Microsoft releases first big update after Nadella's vow to 'win back fans'
Lots of fixes, some performance tweaks. Fingers crossed there's no out-of-band patch to follow
Microsoft is following through on its promise to prioritize Windows stability with its April 30 non-security update.
Ahead of Patch Tuesday, yesterday's update was chock-full of fixes, including several for Windows Explorer.
According to Microsoft: "This update improves the reliability of relevant explorer.exe processes so they stop after closing File Explorer windows."
And then there were "General Reliability" fixes. "This update brings underlying changes to help improve explorer.exe reliability, including at sign‑in, when interacting with taskbar menus and Task View, when unpinning items from File Explorer's Quick Access, and more."
Microsoft has also improved the performance of launching startup apps after device boot, and storage performance when viewing large volumes was made snappier. Speaking of storage, the maximum FAT32 format size limit from the command line has increased from 32GB to 2 TB: a small change, but a definite improvement in quality of life.
Other reliability tweaks include improvements to Windows Hello, the Microsoft Store, and the taskbar system tray.
Earlier this week, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said the company is working to "win back" fans. In March Windows boss, Pavan Davuluri acknowledged that Windows needs to be faster, more reliable, and contain a more targeted deployment of AI. He said at the time: "We are reducing unnecessary Copilot entry points, starting with apps like Snipping Tool, Photos, Widgets, and Notepad."
The update delivers on the speed and reliability side of Davuluri's promise, but AI remains inescapable. It should at least be less intrusive than that crowbarred into Notepad (and subsequently called "Writing Tools"). The taskbar gained the ability to display progress for AI agents - Researcher in the Microsoft 365 Copilot app is the first adopter - across both first- and third-party apps.
Also in the update was Enterprise State Roaming (ESR), which allows users to roam between devices and can now be managed through Windows Backup for Organizations. There was also policy-based removal of preinstalled Microsoft apps, as well as better security and performance for batch files. In the latter case, admins can enable a more secure processing mode for batch files, preventing them from changing during execution.
All told, it was a meaninful update and perhaps a sign that the Windows supertanker is slowly changing course.
But the goodwill it generates will evaporate quickly if it's followed by another rushed out-of-band patch to fix the fixes. ®