary celebration and Construct convention turned two very public venues to criticize Microsoft’s actions on the world stage. Protesters broke in twice to the Seattle anniversary celebration, with one worker, Ibtihal Aboussad, claiming that Microsoft was profiting by promoting AI merchandise to the Israeli navy, and contributing to the genocide in Palestine.

In August, Microsoft staff had been fired after a sit-in at Microsoft’s headquarters with an analogous message. Protesters disrupted a Construct keynote by CEO Satya Nadella as nicely. However pro-Palestinian teams continued to make their voices heard by November at varied Microsoft occasions. It was a WTF second within the true sense of the phrases, as tech’s relationship with authoritarian governments got here beneath scrutiny.

In the meantime, co-founder Invoice Gates and Nadella kissed as much as President Trump at dinners on the White Home, a show of obeisance to a president who tried and succeeded in deporting even naturalized residents like Nadella himself. Nonetheless, Microsoft couldn’t (and didn’t) actually do something in regards to the Trump tariffs, which panicked American taxpayers, companies, and traders alike.

AI exhaustion: FAIL

In 2025, Copilot was in every single place…and that was simply an excessive amount of for many individuals. Microsoft needed to justify its monumental funding into AI and responded by, er, “encouraging” customers to make use of Copilot in nearly each facet of their every day lives. In fact, Copilot is now within the Workplace apps, Edge, and even the Xbox app. Is it helpful as a productiveness device? As a author, I are inclined to keep away from it — however to be truthful, there are examples of Copilot getting used productively.

Microsoft

Nonetheless, it’s exhausting to try to even doc the methods during which Microsoft has tried to inject Copilot into our every day lives. Listed below are a number of, ridiculous examples: Do we want Copilot to have a face? Do we wish Copilot (or Groups) in our vehicles? Did we want Notepad to have Copilot sort letter by letter? Who needs an “agentic Copilot” which may store for you? “Nobody requested for this,” certainly.

It was dangerous sufficient that we even wrote a narrative on how one can flip off AI inside your PC.

Recall is just too dangerous: FAIL

Politics apart, Microsoft additionally navigated a pointy, basic divide on whether or not AI was actually secure, not to mention useful. On one hand, Microsoft injected Copilot into nearly every thing it may, from apps and providers, even when customers actually weren’t making the most of it. However that was AI within the cloud; Microsoft additionally needed to provide you with some strategy to persuade shoppers that AI made sense on the PC, too. Recall, which saved searchable snapshots of what was saved in your PC, was the reply.

Mark Hachman / IDG

However Recall was delayed whereas Microsoft labored out privateness points, which then reserved it solely for Snapdragon processors earlier than laptops powered by AMD and Intel chips lastly obtained Recall, too. However by that point, the harm was carried out: an authoritarian authorities had come to energy, shoppers had been suspicious of AI and resentful of Microsoft’s relentless Copilot advertising and marketing, and privateness points had been merely a really actual concern. I really useful you take away Recall and I’m glad I did, however even then Microsoft’s AI efforts on the PC weren’t significantly spectacular.

Home windows 11’s 2025 enhancements: FAIL

Recall apart, what was Microsoft’s biggest AI accomplishment on the PC for 2025? In October, I requested Microsoft technical fellow Steven Bathiche what it may be. His suggestion: Semantic search. And that may be proper…however it’s not an actual show-stopper, both.

Each Home windows 11 24H2 and Home windows 11 25H2 (whose variations had been nonetheless complicated) launched a revamped Begin menu and tighter integration with Telephone Hyperlink. To be truthful, Microsoft added quite a few smaller options to Home windows, too: Click on to Do, enhancements to Home windows Share, some tweaks to the Widget display screen and so forth… whereas eradicating extra loopholes that allowed native accounts. Once more: largely forgettable.

Microsoft

Microsoft did take some large swings: Copilot Imaginative and prescient did handle to assist me by some unfamiliar functions, and my hope is that it continues to enhance. However Copilot Imaginative and prescient and Microsoft’s Gaming Copilot each sounded a lot better in idea than what they really achieved in apply.

Home windows 11 Insider Program: FAIL

ZDNet’s Ed Bott spelled out what I’ve felt for many of 2025 however by no means really put pen to paper: the Home windows Insider program is a multitude, and that’s being beneficiant. There are 4 channels to roll out code, and none of these provide ensures that the code they check will arrive in your PC in a well timed trend. Half the time it’s a coin flip over whether or not you’ll really get it. That leaves everybody concerned not sure whether or not Microsoft’s announcement of latest options and new builds may even be examined.

Each Ed and I’ve additionally famous that principally the complete Home windows Insider staff, the those who helped discovered and form this system, have lately moved on to different positions inside Microsoft. With the oft-cited rumor that Microsoft axed its quality-assurance groups many moons in the past, the truth that Microsoft’s beta groups have now given up (?) implies that {that a} important user-facing group is being led by who, precisely? Sooner or later Microsoft goes to have clear this up earlier than transferring on to Home windows 12.

I’m not going to mark Microsoft down for Home windows 12, by the way. Customers anticipated it, however Microsoft stayed silent. It additionally seems like Home windows 11 26H1 gained’t be testable except you’re on a Snapdragon X2 Elite chip, which suggests that Home windows 12 could not land in 2026, both.

Copilot+ PCs: FAIL

Microsoft started with the AI PC, then moved to Copilot+ PCs. Neither significantly mattered, as gross sales of Copilot+ PCs plunged in early 2025 and Intel publicly acknowledged that clients had been fascinated with older {hardware}, fairly than their newest processors with NPUs inside.

