Microsoft is desperate to get people to use their Edge browser, even to the point of simply barging into searches when one is using Google Chrome, to prompt a switch to Edge – which is an awful browser at the best of times.
For example, if you are sent a link in Outlook, Microsoft forces you to choose which browser you want to open to link in, after initially opening it in Microsoft Edge.
Now the big software Company wants to move Windows to the cloud, forcing consumers to pay monthly or annual subscriptions.
We also suspect that they will offer subscriptions to their hardware such as their Surface PCs, similar to what HP is putting into place, in an effort to create a bigger monopoly than they already have.
Evidence gathered for the Microsoft Activision Blizzard FTC hearing has revealed an internal “state of the business” Microsoft presentation from June 2022, where Microsoft discuses building on “Windows 365 to enable a full Windows operating system streamed from the cloud to any device.”
There was a time when Office software and Windows was stable, now consumers are having to cope with a barrage of security issues. This week I was in a presentation at Panasonic when I had to reboot my PC, I then had to provide authentication to log into the PC, Office 365 and separately Teams and my One Drive.
It’s time wasting and unnecessary, especially as Microsoft brags about how advanced they are with AI.
How about one log in a day, that also logs you into Microsoft 365, Teams, and One Drive. 
At 4 Square Media we do around four to five PC reviews a month and even that has become painful, especially when Microsoft is trying desperately to get users to switch to their Microsoft Edge browser when you are activating software.
If that’s not enough, the PC manufacturers also want to know everything about you, and that includes trying to flog you a security package subscription, because they are taking a piece of the revenue.
Microsoft is a Company that wants a monopoly, when it comes to controlling what you do on a PC, and if you are on a Windows PC and not using Microsoft applications, they will hound you when you go to install a PC, and then every time you open your PC.
In recent years Microsoft has been increasingly moving Windows to the cloud for business users.
Moving “Windows 11 increasingly to the cloud” is identified as a long-term opportunity in Microsoft’s “Modern Life” consumer space, including using “the power of the cloud and client to enable improved AI-powered services and full roaming of people’s digital experience.”
Microsoft hates Linux, and in particular what Google offers on a Linux platform.
I remember when Microsoft’s former CEO Steve Balmer paid out Canadian Company Corel to stop development of former IBM products including Lotus Notes and Word Perfect for machines running Linux because of the potential threat to Word, Excel and the then Exchange.
Windows 365 enables a full version of Windows for a variety of devices running AMD and Intel processors.
Now Microsoft is integrating it into Windows 11 – a process that will result in users who log into a PC booting the OS direct from the cloud.
A future update will include Windows 365 Boot, which will enable Windows 11 devices to log directly into a Cloud PC giving Microsoft control of everything you do.
The Verge also recently revealed that Microsoft Switch is designed to move Windows fully to the cloud for consumers, with the big question being how long will it be before Microsoft is touting the idea of a subscription to a Microsoft piece of hardware, a move that will upset the likes of Lenovo, Dell and HP who, while still being allowed to sell a PC, are going to have to compete directly with a barrage of prompts from Microsoft to invest in a Microsoft PC over a competitors, like they are doing with Microsoft Edge.
Microsoft is already moving to ARM-powered Surface Pro X devices while also working on developing their own processors in an effort to cut out the likes of Intel and AMD.
Bloomberg reported in late 2020 that Microsoft was looking at designing its own ARM-based processors for servers and maybe even Surface devices.
More recently we’ve heard Microsoft could be working on its own AI chips, too.
In another revelation found during discovery for the Activision case, the Microsoft presentation reveals the need to “shore up Windows commercial value and respond to Chromebook threat” for its “Modern Work” priorities in its 2022 financial year.
Long term opportunities on the commercial side include growing the usage of cloud PCs with Windows 365.
The Verge has also revealed that Microsoft recently announced Windows Copilot, an AI-powered assistant for Windows 11.
Windows Copilot sits at the side of Windows 11, and can summarise content you’re viewing in apps, rewrite it, or even explain it.
Microsoft is currently testing this internally and promised to release it to testers in August before rolling it out more broadly to Windows 11 users.
Windows Copilot is part of a broader AI push for Windows.
Microsoft is also working with AMD and Intel to enable more Windows features on next-gen CPUs.
Intel and Microsoft have even hinted at Windows 12 in recent months, and Windows chief Panos Panay claimed at CES earlier this year that “AI is going to reinvent how you do everything on Windows.”
All of this is part of Microsoft’s broad Windows ambition, detailed in its internal presentation, “to enable improved AI-powered services” in Windows and of course trying to create a PC monopoly, where all roads lead to a Microsoft subscription.