The explanations, although, seem like nuanced. Laptops with Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite processors inside them offered poorly, although Qualcomm’s market share was at all times far behind AMD and even Intel. For its half, Intel by no means actually specified if clients most popular older processors due to poor “Arrow Lake” gross sales, or in the event that they didn’t see the enchantment of both the Core Extremely 100 or 200-series processors. Both means, it’s not like shoppers have a alternative in relation to laptops; if just about all laptop computer processors comprise NPUs, finish customers will find yourself shopping for Copilot+ PCs anyway.

Microsoft

Nonetheless, the Copilot+ model doesn’t have a lot to supply. AI options like Microsoft Recall by no means had a lot influence, and Microsoft pushed options like Copilot Imaginative and prescient, to all PCs, not simply Copilot+ customers. The largest influence could come from Home windows ML, designed to route “AI” duties to a CPU, GPU, or NPU — no matter’s out there and is finest for the job.

Home windows 10 transition: WIN

I’m giving Microsoft a win right here, partly as a result of what was marketed as a pointy, main transition between the (comparatively) beloved Home windows 10 and the (comparatively) mediocre Home windows 11 wasn’t the laborious touchdown Microsoft initially made it out to be. Microsoft supplied quite a few avenues to stay on Home windows 10 for one more yr, from paying a small price to organising Home windows Backup, to, nicely, being pressured to by the European Union. It may have been worse.

Dave Parrack / Foundry

You may argue that Microsoft simply delayed the inevitable, pushing out the Home windows 11 transition to a different yr. However in a way, it already occurred. If Microsoft is lifeless set on you utilizing AI, however doesn’t care that a lot about AI past Copilot, and Copilot is already half and parcel of Microsoft 365 in addition to the Copilot app, then it doesn’t actually matter which OS you really use.

Microsoft’s “Handheld Xbox”: FAIL

This was a tricky name. I consulted my colleagues Adam Patrick Murray and Michael Crider for this one, each of who’re extra in contact with the hand-held gaming scene than I’m.

Adam: “The hand-held itself was superior, however the Xbox fullscreen expertise was a fail.”

Crider: “Additionally, Microsoft already unfold that UI to different handhelds, giving up its one actual benefit immediately.”

Michael Crider/Foundry

Adam: “Apart from the truth that this isn’t an Xbox, it simply doesn’t have the essential usability of both an Xbox or SteamOS, which is the actual concern right here.”

So, to recap: Microsoft’s “handheld Xbox” really turned out to be third-party {hardware} (the Asus ROG Ally X) made by the Asus ROG staff. Because the {hardware} was formally credited to Asus, I’ve to offer them the victory right here, whereas type of questioning what all of the Home windows UI fuss was about. Bringing in different storefronts’ video games was actually good, although, as was Microsoft’s try and streamline shaders in video games.

Microsoft’s Floor desert: WTF

For the primary time in nicely over a decade, I didn’t personally evaluation a Floor gadget in 2025 — presumably as a result of I turned fed up with Microsoft’s pricing technique and referred to as it a ripoff, at the least the place the Floor Professional is anxious. To be truthful, Microsoft suffered a self-inflicted Floor scarcity: first refreshing the in any other case stellar Floor Laptop computer 7 in addition to the Floor Professional 11 with Intel Core Extremely 200 (“Lunar Lake”) processors to appease companies, after which providing smaller, fanless variations of each units with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Plus chips inside. Our Swedish colleagues merely determined to purchase the smaller Floor Professional and check it fairly than watch for Microsoft’s supply to evaluation it. Good move.

Then there was the revamped Floor Laptop computer with 5G, which felt like an afterthought. And adios, Floor charger — in all probability not the worst factor on the earth.

Matthew Smith / Foundry

I don’t actually know what to make of Microsoft’s Floor technique for the time being. I completely favor an X86 chip for gaming, however Microsoft’s dedication to Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite chips appears completely justified. The issue? I’m one of many few who believes it. With Panos Panay now drafting new units for Amazon, and Microsoft completely fixated on AI software program and providers, Floor appears to be in limbo. Memo to Microsoft: begin telling the world what Floor stands for in 2026.

Microsoft Making Cash: WIN

The underside line (ahem) is that Microsoft continues to rake within the money, partly by upselling each group it could into Azure and associated providers contracts. As you’ll be able to see from the chart beneath, Microsoft annual income and internet revenue continues to extend, and Microsoft’s share value (which we don’t care about, however others do) completed larger than when it started. Up to now ten years, Microsoft’s share value has elevated about 9 instances versus 2015.

It should be famous, nonetheless, that I generated the above chart utilizing Anthropic’s Claude AI, not Copilot.

Copilot drew me a pleasant line graph of Microsoft’s quarterly outcomes, then crashed after I requested it for a bar chart as an alternative. The ensuing chart (beneath) seems good, till you zoom in; Microsoft made $76.4 billion within the fourth quarter of 2025 on $27.2 billion of internet revenue. That’s means off from what Microsoft offered. It does make you surprise what individuals are paying for.

Mark Hachman / Foundry

Let’s hope that 2026 isn’t worse

Insiders have been saying for years that Microsoft has stopped caring in regards to the client, and is concentrated on companies as an alternative. Take into account that PCWorld focuses on the tip customers and primarily shoppers. (Our sister business-to-business functions like Computerworld dive deeper into Microsoft’s successes there…and its failures, too.) Microsoft’s gross sales groups have satisfied enterprises to pay large bucks for its cloud providers, and people cloud providers are value excess of a bunch of cranky shoppers.

Actually, although, does anybody suppose that Microsoft is headed in the best route? Nobody appears to be proud of Microsoft’s plans, choices, and rollout schedule. The PC market is coping with ongoing element shortages and value hikes, and the at all times looming menace of tariffs. In years previous, initiatives like Floor have been the torch that Microsoft carried, illuminating the best way ahead. This yr, evidently Microsoft was as misplaced as everybody else.